Daldry Inspector Calls Again at Novello Post Spring

After the premature closure of new alt-rock musical Spring Awakening (See News, 12 May 2009), the Novello Theatre will play host to an old West End play favourite, Stephen Daldry‘s multi award-winning production of An Inspector Calls, which will start performances on 22 September 2009, initially booking through to 14 November.

Daldry first mounted his neo-expressionistic reworking of Priestley’s classic 1946 thriller at the National Theatre a decade ago. It had subsequent seasons at the West End’s Aldwych Theatre and on Broadway. It returned to the West End and ran at the Garrick Theatre for nearly six years from – October 1995 to April 2001 – before taking a summer break last year and then re-opening on 20 September 2001 at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre, where it closed on 11 May 2002 (See News, 29 Apr 2002).

With those seasons and extensive touring, Daldry’s production has clocked up over 4,000 performances worldwide to date and reportedly holds the record as the longest running play revival in history.

In An Inspector Calls, the comfortable and complacent middle class world of the Birlings is thrown into chaos when a mysterious police inspector arrives at the family home one night to enquire about the death of a young local girl. In total, the acclaimed production has won 19 major awards – including three Oliviers and four Tonys – in London and New York.

The production is designed by Ian MacNeil with lighting by Rick Fisher and music by Stephen Warbeck. No casting has yet been announced for the new West End dates.

Since An Inspector Calls, Stephen Daldry has achieved more international success with Billy Elliot on both stage and screen – the Broadway production now in the running for 15 Tony Awards (See News, 5 May 2009) – and has been Oscar nominated for Billy as well as his subsequent films The Hours and The Reader. The National, meanwhile, has this month returned to Priestley for the first time since Inspector with Rupert Goold’s revival of Time and the Conways.

Currently at the Novello, despite widespread critical acclaim, the UK premiere of the six-time Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening last week posted early closing notices and will now close on 30 May after a West End run of two months (See News, 12 May 2009).

– by Terri Paddock