Jay McGuiness Joins UK and Ireland Tour of & JULIET

The Wanted band member and 2015 Strictly Come Dancing winner Jay McGuiness will star as Shakespeare during the second leg of the tour of & Juliet, from Bristol to Nottingham. Ranj Singh who has been delighting audiences in the role of Lance, will continue to do so at certain venues next year including Wimbledon, Dublin, Bradford, Birmingham, Sheffield and Cardiff.

The roles of Shakespeare and Lance at all other venues will be announced.

The UK and Ireland tour of & JULIET opened at Manchester Opera House on 8 July 2024. 

Jay joins current tour cast members Gerardine Sacdalan as Juliet, Lara Denning as Anne, Sandra Marvin as Angelique, Jack Danson as Romeo, Kyle Cox as Francois and Jordan Broatch as May.

Also in the cast are Harriet Caplan-Dean as Eleanor, Alexander Kranz as Lennox, Andilé Mabhena as Augustine / Dance Team, Liam Morris as Richard, Psalms-Nissi Myers-Reid as Lucy/Alternate Juliet, Michael Nelson as Henry, Toni Paise as Violet, Katie Ramshaw as Nell / Lady C Rosie Singha as Judith, Aaron Shales as Gregory / Dance Team, Nia Stephen as Imogen and Samuel Wilson-Freeman as Fletcher / Resident Director and Dance Captain

Jay McGuiness said “I love these songs; Max Martin has written hit after hit. I've really missed singing and dancing as the last thing I did was a play, so I'm excited to get back into it. And I love the & Juliet costumes, especially Shakespeare's!”

Jay McGuiness is best known as a vocalist in the chart-topping band The Wanted. Their debut single, “All Time Low," hit the No. 1 spot on the UK singles chart and the band went on to have two further No. 1 and 5 Top 10 singles including the global hit ‘Glad You Came'.

Jay has a song and dance background, starting with dance classes in his early teens, he later attended The Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama in Nottingham. After taking a break from The Wanted in 2013, Jay was confirmed as a celebrity contestant on Strictly Come Dancing where he wowed audiences with his routines and went on to be crowned Strictly champion for 2015. His now infamous Jive to the music from Pulp Fiction has become the show's most watched routine ever, amassing over 8 million hits on You Tube. The routine was also voted Strictly's best ever dance by BBC Strictly viewers in December 2020. In 2016, Jay starred in the musical version of the Tom Hanks movie BIG in Dublin playing the lead role of Josh Baskin. He reprised the role in 2019 in the West End at the Dominion Theatre. In 2020, Jay played the lead role of Sam in the London production of Sleepless: A Musical Romance, based on the movie Sleepless in Seattle, at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. Jay's other theatre work includes starring in Rip It Up, a 60's song and dance show at London's Garrick Theatre, Bob Wallace in the touring production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas in 2022 and Danny in the award-winning production of the Robbins play 2:22- A Ghost Story in 2024. In May 2023, Jay announced that he was adding yet another string to his bow as a published author. His debut fantasy novel Blood Flowers, published worldwide by Scholastic, was released in February 2024 and the eagerly awaited sequel is due for release in spring/summer 2025.

Get whisked away on a fabulous journey as Juliet ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love—her way. Created by David West Read, the Emmy-winning writer from “Schitt's Creek,” this hilarious new musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told and asks, what would happen next if Juliet didn't end it all over Romeo?

Juliet's new story bursts to life through a playlist of pop anthems as iconic as her name, including Britney Spears' “…Baby One More Time,” Katy Perry's “Roar” and chart toppers “Since U Been Gone,” “It's My Life,” “I Want It That Way,” and “Can't Stop the Feeling!” — all from Max Martin, the genius songwriter/producer behind more #1 hits than any other artist this century, and his collaborators. Break free of the balcony scene and get into this romantic comedy that proves there's life after Romeo. The only thing tragic would be missing it.

& JULIET is a global success and has now been performed on four continents since its World Premiere in September 2019. It began at the Manchester Opera House in England, before moving to London's West End from 2019-2023, where it won three Olivier Awards, and 6 WhatsOnStage Awards. The show had its North American premiere in July 2022 in Toronto, where it broke box office records and played to standing-room-only audiences, before heading to Broadway, where it again broke box office records and plays nightly to sold-out crowds. It can now also be seen around the globe with the North American Tour that started in September 2024 and the German premiere in October 2024. The German production marks the show's first production with a book translated into a different language and was also the sixth country to welcome & Juliet in less than five years. More information for all productions can be found at andjulietthemusical.com

The full creative team for the UK and Ireland tour of & JULIET includes David West Read (Book), Max Martin & Friends (Music & Lyrics), Luke Sheppard (Direction), Jennifer Weber (Choreography), Bill Sherman (Musical Supervision, Orchestrations and Arrangements), Soutra Gilmour (Scenic Design), Paloma Young (Costume Design), Howard Hudson (Lighting Design), Gareth Owen (Sound Design), Andrzej Goulding (Video & Projection Design) and Nina Van Houten(Hair, Wig & Makeup Design) and Dominic Fallacaro (Additional Arrangements and Orchestrations). Casting is by Stuart Burt.

& JULIET is presented by Max Martin and Tim Headington and is produced by Max Martin, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, Jenny Petersson, Martin Dodd and Rebecca Quigley.

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