Broadway’s Felicia Boswell To Make Her West End Debut ,Taking Over From Beverley Knight in West End Hit Musical ,’The Drifters Girl’
27.05.2022 - 15:05
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Broadway’s Felicia Boswell (’Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert’) will be making her West End debut this July when she takes over from Beverley Knight (Bodyguard Musical), the chart-topping Queen of British Soul, in the enormously enjoyable hit show ‘The Drifters Girl’ which has been running at The Garrick Theatre since last November.
Knight departs The Drifters Girl on July 2, Boswell joins the production three days later on July 5 to portray Faye Treadwell, the pioneering manager who took over control of the legendary soul quartet The Drifters after the death of the group’s manager ,her husband George Treadwell in 1967.
Boswell will perform with a quartet of local stars, Tosh Wanogho-Maud (Dreamgirls) ;Adam J.Bernard who won an Olivier Award for his James ‘Thunder’ Early in Dreamgirls , Tarinn Callender (Hamilton) and Matt Henry winner of a best musical actor Olivier Award for his performance in Kinky Boots .They portray a multitude of roles including the ever changing lineup of artists who performed as The Drifters.
Michael Harrison, founder and chief executive of Michael Harrison Entertainment, charged Tara Rubin,the Broadway casting director, with finding him an artist to replace Knight who’d decided to leave the show to star in a forthcoming London revival of musical Sister Act.
Harrison told Deadline ”Finding somebody who can vocally deliver and have the calibre of a Beverley Knight ,though there’s only one Beverley Knight! , was difficult.There wasn’t anyone here so we asked Tara Rubin to help us.”
Harrison told us that Jonathan Church ,director of The Drifters Girl , had seen Boswell when she portrayed Diana Ross in Motown Musical on Broadway. “When Tara mentioned Felicia’s name we jumped at the