Chris Peluso will join the cast of the touring production of Funny Girl
Show Boat’s Chris Peluso will play Nick Arnstein opposite Sheridan Smith when she takes her acclaimed performance as Fanny Brice on the road for part of the Funny Girl tour which begins in Manchester on 18 February 2017.
Smith’s leading man for the show’s hugely successful London runs, Darius Campbell, will also return to the role of Arnstein with Natasha J Barnes, the actress who moved from understudy to star when Smith was unable to perform due to illness and personal issues, as his leading lady to selected venues.
Smith and Peluso will take the lead in Manchester, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Newcastle, Southampton, Bradford, Southend, Cardiff and Dublin. Barnes and Campbell will step in when the tour reaches Stoke, Aberdeen, Woking, Canterbury, Glasgow, Nottingham, Norwich, Llandudno, Wolverhampton and Plymouth.
The announcement of the full casting coincided with the news that the run will extend for a further two weeks, returning to Manchester to complete its run with Smith and Peluso playing the final dates.
Completing the cast will be Nigel Barber (Florenz Ziegfeld), Zoë Ann Bown (Mrs. Meeker), Martin Callaghan (Mr. Keeney), Jennifer Harding (Emma), Rachel Izen (Mrs Brice), Joshua Lay (Eddie) and Myra Sands (Mrs. Strakosh); with Rhianne Alleyne, Kit Benjamin, Lloyd Davies, Flora Dawson, Joseph Dockree, Abigayle Honeywill, Brontë Lavine, David Mcintosh, Peter Nash, Gillian Parkhouse, Tom Partridge, Nova Skipp, Alexandra Waite-Roberts, Sam Wingfield and Alexandra Wright.
Loosely based on the life of Ziegfeld Follies star, the comedienne Fanny Brice, and focusing on her turbulent relationship with charismatic gambler Nicky Arnstein, Funny Girl was the vehicle that took Barbra Streisand from Broadway to Hollywood. Over 50 years after the show’s debut, one of Broadway’s biggest and busiest names, Harvey Fierstein, was brought in to turn the show into a musical fit for both its new leading lady and a modern audience.
With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Isobel Lennart and a revised book by Fierstein, the show which includes timeless songs like ‘People’ and ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’, proved to be an instant hit with audiences and critics when it opened at the Menier in November 2015.
Directed by Michael Mayer, the record-breaking Menier Chocolate Factory production ended its run at the Savoy on 8 October 2016.
The touring production will launch at the Manchester Palace Theatre (18-25 February) and will then play the Milton Keynes Theatre (28 February-4 March), the Liverpool Empire (7-11 March), the Bristol Hippodrome (21-25 March), Stoke’s Regent Theatre (28 March-1 April), His Majesty’s Aberdeen (10-15 April), Edinburgh Playhouse (18-22 April), Woking’s New Victoria Theatre (24-29 April), Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre (2-6 May), Birmingham Hippodrome (8-13 May), Newcastle Theatre Royal (16-20 May), Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre (22-27 May), Glasgow’s King’s Theatre (30 May-3 June), Bradford Alhambra ( 6-10 June), Nottingham Theatre Royal (12-17 June), Southend Cliffs Pavilion (19-24 June), Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (4-8 July), Bord Gais, Dublin (11-15 July),Venue Cymru, Llandudno (18-22 July), Wolverhampton Grand (24-29 July), Plymouth Theatre Royal (31 July- 5 August) and Manchester Palace Theatre (7-19 August).
Choreography is by Lynn Page, with set design by Michael Pavelka, costume design by Matthew Wright, lighting design by Mark Henderson and sound design by Richard Brooker, musical supervisor and arrangements by Alan Williams and orchestrations by Chris Walker.
Funny Girl is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions; Scott Landis Productions; Chocolate Factory Productions, Dante Di Loreto and Michael Harrison.
Angela Thomas
www.funnygirlthemusical.co.uk/uk-tour/
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