UK Roundup - Spamalot, Drowsy, Ruthie + Lee

Another West End musical will be cast by reality TV voting, albeit this time with a twist. When the Olivier nominated Hannah Waddingham leaves Spamalot next year, its new Lady of the Lake will be found by a reality programme broadcast and voted for in.. Sweden. Each week one contestant will be voted off until there are four left. Those four will then be flown to London to begin rehearsals for the role, returning once each week to Stockholm to face the judges and viewing public. It is not clear whether the winner will perform the role full-time, but with the West End attracting 700,000 Swedes each year - many of whom take in a show - the producers clearly believe there's a potential market for a Swedish star, even if the event is taking place hundreds of miles away from its customers…  

The opening night of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was hit by a brief technical hitch when the revolving stage got stuck. Reports vary from a two minute pause to a fifteen minute pause, depending on the publication you read, with the Daily Mail claiming that 'furious-looking creator Andrew Lloyd Webber leapt from his chair in the stalls and stropped off back stage'. Reviewers were kind to both the reality TV cast Lee Mead and the revival production, based on the 1991 direction by the late Stephen Pimlott, with the Telegraph predicting that 'Joseph looks like being a sure-fire hit all over again' and the Mail agreeing that 'Joseph had won me round. As it will do London.' It recently extended its booking period until June 7th 2008.

Ruthie Henshall will lead the cast of a new Boubil and Schönberg musical in London next year. Marguerite, with music by Oscar award winning Michel Legrand (who also wrote the Broadway musical Amour), will open at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in May next year for a limited season until November, as part of the new resident company at the Haymarket. Boubil and Schönberg, together with Les Miserables lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, will write the book and lyrics. Their latest musical, The Pirate Queen, recently ended its three month Broadway run. Henshall was last seen onstage in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White and will be joined onstage by co-star Julian Ovenden. Marguerite will be directed by Jonathan Kent, who also contributes to the book.

The excellent London production of The Drowsy Chaperone will close at the Novello Theatre on August 4th after a run of under three months. Despite the show's popular success in New York – where it has been running since April 2006 – the musical has not managed to find a similar audience in London, with producer Kevin McCollum stating in a press release that 'London ticket sales for our show have been slower than needed to sustain a longer run at the Novello.' It had been one of the quickest Broadway transfers ever; just 13 months after opening on Broadway. The London cast, including Elaine Paige, Summer Strallen and John Partridge, will see out their final month of performances with a new Man in Chair – Steve Pemberton from The League of Gentlemen, after originating actor/writer Bob Martin left to be at the birth of his first child. 

And finally, the UK tour of The Producers has also suffered an unexpected blow to its anticipated high-selling run. The Mel Brooks musical has cancelled its entire Bristol leg of the tour due to low sales, although is still scheduled to continue the tour in September to a further three venues. It had been due to play for 5 weeks at the South West venue with a cast including Joe Pasquale, Russ Abbot and Corey English. In addition to axing The Producers, the Bristol Hippodrome also cut a week of performances of Starlight Express, also due to low sales. The Producers' Edinburgh run at Christmas had previously been cancelled, with the venue citing problems of finding actors "of appropriate stature and commercial value".

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