Stage and screen star Peter Polycarpou will play squire Sancho Panza opposite Kelsey Grammer’s Don Quixote in the eagerly-anticipated London Coliseum production of Man Of La Mancha.
Polycarpou is a leading artist in musical theatre, having appeared in some of this country’s most enduring West End musicals, in plays, on film and television. His work in musicals includes Les Misérables (on stage and in the film version with Madonna), Fagin in Oliver! and Beadle Bamford in Jonathan Kent’s triple Olivier-winning production of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi Theatre. On TV he is well known for playing Chris Theodopoulopoudos in five series of the popular BBC1 comedy Birds of a Feather.
The actor will join the previously announced Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor Grammer, international opera star Danielle de Neise, Bafta Award winner Nicholas Lyndhurst and West End star Cassidy Janson in the first West End production of the show for five decades.
Still best known for his multi-award-winning small screen comic creation Dr Frasier Crane, Grammer will make his West End debut playing Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote for the limited season at the Coliseum. The star who also takes a leading role in new US television drama Proven Innocent made his Broadway musical debut in 2010 playing ‘George’ in La Cage Aux Folles. He also originated the roles of Charles Frohman and Captain Hook in the Broadway premiere of the musical Finding Neverland and recently appeared in London in The Other Palace’s production of Andrew Lippa’s Big Fish.
Australian American de Niese has been described by the New York Times magazine as ‘opera’s coolest soprano’. The star who moved from Australia to the US as a teenager has performed for opera audiences worldwide from the Metropolitan Opera to Covent Garden and even shared the stage with rapper LL Cool J.
Previously seen in Carousel at the Coliseum, small screen favourite Lyndhurst will return to the venue to play the Innkeeper and the Captain while Janson, who first won acclaim as the lead in the West End production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, will share the roles of Aldonza and Dulcinea with de Neise. One third of the Leading Ladies’ group of West End stars (with Beverley Knight and Amber Riley), Janson previously appeared at the Coliseum in Chess.
Following on from hit versions of Chess, Sunset Boulevard, Carousel and Sweeney Todd, the fifth production in the collaboration with the English National Opera by Michael Linnit and Michael Grade will run from 26 April until 8 June 2019. The show will be performed with ENO’s 35-piece orchestra.
The director of Linnit and Grade’s acclaimed London revival and Broadway transfer of Sunset Boulevard, Lonny Price will return to take charge of the production. His creative team is set to include conductor David White David White, set designer James Noone, lighting designer Rick Fisher, sound designer Mick Potter and casting director David Grindrod.
Featuring the much-loved and much-covered inspirational song ‘The Impossible Dream’, the musical takes its inspiration from Miguel de Cervantes’s masterpiece Don Quixote.
With music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion and book by Dale Wasserman, Man Of La Mancha debuted on Broadway in 1965. The production won five Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Angela Thomas
Tickets for Man of la Mancha are available HERE.
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