Leicester’s Curve has announced casting for its Christmas 2015 productions of Lionel Bart’s classic musical Oliver! and Roald Dahl’s The Witches.
In Oliver!, Peter Polycarpou will play Fagin, Cat Simmons and Laura Pitt-Pulford share the role of Nancy and Oliver Boot will be Bill Sikes.
Polycarpou played Pauline Quirke’s hapless husband Chris Theodopolopoudos in the TV series Birds of a Feather. On stage he has played the title role in The Phantom of the Opera and created the role of John in the original West End production of Miss Saigon.
Cat Simmons played the Princess in Bille Brown’s version of Aladdin alongside Sir Ian McKellen as Widow Twangy at the Old Vic in 2004 and Simone in Che Walker and Arthur Darvill’s Been So Long at the Young Vic in 2009. She will play Nancy from 27 November until 2 January.
Laura Pitt-Pulford’s previous appearances at Curve include Maria in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music in 2014, Pam Gems’s Piaf and Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly!. She is currently on tour playing the lead role of Jean Spenser in Irving Berlin’s The Smallest Show on Earth. She takes the role of Nancy from 4 until 16 January.
Liam Carr and Albert Hart will share the role of Oliver. Joel Fossaurd-Jones and Kwame Kandekore, who earlier in 2015 were in Curve’s production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ The Musical, will alternate the role of Artful Dodger.
Oliver Boot plays Bill Sikes. He was also in the Curve production of Piaf. His other theatre work includes Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2008, King Lear and Richard II, all at Shakespeare’s Globe, and The Stranger in Mike Poulton’s adaptation of Ibsen’s The Lady From The Sea at Birmingham REP.
The cast also includes Jenna Boyd (Widow Corney), James Gant (Mr Bumble), John Griffiths (Mr Brownlow), Natalie Moore-Williams (Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin), Lucy Thomas (Bet), Jez Unwin (Mr Sowerberry and Grimwig), Cassie Clare, Jaye Elster, Ross Lee Fowkes, Ryan Gover, Ian Gareth-Jones, Emma Harold, Tim Hodges, Bethany Lindell, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, Louis Stockily and Dickie Wood.
Former Curve artistic director Paul Kerryson directs. Choreographer will be Andrew Wright, musical director Ben Atkinson, set designer Matt Kinley, costume designer takis, lighting designer Bruno Poet, sound designer Avgoustos Psillas and children’s casting director Jo Hawes.
Oliver! will be performed on the main stage at Curve from 27 November until 16 January 2016.
In the Studio, Curve and Rose Theatre Kingston will present David Wood’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. It will be the first time that Curve has produced a Christmas show for young people and their families in the Studio. It will play at Curve after opening in Hong Kong. It will then go on a national tour in spring 2016.
The Witches features Sarah Ingram as the Grand High Witch, Fox Jackson-Keen (boy), Karen Mann (grandma), Sioned Saunders (witch), Kieran Urquhart (Bruno), Elexi Walker (Mrs Jenkins) and Justin Wilman (Mr Jenkins).
It will be directed by Curve’s artistic director Nikolai Foster. Designer will be Isla Shaw, composer Dougal Irvine, magic consultant Neil Henry, lighting designer David Phillips, sound designer Sebastian Frost, movement director Mel Knott and casting director Kay Magson.
The Witches runs from 9 December until 10 January 2016. Press night will be on Wednesday 16 December.