By Deborah Moggach - Based on the novel that inspired the hit film
World Premiere Prior To West End 2023 UK Tour
Synopsis
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, they are charmed in unexpected and life-changing ways.
Starring Belinda Lang (2 Point 4 Children, Oklahoma!), Paul Nicholas (Jesus Christ Superstar, Just Good Friends, Eastenders), Tessa Peake-Jones (Only Fools and Horses) and Graham Seed (The Archers, The Mousetrap). Also featuring Rekha John-Cheriyan (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Tomb Raider, Hollyoaks), Nishad More (King Lear, My Mother’s Wedding) and Marlene Sidaway (Coronation Street, Pride and Prejudice).
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a joyous comedy about taking risks, finding love and embracing second chances, even in the most surprising of places.
Get ready for the journey of a lifetime.
Major UK Tour. Prior to West End.
“I’m so thrilled that my characters are stepping into a new life on the stage. They’ve been waiting impatiently for the curtain to rise, and none of them is getting any younger. So welcome again to the Marigold Hotel! We’ve assembled an amazing cast, so I hope they bring you plenty of laughs, and some warm sparks of recognition.”
Deborah Moggach
Star cast to be announced.
Gallery
Photography by Johan Persson.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel original cast.
Cast
Graham Seed and Marlene Sidaway will play all venues except Dublin. Kriss Dosanj will play venues up to and including Liverpool. Harmage Singh Kalirai will re-join the cast from Wolverhampton onwards. Patrick Bergin and Rosaleen Linehan will play Dublin only. All remaining cast members will play all venues.
Belinda Lang
Madge
Training: Central School of Speech and Drama
Theatre includes: Duet For One (UK tour); Humble Boy (Orange Tree); The Country Wife (Chichester) Oklahoma! (Royal Albert Hall and UK tour); The Constant Wife (Gate, Dublin); The Letter of Last Resort (Tricycle/Traverse Edinburgh); Liberty (Globe) The School For Scandal (Park Theatre) The Killing Of Sister George (Arts Theatre); Hay Fever (Haymarket Theatre); Forgotten Voices (Riverside Studios); Ring Round The Moon (Playhouse Theatre); The Secret Rapture (Lyric Theatre); What The Butler Saw (Hampstead Theatre/Criterion); Life x 3 (Savoy Theatre); My Boy Jack (Hampstead Theatre); Things We Do For Love (Duchess Theatre); Dead Funny (Savoy); Mrs Klein (Apollo); Single Spies (UK tour); Gabriel (UK tour); Ladies in Lavender (UK tour); A Song at Twilight (UK tour).
TV includes: This England, The Sister Boniface Mysteries, 2 Point 4 Children, The Inspector|Alleyn Mysteries, Justice in Wonderland.
Directing includes: The Children (Salisbury Playhouse); An Hour and A Half Late (UK tour); Present Laughter (UK tour), The Reluctant Debutante (UK tour), This Was a Man (Finborough Theatre) and Rocchiccioli’s Letters From the Heart, opening in Sydney in 2023.
Paul Nicholas
Douglas
Theatre Includes: Hair Original London Cast (Shaftesbury Theatre); Grease and Cats Original London Cast (New London Theatre); Jesus Christ Superstar Original London Cast (Palace Theatre); Blondel Original London Cast (Aldwych Theatre); Camelot (Covent Garden Festival); The Exorcist (UK Tour); Quartet (Cheltenham Theatre and UK tour); Jekyll & Hyde, Barnum (Dominion Theatre); 42nd Street (UK Tour); Singing In The Rain, Dr Doolittle (UK Tour); A Christmas Carol (Blackpool Opera House); Pirates of Penzance (London Palladium & Manchester Opera House); Tale of Two Cities, Fiddler On The Roof (UK Tour); Keeler and Dear World (Charing Cross Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing and Crete and Sergeant Pepper (Young Vic); Innocent Bystanders and T-Zee (Royal Court); Guys and Dolls (Royal Albert Hall); Then There Were None (UK Tour); Pygmalion (Theatre Royal Windsor); The Mysterious Mr Love (Comedy Theatre).
