Martin Clunes to Star in HARVEY at Chichester with Hopes for the West End?

The Daily Mail writes that Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) is in talks to star as 'Elwood P. Dowd' in Mary Chase's HARVEY at the Chichester Festival Theatre in Fall 2014 before transferring to the West End. Chichester's Artistic Director Jonathan Church will direct.

Producer Don Gregory -- who brought HARVEY to Broadway in 2012 with Jim Parsons -- told the Mail that "Clunes brings a sense of vulnerability to his role on Doc Martin." "That's what I'm looking for in Harvey," Gregory said. Gregory also said Clunes has allegedly been "waiting 30 years to play Dowd" after playing a different character in a production of HARVEY in Bristol.

Read the original report here.

In HARVEY, Elwood P. Dowd is charming and kind but with one character flaw: he holds an unwavering friendship with a 6-foot-tall, invisible white rabbit named Harvey.

Chase received the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work. The production premiered on Broadway in 1944 starring Frank Fay and directed by Antoinette Perry. HARVEY also ran in London in 1949, and was revived on Broadway in 1970 with James Stewart in the lead role. Stewart then traveled with the production to the West End for another revival in 1975. Roundabout Theatre Company's 2012 revival was directed by Scott Ellis and starred The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons.

Aside from his starring role in the TV series Doc Martin, Clunes has appeared on the small screen in Strike Back, The Town, Men Behaving Badly, A Mother's Son, Reggie Perrin, William and Mary, and has lent his voice to the children's series Kipper.

Rehearsals are aiming to kick off in September or October 2014.

To post a comment, you must register and login.