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Telegraph
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Andrew Lloyd Webber's top 10 songs, ranked
Andrew Lloyd Webber has always been part of my life. My first encounter, aged eight, came in 1993 with the West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. My similarly smitten friend and I learnt all the songs, and on a subsequent school-trip bus ride, terrorised the rest of our class by singing the entire score from start to finish. Joseph was the ideal entry point, with its bouncy tunes and a cast featuring children, but I've since grown into Lloyd Webber's more sophisticated, elaborate and gorgeously romantic scores. I have spent thousands of hours with the composer, and I've come to appreciate that while he is indisputably the master of the earworm (Memory, fittingly, is unforgettable), that skill perhaps overshadows the complexity of his writing and the downright weirdness of some of his creative choices. My top 10 picks reflect that sheer variety, and the fascinating possibilities that Lloyd Webber's work offers for rediscovery and reinvention. 10. U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D., Starlight Express Just when you thought Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe's fantastical roller-skating train musical couldn't get any more surreal, along comes a spot-on pastiche of a country-music tearjerker – sung by a dining car. The forlorn wailing is done by Dinah, who has been ditched by her race partner Greaseball, and it's the locomotive equivalent of Tammy Wynette's similarly styled lament D.I.V.O.R.C.E. – Dinah is 'a carriage with no marriage', 'a van without a man'. It's easily the zaniest, funniest song in a show that is characterised mostly by childlike wonder. It also offers a cheering note of female empowerment, combined with a brilliantly rude climactic joke. At the performance I attended recently of Starlight's spectacular Troubadour Wembley Park revival, that distinctly adult punchline had the (grown-up) audience howling. 9. King Herod's Song, Jesus Christ Superstar Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's ambitious breakthrough show was a passion project in every sense, and it has remained a steady favourite – although it took Timothy Sheader's 2016 production at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre to really convince me of its pulse-racing rock-concert underpinnings. I have lots of favourites from JCS, including Mary Magdalene's I Don't Know How to Love Him and the fervent soul-searching by Jesus and Judas (of which more later). But I have to include another wild swing by Lloyd Webber: the sneeringly sarcastic, campily vaudevillian number sung by Herod. It's a surprising but hugely effective choice for this big-villain moment, and pairs a deceptively jaunty tune with provocative lyrics, such as 'Prove to me that you're no fool / Walk across my swimming pool'. 8. Tell Me on a Sunday, Tell Me on a Sunday Lloyd Webber can do colossal bombast, but he can also do simple, and simply devastating. This solo one-act song cycle (written with Don Black) is much more of a cabaret-style chamber piece than his usual West End juggernauts, and it's low concept, too: the story follows a British girl who travels to the US and gets her heart broken, repeatedly, by a series of awful men. Take That Look Off Your Face was the show's breakout single, but it's the tenderly crafted title number that really encapsulates the work's plaintive, wistful tone – an expression of grief for the loss of innocence. It's arguably Lloyd Webber's most relatable creation, too: haven't we all experienced the horror of an impending break-up, and wished we could make the pain just a little less searing? 7. Mr Mistoffelees, Cats Fair warning: once you hear this devilishly catchy refrain – 'Oh! Well I never, was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr Mistoffelees' – you will find yourself absent-mindedly humming it approximately every hour for the next 10 years. It's appropriate, really: this musical tribute celebrates the great conjuring cat, who can perform astonishing feats, and it's a number that really casts a spell. Part of its appeal lies in its wit and sense of mischief. Lloyd Webber matches T S Eliot's affectionate musing on the deceitful and ornery nature of moggies (Mr M's family call for him in the garden in vain while he's curled up asleep in the hall) with a playful, jazzy style. But I really love it because it's the most joyful singalong of all the Cats numbers. 