Film Includes: The Jazz Singer, Stardust, Lisztomania, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Tommy, The World Is Full of Married Men, Nutcracker, What Became of Jack and Jill, See No Evil, Yesterday’s Hero, Masaryk.
TV Includes: Just Good Friends, Eastenders, The Real Marigold Hotel, Marigold On Tour, The Royal Today, Burnside, Sunburn, Bust, Close to Home, Heartbeat, Consuming Passion.
Literature includes: Autobiography – Musicals; Marigolds & Me.
Music includes: Paul Nicholas Gold CD.
Tessa Peake-Jones
Evelyn
Theatre includes: Ladies of Letters (The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); The Winslow Boy (Chichester Festival Theatre and UK Tour); Bang Bang! (Northcott Theatre and UK Tour); While We’re Here (Bush Theatre and UK Tour); Beacons (Park Theatre); Home (Arcola); Brimstone and Treacle (Arcola); Park Avenue Cats (The Arts Theatre); The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder (National Theatre); Shirley Valentine (Haymarket Theatre); The Park (RSC); Pride and Prejudice (Old Vic); Hamlet and Comedy of Errors (RSC), and a year at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round.
TV includes: Mrs Chapman in Grantchester (ITV); Raquel in Only Fools and Horses (BBC); Unforgotten (ITV); Legacy (UPN); Poirot (ITV); Poppy Shakespeare (Channel 4); Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC); A Summer in the Suburbs (BBC); Births Marriages and Deaths (Tiger Aspect Productions); Holby City (BBC); Midsomer Murders (Bentley); Two Gentleman of Verona (BBC); The Bell (BBC) and Quartermaine’s Terms (ITV).
Film includes: Bonobo (Fable Films), The Devil Went Down to Islington (Skinned Productions and Reelscape Films) and First Night (Scorpio Films).
Tessa was a founder member of Tight Assets Theatre Ltd and has done numerous radio plays.
Graham Seed
Norman
Training: RADA
Theatre includes: Bloody Difficult Women (Riverside Studios and Edinburgh Festival); Dead Sheep (Park Theatre and UK tour); An Audience with Jimmy Savile (Park Theatre); Bedroom Farce and Separate Tables (Salisbury Playhouse); Jim Hacker in Yes Prime Minister (National Tour); Basket Case (UK tour); The Mousetrap (60th Anniversary tour and India); Toad of Toad Hall (West End); Me and My Girl (Adelphi Theatre); The Ladykillers (UK tour); Journey’s End (UK tour); Flare Path (UK tour); Translations (UK tour); Design for Living (UK tour); Relatively Speaking (UK tour); A Chase Maid of Cheapside (UK tour); Confusions (UK tour); Someone to Watch Over Me (Frankfurt); The Skin Game (Orange Tree); Nelson (Nuffield, Southampton); Present Laughter (Theatre Cymru) and Accolade (Finborough Theatre).
TV includes: Doctors, Casualty, The Durrells, I, Claudius, Edward VII, Brideshead Revisited, Mike Leigh’s Who’s Who, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Jeeves and Wooster, The Cleopatras, Crossroads, Coronation Street, Brookside, Prime Suspect, Nature Boy, Dinnerladies, Station Jim, Band of Brothers, The Chatterley Affair and Midsomer Murders.
Radio includes: The Archers. Words and Music (Radio 3) Pick of the Week and What the Papers’ Say (Radio 4), The Pargetter Triptych (Podcast). Graham was awarded Broadcaster of the Year and the Voice of Listener and Viewer Special Award 2010 for his portrayal of Nigel Pargetter in The Archers for 27 years.
