Norm Lewis, Rachel Tucker and Betsy Wolfe join line-up for Jason Robert Brown concert

Broadway stars Norm Lewis, Rachel Tucker and Betsy Wolfe will join multi award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown for his return visit to the London Palladium next month.

Part of BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night Is Music Night, An Evening with Jason Robert Brown on Wednesday 11 April will feature the writer, conductor and pianist with the 60-piece BBC Concert Orchestra.

Brown, who appeared at the Palladium last year as guest conductor with London Musical Theatre Orchestra for the first concert staging of his musical Honeymoon in Vegas, will take to the stage for one-night only with his three special guests.

Known for becoming the first African American to take the title role in The Phantom of the Opera, Tony nominee Lewis is due to be seen as Caiaphas in NBC’s eagerly-anticipated Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert on Easter Sunday.

Famous for playing the role of Elphaba longer than any other actress in the multi award-winning Wicked’s history, home-grown star Rachel Tucker’s extensive credits include the original Broadway production of The Last Ship.

The line-up is completed by Betsy Wolfe, the actress who took over the leading role from Sara Bareilles in the Broadway hit Waitress and previously starred on Broadway in Falsettos.

Conducted by stage and screen composer, arranger and orchestrator Larry Bank, the show will feature a selection of Brown’s most popular songs, along with numbers new to audiences on this side of the Atlantic.

Announcing his upcoming West End appearance earlier this year, Brown said: “My general feeling about musicians is ‘the more the merrier’, and particularly so when it’s a group of musicians as versatile, as sensitive, and as spectacularly virtuosic as the members of the BBC Concert Orchestra. I can’t wait to share the music I’ve written with these brilliant musicians, these glorious singers, and the wonderful audience at the Palladium and on the air!”

Brown, whose hit musicals include The Bridges of Madison County, Parade, 13 and The Last Five Years, has previously played sold-out concerts in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Garrick Theatre, Apollo Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre.

Angela Thomas