Robert Daws, Amy Robbins and More to Lead REHEARSAL OF MURDER UK Tour; Cast Announced!

Following his phenomenal decade-long success with The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, which sold over two million tickets and continually played to packed houses all around the UK, comes a new thrilling chapter as Bill Kenwright announces The Classic Thriller Theatre Company and its first production REHEARSAL FOR MURDER.

This murder mystery comes from the pen of the legendary award-winning writing team Richard Levinson and William Link, the creators of the unsurpassable mystery series Murder She Wrote and the award-winning TV detective series Columbo.

The production stars ROBERT DAWS (Poldark, The Royal, Outside Edge, Roger Roger), his wife and co-star from The Royal AMY ROBBINS (Casualty, Blood Brothers) and three of the most popular members of the Agatha Christie Theatre Company SUSAN PENHALIGON (Bouquet of Barbed Wire, A Fine Romance), ROBERT DUNCAN (Drop The Dead Donkey, Go Back For Murder) and BEN NEALON (Soldier Soldier, Black Coffee). Joining them are STEVEN PINDER (Brookside) and LUCY DIXON (Waterloo Road, Hollyoaks).

Robert Daws is best known for his roles as Dr. Gordon Ormerod in The Royal, Roger Dervish in the mid-Nineties comedy drama Outside Edge, Cresta Cabs owner Sam in BBC comedy Roger, Roger and more recently as Dr Choake in Poldark. Other TV appearances include Robin of Sherwood, The House of Eliott, Midsomer Murders, Casualty, Rock & Chips, New Tricks, Doc Martin and Coronation Street.

Amy Robbins starred as Dr. Jill Weatherill in The Royal and has appeared in many other TV dramas including Casualty, Where the Heart Is, Holby City, Doctors, Heartbeat, Dalziel and Pascoe and EastEnders. Amy also starred as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre for Bill Kenwright.

Susan Penhaligon, best known for starring in the 1976 ITV drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire and for playing Judi Dench's sister in the 1981 LWT sitcom A Fine Romance, also stars. She has also appeared on TV many times in dramas such as Upstairs Downstairs, Tales of the Unexpected, Bergerac, Casualty and Touch of Frost. Her West End theatre credits include The Three Sisters, Of Mice and Men, The Maintenance Man, The Mysterious Mr Love, The Real Thing and Dangerous Corner and more recently, Susan toured in And Then There Were None.

Robert Duncan is best known for his role as the as jargon-spouting chief executive Gus Hedges in Drop the Dead Donkey. He has played lead roles in theatres the length and breadth of the country including Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre and Frank in Willy Russell's Educating Rita. As a member of the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, he starred in Witness for the Prosecution, Verdict and Go Back For Murder. More recently, Robert starred in 12 Angry Men in the West End and on tour.

Ben Nealon is best known for his role as 2nd Lt/Lt/Capt Jeremy Forsythe in the ITV award-winning series Soldier Soldier. His previous starring roles for Bill Kenwright include most of the Agatha Christie productions including Witness for the Prosecution, Black Coffee and more recently And Then There Were None. His TV credits include Casualty, The Bill, EastEnders and Doctors, and film roles include the Bollywood blockbusters The Rising and the Oscar-nominated Lagaan.

Steven Pinder is well known for his role as womanising businessman Max Farnham in the long-running Channel 4 soap Brookside, which he played for thirteen years. Prior to Brookside, he starred as shop owner Roy Lambert in Crossroads and appeared in other TV dramas including The Bill, Emmerdale, Casualty, Hotel Babylon, Holby City and Doctors.

Lucy Dixon became a household name when she took the role of Danielle Harker in the BBC One school drama Waterloo Road, which she played for three years. She then joined the cast of Channel 4's teen soap Hollyoaks as Tilly Evans, a role which won her a National Television Award nomination for Best Serial Drama Performance.

The production will be directed by Roy Marsden who is best known as an actor, particularly in his role as Adam Dalgliesh in Anglia TV's P.D. James series, which he played for 15 years. But he has also been directing plays since he was 15 years old and had two successful West End runs with Noel Coward's Volcano and Agatha Christie's (under the pen name Mary Westmacott) A Daughter's A Daughter. His most recent work for Bill Kenwright was directing a UK tour of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black theatrical follow up The Small Hand.

Playwright Alex Dennison is left heartbroken when his fiancée and leading lady Monica Welles is found dead from an apparent suicide after the opening night of her stage debut. On the anniversary of that ill-fated night, Alex assembles the same cast and crew in the same theatre, for a reading of his new play. But as the reading progresses, the play's similarity to actual events becomes increasingly uncomfortable for the participants, and it soon becomes clear that Alex believes Monica was murdered and his new play is a devious cat-and-mouse chase to uncover her killer...

REHEARSAL FOR MURDER - UK TOUR DATES 2016:

(Further dates to be announced)

11th - 23rd January, Windsor Theatre Royal

01753 853 888

http://www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk/details.php?id=402

18th - 23rd January, Peterborough The Broadway

01733 822225

http://thebroadwaypeterborough.co.uk/

25th - 30th January, Malvern Theatre

01684 892277

http://www.malvern-theatres.co.uk/events/event/rehearsal-for-murder/

2nd - 6th February, Cardiff New Theatre

029 2087 8889

http://www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk/

8th - 13th February, Richmond Theatre

0844 871 7651

http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/richmond-theatre/

15th - 20th February, Stoke Regent Theatre

0844 871 7649

http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/regent-theatre/

22nd - 27th February, Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

0844 871 7607

http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/aylesbury-waterside-theatre/

14 - 19 March, New Brighton Floral Pavilion

0151 666 0000

http://floralpavilion.com/

21st - 26th March, Edinburgh Kings

0131 529 6000

http://www.edtheatres.com/

29 March - 2nd April, Bath Theatre Royal

01225 448844

http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/

4 - 9 April

Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre

0844 871 3011

http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-alexandra-theatre-birmingham/

11 - 16 April

Guildford Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

01483 44 00 00

http://www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk/

18 - 23 April

Croydon Ashcroft Theatre

020 8688 9291

https://www.fairfield.co.uk/default.aspx

25 - 30 April

Cheltenham Everyman Theatre

01242 572573

http://www.everymantheatre.org.uk/

9 - 14 May, Coventry Belgrade Theatre

024 7655 3055

http://www.belgrade.co.uk/

16 - 21 May, Southend Palace Theatre

01702 351135

https://southendtheatres.org.uk/Online/

20 - 25 June, Milton Keynes Theatre

0844 871 7652

http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

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