A trio of 12-year-old twins will star in the world premiere of the musical adaption of Disney favourite The Parent Trap.
The show, titled Identical, is based on the novel by Erich Kastner, which inspired films featuring Hayley Mills in 1961 and Lindsay Lohan in 1998.
After a five-year casting search, 12-year-old sisters Kyla and Nicole Fox from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, Emme and Eden Patrick from Waltham Abbey, and Sienna and Savannah Robinson from Bromley will star as characters Lottie and Lisa.
The musical will follow the original story of twin girls separated at birth but reunited by chance at a summer camp 10 years later, who attempt to rejoin their divorced parents by swapping identities.
Kenny Wax, who produced Six the musical and The Play That Goes Wrong, and award-winning director Sir Trevor Nunn, responsible for Les Miserables and Cats, are adapting the musical – which opens in July.
Wax said: “Identical is a story about the reuniting of twins separated shortly after birth and the healing of a family which has been fractured.
“The narrative offers a powerful message for the world right now and under the directorial genius of Sir Trevor Nunn, I have no doubt that Identical will be regarded as one of the great musicals of its generation… providing that we can consistently cast incredibly talented identical twins.”
The music and lyrics have been arranged by writers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who were behind award-winning National Theatre hit Honk! and Mary Poppins.
They said: “It’s been a delight to adapt Erich Kastner’s hauntingly beautiful and timeless tale of two identical twins separated as babies, and their wily determination to stitch their family back together.
“It’s a story packed with wonderful humour and characters, which makes it a great canvas to become a musical and retell for a 21st-century audience.”
Identical will open at Nottingham Playhouse on July 26 until August 14 before moving to Salford’s The Lowry on August 19 to September 3.
