American film producer Harvey Weinstein’s adaptation of his Oscar-winning Miramax film Finding Neverland gets its world premiere at Leicester’s Curve Theatre this week.
He chose the theatre after revealing that few venues outside the West End could meet the technical demands of the £1 million set.
Finding Neverland begins the day after J M Barrie’s play The Wedding Guest has flopped.
Walking in Kensington Gardens, he meets a beautiful widow and her four boys. Inspired by their hilarious and fun-filled misadventures, he creates the magical world of Peter Pan.
Julian Ovenden will play J M Barrie. He’s played leading roles in high-profile television shows on both sides of the Atlantic as well as being in Annie Get Your Gun at the Young Vic, Grand Hotel at the Almeida and Simon Gray’s Butley at the Booth Theatre, New York.
Rosalie Craig will play Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the widow who inspired Barrie to write his classic stories.
She has just completed a run in Ragtime at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and other credits include London Road at the National and Aspects of Love at the Menier Chocolate Factory for which she was nominated for best actress in a musical.
Liz Robertson takes the role of Sylvia’s mother Emma du Maurier. She played Madame Giry in the original cast of Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre as well as in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre and the production’s 25th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Clare Foster will play Barrie’s wife Mary. She appeared in the revival last year of Crazy For You at the Novello Theatre and has been a regular as PC Millie Brown in the TV series The Bill.
Rob Ashford is the director and choreographer, book is by Allan Knee while music and lyrics are by Michael Korie and Scott Frankel.
Finding Neverland previews from Saturday (22 September) with press night on Wednesday, 3 October. It runs until Saturday, 13 October.
Meanwhile, in the Studio at Curve, Glynn Nicholas’s comedy Certified, which has been successful in seven countries over the past decade, makes its UK debut.
Christopher Timothy and Les Dennis lead the cast in the show which lifts the lid on the secrets of the modern businessman.
Certified runs at Curve from Thursday (20 September) until Saturday, 29 September.