Official: Tom Chambers and Laura Rogers to Star in PRIVATE LIVES UK Tour; Dates Set!

A major revival of Noël Coward's hilarious masterpiece, Private Lives will embark on a prior to the West End UK tour starring stage and screen stars Tom Chambers (Top Hat, Strictly Come Dancing) as the loveable and charming Elyot and Laura Rogers(Tipping The Velvet, An Ideal Husband) as the unconventional and vivacious Amanda, alongside Charlotte Ritchie (Call The Midwife, One Night in November) as Sybil and Richard Teverson (Downton Abbey) as Victor.

This glittering production of one of the greatest plays of all time, will commence at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, from 11 January 2016, directed by Tom Attenborough, with designs by Lucy Osborne, lighting by Oliver Fenwick and sound byGregory Clarke.

Other confirmed venues for this major new production of Private Lives include the Churchill Theatre, Bromley (18-23 January), Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (25-30 January), Theatre Royal, Brighton (1-6 February), New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham (8-13 February), Richmond Theatre (15-20 February), Theatre Royal, Glasgow (22-27 February),Princess Theatre, Torquay (29 February - 5 March), Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury (7-12 March) and Theatre Royal, Bath(14-19 March).

Private Lives, written in just three days, remains Coward's greatest success and the play that marked the peak of his career. Elyot (a role originated by Coward himself) and Amanda are a gloriously selfish divorced couple who, by a quirk of fate, meet again on their honeymoons with their new spouses and reignite their old spark,. The revival of their fiery romance, alternating between heated rows and passionate reconciliations, reminds them that although they cannot live with each other, nor can they live without.

A masterpiece of 1930's high comedy full of razor sharp wit and sparkling dialogue, Private Lives remains one of the most sophisticated, entertaining plays ever written, offering an evening of acutely sharp, divinely decedent, and unashamed humour.

Tom Chambers' (Elyot Chase) most recent stage credits include the West End production of White Christmas at the Dominion Theatre, and the Olivier and Evening Standard Award winning musical Top Hat, for which Tom was nominated for the Olivier and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Male Performer In A Musical. Tom is best known for his leading roles in television dramasHolby City and Waterloo Road as well as winning the 6th season of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008.

Laura Rodgers' (Amanda Prynne) stage credits include the World Premiere of Tipping The Velvet at the Lyric Hammersmith,An Ideal Husband, Blue Remembered Hills and Hay Fever at Chichester Festival Theatre, Pressure for Royal Lyceum Theatre,Masterpieces at the Royal Court, 55 Days and Revelations at Hampstead Theatre, The Comedy of Errors on USA Tour and Shakespeare's Globe, The 39 Steps at The Criterion Theatre, West End, The Philosophers at the National Theatre of Wales,Macbeth, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Timon of Athens, The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III all at theShakespeare's Globe, Gloucestershire at the Arcola Theatre, See How They Run at the Royal Exchange, Bad Girls - The Musical at the Garrick Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Three Musketeers and The Barber of Seville at the Bristol Old Vic, Celestina at the Birmingham Rep and on UK Tour and Jamaica Inn at the Salisbury Playhouse. Laura's screen credits include New Tricks, The Smoke, Law and Order, Dates, Twelfth Night, Dark Matters, Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders, Missing, Albert's Memorial, Holby City, Bad Girls, Rock Face, Running Scared, Relic Hunter, Pleasure Beach, The Sins, Love Me Do, The Right Hand Man, Nylon Ghosts and In Two Minds.

