Producers today announced that a stage adaptation by Sean Foley of the classic Ealing Studios comedy The Man in the White Suit, will play a three week season at Theatre Royal Bath, prior to receiving its world premiere at Wyndhams Theatre in preview from September 26th with an opening night of October 8th. The production will be directed by Sean Foley and will star Stephen Mangan as Sidney Stratton and Kara Tointon as Daphne Birnley. Set and costume design will be by Michael Taylor.
The 1951 iconic EALING comedy starred Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood and Cecil Parker. It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Screenplay).
When Sidney Stratton, played by Stephen Mangan, develops a fabric that never gets dirty and never wears out, manufacturers and trades unions are terrified by the threat it poses to their industry and their jobs. Only Daphne (Kara Tointon) the mill owner’s daughter, shows Stratton any sympathy as his world gradually falls apart before he finally finds love and a new idea.
This world premiere production will reunite Stephen Mangan and Sean Foley who created the Olivier Award winning comedy Jeeves and Wooster together. Foley also teams up again with Michael Taylor with whom he created the five times Olivier Award nominated The Ladykillers. Foley’s production will feature a cast of fourteen including actor musicians and a specially written score.
THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT
Theatre Royal Bath
Saw Cl, Bath BA1 1ET
September 5th – 21st
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees 2.30pm
https://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/
01225 448844
Wyndham’s Theatre
Charing Cross Rd, Covent Garden, London WC2H 0DA
First preview: September 26th at 7.30pm
Opening night: October 8th at 7pm
Final performance January 11th at 7.30pm
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees 2.30pm
https://www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk/theatres/wyndhams-theatre/
Stephen Mangan
Sidney Stratton
Stephen Mangan is a stage, film, television and voice actor.
After graduating from Cambridge University and then RADA, Stephen began his acting career in the theatre. In 2008 he played in title role in The Norman Conquests at The Old Vic and then on Broadway. Stephen was nominated for a Tony Award and the play won Best Revival. Other theatre credits include, Birthday and The People Are Friendly (Royal Court Theatre), Jeeves and Wooster (Duke of York’s Theatre), Hayfever (Savoy theatre), Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC) and Rules For Living (National Theatre).
Stephen has an extensive list of television credits, he plays the lead role of Sean Lincoln in the comedy series Episodes, opposite Tamsin Greig and Matt LeBlanc, and season 5 is due for release this year. This year he can also been seen starring the new comedy series Bliss for Sky Atlantic. Previous TV credits include the BAFTA-winning British sitcom Green Wing, Free Agents, Dirk Gently, in which he played the title role, and Houdini & Doyle.
Stephen’s film credits include Billy Elliot, Birthday, Postman Pat: The Movie (Voice), Rush, Beyond The Pole, Confetti and Festival.
Kara Tointon
Daphne Birnley
Kara Tointon’s stage appearances include: Olivia in Twelfth Night (RSC); Bella Manningham in Gaslight (UK Tour); Ginny in Relatively Speaking (Wyndham’s Theatre); Evelyn in Absent Friends (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Eliza in Pygmalion (Garrick Theatre). Her film work includes appearances in Let’s Be Evil, The Last Passenger, The Sweeney, Warrior Queen, Never Play With The Dead, The Football Factory and Just My Luck. On television Kars has appeared in The Keith and Paddy Picture Show, Henry IX, The Halcyon, The Sound of Music Live, Mr Selfridge, Suntrap, Lewis, Bedlam, The Bill, Dream Team, Keen Eddie , Harry and Cosh and Eastenders.
SEAN FOLEY is a British actor, writer, and director. He was recently appointed as the next Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
Foley is a double Olivier Award winner for plays he co-wrote and starred in: Do You Come Here Often? (Vaudeville - Winner, Best Entertainment), and The Play What I Wrote (Wyndhams - Winner Best New Comedy), directed by Kenneth Branagh. He also received a further Olivier nomination for Best Actor for The Play What I Wrote, and the show received Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards nominations when it was presented at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre in 2003.
