Funny Girl starring Sheridan Smith at the Menier

The Menier Chocolate Factory will revive the 1964 Jule Styne and Bob Merrill musical Funny Girl, starring Olivier Award-winner Sheridan Smith as 'Fanny Brice' at their south London venue from 20 November to 5 March 2015.

The production will mark the first London production since the 1966 original which ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre starring Barbra Streisand. It will be directed by Michael Mayer, with set design by Michael Pavelka, choreography by Lynne Page, lighting design by Mark Henderson and sound design by Richard Brooker.

The iconic musical charts the life of Fanny Brice, who rose from the Lower East Side of New York to become one of Broadway's biggest stars under producer Florenz Ziegfield. While she was cheered onstage as a great comedienne, offstage she faced a doomed relationship with the man she loved. Jule Styne's score features the classic songs "People", "You Are Woman, I Am Man" and "Don't Rain on My Parade".

Since opening on Broadway in 1964, the show has become synonymous with the original star Barbra Striesand who reprised the lead role in the successful film version, for which she shared the Oscar Award for Best Actress.

Sheridan Smith was recently awarded the OBE for services to Drama. Her stage credits include 'Bugsy Malone' with the National Youth Theatre, 'Into the Woods' at the Donmar Warehouse, the original London production of 'Legally Blonde', for which she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and 'Flare Path' which earned her a second Olivier nomination. She has previously starred at the Menier in 'Little Shop of Horrors'.

Tickets for the production have now sold out.