PRESS RELEASE
Theatre Royal Brighton
Where the magic never ends…
Theatre Royal Brighton Productions
Inaugural production announced
DANDY DICK
by Arthur Wing Pinero
Thu 28 June – Sat 7 July
Theatre Royal Brighton Productions announces that the first play of its
opening season will be DANDY DICK, starring Patricia Hodge and
Nicholas Le Prevost. DANDY DICK, a comedy by Arthur Wing Pinero,
will open at Theatre Royal Brighton on Thu 28 June and will run until Sat
7 July. The play will then tour to 8 regional UK venues before a London run.
DANDY DICK will be directed by Christopher Luscombe, Artistic
Director of Theatre Royal Brighton Productions and kicks off the first of
many planned classic plays to tour the country’s best playhouses nationwide
before the West End.
Christopher Luscombe said, “We’re thrilled to be staging DANDY DICK, a
glorious British comedy written 125 years ago in Brighton, as the first
production for Theatre Royal Brighton Productions’ opening season. It is
a rarely seen treasure that so richly deserves to be enjoyed by modern
audiences in search of quality and entertainment in an evening out at the
theatre.
“Looking ahead, we will follow DANDY DICK with a modern classic in
Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man, and John Dighton’s much-loved
farce, The Happiest Days of Your Life. With our Associate Directors, Maria
Aitken and Philip Franks, we will be developing new titles and uncovering
other rarely seen classic tales through workshops, readings and events with
local artists over the coming months, from our celebrated home at Theatre
Royal Brighton.”
Howard Panter for Ambassador Theatre Group said, “Theatre Royal
Brighton has a wonderful reputation as an actors’ theatre, with its unique
relationship between the audience and the stage, and a tradition of the very
best plays and players taking advantage of the seaside air and creative spirit
of Brighton.
“There is a renaissance happening in regional theatre, and we have
undoubtedly seen a shift from the centre of the theatrical landscape being
London – from Sussex to Scotland and everything in between, audiences are
keen to see quality plays without travelling many miles for the pleasure. We
recently saw play box office records smashed in both Manchester and
Glasgow with Zach Braff’s All New People, and the National Theatre’s hit One
Man, Two Guvnors saw a flood of new bookers in Birmingham and Aylesbury,
proving that play-going audiences are out there. DANDY DICK, starring two
of our most beloved and funny actors, Patricia Hodge and Nicholas Le
Prevost, is just the kind of great night at the theatre our audiences are
demanding.”
Written in Brighton in 1887, DANDY DICK tells the hilarious story of the
Very Reverend Augustin Jedd, a pillar of Victorian respectability, who
preaches regularly against the evils of horseracing and gambling. However,
a visit from his tearaway sister, Georgiana, leads him to risk all at the races,
much against his better judgement. Mayhem ensues, with romantic intrigue,
mistaken identity and a runaway horse. Olivier Award-winner Patricia Hodge,
whose career spans film (Betrayal, Behind Enemy Lines), theatre (Noises Off,
Calendar Girls) and television (a BAFTA nomination for Hotel du Lac, The
Falklands Play and Miranda), will play Georgiana. Nicholas Le Prevost,
whose distinguished stage career includes many productions at the National
Theatre, including My Fair Lady, for which he was nominated for an Olivier
Award, and, most recently, The Misanthrope with Keira Knightley in the West
End, will star as the Dean.
This classic British comedy saw its last major production in 1987 in a national
tour starring Sir Anthony Quayle and Margaret Courtenay, and the play last
appeared in the West End in 1973 starring Alastair Sim and Patricia
Routledge.
After opening at Theatre Royal Brighton, the production will go on a UK
tour, visiting Richmond, Aylesbury, Bromley, Woking, Glasgow, York,
Birmingham, and end in Manchester on 1 September, prior to London
DANDY DICK will be designed by Janet Bird, with lighting by Paul Pyant,
music by Nigel Hess and sound by Gregory Clarke. As part of Theatre
Royal Brighton Productions, DANDY DICK will be produced by Howard
Panter, Adam Speers and Evanna White for Ambassador Theatre Group.
