Give It to Me, Baby! Charl Brown to Reprise Tony Nominated Performance in London's Motown The Musical

Hail to the beat! Charl Brown will reprise his Tony nominated performance of Smokey Robinson in the West End production of Motown The Musical. Sifiso Mazibuko (The Tempest) has also boarded the cast and is set to play Marvin Gaye. They join the previously announced Cedric Neal as Berry Gordy and Lucy St. Louis as Diana Ross in the tuner, which will begin previews on February 11, 2016 and officially open on March 8 at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright and featuring a book by Motown founder Berry Gordy, Motown The Musical's score includes over 50 beloved hits from the Motown catalogue. The show tells the story of Gordy’s rise from small-town dreamer to big-time record mogul. Along the way, he discovers a slew of musical talent including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and the legendary Diana Ross, with whom he sparks a romance.

The cast will also include Keisha Amponsa Banson as Mary Wells, Cindy Belliot as Anna Gordy, Samuel Edwards as Jackie Wilson, Portia Harry as Teena Marie, Aisha Jawando as Martha Reeves, Joshua Liburd as Eddie Kendricks, Simeon Montague as Jermaine Jackson, Cleopatra Rey as Gladys Knight, Brandon Lee Sears as Tito Jackson, Jordan Shaw as Stevie Wonder, Cherelle Williams as Mary Wilson, along with Eshan Gopal, Kwame Kandekore, Joshua Tikare as Young Michael Jackson. Also enlisted for the company are Daniel Bailey, Edward Baruwa, Tanya Nicole Edwards, Eddie Elliott, Christopher Fry, Alex Hammond, Edward Handoll, Simon Ray Harvey, Elias Hendricks, Brian James Leys, Jayde Nelson, Simone Mistry Palmer, Carl Spencer and Marcel J Whyte.  Final casting will be announced shortly.

The Broadway production played its final performance on January 18 at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre to make way for Finding Neverland. Motown will return to the Great White Way's Nederlander Theatre in July 2016.