Wayne Sleep

Yeah

... uh, feet, got feet like Wayne Sleep, hasn't he? He's got, he's got [laughs] a good move on him.

[laughs]

He was brilliant, I thought.

Wouldn't it have been amazing?

Peter Polycarpou, Derek Griffiths, Lionel Blair, Stephen Gately, Wayne Sleep, Alvin Stardust.

So, so many incredible people.

So, uh, yeah, it was fantastic.

It was a charity event fundraiser.

And Wayne Sleep, who's a ballet dancer, was performing on the stage.

And he, no one realized this until it happened, but he and Diana had secretly been planning a dance routine together.

And she snuck out of the royal box.

And at the end of his dance routine, everyone applauded.

And then this woman came on the stage and they realized it was Princess Diana.

And she did this three minute dance routine with Wayne Sleep to Uptown Girl, which everyone thought was quite astonishing.

And apparently the thing about this was that Prince Charles was not impressed.

So, yeah, I just think it's really important.

I think it's, well, one of my, well, one of our good ones was actually in Cats when Paul Nicholas and Wayne Sleep had mics on.

And they also, they were on little wire, little clip things.

And we had all this stuff called tatting, which was basically sort of tights ripped up and put to make it

So the early version of the show looked very different in terms of double casting.

Judi Dench was brought on for the role of Grizabella and Jennyanydots, while Royal Ballet principal dancer Wayne Sleep took on the role as Mr. Mistoffelees.

And Brian Blessed of Flash Gordon fame-

Mm-hmm

... that aren't Gene Kelly musicals as well.

This show was widely praised for redefining British musical theater, and it became an immediate long-running success in the West End.

The production was nominated for six Olivier Awards in 1981, Actor of the Year in a Musical for Brian Blessed and Wayne Sleep, Director of the Year for Trevor Nunn, Designer of the Year for John Napier, and it also won Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in a Musical for Gillian Lynne.

The original London production would fundamentally change musical theater in so many ways.