Failed Nancy Gets West End Debut in Sex Comedy

Weeks before the TV show ends, the first hopeful from this year’s BBC One musical theatre competition, I’d Do Anything, has secured her West End debut. Amy Booth-Steel (pictured) will star in new musical comedy All Bob’s Women, which opens for a ten-week season at the Arts Theatre on 24 June 2008 (previews from 18 June).

Having made it as one the dozen finalists in the BBC programme to cast a Nancy – as well as three Olivers – for Cameron Mackintosh’s upcoming production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Booth-Steel was the first to fall foul of the public vote, exiting the contest on 30 March 2008. In All Bob’s Women, she’ll co-star alongside Nicole Faraday, who won a TMA Award and was nominated for a Whatsonstage.com Award for Bad Girls.

All Bob’s Women is billed as “a saucy, racy, comedy-musical that shows why love and madness can go hand in hand… wearing very little!” Casanova Bob is a man on a mission: to seduce five very different women and manage to keep them apart so they don’t become aware of all his other conquests. As part of his plan, he resorts to extreme measures to learn their secret desires.

Amy Booth-Steel, 24, is a graduate of the Birmingham School of Acting. She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Bursary in 2006 and in 2007 was a finalist for the BBC Carelton Hobbs Bursary Award. Her previous credits include Velma in the tour of Scooby Doo and TV soap Doctors. She and Nicole Faraday are joined in the cast by Sharon Cherry Ballard, Danielle Corlass, Sam Oatley, Tanya Robb and Lucy Thatcher.

All Bob’s Women is written by TV composer Romy Padovano and directed by Russell Labey, with set by Jason Denvir, lighting by Mike Robertson and musical arrangements and direction by Sacha Puttnam. It’s presented at the Arts by the Society Productions Ltd, Chokolate Ltd & PayperMoon (Milan).

– by Terri Paddock