Ashley Banjo and Jason Manford Will 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' to the London Palladium | Playbill

International News Ashley Banjo and Jason Manford Will 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' to the London Palladium

Initial casting has been announced for the summer staging of The Wizard of Oz, featuring additional songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Ashley Banjo and Jason Manford

A new production of The Wizard of Oz—the musical based on the L. Frank Baum story as immortalized in the 1939 MGM film featuring music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg—will play a limited season at the London Palladium beginning June 23. Opening night is July 6.

Directed by Nikolai Foster, the production will feature the film score—including "Over the Rainbow," "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," and "We're Off to See the Wizard"—with additional songs penned by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Ashley Banjo, creative director and choreographer for the dance group Diversity who found fame in 2009 after winning Britain’s Got Talent, will make his West End musical debut as The Tin Man, while actor-writer-comic Jason Manford (Sweeney Todd, The Producers) will play The Cowardly Lion. Additional casting will be announced.

Lloyd Webber's stage production of The Wizard of Oz previously played the Palladium in 2011 with a cast that included Danielle Hope as Dorothy and Michael Crawford as The Wizard. 

The summer staging will also have choreography by Shay Barclay, set design by Colin Richmond, projection design by Douglas O’Connell, costume and puppet design by Rachael Canning, lighting design by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Adam Fisher, creative consulting by Mark Kaufman, musical direction and supervision by George Dyer, casting by Kay Magson, props supervision by Marcus Hall Props, and wigs, hair, and makeup design by Elizabeth Marini.

Michael Harrison (newly partnered with Lloyd Webber), Gavin Kalin with David Mirvish, Crossroads Live, Tulchin Bartner Productions, Rupert Gavin and Mallory Factor, by arrangement with The Really Useful Group Limited, present the Curve production of The Wizard of Oz.

Following the Palladium engagement, the production will tour the U.K.

Visit WizardofOzMusical.com.

 
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