Cast: Fleeshman Goes Legally, Hoods, Wolfboy

As previously tipped, former Coronation Street star Richard Fleeshman will take over from Duncan James in Legally Blonde at the West End’s Savoy Theatre next month. On Facebook and Twitter, the show’s official site today confirmed that Fleeshman will succeed James when the former Blue singer’s six-month contract finishes on 14 June 2010.
From 16 June, Fleeshman will make his West End debut playing Warner Huntington III, the heartbreaker college sweetheart who Sheridan Smith’s leading lady, sorority girl Elle Woods, follows to Harvard Law School in the musical comedy based on the 2001 Hollywood film. The current West End cast also features Alex Gaumond as Elle’s new love interest Emmett, Peter Davison as Harvard professor Callahan and Jill Halfpenny as Paulette, the hairdresser who Elle befriends.

Legally Blonde is directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. It has music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, book by Heather Hach, set design by David Rockwell, costume design by Gregg Barnes, lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Paul Miller, sound design by ACME Sound Partners and orchestrations by Christopher Jahnke.

Following its Broadway premiere in 2007, the West End production opened on 13 January 2010 (previews from 5 December 2009) at the Savoy Theatre, where it’s currently booking through to 20 February 2011.

In other musical casting news:

• At the Royal Festival Hall, 11-year-old street dance sensation Akai, who won Sky 1’s Got to Dance TV talent contest in February, will follow in the footsteps of Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson, when he joins the cast of the Whatsonstage.com Award-winning hip-hop extravaganza Into the Hoods, back at the Southbank Centre for a limited season from 30 July to 15 August 2010.
• And, at Trafalgar Studios 2 from 8 to 31 July 2010 (previews from 6 July), Hollyoaks’ Paul Holowaty and Gregg Lowe will reprise their Edinburgh Fringe 2009 performances in psycho-sexual musical thriller Wolfboy, the 100-seater venue’s first full-scale musical. Two boys share an intimate adventure in an institution: Bernie’s a Grade ‘A’ golden boy who has attempted suicide, David’s a street hustler who may or may not have the powers of a wolf. The musical comedy, based on a play by Brad Fraser, has music and lyrics by Leon Parris and is adapted and directed by Russell Labey.