Roger Rees will return to the West End this autumn with the London premiere of his one-man show What You Will.
An exploration of all things Shakespearean, the 90-minute production will play at the Apollo theatre for a three-week season from 18 September to 6 October.
Drawing on his 22 years experience at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Rees relives the struggles and amusements of his formative years as an actor through a host of characters from Juliet’s foolish nurse and gory Macbeth to Noël Coward and Stevie Wonder.
The Tony and Olivier Award-winning actor, who in an interview for Official London Theatre in 2010 said “were [Shakespeare] alive today, [he] probably would be making movies in Hollywood” is himself a star of the big screen having appeared in films The Prestige and Frida, and in TV series Cheers, The West Wing and Grey’s Anatomy.
Last seen on the London stage alongside Ian McKellen in Waiting For Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Rees has enjoyed an extensive and successful theatre career, during which he picked up an Olivier Award for his lead role in The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby.
What You Will, which was last performed at Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2010 following its premiere in Washington, will arrive at the Apollo theatre prior to the recently announced concert by Wicked star Idina Menzel and following Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.