Derek Jacobi Joins Kenneth Branagh's ROMEO AND JULIET in the West End

According to the Daily Mail, Kenneth Branagh's ROMEO AND JULIET has found its 'Mercutio' in Sir Derek Jacobi, who appeared alongside the play's star cross'd lovers -- Lily James and Richard Madden -- in Branagh's new CINDERELLA film. ROMEO AND JULIET is Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company's fourth production in its inaugural season at the Garrick, beginning October 17.

Although 76 years old, Jacobi is tackling a part usually played by actors half his age, though the character's actual age is never mentioned in the play. Plus, his "young mind" will keep him up to the challenge.

Jacobi told the Mail, "In my head, I'm still a teenager. I haven't acquired the wisdom of old age at all!...I do think we're in a business that is rejuvenating. I do think actors keep one foot in the cradle, because we are expressing emotions that we have to be able to tap into...In the back of our heads and deep in our hearts, we stay children."

He added that Mercutio felt the same way: "The language is very evocative and extraordinarily bouncy and gives off a kind of youthful sense, but that's his mind."

Branagh commented on the casting, saying, "As part mentor, part father figure to Romeo, there is a fascinating chance to chart a different experience of the defiance and independence of the character."

Among Olivier- and Tony-winner Jacobi's many stage credits are Cyrano de Bergerac, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, King Lear, Oedipus the King, The Suicide and more. He was a founding member of the Royal National Theatre. Among his film credits are Cinderella, My Week with Marilyn, The King's Speech, Henry V (helmed by Branagh), Gosford Park and Gladiator, as well as the TV series I, Claudius and Cadfael.

Actor-helmer Branagh also starred as 'Romeo' in a production of ROMEO AND JULIET opposite Samantha Bond at the Lyric, Hammersmith almost 30 years ago, presented by his and David Parfitt's Renaissance Theatre Company. Five-time Academy Award nominee Branagh has directed and starred in several film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, including HENRY V, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, OTHELLO, HAMLET, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST and AS YOU LIKE IT. The ambitious thesp is also in talks to bring his Manchester International Festival production of MACBETH (which ran recently in New York City at the Park Avenue Armory) to London and to the big screen with Martin Scorsese.