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Rested Hudd Rejoins Solid Gold Cadillac, 13 SepDate: 9 September 2004
After announcing Roy Hudd’s withdrawal last week (See News, 6 Sep 2004), producers of The Solid Gold Cadillac have today announced that the comedian will now be rejoining the 50th anniversary production from next Monday, 13 September 2004.
Suffering from exhaustion, Hudd stepped down on medical advice. He has been resting since Friday 3 September. Doctors have now assessed him as fit and able to return to the show. He will play next week at Malvern Festival Theatre and then accompany the transfer to the West End’s Garrick Theatre on 27 September 2004 (previews from 22 September).
The Solid Gold Cadillac also stars Patricia Routledge as Mrs Laura Partridge, an elderly lady who holds a few shares in the General Products Corporation of America. Recently retired from the stage, Partridge decides to use some of her new-found leisure to attend a shareholders’ AGM. At first, the newly promoted senior management of the GPCA barely registers her presence. But not for long. When it comes to confirming their massive salary increases by proxy vote, they find she has some rather awkward questions to ask.
Hudd, who plays GPCA’s Edward McKeever, is well known for his TV programme The Roy Hudd Show and, since 1975, his long-running Radio 2 programme The News Huddlines. His stage credits include Underneath the Arches (for which he won an Olivier Award), Oliver!, Babes in the Woods, Hard Times, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
In his absence this week at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, where The Solid Gold Cadillac continues until this Saturday (11 September), the role of McKeever has been played by Hudd’s understudy Derek Howard.
Written by George S Kaufman and Howard Teichman, The Solid Gold Cadillac premiered on Broadway in 1953 and was made into a 1956 film with Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas. It had its London stage premiere in 1965 in a production starring Margaret Rutherford and Sidney James.
The nine-strong cast of the new production also features David Ross, Lucy Briers, Fred Ridgeway, Nick Haverson and Kate-Lynn Hocking. The Solid Gold Cadillac is directed by West Yorkshire Playhouse artistic director Ian Brown.
- by Terri Paddock
