Dates for the forthcoming West End run of Mary Chase’s iconic comedy Harvey, starring the previously announced James Dreyfus alongside Olivier Award winner Maureen Lipman, have now been confirmed.
The revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play will follow its premiere at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with a strictly limited season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 17 March to 2 May.
Dreyfus will lead the company as Elwood P Dowd, a man who has an unwavering friendship with a six-foot tall invisible rabbit named Harvey. In order to save the family’s reputation, Elwood’s sister Veta takes him to see psychiatrist Dr William Chumley. When the doctor mistakenly commits anxiety-ridden Veta instead of her brother it sets off a hilarious whirlwind of confusion and chaos as everyone tries to catch a man and his intangible bunny.
Lipman, whose numerous credits include West End hits When We Are Married and A Little Night Music, will follow her most recent London stage role in thriller Daytona to star as Veta in acclaimed director Lindsay Posner’s production of the classic charming comedy.
Gimme Gimme Gimme star Dreyfus and Lipman will be joined in the cast by television regular and Betty Blues Eyes star David Bamber, former Wicked cast member Desmond Barrit, RSC regulars Felicity Dean and Youssef Kerkour, Amanda Boxer, who was last seen in the West End in last year’s hit Relative Values, Sally Scott (King Charles III), Jack Hawkins, who last appeared in the West End in 2011’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Linal Haft (Cabaret, Billy Elliot The Musical) and Ingrid Oliver, who makes her West End debut in the production.
Harvey was first seen on Broadway in 1944 before James Stewart starred in the classic 1950s film adaptation. Before it arrives in the West End, London theatregoers can catch a brief run of Posner’s production at the Richmond Theatre where it will play from 3 to 7 March.