6. High Flying, Adored, Evita The driven title character of Lloyd Webber and Rice's Evita has a riveting counterweight in narrator Che. He is the sceptical onlooker to the hysterical media circus surrounding Argentina's glamorous First Lady, Eva Perón, and he gives the astute political musical its necessary bite. This Act II number, in particular, is a perfectly incisive takedown of overhyped celebrity that often comes into my mind. Eva has risen from poverty to power – but at what cost? Did she achieve fame too young? And will the fickle public sour? The contemptuous commentary is somehow more needling when set to lovely lilting music that befits the Peróns' inaugural ball: Che is the ghost at the feast. It's a construction so fiendish, it could rival Stephen Sondheim. 5. Memory, Cats Lloyd Webber was concerned that his mega-hit-in-waiting was too reminiscent of Puccini, so he played it for his classical composer father and asked him what it sounded like. His dad gave the now-legendary reply: 'It sounds like a million dollars!' Add in angsty, existential lyrics cleverly filleted from Eliot's poems by the director Trevor Nunn, and Cats' breakout anthem was born – a moment of raw, thunderous emotion in this whimsical show. The genius of the number is its dramatic build. With each verse and, crucially, each progressive key change, it grows from quiet sorrow to a howl of anguish that blows your hair back. While the song's rather fatiguing ubiquity keeps it off my top spot, I will always remember, and treasure, my spine-tingling first experience of it in the theatre. 4. Superstar, Jesus Christ Superstar How do you turn biblical legends into living, breathing, flawed characters? Key to the remarkable success of JCS is the melding of the epic and awe-inspiring in Lloyd Webber's score with propulsive genres like rock and pop: music that makes Jesus and Judas instantly understandable, and which parallels their warring ideas about faith, change and ideology with a contemporary social and cultural revolution. My favourite example is the almighty title number, led by the spirit of Judas (who has died by suicide at this point). It mashes up several styles: the angelic choir articulating the holy trinity of lyrics, 'Je-sus Christ / Su-per star', the funky riffs and Judas's desperate, frenzied questioning ahead of the crucifixion. The haunting catchiness lodges his doubts in our heads, too: 'Who are you? What have you sacrificed?' 3. Sunset Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard The lush grandeur of Sunset's big ballads, mainly sung by the faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond, always impressed me. However, it wasn't until I saw Jamie Lloyd's revelatory West End revival in 2023 that I was fully gripped by the musical's transposition of Billy Wilder's savage Hollywood satire. The diva might be the 'greatest star', but the screenwriter Joe Gillis actually gets the signature number. That was emphasised by Lloyd's audacious staging of the sardonic title track, which saw the actor Tom Francis (followed by cameras) saunter backstage and out into the street, ripping away the comforting artifice in the process. It made Lloyd Webber's ominous music all the more formidable, and lent extra heft to the bleak cynicism of Joe's transactional words: 'She was sinking fast, I threw a rope / Now I have suits, and she has hope.' Soul-destroying. 2. All I Ask of You, The Phantom of the Opera From the darkest Lloyd Webber number to the loveliest. Phantom is by far his most ravishing score: yes, it has crashing organ riffs and synths, putting a bombastic 1980s spin on gothic melodrama, but it's packed with wrenching emotion – the yearning, envy, desire, loneliness and bliss. It also builds in moments of pure sweetness amidst the Grand Guignol plotting. One of those is the exquisite duet between budding soprano Christine (the Phantom's pupil) and the other point of their love triangle, her childhood friend-turned-eligible suitor Raoul. In contrast to the Phantom's dangerously obsessive ardour, Raoul offers her partnership, safety and devotion – and she matches his sincerity perfectly in this soaring ballad. The two become one in the music, and so we long for them to match that unity in their romance. 1. Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Evita Like Tom Francis, Rachel Zegler, star of the current West End Evita, is ruffling feathers by exiting the theatre mid-show: she takes to the London Palladium balcony to sing the big number to passers-by. Pure stunt, or another purposeful creative decision by director Lloyd to highlight the work's subversive power? After all, Don't Cry For Me Argentina is simultaneously Lloyd Webber's greatest ballad and his most fascinatingly complex. It might seem earnest and sentimental, but it's actually a cunning piece of populist political oratory, bolstered by the stirring score. 'All you have to do is look at me to know / That every word is true' is the triumphant closer: Eva writing her own story, her own truth, and selling the hell out of it. For me, that sophisticated combination of form and meaning is Lloyd Webber at his absolute best.


