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Chelsea Halfpenny to takeover from Lucie Jones on Waitress tour from January

Chelsea Halfpenny is to join the UK tour cast of Waitress from January.

Fresh from a run in London’s West End, Waitress is currently on the road for its first UK tour.

Today it’s been announced that Chelsea Halfpenny will takeover the lead role of Jenna from 10 January 2022 from Lucie Jones who is leaving for a soon to be announced new project.

Chelsea will join Sandra Marvin as Becky, Evelyn Hoskins as Dawn and Busted’s Matt Willis as Dr Pomatter on the tour cast alongside George Crawford as Ogie, Michael Starke as Old Joe Tamlyn Henderson as Earl and Christopher D. Hunt as Cal.

The company is completed by Monique Ashe-Palmer, Amelia Atherton, Donal Brennan, Aimée Fisher, Scarlet Gabriel, Nathanael Landskroner, Charlie Martin, Liam McHugh, Olivia Mitchell, Ben Morris and Brian Roland.

Sandra Marvin and Evelyn Hoskins are currently scheduled to play dates up until 12 February while Matt Willis is scheduled to appear until 5 February.

> Waitress UK tour tickets, dates and venues for 2021 and 2022.

Based on the film of the same name, Waitress tells the story of Jenna a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage.

The musical features a Tony and Grammy nominated score by Sara Bareilles, a book by Jessie Nelson and direction by Diane Paulus.

The tour’s next step is Eastbourne (19 – 23 October) before heading to Sunderland, Manchester, Aberdeen and Stoke this year. 2022 dates begin in Northampton before visiting Edinburgh, Leicester, Hull, Bristol, Bromley, Belfast, Newcastle, Plymouth, Llandudno, Inverness, Glasgow, Oxford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Southampton, Cardiff, Dublin, Wolverhampton, Dartford, Brighton, Nottingham, Bradford, Canterbury, Southend and Norwich.

Photo credit: Johan Persson

About the author: Josh Darvill

Josh is Stageberry's editor with over five years of experience writing about theatre in the West End and across the UK. Prior to following his passion for musicals, he worked for more than a decade as a TV journalist.