Ball and Staunton have previously appeared in the British premieres of two Sondheim musicals, with Ball starring as Giorgio in Passion (at the Queen's Theatre in March 1996) and Staunton playing the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods (at the Phoenix Theatre in August 1990). Ball recently completed a record breaking run in the London production of Hairspray at the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre, in which he played Edna Turnblad form the time the show opened in October 2007 through July 2008, and for which he won the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He will also lead the U.K. national tour of the show, launching at Cardiff's Millennium Centre in March 2010.

Staunton was last seen on the London stage in a new production of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane that ran at the Trafalgar Studios from January to April 2009. Other London stage appearances have earned her two Olivier Awards, first for her roles in A Chorus of Disapproval (at the National) and The Corn in Green (at the Old Vic) in 1985, and as Miss Adelaide in the National's 1996 revival of its production of Guys and Dolls. She was Oscar-nominated for playing the title role in Mike Leigh's film Vera Drake.

Director Kent last staged a season under his name at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, that included productions of Wycherley's The Country Wife and the Boublil/ Schönberg musical Marguerite that he co-authored with Herbert Kretzmer.