Tamzin Outhwaite will lead the cast of Matthew White’s new production of the musical Sweet Charity at the Menier Chocolate Factory this Christmas, opening on 2 December (previews from 21 November).
Outhwaite will play Charity Hope Valentine in the Tony Award-winning musical which follows the misadventures of love encountered by this gullible woman who always gives her heart and dreams to the wrong man.
Former EastEnders actress Outhwaite is best known for her television work which also includes Red Cap, Hustle, Hotel Babylon and The Fixer. However she is no stranger to the London stage, having appeared in the 1994 London Palladium production of Oliver!, Breathing Corpses and Flesh Wound at the Royal Court and, most recently, the Laurence Olivier Award-winning production of Boeing Boeing at the Comedy theatre.
Outhwaite is joined in the cast by London stage regulars and Chicago colleagues Josefina Gabrielle (Hello, Dolly!, The 39 Steps) and Tiffany Graves (Shout!), as well as Paul J Medford (Five Guys Named Moe), Mark Umbers (The Vortex, The Glass Menagerie) and Ebony Molina, who has appeared frequently with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures.
Sweet Charity, which has a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, premiered on Broadway in 1966, opening in London the following year. It has since been revived twice on the Great White Way, including a 1986 production which picked up four Tony Awards.
Director White returns to the Menier Chocolate Factory where he previously directed The Last Five Years and Little Shop Of Horrors, which transferred to the West End. He is joined in the creative team by choreographer Stephen Mear, whose work in the West End includes co-choreographing Mary Poppins with Matthew Bourne, for which they won a Laurence Olivier Award, as well as Anything Goes, On The Town and Acorn Antiques The Musical.
Sweet Charity opens at the Menier Chocolate Factory following Talent, which runs from 23 September to 14 November. It is booking to 7 March 2010.
CB