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Ute Lemper Returns to West End with Naughty Baby

Ute Lemper, the Olivier Award winning actress and singer, returns to the West End to star in her own new show. Entitled Naughty Baby, the production will open at the Savoy Theatre on 2 July for a fortnight only.

This will represent Lemper's first West End appearance since her acclaimed show, Life's a Swindle, at the Queen's Theatre in Autumn 1999. The German chanteuse is expected to perform a selection of classic songs from such composers as Gershwin, Weill and Brel, alongside numbers from Chicago.

It was for her role in Chicago, as the murderess Velma Kelly, that Lemper received the 1998 Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical when the show originally opened at the Adelphi in November 1997. Her co-star at the time, playing fellow murderess Roxie Hart, was Ruthie Henshall who is expected to lead the cast of Peggy Sue Got Married in a new version at London's Shaftesbury Theatre.

Lemper, made her stage debut in the original Vienna production of Cats, as Grizabella and Bombalurina. She is also renowned for her solo acts, which include Kurt Weill Recital and Berlin Cabaret Evening. Born in Munster, Germany, Lemper later studied at the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Reinhardt Drama School in Vienna.

With a vast collection of concerts and recordings to her name, her most recent album, Punishing Kiss, featured original songs by the likes of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and Nick Cave. Other works include collaborations with Michael Nyman, Maurice Bejart and Bruno Fontaine. She lives in New York, with her actor husband David Tabatsky and their two children.

- by Gareth Thompson

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