'THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED' Eyes West End Bow

WhatsOnStage.com reports that Douglas Carter Beane's award-winning comedy The Little Dog Laughed has added itself to the long list of Broadway shows seeking a future West End home, and could make the transfer to the UK stage by the end of the year.

Three Days of Rain and Piaf director Jamie Lloyd is rumoured to be set for helming duties, with Rupert Friend eyed for a starring role.

Douglas Carter Beane's works include the screenplay of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, and several plays including The Country Club and The Little Dog Laughed, which was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play, and As Bees in Honey Drown, which ran at New York's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1997 and won an Outer Critics Circle Award. Beane also wrote the book for Xanadu, a stage musical adaptation of the 1980 film. Xanadu is also looking at a future West End run.

The play is described as "brash, fast-talking Hollywood agent Diane, whose client has a chance to make it to superstar status, if only he stays in the closet. A sweet, sexy man enters his life and makes the ruse difficult, even as this new love interest has complications of its own - a naïve, needy girlfriend. But nothing derails Diane in her pursuit of power and money as she skillfully and hilariously manipulates all within her reach. With twists and turns that keep audiences guessing, "The Little Dog Laughed" cleverly reflects America's celebrity-obsessed culture."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.