Actress and comedian Tracey Ullman will return to the London stage after more than two decades to appear in Stephen Poliakoff’s My City at the Almeida theatre.
The British-born star, who has lived and worked in America since emigrating in the 1980s, is most famous for The Tracey Ullman Show which led to the creation of one of the most successful cartoons of all time, The Simpsons.
My City, which opens on 15 September (previews from 8 September) and runs to 5 November, is Poliakoff’s first new play for 12 years. The drama poses the question ‘How would you feel if, 15 years after you last saw them, you bumped into the one person who had the biggest influence on your life?’
Ullman will play an inspirational headmistress. When her former pupil Richard Kenton finds her lying on a park bench in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, he becomes reacquainted with her and the other teachers, finding himself once again inspired by their imaginative lessons and tales of London.
As well as a TV career that included early collaborations with numerous British comedy actors including Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes in A Kick Up The Eighties, and Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in Girls On Top, Ullman also appeared in West End musicals Grease and The Rocky Horror Show.
Her theatrical big break came when she appeared in Four In A Million and Rita, Sue And Bob Too at the Royal Court, the former winning her a Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising New Actress.
Since moving to the US, the actress has become a familiar face on television appearing on numerous shows including Ally McBeal, Tracey Ullman A Class Act and Tracey Ullman In The Trailer Tales. Ullman also boasts extensive film credits including I Could Never Be Your Women, Bullets Over Broadway and I Love You To Death.
Full casting for My City is yet to be announced.
CM