Edinburgh Reporter
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Liam Rudden's Must See Theatre this month
The calm before the storm that is the Edinburgh Festivals may leave Edinburgh stages bare but a London theatre break promises something special this month. As Edinburgh theatres fall into their usual pre-Fringe slumber this month, there's only one big touring production heading to town in July and that is Dear Evan Hansen at The Playhouse (1-5 July). The Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical is packed with some of the biggest musical theatre songs of the last decade. All his life, Evan Hansen has felt invisible. But when a tragic event shocks the community and thrusts him into the centre of a rapidly evolving controversy, he is given the opportunity of a lifetime – the chance to be somebody else. With a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the Oscar-winning composers for The Greatest Showman, book by Steven Levenson and direction by Adam Penford, the Artistic Director at Nottingham Playhouse, this brand-new production marks the first time the Broadway and West End phenomenon has toured the UK. It stars Scottish musical theatre star Ryan Kopel in the title role, with Sonny Monaghan appearing as Alternative Evan at matinee performances. I caught up with both Ryan and Sonny as they prepared to take Dear Evan Hansen on the road, you can meet them here. Running time 2 hours 40 minutes including interval, tickets here. With a dearth of shows in the Capital, you could do worse than planning a theatre break this month, and if that means a trip to London, get in early as there's still time to catch the final week of London Theatre Direct's Big Summer Theatre. Now in its second year, the event, which runs until Monday 7 July (keep your eyes peeled though as it was extended by a further week last year), allows you to choose from more than 40 musicals and plays, including The Devil Wears Prada, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Back to the Future the Musical, Clueless the Musical, Matilda the Musical, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and save up to 50% off, with tickets from just £15. This year, however, don't just see the on stage magic, experience it with a series of exclusive photo experiences. Now you can step onto the stage after seeing Hadestown, Titanique, Starlight Express, Fiddler on the Roof and The Great Gatsby, to pose for a professional photo moment – have your photo taken on stage after seeing Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre, snap a pic with a Titanique cast member on the Criterion Theatre stage, toast your West End debut with a complimentary drink and photo op at Fiddler on the Roof, feel like a winner when you race onto the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre stage for a Starlight Express photo op – no skates required, but a complimentary drink is a must – or join the roaring 20's party with an old sport from the The Great Gatsby cast, as you pose on stage with them at the London Coliseum. Ready to make your summer unforgettable? Explore all participating shows and secure your seat at the hottest event of the season here. Back in Edinburgh, there's a chance for little ones to get their introduction to theatre at The Playhouse when, for one day only, The Dinosaur That Pooped – A Rock Show (24 July) comes to the Greenside Place venue for two performances at 1.30pm and 4.30pm. When Danny and Dino's favourite rock band are playing their last ever concert, they go on a quest to get the last two tickets. But with a villainous band manager lurking, nothing goes to plan. Will the band perform? Will Danny rock out? Or will Dino's rumbling tummy save the day? Adapted from the No1 best-selling books by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter, the whole family will have a poopy good time enjoying a brand, new story for the stage. Featuring new songs by the McFly favourites Fletcher and Pointer, a lot of laughs and a whole lot of poo. Running time 1 hour with no interval. Tickets here. Now if ever a venue was made to host a production of the work of Transporting author Irvine Welsh, it surely has to be the old Leith Town Hall Theatre, now better known as Leith Theatre, and that's exactly what the venue is set to do when it brings Porno (18 & 19 July), to 28 Ferry Road. Adapted by Davie Carswell from Welsh's novel of the same name, the stage production of Porno started life as 50 minute one-act play at The Pleasance as part of the 2022 Fringe, however, it's the full-length version that comes to Leith Theatre, one that has already sold out runs at the Liverpool Olympia, Crewe Lyceum, Manchester Waterside as well as a seven week season at the Art's Theatre in London's West End. Porno, the follow up novel to Trainspotting, reveals what has become of Renton, Sickboy, Spud and Begbie some 15 years on from their original exploits. It goes without saying, sure that swearing, drug use and language of a sexual nature are the order of the day, which makes the 13+ advisory seem quite liberal. Running time 2 Hours including interval. Tickets here Next month, of course, we'll be spoiled for choice as the Festival and Fringe comes around once again. The Edinburgh Reporter will once again exclusive carry my Fringe Hot Ticket hit lists, in the meantime you can keep up to date with the shows coming to Edinburgh in August that are catching my eye by visiting And please do keep an eye out for the three shows I'm directing. If you like a supernatural tale or two, Fallen Angel, my new one-man play, and The Omega Factor: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs, by Natasha Gerson and myself, might be right up your street. If it's comedy you're looking for, check out Hingin' Oan Fir Googsie, by John McColl, starring River City's Jimmy Chisholm, will definitely be worth a look. Tickets here. Until August, happy theatre going, Liam Like this: Like Related


