Rachel York and Hadyn Gwynne to join cast of Anything Goes in London

Broadway star Rachel York and Tony and Olivier nominee Haydn Gwynne will join the cast of the critically-acclaimed UK re-working of the award-winning Broadway revival of Anything Goes for its final weeks at the Barbican.

York (City of Angels, Victor/Victoria) will reprise her US touring production performance as Reno Sweeney from 12 October with Gwyne (Billy Elliot The Musical, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) stepping aboard to play Evangeline Harcourt from 19 October.

The pair (replacing Sutton Foster and Felicity Kendal) will join original stars Tony, Olivier and BAFTA award winner Robert Lindsay (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Oliver!) as Moonface Martin and musical theatre favourite Gary Wilmot’s (Chicago, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Elisha Whitney, Samuel Edwards (Les Misérables, Wicked) as 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.

With the production due to take its final bow at the Barbican on 6 November, the producers have added two extra matinee performances on 27 October and on 3 November in response to high public demand.

Announcing the cast newcomers, producer Howard Panter said: “I am delighted that Rachel York and Haydn Gwynne will be joining this glorious production of Cole Porter’s classic musical. London audiences already cannot get enough of this joyous and uplifting great musical – so much so we have had to add extra shows to cope with the demand. Both Rachel and Haydn are wonderful actors and our audiences are in for a treat indeed when they join Robert Lindsay, Gary Wilmot and the rest of our hugely talented Anything Goes company, orchestra and crew.”

Marking the West End debut of Triple Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall, the lavish new production boasts 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