New Casting Announced For The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Andy de la Tour (Plenty, Notting Hill), Marlene Sidaway (ITV’s Coronation Street, BBC 1’s Pride and Prejudice) and Rekha John-Cheriyan (Kerbs, Tomb Raider, Dream Horse) will join the cast of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel when it visits The Lowry in November.

They join celebrated stars of stage and screen Hayley Mills (Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, Whistle Down the Wind) and Paul Nicholas (Jesus Christ Superstar, BBC 1’s Just Good Friends, Eastenders) and Rula Lenska (ITV’s Rock Follies, Coronation Street, Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother) in this feel-good tale of love and adventure which also reveals new artwork today.

The play is written by Deborah Moggach who now adapts her bestselling novel 2004’s These Foolish Things for the stage, it having previously inspired the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated film. The cherished story will be brought to life on stage when it opens at the Richmond Theatre on Monday 5^th September 2022 and is directed by Lucy Bailey (Oleanna, UK Tour & West End); Gaslight, UK Tour; Witness for the Prosecution, London’s County Hall).

Andy de la Tour’s theatre credits include Medea and Celebration (Almeida Theatre); People and No Man’s Land (National Theatre); Blue Heart (Orange Tree Theatre); The Last Yankee (Print Room) and Lay Down Your Cross (Hampstead Theatre). Film includes Ann Boleyn, Star Wars: Rogue One, Le Confessioni, Dough, Oliver Twist, 44” Chest and Asylum. Television includes Strike, Good Omens, Victoria, Nighty Night, Waking the Dead, Casualty.

Rekha John-Cheriyan’s theatre credits include Kerbs (UK Tour); Soldier On (UK Tour) and Beyond Shame (Derby Theatre). Film includes Polite Society, Dream Horse, Tomb Raider and Little English. TV includes The Full Monty, The Undeclared War, and Hollyoaks.

Marlene Sidaway trained at the East 15 Acting School. Her theatre credits includes Tapestry (Milton Keynes); Pigeons (Hen & Chickens Theatre); Beneath the Blue Rinse (Park Theatre); Returning to Haifa (Finborough); Talking Heads, Enjoy and The Crucible(West Yorkshire Playhouse); Lady in the Van (Salisbury); The Daughter in Law and Macbeth (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); The Enchantment and A Prayer for Owen Meany (National Theatre); The Madness of Esme and Shaz (Royal Court); Dearly Beloved (Hampstead Theatre); Uncle Vanya (Print Room); Kenny Morgan (Arcola); Kiss me Like you Mean it (Soho Theatre); Joking Apart and Lady of Letters (Scarborough) and We’ll Always Have Paris(Sonning). Film Includes: Allelujah; Me and Orson Wells and Anna Karenina. TV Includes: Mum; Holby City; In the Long Run; Pride & Prejudice; Coronation Street; Doc Martin; Wallander; Ready When You are Mr McGill; Holby City and The Kiss of Death. 

Based on the Sunday Times bestseller which inspired one of this century’s most treasured films, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel takes us on a journey to India with an eclectic group of British retirees as they embark on a new life. The luxury residence is far from the opulence they were promised, but as their lives begin to intertwine and they embrace the vibrancy of modern-day India, they are charmed in unexpected and life-changing ways.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a joyous, feel-good comedy about taking risks, finding love, and embracing second chances, even in the most surprising of places.

The film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (directed by John Madden) saw its UK theatrical release in 2012. Within two weeks of its cinematic distribution, the film had topped the UK Box Office and went on to become a hit internationally performing as one of the highest-grossing films of 2012 in Australia and New Zealand in addition to the United Kingdom.

The interwoven stories of the film’s stellar ensemble, which included Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Celie Imrie, and Ronald Pickup – with Dev Patel as the put-upon owner of a past-its-best hotel for ‘the elderly and beautiful’ – shone a light on issues such as the outsourcing of care and NHS treatments, the complexity of family relationships around the world, love, compassion, and companionship in our twilight years.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is produced by Simon Friend, Jenny King, Trafalgar Entertainment, and Gavin Kalin.

Get ready for the journey of a lifetime.


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