Theater News

Betty Buckley to Star in Dear World in London

The British premiere of Jerry Herman’s musical reunites the Cats star with choreographer Gillian Lynne.

It’s the little guy versus big guy in the musical Dear World, which will receive its British premiere at the Charing Cross Theatre, opening February 4. Tony Award nominee Gillian Lynne (The Phantom of the Opera) will direct and choreograph the production.

The 1969 musical, based on Jean Giraudoux’s play The Madwoman of Chaillot, which sounds as if it could be written by members of the Occupy movement, has a score by Jerry Herman and a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The production will star Tony Award winner Betty Buckley (Sunset Boulevard) as Countess Aurelia, the titular “madwoman” who leads the resistance against a corporation that wants to drill for oil in the Parisian neighborhood she calls home.

The show will mark a reunion for its director and star. Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance in Cats, which was choreographed by Lynne, who was Tony-nominated for her work. Buckley’s many other Broadway credits include her Tony-nominated turn in The Triumph of Love, as well as The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Carrie, and 1776.

Lynne’s other work on Broadway includes her Tony-nominated dances for The Phantom of the Opera. She’s also choreographed such shows as Aspects of Love, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and How Now Dow Jones.

The company will also feature Anthony Barclay, Brett Brown, Paul Hawkyard, Peter Land, Annabel Leventon, Rebecca Lock, Joanna Loxton, Robert Meadmore, Paul Nicholas, Craig Nicholls, Stuart Matthew Price, Jack Rebaldi, Ayman Safia, and Katy Treharne.