Flash Bang Wallop. West End transfer for Chichester’s Half A Sixpence

The smash-hit musical Half A Sixpence is transferring to London’s Noël Coward Theatre from October 29 and taking its entire Chichester cast with it.

The Cameron Mackintosh and Chichester Festival Theatre co-production, which has had audiences and critics in raptures at Chichester this summer (read Stage Review’s five star verdict bit.ly/2auvaPb), will become the third Festival 2016 production to play in the West End this autumn.

The cast will transfer with the show, led by newcomers Charlie Stemp as Arthur Kipps and Devon-Elise Johnson as Ann Pornick – alongside Ian Bartholomew as Chitterlow and Emma Williams as Helen Walsingham.

Jonathan Church, the outgoing artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre said: “Half A Sixpence has taken Chichester by storm.

“We didn’t quite know what to expect from this relatively rarely revived British musical; but from the moment this incredible re-worked version burst onto the stage audiences went wild, with standing ovations every night.”

Half A Sixpence is the musical adaptation of H.G. Wells’s semi- autobiographical novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul.

This new stage version is a completely fresh adaptation which reunites book-writer Julian Fellowes (Oscar-winning screenwriter and creator of Downton Abbey) with George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the musical team that co-creator Cameron Mackintosh first put together to create the hit stage adaptation of Mary Poppins with Disney.

The score is inspired by and features several of composer David Heneker’s thrilling songs from the original production, including Flash Bang Wallop, Money To Burn and Half A Sixpence.

The Festival Theatre run of Half A Sixpence ends this Saturday.

Half A Sixpence is running at the Noël Coward Theatre from October 29-February 11.