Zizi Strallen stars in Mary Poppins tour

Zizi Strallen will take the title role in the upcoming UK tour of Mary Poppins.

Richard Eyre's production, which opens at the Leicester Curve in October, will also feature Australian actor Matt Lee as Bert.

Zizi Strallen, who is currently touring the UK in Matthew Bourne's Car Man, has other stage credits including Cats, Merrily We Roll Along and Rock of Ages.

Matt Lee has theatre credits including We Will Rock You, Rent and Grease. He played Bert in the first Australian production of Mary Poppins, for which he won a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical.

Full tour casting will be announced shortly.

Mary Poppins has a book by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and includes the classic songs "Jolly Holiday", "Step in Time", "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Feed the Birds" by the Sherman Brothers.

New songs and additional music and lyrics were added by the Olivier award-winning British team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.

The stage production of Mary Poppins originally opened in 2004 and ran in the West End for three years. Zizi will be following in the footsteps of her sister Scarlett, who played the title role in the West End and on Broadway.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh said: "I’m also thrilled to have cast yet another of the extraordinarily talented Strallen family in the role of Mary and pair her with one of the most brilliant Berts we have been fortunate to find worldwide. I know Zizi and Matt will be practically perfect in every way and a show-stopping tour de force"