Sheridan Smith to play Cilla Black again

Sheridan Smith is to play Cilla Black again in a musical about the late showbiz legend\'s life.

The 38-year-old actress previously played Cilla in a 2014 ITV series which was created by Jeff Pope who has adapted his screenplay for the theatre.

\'Cilla The Musical\' will open at the Liverpool Empire in September for a four-week residency before touring the rest of the UK.

Announcing her starring role on her Instagram account, Sheridan - who is pregnant with her first child with her fiancé Jamie Horn - said: "Woo hoo it\'s official! Tickets go on sale tomorrow [10.03.20] 10am, can\'t wait to see you all there!"

Cilla\'s son Robert Willis previously revealed that \'Cilla The Musical\' was the final project his mother gave her blessing to before she passed away in August 2015 aged 72.

He said: "Once the show had gone out on television, we talked to her about the possibility of doing a stage version.

"Jeff, who hadn\'t written a book for a musical before, and myself went about looking at musicals, and we visited Liverpool and the Cavern. We had a lot of fun; and my mother was excited about it - though the success of the drama surprised her a bit. Initially, she couldn\'t understand why anybody would be that interested.

"When there was such a great reaction to Sheridan and the drama - and therefore to her - she was touched. She felt in her heart of hearts that she was a pop singer, and so despite how important TV was to her, she really felt that the drama highlighted her passion for singing.

"When she died, naturally, all the plans went on hold. But we, all of us, felt it would be a sort of living memorial to her. Jeff had already written the script. It was something that would entertain and resonate. So we should go for it.

"It\'s the last big connection that I have with her. I want to do it for her. It was the last project she wanted to see happen."

The production will explore Cilla\'s early life as a singer and how she became a star with the help of her future husband Bobby Willis and music mogul Brian Epstein, and will end just before her spouse helped her become the highest-paid presenter on TV with shows such as \'Blind Date\' and \'Surprise, Surprise\'.

According to Jeff, the show will concentrate more on the music than his TV programme did, featuring a number of Cilla\'s songs such as \'Alfie\' and \'Liverpool Lullaby\', but also the early Merseybeat sound with groups like The Big Three, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and The Beatles with all the music featuring in context to Cilla\'s story.