Charlotte Ritchie (Sibyl Chase) is best known for her roles in Call The Midwife as series regular Barbara Gilbert, the role of Oregon in Channel 4's Fresh Meat, which has recently completed filming their 4th and final series, and Siblings for BBC 3. Charlotte's other screen credits include Open Doors, Princess Daffodil, Life Of Riley, Outsiders, Undercover, Doctors, Jolene: The Indie Folk Star and The Portrait. Charlotte is also a founder member of All Angels, a British classical crossover choral group formed in 2006. All Angels have released 4 albums and have sold over a million albums across the world. Charlotte's stage credits include One Night In November at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

Richard Teverson's (Victor Prynne) stage credits include Handbagged on UK Tour, How Many Miles To Babylon at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, The Schoolmistress at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, The Winslow Boy and Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic,Somersaults at the Finborough Theatre, The Doctor's Dilemma and After The Dance at the National Theatre, The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre, West End, When Harry Met Sally and A Woman Of No Importance at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre, West End, Private Lives, Tons Of Money and Hobson's Choice all for the Freud Company,The Singing Group at Chelsea Theatre, Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick at the New Vic Theatre and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Creation Theatre. Richard's screen credits include Downton Abbey, Coalition, Jamaica Inn, The Bletchley Circle,Spies Of Warsaw, Dancing On The Edge, Upstairs Downstairs, The Roman Mysteries, Private Peaceful, Brideshead Revisitedand Workhorse.

Tom Attenborough (Director)

Tom Attenborough's previous directing credits include The Whipping Man at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and UK Tour, The Wasp at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs and Trafalgar Studios 2, Cinderella & The Beanstalk at Theatre 503, Hay Fever at the Kay & Mclean Australia Tour, The Undone Years at the Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass, Richard III at East 15,Being Ivor at the Lost Theatre, Charley's Aunt, Ivor & I and The Gentleman Usher all at the MCS Oxford, Abigail's Party at theTheatre Royal Bath and UK Tour, The President and the Pakistani and The Thin Line In-Between at the Waterloo East Theatre,Frimston and Rowett and The Complete Worlds of William Shakespeare at the The Caves, Edinburgh, Step 9 (of 12) at Trafalgar Studios, Air Travel at the Arcola Theatre, Port Authority at the Southwark Playhouse, The 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic, Arab Spring at the Arch, The Mountaintop at Derby LIVE, The Shape of Things at the Gallery Soho, The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Cambridge American Stage Tour and Richard II and Empty Portrait at the ADC Theatre.

Noël Coward (Writer)

One of the UK's most prolific and popular writers, Noël Coward's plays include Hay Fever, Design For Living, Present Laughter, Relative Values, Fallen Angels and Blithe Spirit. His screenwriting credits include In Which We Serve (which he also co-directed) and Brief Encounter.

The major production of Private Lives is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group.

LISTINGS

PRIVATE LIVES

11 JANUARY - 19 MARCH 2016

WRITTEN BY NOËL COWARD

DIRECTED BY TOM ATTENBOROUGH

NATIONAL TOUR

General Onsale from Monday 26 October 2015

New Victoria Theatre, Woking

11 - 16 January

0844 871 7645

Churchill Theatre, Bromley

18 - 23 January

0844 871 7620

Regent Theatre, Stoke

25 - 30 January

0844 871 7649

Theatre Royal, Brighton

1 - 6 February

0844 871 7650

New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

8 - 13 February

0844 871 3011

Richmond Theatre

15 - 20 February

0844 871 7651

Theatre Royal, Glasgow

22 - 27 February

0844 871 7647

Princess Theatre, Torquay

29 February - 5 March

0844 871 3023

Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury

7 - 12 March

0844 871 7607

Theatre Royal, Bath

14 - 19 March

01225 448844

Tickets On Sale Soon

Website: www.atgtickets.com

Twitter: @atgtickets #privatelives

NOTES TO EDITORS

Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd

Co-founded by Sir Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire OBE in 1992, the Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG) is the world's number one live-theatre company with 45 venues in Britain, the US and Australia. ATG is also one of the most prolific and internationally recognised award-winning theatre producers in the world with co-productions in the UK, New York, across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. ATG is the market leader in theatre ticketing services through ATG Tickets, LOVETheatre and Group Line.

