Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro will be decking the halls with boughs of holly at London’s Noël Coward Theatre this winter, as she joins the cast of the Jim Broadbent-led A Christmas Carol.
Adeel Akhtar, Amelia Bullmore and Keir Charles will also appear in the seasonal favourite, which runs from 30 November to 30 January in the West End, alongside puppeteers Jack Parker and Kim Scopes.
Though Broadbent will undoubtedly play humbug-shouting miser Ebenezer Scrooge, the multiple roles – presumably, given the cast size – that Spiro and co will take on are as yet unconfirmed. It will be a glorious Christmas surprise for audiences.
The casting brings Spiro, who won Oliviers for her performances in Merrily We Roll Along and Hello, Dolly!, back to the London stage for the first time since the acclaimed Di And Viv And Rose earlier this year.
Bullmore, who wrote Di And Viv And Rose, was among the triumphant cast of the Old Vic’s production of The Norman Conquests that transferred to Broadway, while Charles is an Royal Shakespeare Company regular and Akhtar is best known for Channel 4 thriller Utopia.
Charles Dickens’ classic novella tells of the money-lender Scrooge, whose less than charitable view of humanity is challenged one Christmas when a series of spirits take him on a journey through time, forcing him to reassess his view of the world.
This new version is written by The 39 Steps’ playwright Patrick Barlow and directed by innovative theatre company Improbable’s Artistic Director Phelim McDermott. It opens at the Noël Coward Theatre following the run of hit DNA drama Photograph 51, which stars Nicole Kidman.