Paola Dionisotti
Dorothy
RSC includes: Henry VI: Rebellion and Wars of the Roses, Henry IV Parts I & II, Richard III, King John, The Canterbury Tales, Heresies, Moscow Gold
Theatre includes: Nobody’s Listening, Apologia, Drink Dance Laugh and Lie (Bush Theatre); Two Sisters (New Vic Productions); The Bacchae (National Theatre of Scotland); Jenufa (Arcola Theatre); Mrs Warren’s Profession (Royal Lyceum Theatre); Driver/Painter (New End Theatre); Pyrenees (Tron Theatre/Chocolate Factory); The Entertainer (Liverpool Playhouse); When We Are Rich (Nuffield Theatre); Further Than The Furthest Thing (Tron Theatre/National Theatre); Holy Mothers (Royal Court/Ambassadors); Camino Real (Young Vic Theatre); The Misfits (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Machine Wreckers (National Theatre); Richard II (National Theatre); Plays by Gertrude Stein (Citizens Theatre); Square Rounds (National Theatre); The Trojan Woman, Vassa (Gate); Britannicus (Sheffield Crucible); Ghosts (Edinburgh Lyceum); On The Verge (Sadler’s Wells); Countrymania (National Theatre); The Wandering Jew (National Theatre).
Television includes: Tell Me Everything, Plebs, Holby City, Game of Thrones, Doctors, Poirot, Midsomer Murders, Ashes to Ashes, Fergus’ Wedding, McCready and Daughter, Harbour Lights, Maisie Raine, Peak Practice, Devil’s Advocate, Just William, The Gospels, House of Elliott, Ruth Rendell – The Veiled One, Forever Green, First Among Equals, Monocled Mutineer, We Never Do What You Want, A Murder Is Announced, The Young Ones, Fine Romance, Fame is the Spur, Minor Complications.
Film includes: Florence Foster Jenkins, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, The Sailor’s Return, Les Misérables, Vigo… A Passion for Life, The Titchbourne Claimant, Intimacy, Come & Go, Love’s Brother.
Tiran Aakel
Mr Gupta
Training: East 15 Acting School.
Theatre includes: The Kite Runner (UK and Dubai Tour); The Jungle (The Playhouse West End); Umm Kalthoum and The Golden Era (Dubai Opera House); Our White Skoda Octavia Show (UK Tour); Blueprint Medea (Finborough Theatre) and I was Looking at the Ceiling and then I saw the Sky (UK Tour).
TV includes: Eastenders; Casualty and The Bill.
Film includes: Slipping; Regret Button and Pretty Music for Ugly People.
Eileen Battye
Jean
Eileen trained at The Royal College of Music and Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre includes: In the West End: The King and I (London Palladium, playing Anna opposite Yul Brynner); Barnum (Victoria Palace, opposite Michael Crawford); Into The Woods, Sherlock Holmes, The Sound Of Music, Hayfever, A Month In The Country, Valentine’s Day, An Inspector Calls, The Potting Shed, An Ideal Husband. For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Camino Real, The Merry Wives Of Windsor, King Henry VII.
For Alan Ayckbourn at the SJT: Season’s Greetings, Better Off Dead (creating the role of Jessica) Neighbourhood Watch (creating the role of Dorothy), Dear Uncle (creating the role of Marie), Improbable Fiction (creating the role of Grace), House and Garden (creating the role of Trish), Relatively Speaking, Time And Time Again, Miss Yesterday, A Listening Heaven, Noel & Gertie, Clearing The Colours.
Other theatre includes: Life and Beth (national tour), That Old Feeling (Mill at Sonning), Things We Do For Love (nominated for Best Actress in the Manchester Evening News Awards), Pygmalion (Library Theatre, Manchester), Barefoot in the Park (Northampton and Watford), Children of a Lesser God, The Rivals (Salisbury), Love in a Maze (Watermill, Newbury), Kiss Me Kate (Worthing), The Boyfriend (Perth), Mary-Rose, The Gondoliers (Nottingham Playhouse), The Girlfriend (national tour), Attempts On Her Life (Battersea Arts Centre), Habitats (Gate), Half Moon (Southwark Playhouse), Oliver! (Sheffield Crucible).
Television includes: WPC56, Many Faces Of Michael Crawford, Doctors, Take Three Girls, Prime Suspect, The Vice, The Victorians, Coronation Street, Supergrass, Barnum.