The Sun
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Save up to £73 on Starlight Express tickets with Sun Club
FOR a limited time only Sun Club members can enjoy an exclusive deal on tickets to see the world-renowned Starlight Express and save up to £73, thanks to London Theatre Direct. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express is now playing in the specially designed Starlight Auditorium at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. Audiences will be immersed inside a world of speed, song and storytelling as an incredible cast of 40 whizz around and above, performing some of musical theatre's most beloved songs, including AC/DC, Make Up My Heart, Light at the End of the Tunnel and the iconic Starlight Express. As a child's train set magically comes to life and the engines race to become the fastest in the world, Rusty the steam train has little hope of winning until he is inspired by the legend of the 'Starlight Express'. Seen around the world by over 20 million people, Starlight Express is an electrifying experience for all ages. 2 Save up to £73 on selected dates in June and July and tickets start as low as just £26. Click 'Book' and look for the dates marked with stars to check out our exclusive sale prices. How to book free tickets with Sun Club Sun Club Membership Programme Step 1: To book your Starlight Express tickets join Sun Club now for just £1.99 a month for your first year. Following this, £4.99 a month. Or £12 for an annual subscription for the first 12 months, then £49.99 a year thereafter. Step 2: Then head to the Offers Hub, select the Starlight Express tile, click 'Book' and you will be taken to The Sun & London Theatre Direct website. Step 3: Look for the dates marked with stars to check out our exclusive sale prices. Prices show the exclusive Sun Club member savings. Step 4: Enter your details in the checkout and pay. You will then receive an email with your tickets. London Theatre Direct is one of the UK's leading theatre ticket agencies, specialising in West End theatre tickets. Sourced directly from the theatre box offices London Theatre Direct offers discounted theatre tickets across all West End shows, as well as the best available tickets for each venue. Offer is open to UK residents aged 18+ only. Offer ends at 23:59pm on Friday, June 13, 2025. Full T&Cs apply, see below.


The Guardian
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘What would a kid do in this situation?' Engineering Starlight Express's dazzling return
Howard Hudson (lighting designer): I saw the original production many times. The scale and feel of it were unlike anything else. Complete escapism. I used to skate around the living room singing the songs. Andrzej Goulding (video designer and animator): It's such a part of popular culture – Starlight Express is even referenced on Family Guy. But I didn't know a huge amount about the musical aside from the fact that it was on roller-skates and it was trains. Tim Hatley (set designer): I was studying at Central Saint Martins in the 80s and went to see Starlight because its designer, John Napier, was coming in to do a project with us. We'd been doing Shakespeare but this was almost like a fairground ride. I mean, they high-fived the audience – some of whom had seen the show 50 times. Gabriella Slade (costume designer): People who saw Starlight when they were kids are now bringing their own families. In our audience you can be up close with some of these characters and costumes. That's quite rare. Tim Hatley: For those who saw it the first time round, we wanted to give it a different spin. With a flexible space like this, the world is your oyster. Do it in the round? Have it like a tennis court? We had lots of thoughts and lots of models. Everybody's waiting on me to come up with the concept. Lighting, video, even skating and choreography – they can't get on with their work until they know where the slopes are and how steep they are and where the video wall is. Gabriella Slade: The original Starlight is probably one of the most iconic shows of all time. From a design point of view, it's just heaven. On a revival it's important, I think, to reference what has been before to a degree – we wanted to continue that spirit but also, 40 years on, shape it for a new generation. Tim Hatley: We didn't want to just copy what John had done before. And we didn't want to be stuck with real trains running through tunnels and over bridges. Gabriella Slade: The brief is really tricky! In our early conversations, we talked about the core components of a train and how to present those in a costume for performers who need to be able to move as easily as possible and to fall safely. There was a lot of aerodynamic chat! Andrzej Goulding: As soon as we landed on the idea of train tracks through space, where we're sat as an audience became the race planet. There are other planets out there, like Electra's and Greaseball's. There's no direction of that in the script. It's completely left up to the team. References can come from anywhere but there's that amazing 80s advert for Milky Way with the red car and the blue car where they're kind of floating through the air. It's that kind of world. Tim Hatley: With video gaming, what kids are used to now is very different to playing with the old Hornby train sets. Andrzej Goulding: I had a train set as a kid, one of those little wooden ones. You pretend they're anything. Starlight was like mixing Mario Kart with trains and setting it in space. The reason you can go over the top is it's the point of view