Cast update for Shakespeare in Love at the Noel Coward

Additional cast members have been announced for the stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love, which opens at the Noel Coward Theatre on 23 July 2014, following previews from 2 July - booking to 25 Oct 2014.

Joining the previously announced Tom Bateman (Will Shakespeare) and Lucy Briggs-Owen (Viola De Lessps) will be: Ian Bartholomew (Tilney), Tony Bell (Ralph), Anna Carteret (Queen Elizabeth), Paul Chahidi (Henslowe), David Ganley (Burbage), Richard Howard (Sir Robert De Lesseps), Harry Jardine (Sam), Abigail McKern (Nurse), David Oakes (Marlowe), Patrick Osborne (Mr Wabash), Alistair Petrie (Wessex), Doug Rao (Ned Alleyn), Ferdy Roberts (Fennyman), Colin Ryan (John Webster), Gaiety (Crab the dog).

Ian Bartholomew recently performed in Oh, What A Lovely War! at Theatre Royal, Stratford East and has also appeared in The Iceman Cometh at the Almeida and Old Vic and The Front Page at the Donmar Warehouse. Tony Bell's most recent London stage credits include Treasure Island and A Man For All Seasons at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew at The Old Vic and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Comedy Theatre. Anna Carteret last appeared in London in Salt, Root and Roe at the Trafalgar Studios. Previously to this, she performed in Burnt By The Sun at the National Theatre's Lyttelton and Family Reunion at the Donmar Warehouse. Paul Chahidi recently appeared on the London stage in Twelfth Night and Richard III, which played both at Shakespeare's Globe and also at the Apollo.

This brand new stage production has been adapted by Lee Hall from the Academy Award-winning screenplay by Marc Nolan and Tom Stoppard.

Shakespeare in Love will be directed by Declan Donnellan, featuring designs by Nick Ormerod, lighting by Neil Austin, choreography by Jane Gibson and sound by Simon Baker. The production is a joint venture between Disney Theatricals and Sonia Friedman Productions, and is described as a 'sweeping romantic comedy'. As a promising young playwright struggles with writers block, his own romantic experience of forbidden desire for a noblewoman inspires him to write one of the greatest love stories of all time, 'Romeo and Juliet'.