Planer will leave at the end of his contract on June 7. Barrit is currently appearing as Hector in the National Theatre's West End production of The History Boys (a role he has also appeared in on Broadway, when he stood in for Richard Griffiths for a week in July 2006), which is currently running at Wyndham's Theatre to April 26. Barrit has also been seen on Broadway in Adrian Noble's RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he played Bottom and which came to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1996. Other roles with the RSC include Falstaff in Henry IV Parts 1 and II (for which he was Olivier nominated), Trinculo in The Tempest, Antiopholus in The Comedy of Errors (Olivier win), and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. For the National, he has played Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Dick Cheney in David Hare's Stuff Happens and Toad in Alan Bennett's The Wind in the Willows. For the Donmar Warehouse, he has starred in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of An Anarchist and the double-bill of The Real Inspector Hound and Black Comedy (that played at the West End's Comedy Theatre).

To book tickets, contact the box office on 0844 826 8000. For more information, visit www.WickedTheMusical.co.uk