Another 80s Legend Joins The NOW! Cast

Sam Bailey, Toyah Willcox & Nina Wadia in NOW

Another 80s Legend Joins The NOW! Cast

08-10-24

Punk princess and 2024 Strictly Come Dancing contestant Toyah Willcox is joining the cast of NOW That’s What I Call A Musical, as a special guest star in Edinburgh and that Sonia will be adding Manchester and Glasgow to her 2025 venues.

NOW That’s What I Call A Musical a brand-new British musical written by award-winning comedian Pippa Evans and directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood. NOW That’s What I Call A Musical began performances on 6 September 2024 at Aylesbury’s Waterside Theatre before commencing a major UK and Ireland tour.

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Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer, having amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-five albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in over twenty feature films and presented hundreds of television programmes. She has won numerous awards and nominations from singing to writing to acting. The hit singles It’s A Mystery, I Want to Be Free, Brave New World and platinum-selling albums Anthem and The Changeling confirmed her status as one of the most significant talents of the 1980s. In 1982 she won the Best Female Singer at the British Rock & Pop Awards, who went on to become The Brits.
On Christmas Eve 1981 Toyah’s concert at Drury Lane Theatre Royal was broadcast live on BBC2 as The Old Grey Whistle Test to viewing figures of over 10 million. She is a regular contributor on Channel 5’s Greatest Pop Videos, 80s Greatest Hits and 90s Greatest Hits series – a visual celebration of the best music through the decades. In 2022, Toyah appeared in Channel 4’s brand new show Fame In The Family, in 2023 she won the Great British Sewing Bee: Celebrity Christmas Special on BBC One and she is currently taking part in the 20th Anniversary series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Her theatre credits include: The Rocky Horror Show: 40th Anniversary Tribute (Royal Court Theatre), The Hundred and One Dalmatians (Nottingham Theatre Royal), Calamity Jane (Shaftesbury Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (Belfast Grand Opera House), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regents Park), and Cabaret (Strand Theatre). In 2018 Paul McCartney awarded Toyah a LIPA Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Companionship for Outstanding Achievement in music, drama, performance and media.

Toyah joins the array of special guest stars playing themselves and singing the songs that made them NOW icons. In 2024 Sinitta will perform in Aylesbury, Sheffield, Canterbury, Nottingham and Norwich with Sonia in Newcastle, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Brighton, Carol Decker in Truro, Belfast and Woking, and Jay Osmond in Bradford.

In 2025 Sinitta will be appearing in Dublin, Hull and York with Sonia in Southampton, Manchester, Southend, Glasgow, Bristol, Liverpool, Wimbledon and Birmingham, Carol Decker in Oxford and Toyah Wilcox in Edinburgh. For further detail, patrons are advised to check their local websites.

The show stars Nina Wadia as Gemma, Melissa Jacques as April up to and including 7 December 2024 (Brighton) and Sam Bailey who will then take over the role from 14 January 2025 (Southampton) to 12 April 2025 (Wimbledon). With Kieran Cooper as Younger Tim, Christopher Glover as Dad, Chris Grahamson as Tim, Maia Hawkins as Younger April, Lauren Hendricks as Ms Dorian, Shakil Hussain as Frank, Nikita Johal as Younger Gemma, Luke Latchman as Younger Frank, Matthew Mori as Younger Steve, Phil Sealey as Steve, Callum Tempest as Barney and Poppy Tierney (Cabaret at Lido 2, Paris) as Mum. The cast is completed by Emily Barnett-Salter, Molly Cheesley, Lizzy Ives, Stefanos Petri, Martha Pothen and Blake Tuke.

Get ready to relive the playlist of your life by celebrating 40 years of the iconic and chart-topping compilations brand NOW That’s What I Call Music, which has sold an estimated 200 million copies worldwide. This fun-filled evening is bursting with hits from Blondie, Tears For Fears, Spandau Ballet, Eurythmics and so many more.

It’s Birmingham, 1989. Two school friends, Gemma and April, are busy with very important business – planning their lives based on Number One Magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley. Cut to Birmingham 2009 and it’s the most dreaded event of their lives– the school reunion. Drama, old flames and receding hairlines come together as friends reunite and everything from the past starts to slot into place. The biggest question is: what was with all that hairspray?

The creative team will include Set and Costume Design by Tom Rogers & Toots Butcher, Musical Supervision, Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements by Mark Crossland, Lighting Design by Ben Cracknell, Sound Design by Adam Fisher, Wigs & Hair Design by Sam Cox, Associate Direction by Guy Woolf, Associate Choreography by Aaron Renfree, Associate Sound Design by Ollie Durrant, Casting by Annelie Powell CDG and Production Management by Setting Line.

Get more details from the official site HERE.