Joanna Riding, who won Olivier Awards for her performances in musicals My Fair Lady and Carousel and is currently appearing at the Gielgud Theatre in The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg which closes on 21 May 2011, will take the role of Maria Marelli.   Her other West End credits include Billy Elliot at the Victoria palace, Blithe Spirit at the Savoy in 2004 and The Witches of Eastwick" at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2000.

In addition to previously reported cast members Matthew Kelly (Henry Saunders), Damian Humbley (Max), Michael Matus (Tito Merelli) and Sophie-Louise Dann (Diana Divane) is former Avenue Q star Cassidy Janson as Maggie Saunders, the daughter of Grand Opera director Henry Saunders (Kelly), with Gay Soper, Jane Quinn and Michelle Bishop as ladies of the Opera Guild.

Rounding out the company will be Jemma Alexander, Karen Aspinall, Natasha J. Barnes, Nick Butcher, Kelly Chinery, Sharon Eckman, Daniel Farrow, Andrew Keelan, Kara Lane, Connor McAllister, Haydn Oakley, Stephen Oliver-Webb, Ryan Pidgen, Jeremy Secomb, Emma Sewell, John Stacey, Robert Traynor and Michelle White.

Olivier Award winner Ian Talbot (Anything Goes, High Society) will direct.
 
Lend Me a Tenor the Musical, which began life at Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2010, features a book and lyrics by Peter Sham and music by Brad Carroll.  The show is set in 1934, when the world’s greatest tenor, Tito Merelli, has come to Cleveland to save its Grand Opera Company by singing Verdi’s Otello.   When he is unexpectedly incapacitated, Max, the opera director’s meek assistant, is given the daunting task of finding a last-minute replacement. Chaos ensues - including a scheming soprano, a tenor-struck ingénue, a jealous wife, shrimp gone bad and the Cleveland Police department.

Book Lend Me A Tenor tickets online now.

[posted by Louise, 09/05/2011]

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