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Perry & Driver Open Top Selling Sexual Perversity

The high-profile West End revival of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago - starring Friends' Matthew Perry and British screen siren Minnie Driver - opens tonight (14 May 2003, following previews from 3 May) at the Comedy Theatre. Well ahead of the critics' verdicts, the one-act play has become one of the West End's hottest tickets.

On Whatsonstage.com, Sexual Perversity in Chicago is the first play (notwithstanding The Breath of Life with its duo of Dames and exclusive distribution channel) to outsell all the blockbuster musicals - including Mamma Mia!, The Lion King and Queen's We Will Rock You - and top the Most Popular tickets ranking, updated daily.

Americans Matthew Perry (internationally famous for playing Chandler in TV sitcom Friends, now in its ninth season) and Hank Azaria (a triple Emmy winner for his voicing of The Simpsons whose other screen credits include The Birdcage, Cradle Will Rock and Quiz Show) and British film star Minnie Driver (Hope Springs, Good Will Hunting, Grosse Pointe Blank, Circle of Friends) are all making their West End debuts (though Driver previously guested in The Play What I Wrote).

London stage actress Kelly Reilly (A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Graduate, London Cuckolds, Blasted, Three Sisters) completes the four-strong cast in the new production, which is directed by Lindsay Posner and produced by Mark Rubinstein, Sonia Friedman and Old Vic Productions.

Written in 1974, Sexual Perversity in Chicago is a one-act drama about four young people looking for love. Danny (Perry) and his friend Bernie (Azaria) are two 'regular' guys in pursuit of women. Deborah (Reilly) and her roommate Joan (Driver) are two normal girls, trying to pursue men without actively appearing to do so. When Danny and Deborah begin an affair, the other two watch cynically from the sidelines, exerting subtle but hostile pressure.

- by Terri Paddock

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