PRESS RELEASE – 31 May 2019

IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE

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Jenny King, Jonathan Church, Matthew Gale and Mark Goucher present

STEPHEN MANGAN

KARA TOINTON and SUE JOHNSTON in

The Man in the White Suit

Adapted for the stage by Sean Foley

Based on the play The Flower Within the Bud by Roger MacDougall and Screenplay by Roger MacDougall, John Dighton and Alexander Mackendrick.

By special arrangement with STUDIOCANAL

Directed by Sean Foley Designed by Michael Taylor

 SUE JOHNSTON JOINS THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED STEPHEN MANGAN AND KARA TOINTON IN THE WORLD PREMIERE STAGE PRODUCTION OF THE EALING COMEDY CLASSIC

 ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY SEAN FOLEY, THE PRODUCTION WILL PLAY A LIMITED SEASON AT THEATRE ROYAL BATH AS PART OF ITS 2019 SUMMER SEASON FROM SEPTEMBER 5TH – 21ST, PRIOR TO OPENING AT WYNDHAM’S THEATRE IN PREVIEW FROM SEPTEMBER 26TH WITH AN OPENING NIGHT OF OCTOBER 8TH The producers of Sean Foley’s hotly anticipated stage adaptation of classic Ealing Studios comedy The Man in the White Suit are delighted to announce that Sue Johnston (The Royle Family, Brookside, Coronation Street) will join the cast for a strictly limited engagement. The British Comedy Award-winning actress will play ‘Mrs Watson’ from 5th September for three weeks at Theatre Royal Bath prior to nine weeks at the Wyndham’s Theatre from 26th September. The world premiere production will then continue its engagement in the West End until 11th January 2020 with further casting to be announced.

The 1951 iconic Ealing Studios comedy film 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 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, 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. Adapted and directed by Sean Foley, with set and costume design by Michael Taylor, The Man in the White Suit is based on the play The Flower Within the Bud by Roger MacDougall and Screenplay by Roger MacDougall, John Dighton and Alexander Mackendrick. This world premiere production is presented by Jenny King, Jonathan Church, Matthew Gale and Mark Goucher, by special arrangement with STUDIOCANAL. -ENDS- For further information please contact The Corner Shop PR on 020 7831 7657 Ben Chamberlain, Lewis Jenkins and Hannah Barnett Leveson

LISTINGS

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/

Images can be downloaded here

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NOTES TO EDITORS

STEPHEN MANGAN

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

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.

SUE JOHNSTON

BAFTA nominated and OBE Sue Johnston is one of Britain’s best loved actresses.

Sue is about to start shooting new comedy The Cockfields. Last year Sue joined the stellar ensemble cast of Hold the Sunset for the BBC opposite Alison Steadman and John Cleese and UK Gold’s Death on the Tyne the hilarious follow up to Murder on the Blackpool Express from Ed Bye with Jonny Vegas and Sian Gibson.

Other recent television and film credits include; leading role of Ivy-Rae in new BBC family drama from Debbie Horsfield and Mainstreet Pictures Age Before Beauty, FOX feature Walk Like a Panther alongside Stephen Graham and Dave Johns, a lovely role in Jack Thorne's latest drama Kiri for Channel 4 opposite Sarah Lancashire, series two of Good Karma Hospital for ITV and leading role in Jimmy McGovern's award winning Moving On.

Sue rose to fame in 1982 playing Sheila Grant in the well loved 90’s soap opera Brookside and from her humble beginnings has gone on to become a household name, playing iconic roles in a host of popular British TV and films.

Sue is perhaps best known for her roles in The Royale Family, where she reunited with her former Brookside co-star Ricky Tomlinson to play the lovable Barbara Royle, Dr Grace Foley in the Emmy award winning BBC series Waking the Dead in which she stars alongside Trevor Eve and of course the title role of Eileen in the BBCs heart-warming comedy-drama Being Eileen. In more recent years, Sue graced our screens as the crafty Miss Denker throughout the last few series of ITV’s hugely successful and award winning Downton Abbey, for which she won a SAG award with the cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in Drama Series and returned to her Northern roots as Gloria in Britain’s long-adored ITV series Coronation Street.

Other credits include; Rovers, Sex, Chips & Rock N’ Roll, Goodbye Cruel World, My Uncle Silas, Brassed Off, Little Dorrit, A Passionate Woman, Sugartown and Jam & Jerusalem.

Aside from her extensive work on screen, Sue is also an accomplished theatre actress. Her credits include Peter Gill’s Small Change at the Donmar Warehouse, The Master Builder in the West End directed by Anthony Paige and Kenneth Branagh’s The Play What I Wrote at Wyndham’s Theatre. Sue has also played seasons at Manchester Royal Exchange, Bolton Octagon and the Bush Theatre.

Sue was appointed OBE in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to Drama and to Charity.

SEAN FOLEY

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

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.