Former Sugababe Jade Ewan will join soap stars Tom Mannion, Karl Davies and Amy Nuttall in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s forthcoming summer season.
Emmerdale’s Mannion, whose theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe and numerous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, will play the role of Joe Keller in All My Sons from 15 May to 7 June. The role will mark the stage regular’s return to the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre following appearances in Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Bartholomew Fair, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.
Mannion is joined by Downton Abbey and Emmerdale star Nuttall, whose stage credits include the Old Vic’s hit 2011 production of Noises Off, Tony Award winner and twice Olivier Award nominee Brid Brennan and Charles Aitken. Both Brennan and Aitken recently appeared in Sweet Bird Of Youth at the Waterloo venue.
Completing the casting for Arthur Miller’s 1947 play about a man alleged to have supplied fighter planes with defective engines during World War II are Andy McKeane, Simon Wilson, Tilly Blackwood, Maddie Rice, Matt Cross, Charles Maddox, Ewan Harris and Johnny Peat.
Best known for his long-running performance alongside Nuttall in ITV soap Emmerdale, Davies will take on the role of Will Mossop in Hobson’s Choice. Nadia Fall’s production, which plays from 12 June to 12 July, sees Mark Benton take on the role of the hypocritical cobbler alongside Jodie McNee as one of his long-suffering daughter.
Singer-songwriter Ewen, whose stage credits include West End productions of Whistle Down The Wind and Disney’s The Lion King, will star as Clara in the alfresco venue’s 2014 musical offering The Gershwins’ Porgy And Bess. The production, which is directed by the venue’s Artistic Director Timothy Sheader, will play from 17 July to 23 August.
Ewen will be joined in the cast of the powerful love story by Cedric Neal, Golda Rosheuvel and Leon Lopez. While American actor Neal has previously appeared in the musical on Broadway, Rosheuvel and Lopez come to the musical for the first time following a string of performances on the London stage. For Rosheuvel those include The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and South Pacific at the National Theatre, while Lopez has appeared in productions including Rent at the Duke of York’s Theatre and Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse. The quartet of performers join the previously announced Rufus Bonds Jr and Nicola Hughes as the title characters.
Casting for the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s remaining 2014 productions, which include the return of last year’s To Kill A Mockingbird and a version of Twelfth Night for young audiences, is still to be announced.