Anthony Sher to Star as 'Kean' in West End Production

According to Whatsonstage.com, Olivier Award-winner Anthony Sher will play the fiery 19th century Shakespearean actor of the title in an upcoming West End production of Jean Paul Sartre's Kean, which will begin previews at the Apollo Theatre on May 24th and open on May 30th for a limited run.

The article states that the play about Edmund Kean is "a tragic-comedy about a man with an insatiable appetite for romantic adventure, an ego as big as a stage and an inability to rescue himself from jeopardy."  The production will be directed by Adrian Noble, and will feature a translation by Frank Hauser.  Sartre, who balanced his career as an existentialist philosopher with writing plays such as No Exit and The Flies, adapted Kean from an earlier play by Alexandre Dumas.  Kean previously played a four-venue U.K. tour.

Kean will also feature Joanne Pearce, Alex Avery, Jane Murphy, Robert East and Sam Kelly.

Sher, who won acclaim for his Broadway turn in the one-man play Primo, has been seen on London stages in Tamburlaine, Cyrano De Bergerac, Macbeth, Richard III and Stanley; he won Oliviers for the latter two plays.  He was knighted in 2000.