He directed the Olivier Award winning comedy, Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, (Duke of York’s: starring Stephen Mangan and Matthew MacFadyen); and The Ladykillers (The Gielgud: starring Peter Capaldi - five Olivier nominations including Best Director and Best New Play); directed and co-adapted The Miser, (Garrick: starring Griff Rhys Jones and Lee Mack - Olivier nomination Best New Comedy); wrote and directed Arturo Brachetti: Change (Garrick: Olivier nomination Best Entertainment); co-wrote and starred in Ducktastic, (Albery: Olivier nomination Best Entertainment); directed and co-adapted A Mad World My Masters for the RSC (Swan and Barbican); and adapted and directed The Painkiller (Garrick: starring Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon). He also directed: Pinter’s People (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), The Critic (Chichester Festival), Ben Hur (Watermill), What the Butler Saw (Vaudeville), I Can’t Sing (London Palladium: starring Cynthia Erivo), The Walworth Farce (Olympia, Dublin: starring Domhnall, Briain and Brendan Gleeson), The Dresser (Duke of York’s: starring Ken Stott and Reece Sheersmith), and Present Laughter. (Chichester). Foley has also directed live shows for leading comedians, including Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress, Armstrong and Miller - Live, and The Catherine Tate Show - Live.
As a stage actor, as well as creating and starring in 10 original comedies for his own company, The Right Size - touring worldwide and appearing in many Festivals - Foley appeared in Mr Puntila and His Man Matti (Almeida/Albery), Hysteria (as Sigmund Freud), The Critic, The Real Inspector Hound, I Am Shakespeare, (with Mark Rylance), and Kenneth Branagh’s RADA production of Hamlet (as Polonius).
Foley directed the feature film MINDHORN, starring Julian Barrett and Steve Coogan, which was shown at the London Film Festival in 2016, and won the LOCO Discovery Award for Best First Feature. He also directed Marilyn Monroe and Billy Wilder (starring Gemma Arterton and James Purefoy in the title roles) and Diana & Freddie for the TV series Urban Myths.
His screen acting credits include Samuel Beckett’s Act Without Words I, directed by Karel Riesz (starring in single role), Foley and McColl: This Way Up, Brass Eye, Happiness, Comedy Lab, Wild West, Twisted Tales and Urban Myths. His film acting credits include Gabriel & Me, The Harry Hill Movie, Mindhorn and All Is True.
MICHAEL TAYLOR
DESIGNER
Theatre credits include: White Christmas (Curve, Leicester & Dominion, West End); Ballyturk and The Lonesome West (Tron Theatre); An Officer and a Gentleman (Curve, Leicester & UK Tour); The Winslow Boy (Birmingham Rep & UK Tour); The Best Man (Playhouse Theatre, West End & UK Tour); The Clean House; Dead Simple (UK Tour); Scrooge The Musical; A Streetcar Named Desire (Curve, Leicester); Silver Lining; Eternal Love: The Story of Abelard and Heloise (ETT, UK Tour); Two Way Mirror (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick); What The Butler Saw (Curve, Leicester & Theatre Royal Bath); The Dresser (Duke of York’s, West End, dir. Sean Foley); A Christmas Carol (Corby Cube Theatre); All My Sons (Rose Theatre Kingston & Hong Kong); Lawrence After Arabia; Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme; Clever Dick; Out In The Open; Keepers, The Awakening and My Boy Jack (Hampstead Theatre); The Crucible; Waiting For Godot; Faith Healer; A View From The Bridge; The Price; The Cherry Orchard; The Man Who Had All The Luck; All My Sons; Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Death of A Salesman (Edinburgh Lyceum); The Ladykillers (Vaudeville Theatre, West End; Olivier Award nomination for Best Designer); Ben Hur; The Shadow of A Gunman and John Bull’s Other Island (Tricycle); The Heresy of Love; Doctor Scroggy’s War; Blue Stockings; Anne Boleyn; All’s Well That Ends Well; The Winter’s Tale and In Extremis/Eternal Love (Shakespeare’s Globe & UK Tours); After Electra (Plymouth Theatre Royal, Tricycle); Chin Chin(Bill Kenwright UK Tour); A Little Hotel On The Side (Theatre Royal Bath); Sherlock Holmes: The Best Kept Secret (West Yorkshire Playhouse & UK Tour); The Misanthrope (Liverpool Playhouse & UK Tour); A Christmas Carol (Royal & Derngate); Amphibians (RSC); Mountain Language (written and directed by Harold Pinter, Royal National Theatre); Rafts and Dreams (Royal Court Theatre); Nova Scotia; The Road To Nirvana (Traverse); Darwin in Malibu (Birmingham Rep); Winding The Ball (Royal Exchange); Private Lives; Present Laughter (Theatre Royal Bath & Tour); Vita and Virginia (Altes Schauspielhaus, Stuttgart); The Fatherland; Millfire (Riverside Studios); Time And The Conways (Bristol Old Vic).
He won the Drama Magazine Best Designer Award for Tony Marchant’s The Attractions. For The Ladykillers, he has received nominations for Best Set Design at the Olivier Awards and the Whatsonstage.com Awards 2012/2013.
Michael trained as a designer at RADA.
