Theatre News

Smith & Purefoy Join Miller in Nunn’s Flare Path

Editorial Staff
London's West End

Fresh from her musical success in Legally Blonde, for which she’s been nominated in the 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards (which she’ll also co-host on Sunday 20 February), Sheridan Smith will return to the West End in one of the year’s biggest plays: opposite Sienna Miller in Trevor Nunn’s revival of Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path, kicking off Nunn’s year-long direction of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.

Smith and Miller will star alongside Rome’s James Purefoy, playing a famous heartthrob film star in Rattigan’s 1942 play about a wartime love triangle, inspired by the author’s own experiences during the Second World War. Others announced today for the cast include: Joe Armstrong, Sarah Crowden and Clive Woods. The production runs from 10 March to 4 June 2011 (previews from 4 March).

In Flare Path, young bomber pilot Teddy is celebrating a reunion with his actress wife Patricia (Miller). Events take an unexpected turn, when film star Peter (Purefoy) arrives and an urgent bombing mission over Germany is ordered. As the night gives way to dawn, Patricia finds herself at the centre of a passionate conflict of love and loyalty as unpredictable as the war in the skies. Smith plays barmaid Doris, married to a Polish count.

Flare Path premiered at the West End’s Apollo Theatre in 1942 and was subsequently made into the 1945 film The Way of the Stars, starring Michael Redgrave.

Nunn’s new production, staged during Rattigan’s centenary year, is designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis and produced by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Tom McKitterick and the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company in association with Act Productions Ltd.

Details have not yet been announced for the rest of Nunn’s Haymarket season, though it’s expected to include a Shakespeare, and revivals of a Tom Stoppard play and Stephen Sondheim’s musical Follies.

Ahead of Flare Path, on 20 February 2011 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Sheridan Smith will co-host the 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards Concert with Christopher Biggins and Queen of Comedy Miranda Hart. Winners of the 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards, the only theatre prize-giving decided exclusively by the ticket-buying public, will be announced on the night. Voting closes at midnight on 31 January.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE BY 31 JANUARY!

Concert tickets, which range from £25-£47.50, are nearly sold out! They can be booked by phone on 0844 482 5133 or online at www.whatsonstage.com/concert.