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Full Casts Announced for TV Grease & Dreamcoat

While the new stars of Grease and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden and Lee Mead – have the viewers and voters of TV’s Grease Is the Word and Any Dream Will Do to thank for their roles as Danny, Sandy and Joseph respectively, their fellow company members have been cast by more conventional methods. Full casts for both musicals have now been confirmed.

At the Piccadilly Theatre (See News, 11 Jun 2007), where Grease opens on 8 August 2007 (previews from 25 July), Bayne and McFadden will be joined by Sean Mulligan (as Kenickie), Jayde Westaby (Rizzo), Lee Martin (Doody), Richard Hardwick (Roger), Bennett Andrews (Sonny), Alana Phillips (Frenchy), Laurie Scarth (Jan), Charlie Cameron (Marty), Jason Capewell (Vince/Teen Angel), Tim Newman (Eugene) and Marie Daly (Miss Lynch).

In addition, as previously reported (See News, 24 May 2007), How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? second runner-up Siobhan Dillon will play Patty Simcox. Grease is directed by David Gilmore, choreographed by Arlene Phillips, and produced in the West End by Grease Is the Word judge David Ian and Paul Nicholas, by arrangement with Robert Stigwood.

The 1972 Broadway musical was immortalised by the 1979 film version, in which John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John played Danny and Sandy. The musical originally ran for six years in the West End, first at the Dominion and then at the Cambridge Theatre, returning to London for a short run back at the Dominion in 2001 and at the Victoria Palace in 2002/3. In between, it has toured the UK extensively, produced since 1993 by Ian.

Grease has book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. It’s now-famous songs include “Summer Nights”, “Look at Me I’m Sandra Dee”, “We Go Together”, “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, “Beauty School Dropout”, “You’re the One That I Want”, “Greased Lightnin’” and “Grease Is the Word”.

At the Adelphi Theatre (See News, 11 Jun 2007), a press call is being held this Monday (18 June) to officially introduce Lee Mead to his leading lady, the Narrator of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Bombay Dreams’ Preeya Kalidas (See News, 6 Jun 2007). The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical, based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his 11 jealous brothers, opens on 17 July 2007 (previews from 6 July).

The Joseph cast also features Dean Collinson (as Pharaoh), Stephen Tate (Jacob/Potiphar/Guru), John Alastair, Kate Alexander, Jennifer Ashton, Paul Basleigh, Verity Bentham, James Bisp, Tyman Boatwright, Simon Coulthard, Lucie Downer, Tom Gillies, Emma Harris, Pip Jordan, Louise Madison, Emily Mascarenhas, Sarah Meade, Nathaniel Morrison, Mark Oxtoby, Adam Pearce, Tamlyn Platts, Pippa Raine, Fiona Reyes, Ricky Rojas, Craig Scott, Jonathan Stewart, Kate Tydman, Russell Walker, Neal Wright and Danielle Young.

The new staging of the record-breaking 1990s production at the London Palladium, which was directed by the late Steven Pimlott, will once again be designed by Mark Thompson and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. Joseph started life in 1968 as a 20-minute entertainment for an end-of-term school concert. By the time it received its Broadway premiere in 1982, it had been expanded into a full two-hour show. With music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, Joseph’s popular score includes the songs "Any Dream Will Do", "Close Every Door to Me", “Go, Go, Go Joseph”, “Those Canaan Days”, “Benjamin Calypso” and "One More Angel in Heaven".

- by Terri Paddock

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