1st Night Photos: Spacey & Goldblum Double Act

They’re “the hottest double act in town”, according to Whatsonstage.com chief critic Michael Coveney, and they’re clearly having a ball. Hollywood actors, and real-life friends, Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey play Hollywood producer buddies Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox in the Old Vic’s 20th anniversary revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, which opened last night (12 February 2008, previews from 1 February) for a limited season to 26 April (See News, 11 Dec 2007).

In Speed-the-Plow, Gould and Fox engage in a verbal boxing match centred around the eternal debate of art versus money. Should Gould go for another bad blockbuster that will make his fortune or put himself on the line for an adaptation of a spiritual, apocalyptic novel offered to him by his beautiful secretary Karen?

The three-hander’s cast is completed by British musical theatre star Laura Michelle Kelly, who makes her play acting debut in the production, alongside Goldblum making his West End debut. The Old Vic production is directed by Matthew Warchus and designed by Rob Howell – whose most recent collaborations include Boeing-Boeing and The Lord of the Rings – with lighting by Paul Pyant.

For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer Dan Wooller was on hand for the post-show party at One Aldwych with the company, director Matthew Warchus, designer Rob Howell, Old Vic chief executive Sally Greene, and other first night guests including Goldie, Laura Wade, Samuel West, Imogen Lloyd Webber, Nick Moran, Joely Richardson, Trudie Styler, Christopher Hampton, Eddie Redmayne, Derren Brown, Ben Miles, Roger Allam, Paul Keating, Anthony Page, Ian McKellen, Robert Lindsay, Sandi Toksvig, Elliot Cowan and Richard Wilson.

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