Michael Ball & Imelda Staunton on Their Todd???

Are you ready for another Sweeney Todd? According to today’s Daily Mail, Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton will star as the “demon barber of Fleet Street” and his meat-pie-making accomplice Mrs Lovett in a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s gruesome 1979 musical, directed by former Almeida Theatre joint artistic director Jonathan Kent.

The musical was just seen in London in 2005 in John Doyle’s actor-musician Watermill Theatre revival, which had an extended season at Trafalgar Studios and then at the New Ambassadors, won two Whatsonstage.com Awards and later transferred to Broadway where it won two Tony Awards.

If you think it’s too soon for more blood-spilling, don’t worry: you’ll have to wait for the Ball-Staunton pairing. According to columnist Baz Bamigboye, the two stars’ other commitments mean that Kent’s Sweeney Todd won’t happen until spring 2011, when it would form part of that year’s Chichester Festival season – and, no doubt, head to the West End afterwards.