Former Coronation Street actor Bill Ward is to star in new musical Million Dollar Quartet when it opens at the Noël Coward theatre on 8 February.
Ward, who starred as love-rat Charlie Stubbs in the soap from 2003 to 2007, will play music producer Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records and the man who brought together Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis – the Million Dollar Quartet – for a now-legendary jam session in 1956.
Prior to his time in Coronation Street, Ward’s career included stage outings for Manchester Royal Exchange and Northern Stage. Since leaving the soap he has appeared as Sir Lancelot in Monty Python’s Spamalot in the West End, while he also has screen credits including Robin Hood and Cold Blood.
A story of fame, friendship, divided loyalties and professional jealousy, Million Dollar Quartet is inspired by actual events in 1956 when four of the music industry’s major talents made music together for the first and only time. The show features many of the songs made famous by the quartet, including Perkins’s Blue Suede Shoes, Cash’s I Walk The Line, Presley’s Hound Dog and Lewis’s Great Balls Of Fire.
Casting for the four principal roles has not yet been announced, but will be the result of a UK-wide casting search which took place in September.
Currently playing at the Noël Coward theatre is Deathtrap, which ends its run on 22 January.
CB