Olivier Award-winning actress Tracie Bennett will star alongside Ian Bartholomew and Emma Williams when the Theatre Royal Bath production of Mrs Henderson Presents transfers to London’s Noël Coward Theatre next February.
The trio of performers will reprise their roles in the musical from 9 February (press night 16 February) following its run at the Bath venue this summer. Full casting is still to be announced.
Bennett, who won her pair of Olivier Awards for performances in hit musicals Hairspray and She Loves Me, plays the role made famous by Dame Judi Dench in the classic 2005 film. Well known for her screen roles in Coronation Street and Scott And Bailey, Bennett’s other West End credits include Les Misérables and La Cage Aux Folles.
Her co-stars are both Olivier Award nominated performers. Bartholomew, whose stage career has spanned more than four decades, was recognised by the UK’s most prestigious theatrical awards ceremony for his performances in Into The Woods and Radio Times, while Williams, who created the role of Truly Scrumptious in the original West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was nominated for her roles in Zorro and Love Story.
Mrs Henderson Presents, which is directed and features a book by Olivier Award winner Terry Johnson, tells the story of the recently widowed eccentric Laura Henderson, who transforms a run-down former cinema into a theatre presenting non-stop variety acts. But as war looms something more is required to boost morale and box office figures…. Cue The Windmill Girls.
Johnson’s musical adaptation of the hit Martin Sherman-penned film opened at the Theatre Royal Bath in August, when The Guardian’s Michael Billington described the production as “a show that not only improves on the original movie, but also gives the […] British musical a healthy injection of energy.”
Featuring music by George Fenton and Simon Chamberlain with lyrics by Don Black, the musical will open at the Noël Coward Theatre, which currently houses the Nicole Kidman-led Photograph 51, following forthcoming festive offering A Christmas Carol, which stars Jim Broadbent as Charles Dickens’ most infamous miser and plays from 30 November to 30 January.
Mrs Henderson Presents will follow a flurry of London transfers for the Theatre Royal Bath, which include two of French playwright Florian Zeller’s critically acclaimed plays. The Father, which opened in Bath last autumn, is currently playing at the Wyndham’s Theatre, while the Tricycle Theatre will welcome its companion piece The Mother in 2016.