The Stage

Marilyn Monroe dance musical to play at Apollo

Published Wednesday 4 February 2009 at 15:40 by Lalayn Baluch

Marilyn Monroe is to be celebrated in a new dance musical by Olivier Award-winning choreographer Peter Schaufuss.

Marilyn will play for a limited season of 11 performances at the Apollo Theatre from June 3-13.

Zara Deakin - who trained at the Royal Ballet and danced with the English National Ballet and Deutsche Oper Berlin, before joining the Peter Schaufuss Company - will play the title role.

Deakin previously starred in two other Schaufuss productions in the West End. In 2008 she played Marlene Dietrich in Divas and as Diana in 2002 show Diana - The Princess.

Schaufuss was an international ballet dancer in the seventies and eighties. He was named artistic director of the London Festival Ballet, now the ENB, in 1984, and became artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet in 1994. Three years later he formed his own company.

His most recent West End productions were Divas and Satisfaction in 2007, based on the music of the Rolling Stones.