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Dream’s Daniel Boys Debuts US Musical Because

Any Dream Will Do finalist Daniel Boys (pictured) will star in the UK premiere of the 2006 Off-Broadway hit I Love You Because, a gender-swapped musical retelling of the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice, which will open on 26 September 2007 (previews from 19 September) at the fringe Landor Theatre, where its limited season continues until 20 October.

Billed as a “modern-day musical love story”, I Love You Because centres on two New York brothers and the girls they fall in love with. Greeting card writer Austen Bennett has feelings for photographer Marcy whose uptight best friend Diana embarks on an unlikely romance with Austen’s slacker brother Jeff.

With winner Lee Mead, now starring in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the West End, Boys was already a professional actor when he took part in BBC One’s reality TV contest (See News, 10 Apr 2007). His pre Any Dream Will Do credits include Grease and Rent in the West End. Since the programme aired, he’s appeared in the all-star cast of the Royal Festival Hall’s Sweeney Todd (See News, 22 Jun 2007).

The I Love You Because cast will feature fellow West End regulars Debbie Kurup (Rent, Chicago), Richard Frame (Our House, Me and My Girl) and Cameron Jack (The Drowsy Chaperone, We Will Rock You) as well as Jodie Jacobs and Lucy Emma Williamson.

I Love You Because has music by Joshua Salzman and book and lyrics by Ryan Cunningham. The pair met, and began writing the songs for the show, while on New York University’s graduate writing programme for musical theatre. The UK premiere production is directed by Robert McWhir and designed by Andy Edwards, with choreography by Robbie O’Reilly and lighting by Richard Lambert. Ian Vince-Gatt is musical director.

- by Terri Paddock

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