Hall's Cooking with Elvis Closes 2 Sept

Lee Hall's Cooking with Elvis, has confirmed that it will finish its run at the Whitehall Theatre next month at the end of its booking period. The black comedy, featuring comedian Frank Skinner, opened in the West End on 14 March 2000, following previews from 6 March, and will close on 2 September after a run of six months.

The play, which was a hit at last year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, centres around a 14-year-old girl who becomes obsessed with food while her mother goes on the pull for a toyboy after a car accident has reduced her husband, a part-time Elvis impersonator, to a vegetative state. Enter an unlikely charmer called Stuart, played by Skinner, to shake up the dysfunctional family further. The production is directed by Max Roberts and also stars Sharon Percy, Charlie Hardwick and Joe Caffrey.

Lee Hall is considered one of the country's hottest young playwrights. In the first four months of this year, he had a total of four productions transfer to London. In addition to Cooking with Elvis, there was his adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Young Vic; Spoonface Steinberg which had a three-week run at the New Ambassadors in January; and his version of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, produced by Shared Experience, which played at the same theatre in March. The obviously enamoured New Ambassadors will also be bringing The Servant of Two Masters back to the West End for a Christmas run from 14 December 2000 to 3 February 2001.

Hall's previous theatre credits include the much lauded Mr Puntila and His Man Matti, another Brecht adaptation that was co-produced by the Right Size and the Almeida, which was also an Edinburgh festival hit and went on to a nationwide tour and yet another run in the West End last year.

Related Content