Omid Djalili
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Omid Djalili returns to West End to star in Orton's Butler

Omid Djalili is returning to the West End to play Dr Rance in a revival of Joe Orton’s comedy What the Butler Saw, which opens at the Vaudeville Theatre on 16 May (previews from 4 May).

The production, which will play a strictly limited season to 25 August, is being directed by Sean Foley, who recently helmed the critically-acclaimed stage adaptation of The Ladykillers.

Djalili was last in the West End in 2009 when he took over from fellow actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson as Fagin in Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. His many screen credits include BBC's The Omid Djalili Show, the US sitcom Whoopi with Whoopi Goldberg and the films The Mummy, Gladiator and Pirates of the Caribbean III.

He's currently on a UK stand-up tour, which finishes on 25 February at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw was first produced in 1969, two years after the author's untimely death. In it, sex-obsessed psychiatrist Dr Prentice is frustrated in his attempts to seduce a secretary by the arrival of his nymphomaniac wife, over-enthusiastic inspector Dr Rance and a dim-witted policeman.

The new revival is being produced by MJE Productions, whose credits include the West End musical Ghost and the 2009 production of Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane starring Imelda Staunton and Mathew Horne.

- by Theo Bosanquet

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Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	What the Butler Saw Listing Page

Internal Links
	Butler sees West End revival in May with Djalili? - 17th Feb 2012 Gossip
	Omid Djalili - Tour of Duty (Manchester) - 22nd Jan 2012 Reviews
	Omid Djalili Succeeds Atkinson as Fagin in Oliver! - 11th Feb 2009 News
	Brief Encounter With ... Omid Djalili - 3rd Aug 2009 Interviews
	What the Butler Saw - 17th May 2012 reviews
	1st Night Photos: A host of stars see Orton's Butler - 17th May 2012 photos
	Review Round-up: What the Butler Saw at the Vaudeville - 17th May 2012 roundup
	McInnerny, Bond & Moffett join Djalili in What the Butler Saw - 15th Mar 2012 news
	Paul Merton's Out of My Head comes to Vaudeville, 1 October - 7th Mar 2012 news