All Bob’s Women, a new musical running at the Arts theatre this summer, launched yesterday with a parade of lingerie-wearing ladies.
The models were sporting sexy underwear designed by model and former West End star Caprice, which will feature in the saucy musical comedy about a man with a quintet of women to keep both happy and separate.
The gathered press and investors, who were treated to the catwalk display in the sensual surrounds of Soho’s Green Carnation bar, were also serenaded with a pair of performances of the show’s songs from cast members Nicole Faraday and Amy Booth-Steel.
When Booth-Steel appears in the production, which opens on 18 June (press night 24 June), she will become the first of the 12 finalists from the BBC’s search for a Nancy, I’d Do Anything, to make an appearance on the London stage following the show’s climax.
She was the first contestant to be voted off the reality television show, failing to convince Andrew Lloyd Webber that she was worth saving, but her talent for comedy, noted by the show’s illustrious panel, stood her in good stead. She soon received a phone call inviting her to audition for the part of sexually confused Gem in All Bob’s Women and within two weeks she had been offered the part.
Speaking at yesterday’s event Booth Steel said: “I feel really privileged and really proud to be part of something new and original in the West End and to be playing a leading role coming out of the competition. I do feel very proud; it has been a complete whirlwind.”
The 24-year-old graduate of Birmingham School of Acting also announced that following All Bob’s Women, which is scheduled to run until 24 August, she will join the cast of The Sound Of Music. Far from being a shoe-in following her work with Lord Lloyd Webber on I’d Do Anything, Booth-Steel had to work her way through six rounds of auditions to earn the role understudying “comedy nuns and stuff like that”.
Speaking about his decision to bring the hit Italian musical to London, producer Guido Fabris said: “I know it is very hard because we are in the West End, the heart of musicals in the world, but I think it is a good challenge because what we wanted to do was something special, something very unique.” His producing partner Caroline Khouri added: “We have always been very excited that it is new material. I think it is going to do well.”
MA