Kerry Ellis will take over the role of Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical Cats after Nicole Scherzinger makes her final trip to the Heaviside Layer next month.
The musical theatre actress will join the show, which has just announced that it has extended its run at the London Palladium until 25 April, from 9 February.
Ellis adds her forthcoming appearance in Cats to her long list of West End credits, which include Oliver!, Les Misérables, We Will Rock You and My Fair Lady, but she is best known for playing the green-skinned witch at the centre of long-running hit Wicked both in the West End and on Broadway.
The former Elphaba will join a cast including Cameron Ball, Ross Finnie, Charlene Ford, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Joseph Poulton, Nicholas Pound, Hannah Kenna Thomas, Zizi Strallen, Dawn Williams and Benjamin Yates in the production.
Based on T S Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats, the Lloyd Webber musical charts the story of the Jellicle cats as they meet at the annual Jellicle Ball to discover which of their fellow felines will be chosen to make the journey to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn.
Directed by Trevon Nunn with choreography by Gillian Lynne, Cats features a renowned score including Memory, The Rum Tum Tugger, Mr Mistoffelees and The Jellicle Ball, the popularity of which has helped cement the musical as one of the longest running shows in West End and Broadway history.
Scherzinger, who was described by the Evening Standard’s Henry Hitchings as having “feline grace and a voice that’s impressively resonant” will perform in the musical for the final time on 7 February.