The Amanda Holden-starrer will play its final performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre June 26. As Millie closes, a spate of new tuners are scheduled for the new season, including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman In White, the Disney-Cameron Mackintosh Mary Poppins, The Producers and Billy Elliot. On a smaller scale will be the production of Brighton Rock by John Barry and Don Black at the tiny Almeida Theatre in Islington (destined for a West End transfer if it does well).
Rob Ashford, who choreographed Thoroughly Modern Millie, will hop across London as far as the South Bank, to work on another of the year’s high-profile musical productions at the National Theatre. It’s Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, to star Desmond Barrit and Philip Quast, directed by Edward Hall. That opens in the Olivier Theatre on July 9, with previews beginning June 28.