Ramin Karimloo to Star in U.K. Concert Premiere of Doctor Zhivago

The 2015 Broadway musical Doctor Zhivago is headed across the pond. Tony nominee Ramin Karimloo has signed on to headline the musical's U.K. debut staging, a concert presentation set to play London's Cadogan Hall on September 1 at 2:00pm and 6:30pm. Karimloo will take on the lead role of Yurii Andreyevich Zhivago alongside Celinde Schoenmaker (The Light in the Piazza) as Lara Guishar.

Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak and featuring a book by Oscar nominee Michael Weller (Ragtime), music by Tony nominee Lucy Simon (The Secret Garden) and lyrics by Tony nominee Michael Korie (War Paint) and Emmy nominee Amy Powers (Austin & Ally), Doctor Zhivago centers on Yurii Andreyevich Zhivago (Karimloo), a political idealist, physician and poet whose life is tossed by the tides of history as he is torn between a life with his close childhood friend and wife, and the passionate and mysterious Lara Guishar (Schoenmaker). Zhivago, however, is not alone in his yearnings for Lara, and must compete with both revolutionaries and aristocracy alike to win the heart of the woman he cannot live without.

Most recently seen on Broadway in Anastasia, Karimloo earned a Tony nomination and a Theatre World Award for his turn as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables. He also appeared in the pre-Broadway staging of Prince of Broadway and an acclaimed concert production of Chess at The Kennedy Center. Among Karimloo's London stage credits is an Olivier-nominated performance in Love Never Dies.

Additional casting for the Doctor Zhivago concert production will be announced at a later date.