Judge Turpin (Philip Quast) and Beadle Bamford (Jeff Blumenkrantz in the New York Philharmonic Sweeney Todd. Photo: David Gordon It was announced today that Philip Quast will join Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson in the upcoming production of Sweeney Todd for English National Opera playing the role of Judge Turpin. Multi Olivier-award winning Philip Quast will play Judge Turpin. His many UK musical theatre credits include Grahame Chandler in The Fix at the Donmar Warehouse, Georges Seurat in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in The Park with George and Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific both for the National Theatre, Juan Peron in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita at the Adelphi Theatre and Georges in La Cage Aux Folles for the Menier Chocolate Factory. Quast played Javert in the original Australian cast of Les Misérables as well as in the West End and can be heard as part of Les Misérables Complete Symphonic Recording and on Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert, recorded during the show’s tenth anniversary celebration at Royal Albert Hall. His concert engagements have included Sondheim’s Follies at the London Palladium, Night of 1000 Voices at the Royal Albert Hall, Hey Mr. Producer at the Lyceum Theatre, Sweeney Todd at Royal Festival Hall and Tsunami with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The New York Philharmonic’s semi-staged production of Sweeney Todd as Judge Turpin was Quast’s New York stage debut.

Further tickets were released for sale today for the production which marks the first production in a new long-term partnership between the English National Opera and the GradeLinnit Company.

With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond, Sweeney Todd received its world premiere at the Uris Theatre on Broadway in March 1979, directed by Harold Prince and starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. The show received eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, as well as eleven Drama Desk Awards and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.