Photos: Brian Conley Launches Brother Love Tour

During the event, held at the north London church where the cast will rehearse, Conley was given the chance to embody the preacher’s persona and performed Diamond’s hit “Sweet Caroline”. He was joined at the event by Daren Day and Ben James-Ellis who will also star in the show and as well as cast members members Amy Diamond, Abbie Osmon and Cleopatra Rey.

Speaking after the performance the show’s director Craig Revel Horwood stressed the production would have a concert feel, saying all three male leads would perform Diamond numbers, but that he was not looking to create a bio musical or more give the performance a structured narrative.

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PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.

Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show will begin its nationwide tour in a specially adapted big top – which producers feel fit Brother Love’s traveling preacher performance – with a world premiere performance at Cheltenham Racecourse on 8 April 2011. The national tour will play dates at Leeds Castle, Maidstone; Beaulieu, Hampshire; Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire; Rockingham Castle, Leicester; Goodwood Racecourse, West Sussex finishing at the Royal Sandringham Estate, King’s Lynn on 22 May 2011.

The show will feature many of Diamond’s best loved hits including “Cracklin’ Rose” and “Love on the Rocks”. The show, is named after Diamond’s fourth album and its title track, and follows in the steps of a Brother Love stage show he toured himself.

The production promises to recreate the “flamboyance, sincerity and sense of fun” of the theatrical concerts for which Diamond is famous.

Brian Conley will front the show in the role of ever-zealous preacher Brother Love accompanied by a 15-strong big band and 10-strong cast. Conley’s recent West End credits include Edna Turnblad in Hairspray.

Having sold over 115 million records sold worldwide, Diamond’s larger-than-life depiction of a

Set and costumes for Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show are designed by Matthew Wright. The show is devised by Malcolm Spencer who produces the tour with Andrew Welch.

Theatregoers most recently saw Craig Revel Horwood on stage at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre on 20 February, picking up the Best Regional Production prize at the 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards for the actor-musician revival of Chess, which is currently on tour and tipped to transfer to the West End.