Funny Girl Breakout Star Natasha J Barnes to Lead Cinderella at London Palladium

It’s not Britney, b***h! After rumors that Britney Spears would take on the title role in the holiday production of Cinderella at the London Palladium, it’s been announced that Natasha J Barnes is the one who will actually step into the glass slippers. Suzie Chard and Wendy Sommerville are set to play The Wicked Stepsisters and complete the casting for the pantomime, which is scheduled to play a limited engagement December 10 through January 15, officially opening on December 14.

Barnes is currently understudying and performing (quite a bit) the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Savoy Theatre, which previously opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Chard’s more recent theater credits include Soho Cinders for Soho Theatre. Sommerville’s West End appearances include Billy Elliot The Musical.

Directed by Michael Harrison and co-directed and choreographed by Andrew Wright, Cinderella, the most enchanting rags-to-riches fairy tale of them all, will grace the stage of the West End’s most famous theater this Christmas as pantomime returns to the London Palladium for the first time in nearly three decades.

The trio join the previously announced Paul O’Grady as The Wicked Stepmother, Julian Clary as Dandini, Amanda Holden as The Fairy Godmother, Lee Mead as Prince Charming, Paul Zerdin as Buttons, Nigel Havers as Lord Chamberlain and Count Arthur Strong as Baron Hardup.