John Owen-Jones joins Sweeney Todd at Coliseum

John Owen-Jones has been cast as 'Pirelli' in the English National Opera and The Gradelinnit Company production of a semi-staged version of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street which will run at the London Coliseum for 13 performances between 30 March and 12 April 2015.

Owen-Jones will join previously announced Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and British actress Emma Thompson in the lead roles of Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett, who recently starred in a concert production of the musical at the Lincoln Center in New York City, alongside Philip Quast who stars as 'Judge Turpin'.

Further casting for the production is still to be announced.

John Owen-Jones is a Welsh musical theatre actor and singer best known for roles in 'Les Misérables' and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of the Opera'. He most recently appeared as Valjean on the 25th Anniversary Tour of 'Les Misérables' as well as playing the role on Broadway. He toured the UK again as The Phantom in 'The Phantom Of The Opera' as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be directed by Lonny Price and feature The ENO orchestra, conducted by David Charles Abell, with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.

The musical features a score by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond. It received its world premiere at the Uris Theatre on Broadway in March 1979, directed by Harold Prince, starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. The show received eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

Set in Victorian London, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street tells the story of the eponymous barber who seeks vengeance on what he sees as a merciless world by murdering his customers and, with the help of his landlady, the romantically inclined Mrs. Lovett, bakes their bodies into meat pies, which are fed to London's avid and unknowing populace.