Ashley Knight, Victoria Elliott & More Join West End X FACTOR Musical I CAN'T SING!; Full Cast Announced

Ahead of a performance by cast members on next Monday's broadcast of the Royal Variety Performance, Stage Entertainment and Syco Entertainment have announced full casting for I CAN'T SING!, the brand new musical comedy from Harry Hill & Steve Brown which opens in the West End next Spring.

As previously announced, Olivier Award-winner Nigel Harman will play X Factor supremo Simon, with CYNTHIA ERIVO (recent Evening Standard Award nominee for The Color Purple) and Alan Morrissey as lovestruck contestants Chenice and Max.

Joining Nigel on the judging panel will be Ashley Knight as the ever-positive boyband manager Louis and VICTORIA ELLIOT as pop queen Jordy. Simon Bailey will play the overly affectionate X Factor host Liam O'Deary, with Billy Carter as Executive Producer and Simon's right hand man, Gerard Smalls.

Simon Lipkin plays Chenice's faithful canine sidekick Barlow and Joe Speare is her iron-lung bound Grandad.

Along with Chenice and Max, the I CAN'T SING! hopefuls include Katy Secombe as supermarket checkout chanteuse Brenda, Charlie Baker as The Hunchback and SHAUN SMITH and ROWEN HAWKINS as hyperactive Irish pop duo Alterboyz.

The I Can't Sing! cast is completed by Luke Baker, Adam J Bernard, Jenna Boyd, Cyrus Brandon, Gabrielle Brooks, Scarlette Douglas, Kelly Ewins, Scott Garnham, Cherelle Jay, Faisal Khodaukus, Jaye Marshall, Brian McCann, Max Parker, Joseph Prouse, Steven Serlin, Kirstie Skivington, Philippa Stefani, Gary Trainor and Alex Young.

Harry Hill said: "I worked with a lot of our cast in the workshops for I Can't Sing! and we have some brilliant new faces too. I'm thrilled with The Acting Company we have on board - and it's a coup to have Nigel Harman as Simon. He was so funny in Shrek the Musical - not so much in Downton. With the wig and teeth he looks more like Simon, than Simon."

Harry Hill introduced Nigel Harman as Simon for the first time on the Royal Variety Performance, as the cast performed a medley of the songs Please Simon and the title number, I Can't Sing!, on stage at the musical's forthcoming home, the London Palladium. The performance will be part of the prestigious annual broadcast on ITV1 on Monday 9 December from 7.30pm

Written by Harry Hill and Steve Brown, the brand new comedy features 19 original songs and goes behind the microphone and under the judges' desk to reveal the (not necessarily accurate) story of heartache and laughter that keeps millions tuning in to the X Factor every week.

From composer Steve Brown (Evening Standard and Critics Circle Best Musical award winner for Spend Spend Spend. TV includes Spitting Image, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, TV Burp. Producer of Laura Mvula and Rumer), with book by Harry Hill (Three BAFTAs, seven British Comedy Awards and a Golden Rose of Montreux) and directed by double Olivier Award winner Sean Foley (Co- founder of The Right Size; Do You Come Here Often?, The Play What I Wrote and Ducktastic. West End includes The Ladykillers and What The Butler Saw), I CAN'T SING! Promises a lid-lifting theatrical rollercoaster ride behind the scenes at the mother of all singing competitions.

The creative team also features Choreographer Kate Prince (Founder of Zoonation; Into The Hoods and Some Like It Hip Hop, London Handover Ceremony at Beijing 2008 Olympics), Designer Es Devlin (Multiple West End and Broadway credits. Creative Director for Take That, Kanye West and Pet Shop Boys stadium tours, designer for London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony), Lighting Designer Jon Clark (Multiple productions in London and New York including many for the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Donmar Warehouse), Sound Designer Gareth Owen (Tony Award nominee, credits includeA Little Night Music, End of the Rainbow,Saturday Night Fever) and Musical Supervisor Phil Bateman (Billy Elliot, Our House, Vernon God Little).

Stage Entertainment is one of the world's largest theatrical producers and venue owners, with bases across Europe and in New York. UK credits include Hairspray, Sister Act, Singin' in the Rain Oliver!, Disney's High School Musical 1 & 2 and Fame. Along with I Can't Sing!, the company is also developing a new stage musical adaptation of the hit British film Made In Dagenham.

Syco Entertainment is a joint venture between Simon Cowell and Sony Music and is one of the world's leading global music, film and television production companies responsible for some of the world's most successful global TV and music franchises. Syco Entertainment is also the world's most successful producer of international talent with Syco Music being the record label home for such diverse international recording artists as Labrinth, One Direction, Leona Lewis, Susan Boyle, Little Mix, James Arthur, Ella Henderson, Il Divo, Tate Stevens, Emblem3, Fifth Harmony. Syco's television assets include the global franchises The X Factor and Got Talent. In 2013 Syco continues to capitalize on the ongoing success of its established global hit TV formats and a number of new projects including three films; One Direction's 3D movie 'This Is Us' with Sony Pictures, 'One Chance', a film based on the success story of Britain's Got Talent's first winner, Paul Potts, in association with The Weinstein Company and a family film starring Britain's Got Talent 2012 winner Pudsey the dog, called 'Pudsey The Movie'.

The X Factor launched in 2004 in the UK airing on ITV1. The X Factor's 2010 finale achieving a peak of 21.2 million viewers. The 2011 finale, held at Wembley Arena in front of a live audience of 12,000, was the most watched entertainment TV show of the year. The winner of 2012's X Factor, James Arthur, has sold more than a million copies of his debut single 'Impossible', making it the fastest selling single of last year. Other artists to emerge from The X Factor include the world's biggest pop group One Direction and Leona Lewis, who has sold more than 20 million records to date.

X Factor launched in the US in the fall of 2011 on Fox, immediately becoming the No 1 unscripted show of the season. Season 2 of The X Factor was the #1 most social TV show of 2012, with the season premiere having 1.4MM social comments, making it the most talked about premiere for a TV series ever (Source: Bluefin Labs). The US version of The X Factor airs in over 205 countries. Local versions of The X Factor are now commissioned in more than 52 territories and artists discovered by The X Factor format have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including 110 No 1's, 270 Top 10 records, and 500 Top 50 releases.