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| Tupele Dorgu, Stephen Booth, Ali Bastian & Bernie Nolan |
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Ali Bastian Leads Chicago Tour with Booth, Dorgu & NolanDate: 24 November 2011
Casting has today (24 November 2011) been announced for the 2012 touring production of Kander and Ebb’s 1975 musical Chicago starring Ali Bastian as Roxie Hart, Stefan Booth as Billy Flynn, Tupele Dorgu as Velma Kelly and Bernie Nolan as Mama Morton.
The musical, which tours from Bradford's Alhambra Theatre on 10 February 2012, will also play dates in Hull, Southend, Birmingham, Southsea, Manchester, Sunderland, Ipswich, York, Edinburgh, Rhyl, Tunbridge Wells, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Eastbourne, ending up in Grimsby on 16 June 2012. Further tour dates have still to be announced.
Having played long-running roles in Hollyoaks and The Bill, Ali Bastion has appeared on British TV for almost a decade. Bastion made her West End debut in Burn the Floor at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2010 having competed on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing where she reached the semi-finals. Her other stage credits include the UK tour of Verdict and the Strictly 2010 live tour.
Stefan Booth will be known to fans of EastEnders, recently having played Tanya’s husband Greg Jessop. As well as regular appearances in The Bill and Hollyoaks, his screen credits include William & Mary, Doctors and The Silence, as well as the first season of Dancing On Ice.
Tupele Dorgu is best known as Kelly Crabtree in Coronation Street having spent six years in the soap. Her other television credits include The Case, The Accused, Waterloo Road, Casualty and Merseybeat. Dorgu's stage credits include the West End production of Mamma Mia!.
One of The Nolan Sisters, Bernie Nolan has frequently toured the UK, most recently as Cora in Calendar Girls, Hannah Owens in Flashdance, Robin in Mum’s The Word and Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers. Her television credits include The Bill, Brookside as well as being a finalist on ITV’s Popstar to Opera Star.
Kander and Ebb’s 1975 musical is based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins and has a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The current production, which transferred from Broadway, is directed by Walter Bobbie and designed by John Lee Beatty, with choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse.
Chicago won the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production as well as the 1998 Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical.
The show's West End production, which recently moved from the Cambridge to the Garrick Theatre, currently stars Ugly Betty's America Ferrera, in her West End debut, and Darius Campbell who returns to the role of Billy Flynn, a part he last played in 2006.
- by Andrew Girvan
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