of a child. Having the kid, Control, on stage is a bit of a masterstroke – you can do even more because they're directing what happens. We'd often ask: What would a kid do in this situation? Gabriella Slade: We're in a child's bedroom – Control's outfit had to look like it had been made at home or bought, or a hybrid of the two. The jumpsuit vibe felt right – a bit cosmic. Howard Hudson: We had to keep the childlike essence of the piece – this is a child's imagination – while using such ultra-modern technology. So there are moments that are incredibly simple, like a single star flying in. Tim Hatley: There were three separate designs: auditorium, front of house and the show. As a theatre designer, you're not usually governing where the audience are going to sit – or worried about where they are going to be coming in and out. With this, it was a priority. Gabriella Slade: First off, you read the script, listen to the music and collate research images. From there, you form sketches or initial shapes and start to think about fabrics. Then you go into much more fully rendered concept sketches integrating the fabrics. That, of course, is costed and there's a process of research and development. We had a skate school for a number of weeks so were able to access our company quite early on for fittings. Some of the shapes are not form-fitting, so we needed to make sure they would be all right going around corners in the auditorium. Tim Hatley: I'm very old fashioned. I work with model boxes. We had an enormous one for this because there were so many collaborators who weren't necessarily in the world of theatre, but also because it was a space that didn't really exist yet. So people needed to understand the auditorium. Howard Hudson: The skaters had to get used to having mega bright lights in their eyes as they try to navigate these routes around the space. There are more than 600 moving lights in the show, which has probably one of the biggest rigs for a musical. For the Starlight sequence in act two we have 250 of these star units that fly above the audience – each has got six LEDs on it. Then there's however many kilometres of LED tape. Tim Hatley: We've got LED set into the floor and the skaters go over that. It's not like using the old tungsten lights which got very hot, but it does warm up, which causes the plastic on top to expand. So there was a lot of development. I was able to give Howard places to put lights where you normally wouldn't have them, like coming up through the floor. It became clear to me that it needed a rock concert feel. The songs were rearranged to have a more contemporary, poppy sound too. Howard Hudson: Early on, we built a pre-visualisation studio with huge screens and had a 3D version of the set on a computer. Andrzej was able to feed his content into that and we had the whole rig there. So we would watch actors rehearse a number then go into our studio and work out how to light it. Andrzej Goulding: Lighting and video are closely intertwined because there's only so many photons you can throw on stage. Howard and I have worked together several times. The Starlight rehearsal room had a full set and the two of us sat there tracking the race, drawing a map of what goes where. The hardest thing in theatre, compared with film, is that an audience can look anywhere. Our job is to pull the attention of the observer. We used a live camera in the races to help follow the characters. And we used a leaderboard. It took us a long time just to sculpt the journey of those races. Tim Hatley: For the ramps, we talked to skaters who had been in the show before. How do we get that amount of speed up in that amount of space? Those were technical problems which were all new to me. We collaborated with a company that builds skate ramps and parks. It's a timber surface – we've used some metallic paints in there too, to pick up the video. We've got moving scenery but where those joins are the surfaces have to be perfect and seamless. You can't have any little gaps that might get worse during the run. Andrzej Goulding: Video design should only be there if it's serving the story. If you're just doing something for the sake of looking fun, it weirdly makes things slower. There's also only so much spectacle you can do. A show is all about peaks and troughs, following the storytelling. If you're peaking the entire time, it's boring. Howard Hudson: Luke [Sheppard, the show's director] has the most technical mind. I'm convinced he could be a lighting designer if he wanted to. We've collaborated for years and have developed a kind of shorthand – we started out at the Finborough and now work on these massive commercial musicals together. Set designers build models and costume designers do drawings whereas lighting is so visceral. You need to see the lights in the space, so we're always the last people to come in. And we're doing our job in front of 150 people in the theatre. So it's a bit nervy. Gabriella Slade: It was important to make sure that each group of characters had a visual identity: carriages, trucks, steam engines, electric trains. They needed to feel cohesive when put together but have differentiations as well. Campbell Young and Helen Keane were our wigs and hair designers and Jackie Saundercock was our makeup designer. We had a brilliant collaborative relationship. The integration of the hair and makeup feels like one unit, which is always the aim. Each character has their own iconography, too. The designs need to be bold enough for you to identify who's who and where they are in the races. Howard Hudson: For Electra's song AC/DC we wanted laser units to give a quality of light you don't get from normal fixtures. We went down to a laser company and spent a day experimenting with the