David Hunter joins Beautiful Little Fool musical's world premiere

David Hunter has joined the cast of new musical Beautiful Little Fool at Southwark Playhouse Borough.

Hunter will play F Scott Fitzgerald, joining Lauren Ward as Scottie and Hannah Corneau as Zelda.

With music and lyrics by Corneau and a book by Mona Mansour, the new musical is directed by Michael Greif. The piece explores the lives of Zelda and F Scott Fitzgerald through the eyes of their daughter Scottie as she revisits her parents’ legacy. It runs from 15 January to 28 February 2026.

The cast also includes David Austin-Barnes as ensemble and cover F Scott, Amy Parker as ensemble and cover Scottie and Zelda, and Jasmine Hackett as swing. Hunter replaces Declan Bennett, who has withdrawn due to other professional commitments.

Greif said: “We’re thrilled to welcome David Hunter to the company of Beautiful Little Fool. David brings such heart, warmth and musical intelligence to everything he does, and he’s a wonderful fit for the role of F Scott. As the concept album continues to find new listeners around the world, we can’t wait to bring this extraordinary story to life on stage in January.”

A concept album of Beautiful Little Fool has already been released, featuring Jessie Mueller, Ryan Vasquez and Corneau. Following the single “So Alive”, performed by Mueller, the track “One Night in July” and the full album are now available to stream on major platforms. The album was recorded in New York with orchestrations and musical direction by Adam Rothenberg.

For the London production, orchestrations are by Rothenberg, musical direction by Jerome van den Berghe, set design by Shankho Chaudhuri, costume design by Laura Hopkins, lighting design by Ben Stanton and sound design by Domnic Bilkey.

The musical was originally commissioned by New Works Provincetown and is produced by Mark Cortale, Jonathan Murray, Harvey Reese, and Willette and Manny Klausner.