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Roy Hudd and Nichola McAuliffe to Star in WAITING FOR GOD UK Tour
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 15, 2017
Roy Hudd and Nichola McAuliffe will star in the premiere stage production of the BAFTA-nominated WAITING FOR GOD which will begin a 12 week UK tour on 20 April. WAITING FOR GOD delighted TV audiences across five primetime BBC series in the 1990s. This all-new script is penned by the sitcom's creator Michael Aitkens and directed by Tony Award winner David Grindley.
The cast of nine will be led by Roy Hudd as Tom Ballard and Nichola McAuliffe as Diana Trent, both of whom have won best performance accolades in the prestigious Olivier Awards. The cast will also feature Joanna Bending as Sarah Chase, David Benson as Geoffrey Ballard, Peter Cadden as Dennis Sparrow, Samuel Collings as Harvey Baines and Emily Pithon as Jane Edwards, as well as Corinna Marlowe and Anna Westlake.
WAITING FOR GOD is produced by James Seabright.
All the favourite characters from the original series are reimagined for 2017, facing the challenges that come with growing old disgracefully in the era of the silver surfer. At Bayview Retirement Home, battle-axe extraordinaire Diana Trent conspires with new resident Tom Ballard to give the conniving manager his comeuppance with unexpectedly heart-warming results.
Roy Hudd OBE is a comedian, TV and radio star, stage actor, variety performer and National Treasure. He celebrates his 81st birthday in spring 2017. A graduate of the variety era, he performed in the 60s with all the greats including Max Miller, Danny La Rue and Lionel Blair. He went on to appear in his own BBC TV series including The Roy Hudd Show and his subsequent BBC Radio 2 show, The News Huddlines with June Whitfield, ran for 26 years. He has also appeared in Dennis Potter's Lipstick on your Collar, Common as Muck, Coronation Street, The Missing and Call the Midwife. He has written several books on music hall, re-recorded music hall tracks and is the longstanding President of the British Music Hall Society.
Actor, writer and novelist Nichola McAuliffe is well known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the ITV sitcom Surgical Spirit, which ran for six years. She is also the star of numerous stage shows and won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Kiss Me, Kate. Most recently she starred in ITV's Victoria and BBC's Doctors. She was also the voice of James Bond's BMW in Tomorrow Never Dies. As well as writing several plays, McAuliffe has published two novels, The Crime Tsar, based loosely on Macbeth; and A Fanny Full of Soap, a comic novel about the pre-West End run of a stage musical, plus a children's story, Attila, Loolagax.
Michael Aitkens is a writer for the screen and stage who was Bafta-nominated for Waiting for God. He h as worked all over the world and had over 200 scripts produced for film and television. He is a core writer for Midsummer Murders and also wrote Class Act for Joanna Lumley.
David Grindley's production of Journey's End won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Revival. Most recently he directed The Heiress at The Gate Theatre Dublin and Sideways at the St James Theatre and other credits include the world premiere of Daytona at Theatre Royal Haymarket, Our Boys at the Duchess Theatre and the UK tour of Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell with Robert Powell.
James Seabright is an Olivier Award winning theatrical producer and general manager. Current Productions include The Boys In The Band (Vaudeville, Park and UK tour), world tours of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, Trainspotting, Shakespeare Untold and Potted Potter, UK tours of Apphia Campbell's solo show inspired by Nina Simone Black Is The Color Of My Voice, Adam Kay's show The Remains Of Tom Lehrer and William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged) with the Reduced Shakespeare Company.
For more information, visit www.WaitingForGod.info.
20-22 April Broadway Theatre, Letchworth 01462 681088
24-29 April Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne 01323 412 000
2-6 May Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford 01483 440000
8-13 May New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich 01473 295900
22-27 May Theatre Royal, Bath 01225 448844
30 May-3 June Festival Theatre, Malvern 01684 892277
5-10 June Lighthouse Theatre, Poole 01202 280000
12-17 June Theatre Royal, Windsor 01753 853888
20-24 June Grand Theatre, Blackpool 01253 290190
27 June-1 July Oxford Playhouse 01865 305305
3-8 July The Lowry, Salford Quays 0843 2086000
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