Multi-award-winning Broadway star Sutton Foster will replace injury hit Megan Mullally in the much-anticipated UK re-working of award-winning Broadway revival of the Cole Porter and P.G. Wodehouse musical Anything Goes at the Barbican this summer.
Foster (The Drowsy Chaperone, Thoroughly Modern Millie) will reprise her Tony Award-winning performance as Reno Sweeney and make her West End debut in the production which is due to sail into the Barbican Theatre for a strictly limited engagement from 23 July until 17 October.
Commenting on the production, Foster said: “I have been looking forward to performing on the West End for a long time and I am thrilled to be making my debut by revisiting the iconic role of Reno Sweeney.
“I am so excited to get back on stage and feel grateful to be a part of welcoming London audiences back to the theatres this summer. I am looking forward to working again with Kathleen Marshall, Robert Lindsay, Felicity Kendal, Gary Wilmot and the whole London company on this new production of this beloved musical.”
Announcing her departure from the production which was to have marked her West End debut, Emmy and Screen Actors’ Guild winner Megan Mullally (Will & Grace, Young Frankenstein) said: “I am heartbroken to miss the opportunity to work on this amazing classic musical with Kathleen Marshall and the whole gang, but my body has informed me (mainly while at tap class) that I need to have a few rods replaced before I can get back onstage. Hopefully that will be as soon as possible.”
Foster will star alongside Tony, Olivier and BAFTA award winner Robert Lindsay (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Oliver!) as Moonface Martin, Evening Standard Theatre Award winner Felicity Kendal (Much Ado About Nothing, Lettice and Lovage) who will make her West End musical debut as Evangeline Harcourt and musical theatre favourite Gary Wilmot’s (Chicago, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Elisha Whitney.
The cast also includes rising star Samuel Edwards (Les Misérables, Wicked) who will take on the role of Billy Crocker with Nicole-Lily Baisden (The Book of Mormon, Let’s Face The Music) as Hope Harcourt, Carly Mercedes Dyer (West Side Story, Chicago) as Erma and Haydn Oakley (A Christmas Carol, An American in Paris) as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Further casting will be announced soon.
The Tony Award-winning director of the 2011 Broadway revival of the show which starred Foster, Marshall will also make her West debut as director and choreographer of the lavish new production which will feature a company of over 50 including a full orchestra and 14 tap dancing sailors.
The madcap musical comedy set aboard an ocean liner bound for New York from Southampton boasts music and lyrics by Porter, an original book by Wodehouse and Guy Bolton with Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman.
Anything Goes debuted on Broadway in 1934 when it proved the perfect show to lift the spirits of American theatregoers during The Great Depression. The musical arrived in the West End a year later.
In 1962 the Off-Broadway revival of the show became the first to incorporate a number of songs from Porter’s other shows with ‘Take Me Back to Manhattan’ (from The New Yorkers), ‘It’s De-Lovely’ (from Red Hot and Blue) and ‘Let’s Misbehave’ (from Paris) joining Porter standards including ‘I Get A Kick Out of You’, ‘You’re the Top’ and the title song ‘Anything Goes’.
Marshall’s 2011 Broadway revival of Anything Goes was nominated for nine Tony Awards and 10 Drama Desk Awards, winning the gongs for Best Musical Revival and Best Choreography.
Angela Thomas
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.