Soprano Garrett has a turn on the Carousel

Opera singer Lesley Garrett is to star in a new West End production of the musical Carousel.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic will arrive at The Savoy Theatre in November after a national tour.

It is the first staging of Carousel in Theatreland since Nicholas Hytner's production for the National Theatre in 1992, which later transferred to the West End.

The musical tells the story of a doomed love affair between Billy Bigelow, a smooth-talking carousel worker, and Julie Jordan, a naive young mill hand. Following her success as Mother Abbess in The Sound Of Music, Garrett, a soprano, will play the pivotal role of Nettie, Julie's cousin.

Directed by Lindsay Posner, whose most recent show was Fiddler On The Roof at The Savoy, Carousel will also star Jeremiah James, one of the four members of vocal group Teatro, as Billy, and Alexandra Silber as Julie.

It will be choreographed by Adam Cooper, who took the lead role in Matthew Bourne's allmale Swan Lake and starred as Sky Masterson in Guys And Dolls in 2006. It will follow the Take That musical, Never Forget, which will transfer to another West End venue.

Details of the new production follow the release of figures showing last year was the most successful on record for London's theatres, with more than 13million attendances.

Musicals in particular contributed to the record audiences. The Society Of London Theatre Box Office report said Grease and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat saw great success, as did Wicked, Spamalot and Dirty Dancing.

Carousel first opened on Broadway in 1945 and made its West End debut in 1950 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The score is one of the most celebrated of all time and was Richard Rodgers's favourite. It includes the anthem You'll Never Walk Alone and others such as The Carousel Waltz, If I Loved You and June Is Bustin' Out All Over.

The show was named "Best Musical of its Century" by Time Magazine in 1999.

Carousel opens at The Savoy on 22 November.