Theatre News

Enron Adds 14 Weeks at Noel Coward, New Cast

| London's West End |

17 February 2010

Following its third round of glowing opening night notices last month (See Review Round-up, 3 Feb 2010), Enron has extended its run at the West End’s Noel Coward Theatre by 14 weeks.

Rupert Goold’s award-winning Headlong production of Lucy Prebble’s corporate fraud drama premiered last July at Chichester Festival before moving to the Royal Court in September for another sell-out season. It transferred on 26 January 2010 (previews from 16 January) to the West End, where it was initially booking until 8 May only.

The production will now continue until 14 August 2010 (coincidentally, the ninth anniversary of the whistle-blowing letter that precipitated Enron’s collapse), with a new cast – currently being auditioned – taking over from Samuel West, Tom Goodman-Hill, Tim Pigott-Smith, Amanda Drew and other members of the original company from 9 May. Meanwhile, the play will receive its Broadway premiere, with an American cast led by Norbert Leo Butz and Stephen Kunken, at New York’s Broadhurst Theatre in April.

Described as an “epic tragedy”, Enron is inspired by the real events surrounding the Texas-headquartered energy company that filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The current West End cast is led by Samuel West as the corporation’s president Jeffrey Skilling, alongside Tim Pigott-Smith as chairman Ken Lay, Amanda Drew as a fictional executive and Tom Goodman-Hill as Fastow, a financial whizz-kid.

The production has already won Best Director trophies at both the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Headlong artistic director Rupert Goold, and been nominated for numerous Whatsonstage.com and Laurence Olivier Awards (the latter announced on 21 March), including Best New Play, Best Director and Best Actor for Samuel West.