Grease posts closing notices for 30 April 2011 at Piccadilly

Grease, has posted closing notices for 30 April 2011, at the Piccadilly Theatre. (It was booking to 3 Sep 2011).

Following the West End run the show and will immediately begin a national tour opening at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 6 May 2011. Full tour schedule and casting will be announced. Producer David Ian says: "This has been the 4th London run in seventeen years for this amazing production and the longest ever running show at The Piccadilly Theatre. Now we're taking everyone's favourite show right across the UK on its greatest tour ever - Grease is indeed the word!!"

Cast changes have also been announced: Matthew Goodgame, who is currently playing the role of 'Kenicke', will take over the role of 'Danny', from Noel Sullivan on 27 Sep 2010. At the same time Jamie Capewell will takes over the role 'Kenicke', and Giovanni Spano will take over the role of 'Doody'. The show continues to feature Lauren Samuels (Sandy - to 22 Jan 2011), Siubhan Harrison (Rizzo), Lucas Rush (Roger), Hayley Gallivan (Jan), Michael Vinsen (Eugene), Susannah Allman (Patty), Kerry Winter (Miss Lynch), Stephanie Powell (Cha Cha), Faye Brookes (Frenchy), Bennett Andrews (Sonny), Robyn Mellor (Marty).

Grease opened at the Piccadilly Theatre on 8 Aug 2007, following previews from 25 July 2007. Grease is now the longest running show at the Piccadilly Theatre, having reached this point on 20 June 2009 (after 800 performances). It has now played over 1,300 performances and has been seen by over 1¼million theatregoers at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Grease is written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, with additional songs B Gibb, J Farrar, L St Louis & S Simon. It is directed by David Gilmore, choreography by Arlene Phillips, and produced by Paul Nicholas and David Ian by arrangement with Robert Stigwood.

Songs from the show include 'Grease (Is The Word)'; 'You're The One That I Want'; 'Greased Lightning'; 'Hopelessly Devoted To You' and 'Sandy'.

This production originally opened in the West End in 1993 (co-produced with Robert Stigwood) at the Dominion Theatre, before transferring to the Cambridge Theatre in Oct 1996 to Sep 1999. The show then continued to tour the UK and briefly returned to the Dominion Theatre for a few weeks in Oct 2001, and then had a year run at the Victoria Palace from Sep 2002. Grease finally returned to the West End in July 2007 at the Piccadilly Theatre.