Patrick Bergin
Norman
Patrick Bergin has appeared in over eighty film and TV movies and is best known internationally for playing the menacing husband of Julia Roberts’ character in the thriller ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ and for his role as Irish terrorist Kevin O’Donnell in the film adaption of ‘Patriot Games’. He appeared as Robin Hood opposite Uma Thurman in a 1991 TV movie and played the role of psychotic Provisional Irish Republican Army gunman in ‘Jonny Was’ opposite Vinnie Jones and Roger Daltrey.
Patrick is an accomplished singer and songwriter, having sang Leonard Cohen’s ‘Anthem’ for Pope Francis and over seventy thousand people at Croke Park on his last visit to Ireland. He also had a no 1 single at Christmas a few years ago with ‘Switzer’s Window’. He is now working on producing his own films.
Patrick’s recent TV credits include ‘The South Westerlies’ as series regular Big Mike, guest lead Frank McGill in ITV’s ‘Wild Bill’, guest lead Earl Kennedy in ‘No Offence’ for Channel 4, series regular Jim Walsh in series four of ‘Red Rock’ for TV3/ BBC one and Aidan Maguire in ‘EastEnders’ for BBC One. Patrick’s recent film credits include ‘The Kindred’, ‘Finding You’, ‘Age of Kill’, ‘We Still Steal the Old Way’, Ben Wheatley’s ‘Free Fire’, Michael Flatley’s ‘Black Bird’ and ‘The Last Days of American Crime’ for Netflix.
Rekha John-Cheriyan
Mrs Kapoor
Theatre Includes: 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.
Kriss Dosanj
Jimmy
Theatre includes: Uncle Vanya (Home Theatre); Martyr (ATC); Arabian Nights (Birmingham Rep); Rafta Rafta (National Theatre); Balti Kings (Lyric Hammersmith); Playboy of the Asian World (Leicester Haymarket); Aladdin (Paul Roebson); One Night (Stratford East); Heer Ranjha (Midlands Arts); East is East (Royal Court); The Rainbow Bird (Keeping Mum); Sharazaad, Crossed Lines (Oxfordshire Theatre); Lost for Words, A Wife Required (New Focus).
TV includes: Steeltown Murders, The Larkin’s, All Creatures Great And Small, Casualty, Coronation Street, Ackley Bridge, Love, Lies and Records, The Boy With The Top Knot, The Indian Detective, Killing Jesus, This Is England ’90, Last Tango In Halifax, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Casualty, Dark Matters, Stepping Up, Citizen Khan, The Town, Spy, Waterloo Road, EastEnders, This is England 1986, Magnolia, Murphy’s Law, Holby City, Wire in the Blood 3, 55 Degrees North, Doctors, River City, Holby City, Clare in the Community, NCS, Mr Charity, Baywater Reef, Eastenders, Residents, Bernards Watch, Daylight Robbery, Chambers, Emmerdale, The Bill, The Knock, Hetty Wainthrop, Out of Site, Broker’s Man, Vote for Them, Specials, Family Pride, Virtual Murder.
Film includes: Blinded by the Light, Benjamin, Bazodee, Scandalous, Page Eight, This is England, Les Oiseaux du Ciel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Dirty Pretty Things, Armadillo, The Biography, The Escort, Felicia ‘a Journey, East is East, Guru in Seven, Turning World, Hit and Run, Dil Mera Dil.
Radio includes: Numerous BBC Radio drama productions, voiceovers for documentaries and commercials and freelance presenter work on BBC Radio WM, BBC Radio Stoke & Beacon Radio.
Shila Iqbal
Sahani
Training: RADA.
Theatre includes: East Is East (The Bolton Octagon Theatre); Come Closer: Memories Of Partition (Royal Exchange Theatre); Half A Smile and Discovery Showcase (Oldham Coliseum); Displaced (Imagine theatre) and Heroine (JB Shorts Play).
TV includes: Doctors; Emmerdale; Lala’s Ladies and Playhouse Presents: The Cruise.
Film includes: Eaten By Lions; Aiysha; The Girl With The Butterfly Brain; Honour and Mind In The Dark.
Radio Includes: Auntie Jee and My Shadow And Me.
Kerena Jagpal
Kamila
Training: Oxford School of Drama.
