Stoppard, Hale, Etc. Join Lange in West End 'Menagerie'

Ed Stoppard, Amanda Hale, and Mark Umbers will join the previously announced Jessica Lange in Rupert Goold's upcoming production of The Glass Menagerie, set to open Feburary 13th at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End. Previews begin January 31st.

Ed Stoppard's credits include the title role in an English Touring Theatre production of Hamlet, which played the West End.  He is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard. Amanda Hale's stage credits include The Importance of Being Ernest and Crooked. Mark Umbers has appeared in The Pirates of Penzance at the Open Air Theatre, My Fair Lady and The Vortex.  

"Considered along with A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as one of Tennessee Williams' masterpieces, The Glass Menagerie premiered on Broadway in 1945 and was the playwright's first great success. Set in St. Louis in the 1930's, the memory play tells the story of the Wingfield family - Tom, who is torn between his obligation to his family and his desire to break away, his overbearing mother Amanda, and his frail sister Laura, whose memory he cannot escape," stated press notes on the Broadway revival.

Lange last starred on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire as another great Williams' heroine, Blanche DuBois. She starred in two />Bill Kenwright/> productions in the West End – again as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Peter Hall, and as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, directed by Robin Phillips. Lange is a six time Academy Award-nominated actress, winning twice for her performances in the films, Tootsie and Blue Sky. Her other Oscar-nominated film performances include Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams and Music Box. Her other notable film performances include starring roles in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Crimes of the Heart, Everybody's All-American, Cape Fear, Night and the City, Rob Roy and Big Fish.  She will play "Big" Edith />Bouvier Beale/> in the upcoming film Grey Gardens, based on the documentary.

For more on The Apollo Theatre's The Glass Menagerie, call (0)870 890 1101.