By James Inverne
09 Nov 2004

Continuing the longstanding trend of opera houses dabbling in musicals (both the UK’s Royal Opera and Opera North have produced Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in recent years), English National Opera has scheduled Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town.

Unlike so many opera company musicals, where opera stars are cast in the leads (Covent Garden’s Sweeney was the baritone Thomas Allen), this show firmly opts for musical theatre stars: Saturday Night Fever's Adam Garcia and Chicago's Caroline O’Connor. There are opera singers in the cast too, notably Willard W. White, but it’s a long way from ENO’s Street Scene, cast from the company’s regulars.

Jude Kelly will direct, with choreography by Stephen Mear. Garcia, whose West End credits include Saturday Night Fever and who subsequently landed a lead role in the movie “Coyote Ugly,” will play Chip. O’Connor, a West End visitor earlier in 2004 with her one-woman show Bombshells, plays Hildy.

The cast also includes Helen Anker (Contact and The Beautiful and the Damned), Philip Ball, Lucy Schaufer and Greg Winter.

The show opens March 5, 2005, and runs until April 19. For more information, call (0)20 7632 8300.