Little old landladies are to get their revenge all over the country after Graham Linehan's stage adaptation of The Ladykillers, currently playing at the West End's Gielgud theatre, announced that it will embark on a tour of the UK and Ireland.
After receiving five Olivier award nominations last week, The Ladykillers will start its tour in Plymouth on 14 September. The production will continue to tour into 2013, with further dates to be announced.
As well as garnering positive reviews, Linehan's adaptation, which turns the classic Ealing comedy into a theatrical farce, has already proved a big earner for its producers Fiery Angel. Following a pre-West End run in Liverpool, the show recouped its entire £750,000 outlay only six weeks after opening in London. During the Christmas period, it broke the Gielgud's box office record, taking just short of £400,000 in one week, after which it was extended by almost two months. The West End version, which stars Peter Capaldi and Ben Miller, will close on April 14.
A new cast will be announced for the tour, which is scheduled to stop off Edinburgh, Bath and Birmingham among other cities this year, but Fiery Angel's Edward Snape has suggested that a West End return could be possible. He told The Stage in January: "I think the summer period is a bit of an unknown quantity with the Olympics and everything, but more importantly, it just feels that we would be very happy to come back when everyone is feeling ready to have another go."
The Ladykillers tells the story of a ragbag group of criminals, led by the scheming Professor Marcus, who lodge with Mrs Wilberforce while planning a bank heist. However, as the plan unravels, Professor Marcus's team turn on one another, with painfully (if painfully funny) results.
In his four-star review for the Guardian, Michael Billington described the production as "an exuberantly inventive evening, one existing in its own right at a tangent to the original".
Sean Foley's production is up for best new play, best director, best set design and best sound design, while Marcia Warren, who plays Mrs Wilberforce, is nominated for best actress.
