MASTER OF FARCE RAY COONEY
CELEBRATES 70 YEARS IN SHOWBIZ
IN ANTICIPATION OF HIS NEW PRODUCTION OF
OUT OF ORDER
Palace Theatre, Southend
10th July to 15th July 2017
CELEBRATES 70 YEARS IN SHOWBIZ
IN ANTICIPATION OF HIS NEW PRODUCTION OF
OUT OF ORDER
Palace Theatre, Southend
10th July to 15th July 2017
Ray Cooney, (‘THE MASTER OF FARCE’ - The Telegraph), is celebrating both his eighty-fifth birthday and seventy years in showbiz in 2017. He is working with producer Tom O’Connell to launch a brand new season of Ray’s comedies; the first production will be an updated version of his Olivier-Award-winning Westminster comedy Out of Order, which opens in Guildford on 8 March and tours the UK until July, with a stellar cast and directed by Cooney himself.
During the Press Launch on 10th February, it was also announced that Cooney's next touring production will be Run for your Wife, another of his favourites.
As well as Run for your Wife, Ray Cooney’s credits include Funny Money and Two Into One, Caught in the Net and It Runs in the Family. Out of Order was first produced regionally in 1980, under the original title ‘Whose Wife is it Anyway’, with Cooney playing ‘George Pigden’. The show was subsequently produced in the West End in 1990 starring Donald Sinden, Sandra Dickinson and Michael Williams, with Cooney directing.
When Tory Junior Minister Richard Willey tries to spend the evening with Jane, one of the Opposition’s secretaries, in the Westminster Hotel, things don’t exactly go according to plan - starting with the discovery of a body trapped in the hotel’s only unreliable sash window… Enlisting the help of his hapless private secretary George Pigden, Willey’s sticky situation goes from bad to worse, and with the arrival of Jane’s distraught young husband and with the addition of an unscrupulous waiter, Mrs Willey and Nurse Foster things really come to a head!
During the Press Launch on 10th February, it was also announced that Cooney's next touring production will be Run for your Wife, another of his favourites.
As well as Run for your Wife, Ray Cooney’s credits include Funny Money and Two Into One, Caught in the Net and It Runs in the Family. Out of Order was first produced regionally in 1980, under the original title ‘Whose Wife is it Anyway’, with Cooney playing ‘George Pigden’. The show was subsequently produced in the West End in 1990 starring Donald Sinden, Sandra Dickinson and Michael Williams, with Cooney directing.
When Tory Junior Minister Richard Willey tries to spend the evening with Jane, one of the Opposition’s secretaries, in the Westminster Hotel, things don’t exactly go according to plan - starting with the discovery of a body trapped in the hotel’s only unreliable sash window… Enlisting the help of his hapless private secretary George Pigden, Willey’s sticky situation goes from bad to worse, and with the arrival of Jane’s distraught young husband and with the addition of an unscrupulous waiter, Mrs Willey and Nurse Foster things really come to a head!
Ray Cooney said, “Having directed my Olivier Award-Winning play in London and all over the world, and hearing all that wonderful raucous laughter from audiences, it has become one of my favourite plays. I've up-dated it to present day and, fortunately, the basic premise of a philandering politician is as likely today as it was when the play was originally written!”
Shaun Williamson (EastEnders, Extras) stars as ‘George Pigden’; Sue Holderness (Only Fools & Horses, Green Green Grass) as ‘Mrs Willey’; Jeffrey Harmer (Out of Order, Fox on the Fairway) as ‘Richard Willey’; Susie Amy (Footballers’ Wives) as ‘Jane Worthington’; James Holmes (Miranda) as the ‘Waiter’; Arthur Bostrom, (‘Allo ‘Allo) as the ‘Hotel Manager’, with Elizabeth Elvin as ‘Nurse Foster’; Jules Brown as ‘Ronnie Worthington’, and David Warwick as ‘The Body’. Completing the cast are Raphael Bar, Simon Murray, and Kate Sawyer.
David Warwick has been involved in Out or Order since 1990, when he played the ‘Body’ in the tryout at Leatherhead’s Thorndike Theatre (under its initial title of Whose Wife is it Anyway), then in the West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and the subsequent national tour. He went on to direct the play in the UK (Bournemouth & Sonning), Vienna, the Far East (Singapore & Kuala Lumpur) and the USA (Miami & New Jersey). He has also played Pigden & the Manager.
Shaun Williamson (EastEnders, Extras) stars as ‘George Pigden’; Sue Holderness (Only Fools & Horses, Green Green Grass) as ‘Mrs Willey’; Jeffrey Harmer (Out of Order, Fox on the Fairway) as ‘Richard Willey’; Susie Amy (Footballers’ Wives) as ‘Jane Worthington’; James Holmes (Miranda) as the ‘Waiter’; Arthur Bostrom, (‘Allo ‘Allo) as the ‘Hotel Manager’, with Elizabeth Elvin as ‘Nurse Foster’; Jules Brown as ‘Ronnie Worthington’, and David Warwick as ‘The Body’. Completing the cast are Raphael Bar, Simon Murray, and Kate Sawyer.
David Warwick has been involved in Out or Order since 1990, when he played the ‘Body’ in the tryout at Leatherhead’s Thorndike Theatre (under its initial title of Whose Wife is it Anyway), then in the West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and the subsequent national tour. He went on to direct the play in the UK (Bournemouth & Sonning), Vienna, the Far East (Singapore & Kuala Lumpur) and the USA (Miami & New Jersey). He has also played Pigden & the Manager.
Praise for the West End production, which won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy, includes:
“Gleefully funny" - Guardian
"Made me laugh more than any play I have seen in the West End this year" - Evening Standard
"A triumph" - Financial Times
"A textbook model of pyramiding lunacy" - Variety
"Wildly funny" - Telegraph
"An inspired machine designed to cater for one of civilized society's greatest joys, which is to see someone else in the soup" - Sunday Times
Out of Order is produced by Tom O’Connell, Debbie Hicks and Lawrence Myers, with design by Rebecca Brower, Lighting by Jack Weir, Sound by James Nicholson and casting by Marc Frankum CDG.
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#cooneyonstage
Facebook.com/cooneyonstage
www.CooneyOnStage.com
Check out our interviews with Ray Cooney, Shaun Williamson, Sue Holderness, Susie Amy and Elizabeth Elvin
Tickets are available to purchase now from Southend Theatres Box Office by calling 01702 351135 or go online to www.southendtheatres.org.uk