Rowan Atkinson is to star as Fagin in the forthcoming West End stage production of Oliver!<\/p>\n
The cast will also include the winners of the BBC show I\u2019d Do Anything – one actress will play Nancy and three boys will take turns to play the lead role.<\/p>\n
Blackadder star Atkinson, 53, said the role was a long-held ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 1980s I enjoyed doing a lot of West End theatre and since then have been distracted very much by Mr Bean and film-making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been thinking for some time about returning to the stage and the idea of the role of Fagin, which has long intrigued me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome time ago I even played the role in a school production [so it] seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2019Perfect marriage\u2019<\/p>\n
Sir Cameron Mackintosh\u2019s production of the Lionel Bart musical opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in December. It will feature a cast 100-strong cast.<\/p>\n
Sir Cameron said he had been in discussions with Atkinson \u201con and off for many years\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me this idea has always promised the perfect marriage of a brilliant mercurial role with a brilliant mercurial comic actor,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The 1994 London Palladium production of Oliver! played 1,366 performances over three years and made more than \u00a340m at the box office.<\/p>\n
Atkinson made his big-screen debut in 1983\u2019s unofficial James Bond picture Never Say Never Again.<\/p>\n
His other film credits include Johnny English, Four Weddings And A Funeral and Love, Actually. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rowan Atkinson is to star as Fagin in the forthcoming West End stage production of Oliver! The cast will also include the winners of the BBC show I\u2019d Do Anything – one actress will play Nancy and three boys will take turns to play the lead role. Blackadder star Atkinson, 53, said the role was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cast-crew"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p54TBn-87","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=396","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":0},"title":"Rowan Atkinson to return to the stage","author":"admin","date":"7 October 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Original story: BBC News.co.uk Rowan Atkinson is returning to the stage after the success of his role as Fagin in the West End musical Oliver! The Blackadder star told the BBC he would appear in a play in late 2012. \u201cI love theatre, I hadn\u2019t done it for 20 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":840,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=840","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":1},"title":"Rowan Returns To West End","author":"admin","date":"9 June 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: What's on Stage Rowan Atkinson will return to the West End early next year to play the title role in a revival of Simon Gray's Quartermaine's Terms. Produced by Michael Codron and directed by Richard Eyre, it opens at Wyndham's Theatre on 29 January 2013 (previews from 23 January)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":415,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=415","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":2},"title":"Blackadder Goes Forth to the West End","author":"admin","date":"28 December 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A week in the life of Rowan Atkinson. On Christmas Day, he and his wife Sunetra slipped quietly into a school in Kennington, south London, to bring some cheer to 2,000 troubled children brought together by the charity Kids Company. The comedian\u2019s eyes welled up with tears, said one witness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":641,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=641","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":3},"title":"Blackadder – The Movie official?","author":"admin","date":"29 July 1997","format":false,"excerpt":"Evening Standard (West End final ed.)- 29th July 1997 Blackadder set for film role in the millennium By Tim Cooper Rowan Atkinson is set to follow his Mr. Bean film by bringing Blackadder to the big screen in a special new \u201cmovie for the millennium\u201d. The comedy star, whose Bean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Specials"","block_context":{"text":"Specials","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":422,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=422","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":4},"title":"Rowan Atkinson to revisit Blackadder","author":"admin","date":"24 November 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to long-standing, much respected Blackadder Hall visitor, nay part-of-the-furniture, John D. for spotting this gem. Rowan Atkinson has granted his first in-depth interview about his iconic Blackadder role in Tiger Aspect\u2019s second documentary on the classic BBC sitcom. Atkinson will describe his personal experience of his involvement in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":462,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=462","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":5},"title":"Cunning Blackadder plan foiled","author":"admin","date":"6 October 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: SundaySun.co.uk TELLY producers had a cunning plan to mark the 25th anniversary of Blackadder. The idea was to show clips from the popular series, accompanied by interviews with the cast. All the major actors agreed to take part . . . with the exception of star Rowan Atkinson. And,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Specials"","block_context":{"text":"Specials","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}