EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Brooks leads cast for new production of Beautiful Thing

Nikolai Foster‘s celebrated anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey‘s Beautiful Thing returns in 2015 with a brand new cast for an 18 week UK tour, opening in Canterbury in March, then visiting Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester, Cardiff and Brighton, with further dates to be announced.

Charlie Brooks, last seen on stage in Our Country’s Good at Liverpool Playhouse and best known for her role as Janine Butcher in EastEnders, will lead the cast as ‘Sandra’. She is joined by Thomas Law, whose roles include Peter Beale in EastEnders and most recently as a young Simon Pegg in blockbuster film The World’s End, will star as ‘Ste’. Sam Jackson, whose roles include Alex Henley in Skins (E4), Jack in Drifters (E4) and as Billy Casper in Kes at Derby Theatre, will star as ‘Jamie’.

Beautiful Thing is an urban love story between two young men set on an inner city housing estate. It tells the story of teenager Jamie’s relationship with classmate and neighbour, Ste. Together the two boys find comedy, warmth and the music of Mama Cass through their loud-mouthed next door neighbour Leah. Harvey combines comedy with drama in his critically acclaimed award winning play.

Director Foster said: "Beautiful Thing empowers everybody who sees it. I'm honoured to be revisiting Jonathan's exceptional play once again, this time bringing it to towns and cities across the UK, where I know it will make a positive difference to many lives."

Executive producer Tom O’Connell said, "Having produced the original anniversary production, I am honoured to now partner with Nottingham Playhouse and Curve theatre, Leicester, two fantastic producing theatres, to bring Jonathan's hit comedy to the stage one more time. Nikolai and I made a promise to each other that if we ever re-visited his production it would play cities and theatres that it hadn't been to before. We feel with this new cast and with some new elements added to the show, this new production will have audiences smiling all the way home."