Full cast announced for UK premiere of The Life

Full casting has been announced for the UK premiere of The Life, which opens at Southwark Playhouse in March.

Joining the previously announced Sharon D Clarke and Cornell S John will be John Addison (The Go-Between), Lawrence Carmichael (South Pacific) and Jo Servi (Dirty Dancing UK tour).

Michael Blakemore, the only director to win both Best Director of a Play and a Musical at the same Tony Awards (2000), takes on the musical about '80s New York and the pimps and prostitutes of Times Square before it was cleaned up.

The cast also includes David Albury (Exposure: The Musical), Jalisa Andrews (Sister Act), Matthew Caputo (Mary Poppins), Omari Douglas (Annie Get Your Gun), Aisha Jawando (Motown: The Musical),
Thomas-Lee Kidd (Mary Poppins), Charlotte Reavey (American Idiot), Lucinda Shaw (Cats UK tour), Johnathan Tweedie (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), T’Shan Williams (The Book of Mormon) and Joanna Woodward (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical).

First performed Off-Broadway in 1990, the musical has a book by David Newman, Ira Gasman and Cy Coleman, with music by Coleman and lyrics by Gasman.

The Life runs at Southwark Playhouse from 29 March to 29 April, with previews from 25 March.

First look at Sharon D Clarke and Cornell S John in The Life