Initial casting announced for Half a Sixpence at Chichester Festival Theatre

Casting has been announced for the new adaptation Half a Sixpence, which opens at Chichester Festival Theatre in July.

Ian Bartholomew (Mrs Henderson Presents, Into the Woods) will star as Chitterlow alongside Emma Williams as Helen Walsingham, and Vivien Parry as Mrs Walsingham. Williams is currently playing Maureen in Mrs Henderson Presents (Noel Coward Thetare) and has previous credits including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang whilst Parry's stage work includes The Girls (UK tour) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC).

Charlie Stemp and Devon-Elise Johnson will take the roles of Arthur Kipps and Ann Pornick. Both young actors have recently appeared in the international tour of Mamma Mia!.

Based on the HG Wells novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, the new version of Half a Sixpence has original musical by Beverley Cross and David Heneker with a book by Julian Fellowes and new music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.

Co-Created by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, the musical centres around Arthur Kipps, an orphan and over-worked draper's assistant at the turn of the last century who unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society.

Half a Sixpence runs at Chichester Festival Theatre from 14 July to 3 September.