Val Kilmer to Make West End Debut in The Postman Always Rings Twice

By: Apr. 12, 2005
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 Written by Maya Cantu

Variety has reported that Val Kilmer will make his West End debut in a new stage adaptation of the classic noir novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Andrew Rattenbury has adapted the play from the James L. Cain potboiler. Lucy Bailey will helm the production, which starts previews on May 24th at the Playhouse Theatre and opens on June 8th. Although movie star Kilmer replaces Patrick O'Kane, Bailey directed his co-star Charlotte Emmerson in the play's previous incarnation at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

The Postman Always Rings Twice concerns the steamy love affair of drifter Frank Chambers (Kilmer) and Cora Papadakis, the lonely wife of a roadside restaurant proprietor. Soon, the lovers are plotting the murder of Cora's husband. The story has been translated to film on two occasions--a 1946 classic starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, and a 1981 remake with Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson.

Val Kilmer has trod the boards before--most recently as Moses in the critically-panned blockbuster musical The Ten Commandments, which opened in LA in September of 2004. Other theatre credits include an incestuous turn in the 1992 off-Broadway production of the Jacobean tragedy Tis Pity She's a Whore, and the role of Hotspur's Servant in a 1981 Shakespeare in the Park production of Henry IV Part 1.

Kilmer's many screen credits include Alexander, Wonderland, The Salton Sea, Pollock, At First Sight, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Heat, Batman Forever (in which he portrayed the Caped Crusader), The Doors (as Jim Morrison), and Top Gun, the role that brought him to public attention.
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