Cameron Mackintosh has announced that Clare Burt (Flowers for Mrs Harris, London Road) will join the company of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Gielgud Theatre when the show begins performances on 21 September.

This follows the news last week that Haydn Gwynne had to withdraw from the production owing to sudden personal circumstances.

Cameron Mackintosh said: “I am so thrilled that another wonderfully talented Old Friend, Clare Burt, who started out with me in the early years of both Cats and Les Miserables and is now a much-loved leading stage and screen actress, has literally stepped off a plane in order to step in for Haydn Gwynne who, sadly, had to suddenly withdraw last week. Our Old Friends cast is now complete and this sensational all-star ensemble is raring to strut their extraordinary stuff from Thursday 21st September at the Gielgud Theatre”.

The cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is led by Broadway legends, Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. They are joined by Christine Allado, Clare Burt, Janie Dee, Damian Humbley, Bradley Jaden, Bonnie Langford, Gavin Lee, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Jac Yarrow, Marley Fenton and Beatrice Penny-Touré. The company also includes Harry Apps, Bella Brown, Richard Dempsey and Monique Young, completing a cast that is truly the best of the West End and Broadway.

Devised and produced by Cameron Mackintosh, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends has direction and musical staging by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie, with choreography by Stephen Mear, conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo, musical supervision by Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, set design by Matt Kinley, projection design by George Reeve, costumes by Jill Parker, lighting by Warren Letton, and sound by Mick Potter.

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