Shaw and Seagrove to Lead THE COUNTRY GIRL in the West End?

Baz Bamigboye reports in the U.K. Daily Mail today that Martin Shaw and Jenny Seagrove will lead a new production of Clifford Odets' THE COUNTRY GIRL in the West End, opening in October of this year at the Apollo Theatre.  Rufus Norris reportedly directs.

COUNTRY GIRL tells the story of an alcoholic has-been actor struggling with the one last chance he's been given to resurrect his career.

The play received Broadway productions in 1951, 1972 and 2008. This latest production was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand.

The play was adapted for the screen in 1954 and famously starred Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden. George Seaton, who adapted Odets' play and directed the film, won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.

Martin ShawS was seen in first revival of Look Back in Anger; in the National Theatre's Saturday, Sunday, Monday opposite Laurence Olivier; in A Streetcar Named Desire presented by the Piccadilly Theatre in 1974; in Alan Bleasdale's critically-acclaimed Are You Lonesome Tonight?, playing Elvis Presley; and in Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons. Shaw's portrayal of Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband on Broadway earned him a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk award. His best-known film role is that of Banquo in Roman Polanski's version of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Jenny Seagrove trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero. She is now well known in the character of Jo Mills in the long-running BBC drama series Judge John Deed (2001-07).

 

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