Acclaimed Actress Hannah Tointon Announced to Join the West End Cast of Waitress as Dawn as Lucie Jones extends Her Run as Jenna

HANNAH TOINTON, WELL KNOWN AS TARA IN THE INBETWEENERS, VIOLETTE IN MR. SELFRIDGE AND KATY FOX IN HOLLYOAKS, WILL TAKE OVER THE ROLE OF DAWN THIS DECEMBER

LUCIE JONES ANNOUNCED TO EXTEND LEADING ROLE AS JENNA UNTIL 25 JANUARY 2020

Waitress today announces television star Hannah Tointon, as seen in The Inbetweeners, Mr Selfridge and Hollyoaks, will be joining the West End company from 2 December in the role of Dawn. She will take over from Laura Baldwin who will mark her final performance on 30 November. Waitress is also delighted to announce that Lucie Jones, who has been wowing audiences in the lead role of Jenna since taking over earlier this summer, will extend performances in the smash hit musical through to 25 January 2020.

Waitress tells the story of Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams her way out of a loveless marriage. When a hot new doctor arrives in town, life gets complicated. With the support of her workmates Becky and Dawn, Jenna overcomes the challenges she faces and finds that laughter, love and friendship can provide the perfect recipe for happiness.

Hannah Tointon (Dawn) is best known for her role as Tara in the award-winning comedy The Inbetweeners and as Violette in the highly acclaimed British period drama Mr Selfridge. Hannah most recently starred as Zelda in The Jazz Age at the Playground Theatre. Other credits in recent years include, The Festival, Penny Dreadful, Call the Midwife, and Hollyoaks.

Lucie Jones (Jenna) has played some of the most iconic roles in musical theatre, with previous theatre credits that include Cosette in Les Misérables (Queens Theatre), Maureen Johnson in RENT (The Other Palace and national tour), Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (national tour), Holly in The Wedding Singer (national tour), Victoria in American Psycho The Musical (Almeida), Molly Jensen in Ghost: The Musical (Asian tour) and Meat in We Will Rock You (world arena tour). Lucie was a finalist in the 2009 series of The X Factor and toured the UK playing to sell out arena crowds on The X Factor Tour in 2010. In January 2017, she won the public vote on the BBC2 show Eurovision - You Decide with her original song ‘Never Give Up On You’. She competed at the Eurovision World Final in Ukraine. Other television work includes roles in Midsomer Murders (ITV) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (BBC).

Waitress celebrated its official opening night at the Adelphi Theatre on 7 March 2019 and the Tony-nominated musical is now booking until 28 March 2020.

Brought to life by a ground breaking, female-led creative team, Waitress features an original score by 7-time Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles (Love Song, Brave), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) and direction by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Finding Neverland) and choreography by Lorin Latarro. The production is also currently touring the US and Canada and has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in Holland next year and Japan in 2021.

Alongside Hannah Tointon as Dawn and Lucie Jones as Jenna, Waitress will star Sandra Marvin as Becky, David Hunter as Dr. Pomatter, Tamlyn Henderson as Earl and Andrew Boyer as Old Joe. Joe Sugg will mark his final performance as Ogie on 30 November, with further casting to be announced in due course.

Waitress premiered on Broadway in March 2016 and has since become the longest running show in the history of the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The production is also currently touring the US and Canada and has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in Holland next year and Japan in 2021.

On its Broadway opening, Waitress was nominated for four Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical; two Drama League Award Nominations, including Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical; six Drama Desk Nominations, including Outstanding Musical; and four Tony Award Nominations, including Best Musical.

LISTINGS
WAITRESS
The Adelphi Theatre
The Strand,
London WC2R 0NS

Monday – Saturday evenings at 7.30pm
Wednesday & Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

24 Hour Telephone Booking line: 020 7087 7753

Day seats are available to purchase in person from the theatre box office from 10am for £25. Mon-Fri performances. Subject to availability and at the box office’s discretion.

Find Waitress on Facebook: Waitress the Musical – London, Twitter: @WaitressLondon and Instagram: @WaitressLondon

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BIOGRAPHIES

Sara Bareilles (Music and Lyrics)
Sara made her debut with Little Voice in 2007, which reached #1 in 22 countries around the world. Since then, the international star has gone on to release a New York Times best-selling book, Sounds Like Me – My Life (so far) in Song, and five studio albums, including her most recent, What’s Inside: Songs from Waitress. For Waitress, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics, an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Score, and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. Last year she received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Awards for her success in Music and her championing of women everywhere at the United Nations. To add to her myriad successes, Sara was Emmy nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her role in Jesus Christ Superstar Live! in 2018. She has received a second Emmy nomination this year and is currently in the running for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for ‘This One’s For You’ together with Josh Groban with whom she performed the song at the 72nd annual Tony Awards.

Jessie Nelson (Book)
Jessie wrote, directed, and produced Corrina, Corrina with Whoopi Goldberg and I Am Sam with Sean Penn, who received an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Recently she directed an episode of Larry David’s latest series of Curb Your Enthusiasm and 2015’s Love the Coopers which starred Diane Keaton and John Goodman. Jessie is currently co-writing the sequel to Disney’s hugely popular musical fantasy Enchanted, humorously named Disenchanted. She co-wrote Step Mom and The Story of Us, and produced Danny Collins with Al Pacino and Annette Bening and Fred Claus with Vince Vaughn. Jessie co-wrote Alice By Heart with Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, which was developed at The National Theatre. She began her career in the theater working with Mabou Mines and The New York Shakespeare Festival. Jessie co-wrote the children’s book Labracadabra. She has been the Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute’s Writers Lab.

Diane Paulus (Director)
Diane is The Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the A.R.T. at Harvard University, and was selected for the 2014 TIME 100, TIME Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Diane is the 2013 recipient of the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical (Pippin). A.R.T.: Crossing, Finding Neverland (currently on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre), Witness Uganda, Pippin, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Prometheus Bound, Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers: The Robots’ Opera, Best of Both Worlds, Johnny Baseball, The Donkey Show. Her other recent work includes Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna, currently on tour in Europe; The Public Theater’s Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR on Broadway and London’s West End. As an opera director, her credits include The Magic Flute, the complete Monteverdi cycle, and Don Giovanni, among others. Diane is Professor of the Practice of Theater in Harvard University’s English Department. She was selected as one of Variety’s “Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014” and Boston Magazine’s “50 Thought Leaders of 2014.”

Lorin Latarro (Choreographer)
Lorin recently choreographed Broadway's Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber, and Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, and she is the Associate Choreographer of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and American Idiot. Her additional choreography includes Chess (The Kennedy Center); Lin-Manuel Miranda's 21 Chump Street for "This American Life" (Brooklyn Academy Of Music); The Public Theater's Twelfth Night and The Odyssey (Delacorte Theater); Queen of the Night (Diamond Horseshoe); Assassins; God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; and Fanny (City Center Encores!); Between the Lines (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); Beaches (Drury Lane Theatre) and A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre Center). Lorin is a Bucks County Playhouse Artistic Associate and a Juilliard School graduate. Her upcoming work includes Heart of Rock and Roll at Old Globe and La Traviata at The Metropolitan Opera.