Full casting announced for Curve Leicester's Chicago

Full casting has been announced for the Curve Leicester's production of Chicago. Leading the company are Verity Rushworth (Velma Kelly), Gemma Sutton (Roxie Hart, pictured right), David Leonard (Billy Flynn) and Sandra Marvin (Mama Morton) with Adam Bailey (Mary Sunshine) and Matthew Barrow (Amos).

The cast will also feature: Jocasta Almgill, Ashley Andrews, Michelle Andrews, Harry Francis, Jonny Godbold, Simon Hardwick, Fela Lufadeju, Katy Hards, Anabel Kutay, Jessica Kirton, Lucinda Lawrence, Jon Reynolds, Zizi Strallen and Callum Train.

Chicago has music by John Kander, music by Fred Ebb and is based on the play Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins. The production will be directed by Paul Kerryson and choreographed by Drew McOnie.

The production opens on 4 December (previews from 29th November) and has extended its run until 18th January 2014. Set in 1920’s Chicago, this sleek, sexy show tells the story of scintillating sinners, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, their crimes of passion and their outrageous pursuit of fame and celebrity. But murder, adultery and corruption are no match for their manipulative, smooth talking lawyer, Billy Flynn. He’ll razzle dazzle us ‘til we’re begging for more...

Chicago is packed with wicked fun and includes some of the best song and dance numbers in musical theatre including; All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, Nowadays and Razzle Dazzle. Originally created by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, Chicago is a magnificent Broadway and West End Classic.

David Leonard plays Billy Flynn. His theatre work includes Matilda The Musical (RSC at the Cambridge Theatre), The Pitman Painters (national tour), Writer’s Block(Nuffield Southampton), Arsenic and Old Lace (Salisbury Playhouse) and Factors Unseen (Orange Tree). For television, his work includes The Castle, Alice in Wonderland, A Scots Quair, Henry IV andRichard III; and for film, Cracks, Hester, andComeback.

Verity Rushworth plays Velma Kelly. Perhaps best known for her role as series regular Donna Windsor in Emmerdale, her theatre credits include The Sound of Music (UK tour), Carnaby Street (national tour), Merrily We Roll Along (Clwyd Theatre Cymru), The Seven Year Itch (Salisbury Playhouse), Annie (West Yorkshire Playhouse), and Hairspray (Shaftesbury Theatre).

Gemma Sutton plays Roxie Hart. Her theatre credits include Hairspray, Oklahoma! (UK tours), Me and My Girl (Kilworth House Theatre), Legally Blonde, Imagine This, Gone With the Wind (West End), Dames at Sea (Union Theatre), The Kissing Dance(Jermyn Street Theatre) , and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Lady Be Good and The Boyfriend (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).

Sandra Marvin plays Mama Morton. For theatre, her work includes Hairspray(Shaftesbury Theatre and UK tour), A Fairytale of New York, Ragtime, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Cool Hand Luke(Aldwych Theatre), The New Yorkers (Lillian Bayliss Theatre), A Rake’s Progress (Royal Opera House), Porgy and Bess (Savoy Theatre) and The Lion King (Paris).

Artistic Director of Curve, Paul Kerryson directs. For the company, his work includes the current production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Piaf, Hello Dolly!, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Buried Child, Gypsy, Absurd Person Singular, The Light in the Piazza, The King and I (also UK tour), 42nd Street, The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. For the Haymarket Theatre Leicester, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Playboy of the Western World, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Plough and the Star, Dolly West’s Kitchen, Richard III, Breaking the Code, East, Edward II and Single Spies. Kerryson has directed works by the world’s greatest composers including Rogers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, Jerry Herman, William Finn, and has enjoyed a celebrated, close creative relationship with the works of Stephen Sondheim. He has directed for Chichester Festival Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Manchester Library Theatre and the Dublin Gaiety.

Click here to read West End Frame's interview with cast member Harry Francis. 

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