In a US comedy-drama

It might not be the most immediately obvious casting,  but Matt Lucas has been cast as diminutive ballet star Wayne Sleep in a new US comedy-drama.

The Big Leap is a work of fiction based on the 2014 Channel 4 reality show Big Ballet, in which amateur dancers who would normally be considered too big for classical dancing staged a production of Swan Lake.

Sleep was one of the mentors on the show, and is described as ‘entertaining, enthusiastic and encouraging’ in the new show being piloted for America’s Fox network.

Hollywood website Deadline also reports that  Teri Polo, Ser’Darius Blain and Ray Cham have also been cast as the dancers who sign up to the reality show.

The website says: ‘What they lack in the traditional dancer body type, they make up for with their edge, wit and desire to reimagine an iconic story to fit their own mould.’

Here’s a trailer for the original Channel 4 series.

Published: 26 Feb 2020