Tickets £15 - £29.50
0844 871 7650 (bkg fee)
www.atgtickets.com/brighton
NOTES TO EDITORS
Christopher Luscombe began his career as an actor, his work including
seven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as appearances at
the National Theatre and in the West End. His recent credits as director
include The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe, When We Are
Married in the West End, which received an Olivier nomination for Best
Revival, and the UK Tour of Spamalot for ATG. His acclaimed production of
The Madness of George III opened at the Apollo Theatre in January after a
hugely successful UK tour.
Maria Aitken has played leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company,
the National Theatre and the Old Vic, and has starred in more Noël Coward
plays on the West End stage than any other actress. She has directed many
plays in UK regional theatres and in the West End, including The 39 Steps,
which has been running for over five years. She made her Broadway
directorial debut with The 39 Steps, earning her a Best Director Tony
nomination, and her production of Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy, starring
Frank Langella, recently played on Broadway to critical acclaim.
Philip Franks is best known for his starring roles in television series The
Darling Buds of May and Heartbeat. In theatre, he divides his time equally
between acting and directing. His acting credits include Hamlet for the RSC,
Journey's End, Noises Off and Art in the West End, and recently Hector in The
History Boys directed by Christopher Luscombe. His directing credits include
The Cocktail Party (Edinburgh International Festival), Private Lives for the
National Theatre, and The Duchess of Malfi (West End). Productions at
Chichester include Nicholas Nickleby (also West End and Toronto), Taking
Sides and Collaboration (also West End), The Master Builder and The Deep
Blue Sea. He will direct Hugh Whitemore’s new play A Marvellous Year for
Plums at Chichester this summer.
Theatre Royal Brighton, with a rich and varied history spanning over 200
years, is one of the country’s best loved and one of the oldest working
theatres in the country. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had
established itself as the Actors’ Theatre, where every leading player,
including the Kemble and Siddons Families, Sarah Bernhardt, Edmund Kean,
David Garrick and Sir Henry Irving, graced the stage. Ibsen premiered a UK
production of A Doll’s House here. Through the twentieth century, the
theatre grew in stature and national reputation. Rattigan, Coward and Orton
plays opened as a try-out date before a West End run. Artists who have
given unforgettable performances here include Noël Coward, Edith Evans,
John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Ralph
Richardson, Margaret Rutherford and Paul Scofield, as well as some of
Britain’s favourite contemporary performers, such as Judi Dench, Derek
Jacobi, David Suchet and Dominic West.
Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) was co-founded by Howard Panter and
Rosemary Squire in 1992, and is the largest owner/operator of theatres in
the UK with 39 venues, an internationally recognised theatre producer and a
leader in theatre ticketing services through ATG Tickets. ATG’s impressive
portfolio of West End theatres includes historic buildings such as the Apollo
Victoria, Donmar Warehouse, Duke of York’s, Fortune, Harold Pinter, Lyceum,
Phoenix, Piccadilly, Playhouse, Savoy, Trafalgar Studio 1 and Trafalgar Studio
2. ATG has been behind some of the most successful and innovative
productions in Britain and internationally. Current and recent ATG coproductions include the upcoming Royal Court in the West End season of
Posh and the 2012 Olivier Award nominee for Best New Play, Jumpy; Lincoln
Center’s production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific in London and
on tour; Zach Braff’s All New People; Ghost the Musical in Manchester,
London and on Broadway; the hugely successful UK tour and London
production of Monty Python’s Spamalot by Eric Idle; Being Shakespeare
starring Simon Callow in the West End, New York, Chicago and national UK
tour; and The Misanthrope starring Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley. ATG
is also mounting productions around the world. ATG’s recent productions in
Australia include Legally Blonde, The Rocky Horror Show, Guys and Dolls and
West Side Story. Recent ATG productions on Broadway include Geoffrey
Rush and Susan Sarandon starring in Exit the King. ATG has a wholly owned
subsidiary company, Sonia Friedman Productions, led by Sonia Friedman,
who is one of the most prolific producers in the West End and on Broadway,
and the newly created Jerry Mitchell Productions, with the acclaimed Tony
Award-winning director and choreographer, Jerry Mitchell, whose most recent
productions include Legally Blonde (director and choreographer), Catch Me If
You Can (choreographer) and Love Never Dies (choreographer). ATG also
owns a major national family entertainment and pantomime company, First
Family Entertainment (FFE).