Jonathan Harvey’s award-winning play Beautiful Thing will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year with a new production at the Arts theatre starring Suranne Jones.
Beautiful Thing, which will play from 13 April (press night 17 April) to 25 May, was first staged at the Bush theatre in 1993 before transferring to the West End.
The tender tale about two young men from an inner city housing estate who fall in love earned Harvey an Olivier Award nomination in 1995 before being adapted for the screen the following year.
Jones, who has worked with the writer of hit TV series Gimme, Gimme, Gimme on ITV’s Weatherfield-set soap for which Harvey is a regular contributor, has previously appeared on stage in Top Girls at the Trafalgar Studios and A Few Good Men at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, where she starred alongside Jon Barrowman and Rob Lowe.
Since leaving Coronation Street, Jones has remained a regular face on screen starring in A Touch Of Cloth, The Secret Of Crickley Hall and Doctor Who.
Beautiful Thing is directed by Nikolai Foster, an Associate Director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse whose theatre credits include Flashdance in the West End and Hay Fever at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
Since premiering almost 20 years ago, Harvey’s urban love story has been produced more than 25 times and boasted a number of well known cast members including Olivier Award-winner Jonny Lee Miller, This House’s Philip Glenister, star of Downton Abbey Hugh Bonneville and Notting Hill’s Rhys Ifans.
Beautiful Thing will open at the Arts theatre following the world premiere of new musical The Tailor-Made Man starring pop star Faye Tozer from 13 February to 6 April.