ATG's impressive portfolio of West End theatres includes historic buildings such as the Apollo Victoria, Donmar Warehouse, Duke of York's, Fortune, Harold Pinter, Lyceum, Phoenix, Piccadilly, Playhouse, Savoy and Trafalgar Studios 1 and 2. In New York, ATG owns The Lyric Theatre, the largest theatre on Broadway.

In August 2015, ATG acquired ACE Theatrical Group (ACE), a company which specialises in the operation, design, development and construction of world class, live performance venues throughout North America comprising The Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, The Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana, The Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans, Louisiana, The Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas and The Charline McCombs Empire Theatre in San Antonio, Texas.

Earlier that month, ATG became leaseholder and took over the management of the Theatre Royal, Sydney's oldest theatrical institution, one of the city's premier venues and ATG's first theatre in the Asia Pacific region.

ATG has regional UK theatres in Aylesbury, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Bromley, Edinburgh, Folkestone, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Richmond, Southport, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Torquay, Wimbledon, Woking and York.

ATG has offices in London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne and is poised to accelerate international expansion.

Current and recent ATG co-productions include Oresteia, The Ruling Class starring James McAvoy, Oresteia, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown starring Tamsin Greig, East is East starring Jane Horrocks, Richard III starring Martin Freeman, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels starring Robert Lindsay, Jersey Boys, Priscilla Queen of the Desert starring Jason Donovan/Duncan James, Inala, Love Me Tender, Macbeth starring James McAvoy, The Hothouse starring Simon Russell Beale and John Simm, Passion Play starring Zoë Wanamaker, Posh, Jumpy and Constellations (Royal Court at the Duke of York's), Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 The Musical, Legally Blonde the Musical, Monty Python's Spamalot, The Rocky Horror Show, Goodnight Mister Tom, The Mystery of Charles Dickens starring Simon Callow, South Pacific starring Samantha Womack and Paulo Szot, All New People starring Zach Braff, Ghost the Musical, Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, Being Shakespeare starring Simon Callow, The Misanthrope starring Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley, West Side Story, Elling starring John Simm and Guys and Dolls starring Ewan McGregor.

ATG is also mounting productions around the world. ATG's productions in Australia include Legally Blonde the Musical, Thriller Live, The Rocky Horror Show, Guys and Dolls and West Side Story. Recent ATG productions on Broadway include The Mountaintop starring Samuel L Jackson and Angela Bassett, Exit the King starring Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon and John Doyle's award winning production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. ATG also co-produced Constellations on Broadway and currently co-producing multi Tony award winning The King and I with Lincoln Center Theatre.

ATG has a number of major production company initiatives/partnerships including Jerry Mitchell Productions, Theatre Royal Brighton Productions and Jamie Lloyd Productions. ATG also owns a major national family entertainment and pantomime company, First Family Entertainment (FFE).

ATG has a group partner company Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP), which is a West End and Broadway production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in London and on Broadway over the past few years. Recent SFP West End and Broadway theatre productions and co-productions include the UK premiere of The Book of Mormon, Jez Butterworth's The River on Broadway, starring Hugh Jackman, The Nether, Bend it Like Beckham the Musical, Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Electra, King Charles III, Sunny Afternoon, Shakespeare in Love, Jerusalem, Ghosts, Mojo, Chimerica, Twelfth Night & Richard III and Old Times. Sonia will also collaborate with J. K. Rowling on a new stage play to be based on the Harry Potter stories in co-production with Colin Callender.

ATG is the majority shareholder of BB Group, one of the leading producers and promoters of premium live entertainment in Europe with a particular strength in touring musicals and dance productions throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. BB Group productions include West Side Story, We Will Rock You, The Rocky Horror Show, Cats, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Revolución and its 2015 co¬productions include The Lion King and The Bodyguard. BB Group has won the tender to re-develop the "Staatenhaus" in Cologne as a 1,700 seat theatre.

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