Adam Cooper to star in New Adventures' The Red Shoes

Adam Cooper is to return to Matthew Bourne's dance company New Adventures after 20 years away.

The dancer will play Boris Lermontov in the company's hit production of The Red Shoes.

The piece, which is based on the film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, will run at Theatre Royal Plymouth, The Lowry and Sadler's Wells in London.

Ashley Shaw will reprise her turn as Victoria Page alongside Dominic North as Julian, Liam Mower as Ivan, Michela Meazza as Irina, Glenn Graham as Grischa and Cordelia Braithwaite who also plays Victoria Page. Full casting is yet to be announced alongside further dates.

Cooper created the role of The Swan in Matthew Bourne's radical Swan Lake, receiving a Tony Award nomination. He since worked with Bourne in Cinderella and portrayed grown up Billy in the film Billy Elliot. He also starred in the 2012 West End run of Singin' in the Rain alongside Scarlett Strallen.

Matthew Bourne said: "The return of Adam Cooper after 20 years is a major event in New Adventures history. Through his iconic role as The Swan, Adam is still an inspirational figure for many of my dancers so I am delighted that the current generation of company stars will get the chance to work alongside him in The Red Shoes."

"Adam and I have talked many times over the years about working together again so I am utterly thrilled to have finally managed to persuade him to come home to his New Adventures family in the perfect role of Boris Lermontov, another iconic role that I'm sure he will make all his own."

The show opens in Plymouth on 18 November 2019.