The Philadelphia Story

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Comedy Opened 10 May 2005, Closed 3 September 2005

Old Vic Theatre The Cut, Waterloo, London

"The Old Vic has a hit on its hands" The Daily Telegraph

Rich, haughty and spoilt, Tracy Lord is about to get married for the second time, to the solid but stuffy George Kittredge. But she's reckoned without Macaulay Connor, a reporter who's been sent to cover her wedding in the country near Philadelphia, and her quick-thinking, free-drinking first husband C K Dexter Haven. The presence of both men at her pre-nuptial party, the collision of the volatile emotions of the trio, combined with a drunken midnight swim, provokes Tracy into learning some painful lessons, and taking an unaccustomed look into her own heart.

"The Philadelphia Story is everything a comedy should be" The Sun

Phillip Barry's delicious and sparkling comedy of manners and character takes a critical but affectionate look at the values and behaviour of the American ultra-rich. The Philadelphia Story is a compelling mixture of wit, satire and romance, with a freewheeling heroine who delights, exasperates and moves us in equal measure.

This production of The Philadelphia Story, directed by four-times Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks. The cast includes Jennifer Ehle as 'Tracy Lord' along with Nicholas Le Prevost, Julia McKenzie, Oliver Cotton, Richard Lintern, Damien Matthews, DW Moffett, Tululah Riley and Lauren Ward. The role of CK Dexter Haven is played by Adrian Lukis up to 6 August, and by Kevin Spacey from 8 August to 3 September.

"Jennifer Ehle is truly excellent" The Times

The Philadelphia Story was memorably filmed by George Cukor in 1940, with James Stewart and Cary Grant starring alongside Katherine Hepburn. The musical version by Cole Porter, filmed as High Society, had Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the leading roles.

"As charged with emotion as the original film" The London Evening Standard

"This is an evening of brittle, sophisticated laughter, sharpened up with irony: rather like a cocktail with a fraction too much of Angostura bitters. I’m not surprised Cole Porter turned Philip Barry’s 1939 comedy into a musical film. It has all the required ingredients: style, suave humour, a sly sense of character and a gloss of social awareness that it wears slightly apologetically... Jerry Zaks directs with high-precision timing, and the 24-carat cast includes Julia McKenzie, Nicholas Le Prevost and Oliver Cotton. A treat for post-election blues." The Sunday Times

"Julia McKenzie - Splendid" The Daily Express

"The Philadelphia Story never was much good. It got a long way by the initial terrific casting of Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn, around whom the central part of the ice maiden was moulded... It would take a really first-rate, snapping-tongued, production to make this come to life: Jerry Zaks's isn't it. A cast of accomplished actors moves around as if they've been ironed. Spacey is the most at ease but is muted, and there's no spark between him and Jennifer Ehle, who looks stuck-up rather than starchy." The Observer

"Nicholas Le Prevost - A comic tour de force" The Daily Telegraph

Philip Barry was born in 1896 in Rochester, New York to middle-class parents of Irish descent, and he started writing at the age of nine. Educated at Yale, he enrolled on the famous English 47 Workshop at Harvard directed by George Pierce Baker, who helped to launch the careers of Eugene O'Neill, George Abbott and SN Behrman. Rejected by the army when America entered the war because of poor eyesight, he worked in London in the code department of the US Embassy. In 1922 he married his childhood sweetheart Ellen Semple, the daughter of a wealthy lawyer who gave the couple a house in New York and a villa in Cannes, where they became friends with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and other Riviera literati. Barry was fascinated by the aura of exclusivity that surrounded the privileged, cocktail-drinking classes, and spent as much time as he could amongst them. He always displayed impeccable taste, wearing the best hand-tailored clothes, and speaking with a distinctive Ivy League drawl. It was his familiarity and sympathy with those who belonged to it that enabled him to portray them with satirical accuracy and wry affection. The Philadelphia Story came at an opportune moment in his career, for his previous three plays had failed. His initial idea was for a story about a wealthy family who were to be the subject of an article in Fortune magazine. His wife suggested he set it in the fashionable Main Line area of Philadelphia, where, in contrast to New York and Chicago, 'old' money and 'old' families counted for everything. He based his main character in part on Hope Montgomery Scott, a racy, sporty and wealthy socialite belonging to an 'ancient' Philadelphia family.