Mr Foote’s Other Leg transfers to the West End.
Following a sell-out run at Hampstead Theatre, Mr Foote’s Other Leg by Ian Kelly will transfer to the Theatre Royal Haymarket, opening on 28 October for a limited twelve-week run until 23 January 2016.
The production opened officially at the Hampstead Theatre on 21 September to strong reviews with critics praising both the text and the central performance from Simon Russell Beale: “Simon Russell Beale’s performance will not be so easily forgotten. We already know he’s one of our funniest, boldest and brilliant of all stage actors; here he pulls out all the stops…” (LondonTheatre.co.uk).
It will conclude its run at the Hampstead Theatre on 17 October 2015, before transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
The cast will include Simon Russell Beale (Samuel Foote), Dervla Kirwan (Peg Woffington), Joseph Millson (David Garrick), Micah Balfour (Frank Barber), Jenny Galloway (Mrs Garner), Ian Kelly (Prince George), Forbes Masson (John Hunter), Colin Stinton (Benjamin Franklin/Charles Macklin), Sophie Bleasdale (Miss Chudleigh) and Joshua Elliott (Hallam).
“In Georgian London no one is more famous than Samuel Foote. Satirist, impressionist and dangerous comedian, he has become a celebrity in a city, and at the moment in time, when the concept of selling personality was born. He even has the ear of the king. Adored by many, despised by some, Foote finds himself at the sharp end of attacks from the press…and a surgeon’s knife. And in an age obsessed with fame, his colleagues from the worlds of science and the stage – from Benjamin Franklin to David Garrick – begin to wonder: does fame make you mad?”
The production is directed by Richard Eyre and is adapted by Ian Kelly from his book, Mr Foote’s Other Leg: Tragedy, Comedy and Murder in Georgian London (Picador, 2012).
Samuel Foote was theatre manager of the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1746 and worked as a writer, actor and satirist throughout this life. He was a well known celebrity in Georgian London, and helped secure the royal patent for the Haymarket which continues to this day.
