Darren Day will step into the role of Billy Flynn when the 2021/2022 touring production of Chicago launches in September.
The actor and TV presenter whose musical theatre credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium and Grease at the Cambridge Theatre will complete the previously announced principal cast in the production which will open at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow on 11 September.
Day will join former Coronation Street regular Faye Brookes (The Sound of Music, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Legally Blonde UK tour) who will take on the role of Roxie Hart and former pop star Sinitta (Cats, New London Theatre, Mutiny! Piccadilly Theatre) who will return to the stage for the first time in 20 years to play Mama Morton.
Djalenga Scott (Annie, Piccadilly Theatre, Grease, Leicester Curve) will step into the role of Velma Kelly with Joel Montague (Waitress, Adelphi Theatre, Falsettos, The Other Palace) co-starring as Amos Hart. The production will also mark the musical theatre debut of Divina De Campo, the star of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will play Mary Sunshine.
The cast will also include Ishmail Aaron, Michelle Andrews, Gabby Antrobus, Delycia Belgrave, Joel Benjamin, Tanisha-Mae Brown, Daniel Clift, Callum Fitzgerald, Emily Goodenough, Billy Hardy, Aaron Jenkins, Liam Marcellino, Theo Reece, Hollie Jane Stephens and Harrison Wilde.
Following the Glasgow dates the tour will visit Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Northampton, Bradford, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Torquay, Hull, Southampton, Bromley, Inverness, Sunderland, Oxford, Woking, Birmingham, Crawley, Liverpool, Eastbourne, Southend, Cheltenham, Milton Keynes, Stoke-on-Trent, Ipswich, Dublin, Dartford, Bristol, Wimbledon, Manchester, Belfast, Plymouth, Cardiff, Sheffield, Norwich and Llandudno.
Produced by David Ian in association with the Broadway producers Barry and Fran Weissler, the production is based on the successful 1996 Broadway revival which was directed by Walter Bobbie with choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse.
Inspired by the 1926 play of the same name by crime reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, Chicago boasts a book by Fred Ebb and Fosse, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The original Broadway production debuted in 1975 and arrived in London in 1979.
The hit revival production opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 18 November 1997 to rave reviews and ran for 15 highly successful years in the West End. The production claimed the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production and the 1998 Critics Circle Drama Award for Best Musical. The show is the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. Following a successful UK and international tour and after a five and half year absence from London, Chicago returned to the West End in March 2018.
Chicago has played in 36 countries worldwide and has been performed in English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, French, Danish, Japanese and Korean. Worldwide the musical has been seen by an estimated 33 million people, grossed over $1.7 billion and played over 32,500 performances.
Angela Thomas
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