Theatre Includes: Mismatch and Twitch (Birmingham Rep); Circle Game (Southwalk Playhouse) and Tiger Country; The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman he Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union; 13 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oxford School of Drama).
TV Includes: 3 Body Problem and Di Ray.
Harmage Singh Kalirai
Jimmy
Training: Rose Bruford College, London, École Jacques Lecoq, Paris.
Theatre includes: Performing in Mahabharata in 2023 (R&D with Why Not Theatre/Shaw Festival Theatre, Canada); A Thousand Faces (Amina Khayyam Dance Company/Tour); Night At The Bombay Roxy (Swamp Studios); The Who & The What (Theater Drachengasse, Vienna); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wolsley); The Winter’s Tale (Guildford); Antony and Cleopatra (Chichester); Behsharam (Soho Theatre/Birmingham Rep); Arabian Nights (Young Vic/Tour); Riddley Walker, The Moonstone (Royal Exchange).
Television includes: Emmerdale; Big School; Politician’s Husband; Silent Witness; Spooks; Casualty; Little Britain; The Bill; Blue Murder; Brief Lives; Peepshow; Steel River Blue; Gifted; Doctors; Fat Friends; Holby City; The Cops; Trial And Retribution; A Touch of Frost; Hearts And Minds; Medics; Lovejoy; The Good Guys; The Ruth Rendell Mysteries; Stanley And The Women.
Film includes: Dalida; Mischief Night; Guru In Seven; Brothers in Trouble; Paper Mask; Partition; A Very British Coup; Bureaucracy Of Love.
Rosaleen Linehan
Muriel
Theatre: Backwards Up A Rainbow Autobiographical Show, (Pavilion Theatre); Mags in The Red Shoes, (Gate); Hurdy Gurdy Man in Woyzeck In Winter (Barbican); Gesa in Liola (National); The Dead (Abbey); Endgame (Gate, USA); Mag in Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic); New Electric Ballroom (Druid); Mother in Blood Wedding (Almeida); Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Gate); Winnie in Happy Days (Gate/Almeida/Barbican/Lincoln Center); Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe (Roundabout, NY); Grandma Kurnitz in Lost in Yonkers (Guthrie, Minneapolis); Kathleen Behan in Mother of All the Behans (Abbey); Kate in Dancing at Lughnasa (Abbey/National/Phoenix/NY); Bessie in The Plough and the Stars (Gaiety and Guthrie); Feste in Twelfth Night; (Gate) Bailegangaire (Royal Court) Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit (Gate & Guthrie); Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals; Hesione Hushabye in Heartbreak House (Gate); Juno (NY); Gypsy (Gaiety); Mary Makebelieve (Gate); Des and Rosie Review.
As Composer: Mary Makebelieve (Abbey Theatre & Gate Theatre); Speak of the Devil (Olympia); Streets of Dublin with Conor Linehan (Tivoli); The Musical Revues (With Des Keogh and Peter O’Brien Quartet); Twelfth Night – Feste’s Songs (The Gate Theatre).
Film/TV: Personal History of David Copperfield as Mrs Gummidge; Ernestine & Kit as Kit; Moone Boy; Sharpe’s Gold; Happy Days; The Butcher Boy; The Matchmaker; About Adam; The Hi Lo Country; Mad About Mambo; The Assassins; Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Snakes and Ladders; Grushko, Suddenly Last Summer (BBC).
Nishad More
Sonny Kapoor
Theatre Includes: Hamlet (CSSD); King Lear (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Optic Trilogy (Alchemical New York) and A Civilized World (Theatre 80 New York).
Film Includes: Quantum Suicide Experiment; My Mother’s Wedding.
TV includes: Masters of the Air.
Marlene Sidaway
Muriel
Training: East 15 Acting School.
Theatre 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.
Anant Varman
Mohan / Tikal
Anant makes his professional UK stage debut with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Training: East 15 Acting School.
