Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton to Star in Sweeney Todd; West End Transfer Expected

Michael Ball is bound for the murderous title role in Sweeney Todd. The production, which has also tapped Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Lovett, is set to open at the Chichester Festival Theatre in summer 2011, according to The Daily Mail. The revival of the 1979 Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical, which is expected to transfer to the West End, will be directed by Jonathan Kent.

Sweeney Todd follows a wronged barber who takes to slitting throats while seeking revenge on the corrupt judge who destroyed his life and family. The show was most recently revived on Broadway in 2005. The production, directed by John Doyle, starred Michael Cerveris as the title character and Patti LuPone as his pie-making accomplice, Mrs. Lovett.

Ball has appeared on Broadway in The Woman in White and Aspects of Love. His many West End credits include Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Passion, The Woman in White and Hairspray, for which he won an Olivier Award. He is currently on the road with Hairspray, touring the U.K. as Edna Turnblad.

Staunton is best known for her diverse film and television roles, including Vera Drake (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), Nanny McPhee, Freedom Writers, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Taking Woodstock and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She won Olivier Awards for her West End turns in A Chorus of Disapproval, The Corn is Green and Into the Woods and was nominated in 1996 for her performance as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls.