Full Cast Set For Noël Coward's FALLEN ANGELS at Menier Chocolate Factory

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced full casting for its forthcoming production of Noël Coward's Fallen Angels which opens its new season at its home base in London Bridge.

Christopher Luscombe directs Janie Dee (Julia Steroll), Alexandra Gilbreath (Jane Banbury), Christopher Hollis (Bill Banbury), Richard Teverson (Fred Steroll), Sarah Twomey (Saunders), and Graham Vick (Maurice Duclos).

The production opens on 2 December, with previews from 21 November, and runs until 21 February.

The season continues with two plays directed by Lindsay Posner - who also returns to the venue after productions of Alan Ayckbourn's Communicating Doors, Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party and Florian Zeller's The Truth, the latter two of which transferred to the West End – Ryan Craig's The Holy Rosenbergs and Peter Shaffer's modern classic Equus,  which is presented as a co-production with Theatre Royal Bath, where the production will run after the Menier run.

The Menier also continues its work in the US with the upcoming Off-Broadway production of Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife, which Gordon Greenberg directs for Classic Stage Company. The cast includes Ariana DeBose, Scott Bakula and Judy Kuhn.

First performed exactly 100 years ago, Noël Coward's outrageous comedy remains one of his funniest creations. Best friends Julia and Jane, now settled in happy marriages, receive an unexpected visit from a glamorous shared ex-boyfriend, and passions are rekindled with explosive results.  This is the first London revival of the play in 25 years.

Biographies

Janie Dee returns to the Menier to play Julia Steroll – she previously appeared in The Boy Friend. Her extensive stage work includes A Role to Die For (Barn Theatre), Old Friends (Gielgud Theatre), The Motive and the Cue, Follies (National Theatre), The Grass Is Greener (Theatre Royal Windsor), An Hour and A Half Late (Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Theatre Royal Bath and Charing Cross Theatre), A Little Night Music (Buxton Festival), Pinter 4 – Moonlight/Night School (Pinter at the Pinter), Linda (Talent Works NY), Hand to God (Vaudeville Theatre), The Seagull (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Ah, Wilderness! (Young Vic), Blithe Spirit (Gielgud Theatre), Putting It Together (St James Theatre), Hello Dolly! (Curve, Leicester), NSFW (Royal Court Theatre), All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare's Globe), A Month in the County (Chichester Festival Theatre), Calendar Girls (Noël Coward Theatre), Woman in Mind (Stephen Joseph Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre), Shadowlands (Wyndham's Theatre), Mack and Mabel (Watermill Theatre national tour and Criterion Theatre), Donkey's Years (Comedy Theatre), Divas at the Donmar – one woman show, Comic Potential (Lyric Theatre and Broadway – Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Award for Best Actress), Paradise Moscow (Opera North) and Carousel (National Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical). For Theatre Royal Bath, her many credits include The Apple Cart, Old Times (also national tour), Much Ado About Nothing, Betrayal (also West End) and Design for Living. For television, her work includes The Burning Girls, You and Me, Chimerica, Crashing, Doctor Who, Harold Pinter: A Celebration, The Murder Room, Death in Holy Orders, House of Cards, The Live Show, Heartbeat, Little White Lies, Spy Watch, and Love Hurts; and for film, Official Secrets, Me and Orson Welles, Celebration and Virtuoso.

Alexandra Gilbreath returns to the Menier to play Jane Banbury – she previously appeared in Florian Zeller's The Lie. Her other theatre credits include Cymbeline, The Empress, The Provok'd Wife, Shakespeare Live, The Rover, The Merry Wives: The Musical, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes Award nomination – Best Actress), The Tamer Tamed,  As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, Cyrano de Bergerac, Ghosts, Love's Labour's Lost (RSC), The Fever Syndrome, Mother Christmas (Hampstead Theatre), The Sugar Syndrome (Orange Tree Theatre), God's Dice, Shallow Slumber (Soho Theatre), Dessert (Southwark Playhouse), The Invisible (Bush Theatre), The Wars of the Roses, Hay Fever (Rose Theatre Kingston), Playhouse Creatures (Chichester Festival Theatre), Othello (Sheffield Theatres), The Village Bike (Royal Court Theatre), Hedda Gabler (English Touring Theatre – Winner of the Ian Charleson Award), and Bernarda Alba (Gate Theatre). Her television work includes The Chelsea Detective, Becoming Elizabeth, A Hundred Streets, Midsummer Night's Dreaming, WPC 56, Inspector George Gently, Rites of Passage, Trial and Retribution, Life Begins, Absolute Power, The Commander, The Waltz King, Happiness, The Project, Monarch of the Glen, Out of Hours, A Wing and a Prayer, The Heart Surgeon and Screaming; and for film Untamed, A Hundred Streets, Tulip Fever, The All Together and Dead Babies.

