Musical Cast: Barton in Chicago, Charity Transfer

Former EastEnders star Emma Barton will takeover from Ruthie Henshall in the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre from 26 April 2010.

Barton, who played the role on tour last year and has previously been seen in the West End in Grease, is best know for playing Honey Mitchell in the long-running BBC soap.

She’ll be joined in Chicago by Vivien Carter as Velma Kelly, Terence Maynard as Billy Flynn and Adam Stafford as Amos Hart.

The current revival of Chicago opened at the Cambridge Theatre (where the musical’s original London production ran for 603 performances from April 1979) on 28 April 2006, after eight-and-a-half years at the Adelphi Theatre. It won the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production as well as the 1998 Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.

Kander and Ebb’s 1975 musical is based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins and has a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The current production, which transferred from Broadway, is directed by Walter Bobbie and designed by John Lee Beatty, with choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse.

Full casting has been announced for the West End transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory’s acclaimed revival of Sweet Charity, which opens at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 4 May 2010 (previews from 23 April).

Tamzin Outhwaite and Mark Umbers will be joined by fellow original cast members Josefina Gabrielle, Tiffany Graves and Paul J Medford as well as Jack Edwards, Ebony Molina, Rachael Archer, Richard Jones, Gemma Maclean, Zak Nemorin, Richard Roe, Annalisa Rossi and Jez Unwin. 

They are joined by new cast members Kenneth Avery-Clark, Matthew Barrow, Joanna Goodwin, Alexis Owen Hobbs and Laura Scott. 

Sweet Charity, which has music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and a book by Neil Simon, takes a look at the seedy underbelly of 1960s New York. The gullible, enchanting heroine Charity Hope Valentine (Outhwaite) dances, laughs and cries her way through a series of whirlwind romances to show-stopping numbers including “Rhythm of Life”, “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and “Hey Big Spender”.

Matthew White’s production is initially booking at the Haymarket until 8 January 2011. It first opened at the Menier in Southwark in December last year.