DOWNTON ABBEY's Samantha Bond Joins DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS at the Savoy

The Daily Mail reports that Downton Abbey's Samantha Bond will join Robert Lindsay, Rufus Hound, Katherine Kingsley and John Marquez in DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, directed by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell at the Savoy Theatre. The show begins in the West End on March 10 after runs at the Manchester Opera House (beginning February 12) and the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury (beginning February 26).

"Inside my heart, there's a 12-year-old girl who has always wanted to be Ginger Rogers," Bond told the Mail.

Before she auditioned for Mitchell, Bond said she "hadn't sung in a show since I was Principal Boy in Mother Goose in Bristol, when I was 22." But being married to West End and Broadway star Alexander Hanson (currently in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical Stephen Ward) has its perks. "I've seen how he practices and practices, so I know what I have to do," she said.

Read the original report here.

Bond is set to play Muriel, a divorcee living on the French Riviera who gets mixed up with a team of con artists.

Lindsay will play Lawrence Jameson and Hound will play Freddy Benson, Jameson's sidekick. Kingsley is set to star as Christine Colgate. The upcoming West End production will also feature a re-choreographed opening with designs from Peter McKintosh.

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS is adapted from the 1988 film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin as con men in the French Riveria. The musical features music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane. The original Broadway production opened in 2005 and starred John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott.

Aside from playing Lady Rosamund on Downton Abbey, Bond is well known for starring as 'Miss Moneypenny' in the classic James Bond films. She has also appeared on television in Outnumbered, Midsomer Murders, The Queen, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Distant Shores, Hotel Babylon, Fanny Hill, Donovan, Brand Spanking New Show, The Bill, Mansfield Park and more.

Bond's stage credits include Amy's View on Broadway in 1999, Arcadia at the Duke of York's Theatre in 2009, as well as the Vaudeville Theatre's An Ideal Husband in 2010, What the Butler Saw in the West End in 2012 and more.