Christopher Hollis plays Bill Banbury. His theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Mamma Mia! (West End and UK tour), Mrs Warren's Profession, My Cousin Rachel, The Nightingales (Theatre Royal Bath), Murder in the Cathedral (Temple Church), Romeo and Juliet (Salisbury Playhouse), Twelfth Night, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (RSC), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sherwood, Richard III (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Translations, The Tempest (Chichester Festival Theatre), and The Proposal (King's Head Theatre). His television work includes Das Boot, A Serpent in Eden, Life Begins, Take a Girl Like You, Lady Jane, A Touch of Frost, and God's Frontiersmen; and for film, Cost of Living, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Richard Teverson plays Fred Steroll. His theatre credits include Witness for the Prosecution (County Hall), The Gift (Eclipse/UK tour), Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare's Rose), The Libertine (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Private Lives, Handbagged (UK tours), How Many Miles To Babylon? (Lyric Theatre Belfast), The Schoolmistress (Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Winslow Boy (The Old Vic), Somersaults (Finborough Theatre), The Doctor's Dilemma, After the Dance (National Theatre), Cause Célèbre (Old Vic), The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre), When Harry Met Sally, A Woman of No Importance (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre), Private Lives, Tons of Money, Hobson's Choice (Freud Company), The Singing Group (Chelsea Theatre), Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick (New Vic Theatre) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Creation). For television, his work includes Babies, Freedom at Midnight, Miss Scarlett & The Duke, A Very Royal Scandal, Secret Invasion, Trying, The Sceptred Isle, The Crown, Whiskey Cavalier, Call the Midwife, Taboo, Downton Abbey, Coalition, Jamaica Inn, The Bletchley Circle, Spies or Warsaw, Dancing on the Edge, Upstairs Downstairs, The Roman Mysteries, Live! Girls! Dogtown, Balderdash & Piffle, The Project, Diversity and The People Are the Forest; and for film, Red Joan, The Mercy, Private Peaceful, and Brideshead Revisited.

Sarah Twomey plays Saunders. Her theatre work includes Parklife (Birmingham Rep), Filumena (Theatre Royal Windsor), The Pocket Dream (Litchfield Garrick), Accolade (UK tour), The Southbury Child (Chichester Festival Theatre and Bridge Theatre), Venice Preserv'd, The Provoked Wife, A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night (RSC), Mermaid (Shared Experience), and Young Chekhov Trilogy (Chichester Festival Theatre and National Theatre). Her television work includes True Horror – The Witches Prison, The Mind of Herbert Clunderdunk, The Sandman, Call the Midwife, Katie and Koji, and Nightmares; and for film, Paddington in Peru and Men.

Graham Vick plays Maurice Duclos. His previous theatre credits include Mrs Henderson Presents (Noël Coward Theatre), Jersey Boys (Prince Edward Theatre), Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre), Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre), Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Palace), The Far Pavilions (Shaftesbury Theatre), Legally Blonde, Singin' in the Rain (Kilworth House), An Ideal Husband; Bus Stop; Noises Off; Kiss Me, Kate (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, Helen (Shakespeare's Globe), All The Great Books (Abridged) (Reduced Shakespeare Company), Whistle Down the Wind, Spend Spend Spend (UK tours), and Buddy, Grease, Tony ‘n' Tina's Wedding, Forever Plaid (Canada).

Noël Coward was one of the premiere entertainers of the 20th century. A prolific actor, lyricist, composer, singer, director, producer and playwright, Fallen Angels was one of four Coward productions performed on the West End at the same time in 1925 alongside On With The Dance, Hay Fever, and The Vortex. Famed for his acerbic wit as much as his fashion sense, the quartet of productions would promote him to one of the defining British voices of the 1920s. His more than fifty published works also include Cavalcade, Private Lives, Design for Living, Tonight at 8:30, Present Laughter, This Happy Breed and Blithe Spirit.

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