Katherine Kingsley joins the cast of NOISES OFF in the West End
by Best of Theatre Staff on Wednesday 8 February 2023, 1:43 pm in Cast Changes and Announcements
Michael Frayn’s multi award-winning farce Noises Off continues its highly praised and critically acclaimed run at the West End’s Phoenix Theatre until 11 March 2023.
From Monday 13 February 2023, West End star and three-time Olivier Award-winning actress Katherine Kingsley (Piaf, Singin’ in the Rain, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) will play Belinda Blair. She takes over the role from Tracey-Ann Oberman who’s final performance in Noises Off will be on Saturday 11 February before opening in her own production of The Merchant of Venice 1936, later this month.
Kingsley joins Felicity Kendal as Dotty Otley, Jonathan Coy as Fredrick Fellows, Matthew Kelly as Selsdon Mowbray, Alexander Hanson as Lloyd Dallas, Joseph Millson as Garry Lejeune, Sasha Frost as Brooke Ashton, Hubert Burton as Tim Allgood and Pepter Lunkuse as Poppy Norton-Taylor.
This celebrated 40th Anniversary production directed by Lindsay Posner (God of Carnage, Hay Fever, Stones in his Pockets) opened at Theatre Royal Bath last autumn before touringto Richmond, Brighton and Cambridge. It opened at the West End's Phoenix Theatre on 19 January 2023.
One of the greatest British comedies ever written, Michael Frayn’s celebrated play serves up a riotous double bill – a play within a play. Hurtling along at breakneck speed, Noises Off follows the on and off-stage antics of a touring theatre company as they stumble their way through the fictional farce, Nothing On. From the shambolic final rehearsals before opening night in Weston-super-Mare, to a disastrous matinee in Ashton-Under-Lyme seen entirely, and hilariously silently, from backstage, before we share their final, brilliantly catastrophic performance in Stockton-on-Tees.
After watching from the wings a production of his 1970 farce The Two of Us with Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave and noting that the goings on behind the scenes were funnier than out front, Michael Frayn wrote Noises Off. The original production opened in London in 1982 before becoming a worldwide hit. A feature film was made of Noises Off in 1992.
Noises Off is written by Michael Frayn. The creative team for this 40th Anniversary production includes Lindsay Posner (Director), Simon Higlett (Designer), Paul Pyant (Lighting Designer), Greg Clarke (Sound Designer), Will Stuart (Composer), Ruth Cooper-Brown (Movement and Fight Director), George Jibson (Associate Director), Ginny Schiller (Casting Director).