Leading men Alfie Boe and Mark Evans will be back on the West End stage in 2011, when they take over as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and Fiyero in Wicked.
Although exact dates are yet to be announced, it has been confirmed that tenor Boe is to take the role of the convict-turned-mayor at the Queen’s theatre in June. The British opera star, who will also appear in the English National Opera productions of La Bohème and The Mikado in spring 2011, previously appeared in the Les Misérables 25th anniversary concert at the O2 Arena earlier this year.
French revolutionary musical Les Misérables is London theatre’s longest running musical, having opened at the Barbican theatre in 1985, transferring to the Palace theatre later that year before moving to its current home at the Queen’s theatre in 2004.
Evans, a finalist in TV show Eurovision – Your Country Needs You, will replace Lee Mead as Fiyero in Wicked from 7 February 2011. The performer, whose other credits include High School Musical, The Rocky Horror Show and Oklahoma!, joins a cast including Rachel Tucker, Louise Dearman and Julie Legrand.
Wicked, which won the Audience Award for Most Popular Show at the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards, is set in the magical land of Oz, where two witches, the popular Galinda and green Elphaba, are thrown together with magical results. A huge hit on Broadway, it opened at the Apollo Victoria in 2006 and has now played more than 1,700 performances in London.
MA