looks we could get. It almost comes out of nowhere in the show and adds another layer of spectacle you don't get out of a traditional lighting unit. Gabriella Slade: The backpacks have handles, which are important for racing together. For me, the backpacks suggest a power bank or a battery – and they light up so actually have their own batteries! It's all an extension of the actual costume. Greaseball's spark gun creates another really lovely extension of the image. It's got the same yellow and black scheme and that moment really fits the energy of her song. Howard Hudson: We couldn't use traditional manual followspots because people are moving so quickly. So we use an automated system called Zactrack. Performers wear tags that send tracking data to the lighting desk, and we're able to tell the lights which person to follow around the space. Andrzej Goulding: Video is slow. Every time we want to do something, it's got to be rendered. We've got all these multiple layers. You've got to put in a lot of hours. I'll sit up until three in the morning if I'm not happy with one little thing. I just want to make sure it's right. The scale of it was enormous. I tend to work on my own but got the biggest team I've ever had on a show. If you surround yourself with the right people it's fun to do. And super satisfying when everything's working in synergy. Howard Hudson: Whenever I go in and see it again, I think: Crikey, how on earth did we achieve that? Tim Hatley: There's not a bad seat in the house, and they're all very different. I don't think I've designed a show where that has been the case so much. Sitting in what we call the side tracks, looking down, you're very close. If you're at the back, you get the whole overview and a real sense of the video. Gabriella Slade: Some fans come in costume. It's so lovely to have people recreate the designs. I'm never not amazed that they want to spend the time to do that. Andrzej Goulding: The craziest thing was going on to do a 'normal' show afterwards – one without people on roller skates! You're wondering why everyone's moving around the stage so slowly. Starlight Express is booking at Troubadour Wembley Park theatre, London, until March 2026
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
JK Rowling says she ‘couldn't be happier' about Harry Potter casting announcement
JK Rowling has said she 'couldn't be happier' about the casting of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in the HBO adaptation of her beloved book series. It was announced on Tuesday (27 May) that after auditioning 30,000 young actors, Dominic McLaughlin, 11, will play Harry, Arabella Stanton, 11, will portray Hermione, and Alastair Stout, 12, has been cast as Ron. The three newcomers will step into the roles made famous by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, who played the lead characters in eight blockbuster films. Rowling, 59, who will serve as an executive producer on the series, said on X/Twitter on Tuesday: 'All three are wonderful. I couldn't be happier.' McLaughlin, from Scotland, has received training at Performance Academy Scotland and has experience acting in William Shakespeare's Macbeth opposite Luther actor Indira Varma and Ralph Fiennes. On screen, he appears in Sky's forthcoming comedy film Grow, and the BBC adaptation of Marilyn Kaye novel Gifted. Stanton, who will play Granger, has performed in the West End musical Matilda, as well as playing Control in the 2024 revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express. Meanwhile, Stout, from the north of England, has received attention for his uncanny likeness to Grint. He previously starred in an advert for Albert Bartlett's Jersey Royal potatoes. The announcement follows months of sporadic casting announcements for the show's supporting characters, including Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, a part played by Alan Rickman in the films. John Lithgow will star in the series as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore and Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall. Additionally, Luke Thallon will play Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse will take on the role of caretaker Argus Filch. Rowling's involvement in the series has drawn controversy from some fans of the franchise for her outspoken and repeated criticisms of trans rights, which led to a rift with the films' three original stars, who have distanced themselves from Rowling in recent years. Rowling has denied being transphobic, but has previously stated that she would 'happily' go to prison for misgendering a trans person rather than refer to them by their preferred pronouns. The author's expansive Harry Potter world – including the books, films, video games and theatre shows – is worth an estimated £20bn ($25bn). The HBO series is expected to debut in 2026, almost 30 years after the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (also known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), which was published in 1997. The series is expected to run for a decade, with each season based on one of the seven Rowling books, and is expected to be a 'faithful' adaptation of the bestselling books. In a statement unveiling the new cast members, showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod said: 'After an extraordinary search led by casting directors Lucy Bevan and Emily Brockmann, we are delighted to announce we have found our Harry, Hermione, and Ron. 'The talent of these three unique actors is wonderful to behold, and we cannot wait for the world to witness their magic together onscreen. We would like to thank all the tens of thousands of children who auditioned. It's been a real pleasure to discover the plethora of young talent out there.'