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Cast: Pirate McNally Lands Boeing; We the People

Kevin McNally (pictured) will join the West End cast of Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre, taking over from Adrian Dunbar as Parisian architect playboy Bernard for four weeks only from 3 September 2007.

McNally has just been seen on the big screen as Captain Jack Sparrow’s first mate Gibbs in the Pirates of the Caribbean. His other film credits include De-Lovely, The Phantom of the Opera, Johnny English, Sliding Doors, Irish Jam, Entrapment and the upcoming Valkyrie with Tom Cruise, while on television he’s been seen in Life on Mars, Bloodlines, Dunkirk, Spooks, Shackleton, Rab C Nesbitt, Enigma and Diana. McNally’s extensive stage credits include The Lady in the Van, Dead Funny and Plunder in the West End, Naked (Almeida) and World Music (Donmar Warehouse).

Bernard thought that, with the help of his put-upon housekeeper Bertha, he could cope with the demands, and timetables, of three air hostess fiancées. When old school chum Robert arrives, Bernard relishes the chance to show his wide-eyed friend his first-class operation at work. Unfortunately, schedules change, flights are delayed and a new turbo-charged Boeing aircraft is introduced, causing chaos.

The current cast of Boeing-Boeing also features Rhea Perlman from American TV series Cheers, who has made her West End debut playing Bertha (See News, 4 Jun 2007), with Neil Stuke as Robert and Doon Mackichan, Amy Nuttall and Elena Roger as the air hostesses.

When it premiered in the Sixties, Marc Camoletti’s play, which is translated from the French by Beverley Cross, held the world record for the longest-running comedy in the West End, playing over 2,000 performances before transferring to Broadway. This production, opened on 15 February (previews from 3 February), is directed by Matthew Warchus and designed by Rob Howell, with lighting by Hugh Vanstone. It’s presented by Sonia Friedman Productions, Act Productions, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert G Bartner and Bob Boyett. It’s currently booking to 20 October 2007.

At Shakespeare’s Globe (See News, 6 Feb 2007), Robert Bowman leads the cast of the world premiere of We, The People, the latest play by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, about the framing of the American Constitution. Bowman, who plays James Madison, has most recently appeared on stage in the RSC’s West End revival of The Crucible. His other credits include Ivanov, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Spinning into Butter and The Oresteia on stage, Kingdom, The Trial of Tony Blair and The Whistle Blower on screen.

It is 1787 and the frail government of the recently independent United States of America, menaced by the powers of old Europe and reeling from internal rebellion, is suffering a crisis of identity. What sort of country should America be? Throughout a long, humid, Philadelphia summer, a group of able and passionate men force themselves into one room to argue out the guiding principles of the new nation. What they came up with proves to be one of the most important - and radical - democratic experiments of the last 250 years.

We, The People, which is directed by Charlotte Westenra, forges a drama out of surviving speeches, letters and official documents from the country’s founding fathers including Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and George Washington. It runs in rep at the open-air Globe for 14 performances only from 6 September (previews from 2 September) to 6 October 2007.

Bowman is joined in the cast by Benjamin Askew, John Bett, Joe Caffrey, Juldeh Camara, Ramon Camin, Seroca Davis, Chris Godwin, Trystan Gravelle, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Cush Jumbo, Will Mannering, David Oakes, Rhiannon Oliver, Paul Rider, John Stahl, Michelle Terry, Andrew Vincent and Thomas Wheatley.

- by Terri Paddock

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