Sophiya Haque, Harry Hepple, Mark Lewis Jones and John Marquez will join the previously announced Simon Russell Beale in Peter Nichols’ Privates On Parade, which kicks off the newly formed Michael Grandage Company’s first season next month.
Coronation Street’s Haque was last seen on the London stage in Wah! Wah! Girls, which played as part of the World Stages London season this summer. While the actress has appeared on the big screen in films including Wanted and The Rising, her other stage credits include The Far Pavilions and Bombay Dreams.
Lewis Jones, who has appeared in films including Troy, The Other Boleyn Girl and Master And Commander, is a regular at Shakespeare’s Globe and the National Theatre having appeared in productions of Antony And Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and The Winter’s Tale at the Globe, and Cardiff East, Volpone and Under Milk Wood at the National.
Stars of this summer’s Regent’s Park Open Air theatre hit Ragtime The Musical, Hepple and Marquez are also known for their work on both stage and screen. Hepple, whose screen credits include Hustle and Misfits, has appeared on stage in productions including The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Donmar Warehouse, while Marquez has appeared in television series including Doc Martin and Hotel Babylon and on stage in productions including Ding Dong The Wicked and Mother Teresa Is Dead at the Royal Court, the RSC’s The Taming Of The Shrew, House Of Games at the Almeida theatre and A Flea In Her Ear at the Old Vic.
The quintet of stage and screen actors will be joined in the cast by Chris Chan (There’s Only One Wayne Lee at the Southwark Playhouse), Brodie Ross (Filumena at the Almeida), Sam Swainsbury (RSC’s The Taming Of The Shrew), Joseph Timms (Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse), Sadao Ueda (Twin Stars at the Unicorn) and Angus Wright (Complicite’s The Master And Margarita, War Horse at the NT).
Playing from 1 December to 2 March at the Noël Coward theatre, Privates On Parade tells the story of Private Steven Flowers, who is posted to the song and dance unit in South East Asia, where he serves under the flamboyant Captain Terri Dennis and discovers it takes more than just a uniform to become a man.
Privates On Parade will be followed in the season by Peter And Alice starring Skyfall co-stars Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple Of Inishmaan, A Midsummer Night’s Dream starring Sheridan Smith and David Walliams and Jude Law in Henry V, with more than 100,000 £10 tickets being sold across the five productions to encourage new audiences.