From 17 June 2019 Ashley Roberts (Strictly Come Dancing 2018 finalist, The Pussycat Dolls) will be making her West End debut as Dawn in Sara Bareilles’ hit musical Waitress for a strictly limited summer season. It has also been confirmed that Lucie Jones (Rent, Les Misérables, Legally Blonde) will take over the role of Jenna from that date. Laura Baldwin will return to the role of Dawn in Waitress at the end of the summer.
Alongside Lucie Jones and Ashley Roberts as Jenna and Dawn, Waitress also stars Marisha Wallace as Becky, Peter Hannah as Earl, David Hunter as Dr. Pomatter and Shaun Prendergast as Old Joe.
The full company includes Kelly Agbowu, Piers Bate, Nicole Raquel Dennis, Michael Hamway, Peter Hannah, David Hunter, Lucie Jones, Stephen Leask, Chris McGuigan, Olivia Moore, Nathaniel Morrison, Sarah O’Connor, Leanne Pinder, Shaun Prendergast, Charlotte Riby, Ashley Roberts, Marisha Wallace and Mark Willshire.
Waitress celebrated its official opening night at the Adelphi Theatre on 7 March 2019 and the Tony- nominated musical is now booking to 19 October. Brought to life by a ground breaking, female-led creative team, Waitress features an original score by Sara Bareilles, a book by screenwriter Jessie Nelson and direction by Diane Paulus and choreography by Lorin Latarro. The production is currently touring the US and has also announced it will have its Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre.
Bios
Lucie Jones will play Jenna. Jones has played some of the most iconic roles in musical theatre, with previous theatre credits that include Cosette in Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre), Maureen Johnson in RENT (The Other Palace and national tour), Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (national tour), Holly in The Wedding Singer (national tour), Victoria in American Psycho The Musical (Almeida), Molly Jensen in Ghost: The Musical (Asian tour) and Meat in the We Will Rock You (world arena tour).
Jones was a finalist in the 2009 series of The X Factor and toured the UK on The X Factor tour in 2010. In January 2017 she won the public vote on the BBC2 show Eurovision – You Decide with her original song ‘Never Give Up On You’. She competed at the Eurovision World Final in Ukraine. Other television work includes roles in Midsomer Murders (ITV) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (BBC).
Ashley Roberts will play Dawn. Best known for being a member of one of the biggest girl groups in the world, The Pussycat Dolls, Roberts shot to fame after the release of the album ‘PCD’. During her seven years in the group they sold over 54 million records and toured the world performing to fans worldwide. Since leaving the group in 2010, she was voted runner up in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and continued her TV career as a judge on ITV’s Dancing On Ice for two seasons and on the BBC1 talent competition Let It Shine as a guest judge.
In 2017, Roberts appeared as a regular on ITV’s The Keith Lemon Sketch Show and Coming In America, in addition to hosting two seasons of 1st Look, which aired every Saturday night on NBC in the US. In 2018, she joined the cast of BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing and danced her way to the finals.