Theatre includes: Swipe Right; Rang Parsai and Khusar Phusar (Atelier Repertory Company); High School English and Midsummer Night’s Rave (Car Crash Productions); Twelfth Night; Stories of a Dish and The Florron’s Cake (Little Lion Theatre Company); The Winter’s Tale; The Deep Blue Sea; Summerfolk; Her Naked Skin; Cinderella and An Enemy of the People (East 15).
Film includes: Living and Shootiyapa.
Adam Morris
Male Understudy
Theatre includes: Dial M for Murder and The Messiah (UK Tour); Spiral at (Park Theatre); The Perfect Murder (The Mill at Sonning); Hoard Festival (New Vic Theatre); The Increased Difficulty of Concentration and Catastrophe (Gate Theatre); Dick Barton and Flight of the Phoenix (Croydon Warehouse); Going to the Chapel; Habeus Corpus and Summer Lightening (Salisbury Playhouse); The Importance of Being Earnest; She Stoops to Conquer and Man of the Moment (Colchester Mercury); Relatively Speaking and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Cheltenham Everyman); Cabaret and Irma la Douce (UK Tour); The Legend Continues (Nottingham Theatre Royal) and Speed-the-Plow (Playhouse Theatre).
Film includes: The Beautiful Spy; Four Tails and Backup.
TV Includes: Nolly; The Sister Boniface Mysteries; I Dream; Growing Rich; Maid Marian and her Merry Men and Genie in the House.
Julie Wood
Female Understudy
Training: Guildford School of Acting (GSA).
Theatre includes: The Princess and the Pauper (Mowlem Theatre Swanage); Two (Tour South West); Contractions (Tour South West ); Chamber Music (Theatre NoD Prague); Shakespeare 400 Live (Marine Theatre Lyme Regis); Brave New World (Harrogate Theatre and TIE Tour Yorkshire); Dick Whittington (South West Tour); Dangerous Corner (Barons Court Theatre); Dancing at Lughnasa (Bridport Art’s Centre) and The Place To Be ( Tour South East).
TV includes: 10 Steps to Murder; Radio Sea Breeze and Harbour Lights.
Film includes: In My Day; Bear; Blue and Traces.
Creatives
Deborah Moggach
Writer
Lucy Bailey
Director
Colin Richmond
Costume and Set Designer
Oliver Fenwick
Lighting Designer
Mic Pool
Sound Designer
Kuljit Bhamra
Composer
Ginny Schiller CDG
Casting Director
Breman Rajkumar
Associate Director
Lizzie Frankl
Props Supervisor
Zoe Wilson
Associate Props Supervisor
Lucy Hind
Movement Director
Digby Robinson
Production Manager
Chris Cahill
Costume Supervisor
Simon Friend Entertainment
Producer
Deborah Moggach
Writer
Deborah Moggach has written 20 novels and many screenplays. Her most recent novel, The Black Dress was published on 22 July 2021 and Fool For Love, a collection of Deborah’s short stories was released in 2022. Her novel and adaptation, The Carer, was published in Summer 2019 and is optioned by Noho Film and TV. Adaptations of other writers’ work include Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, The Diary of Anne Frank for BBC1 and Anne Fine’s Goggle-Eyes, which won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Adapted TV Serial.
Deborah’s screenplay for the 2005 Working Title movie of Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen, was nominated for a BAFTA. Other Moggach novels have been adapted by Deborah for television – Seesaw, Close Relations, Stolen and Final Demand.
The feature adaptation of Deborah’s novel These Foolish Things became The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden. The film starred Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Dev Patel was an enormous success everywhere. A sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, was released in February 2015 (Blueprint/Fox Searchlight). Simon Friend Entertainment Ltd optioned the stage rights for These Foolish Things in July 2021.
Tulip Fever based on her novel of the same name was produced by Alison Owen for Monumental Films/The Weinstein Company, starring Christoph Waltz, Alicia Vikander, Judi Dench and Tom Hollander, it opened in the US Summer 2017 and the UK in December 2018.
Deborah’s novels Heartbreak Hotel and In The Dark were optioned to Monumental Films and Buccaneer Media, respectively. She is currently writing her next novel and a film script for Corestar Media/Sky.
Lucy Bailey
Director
Lucy Bailey studied English at Oxford University where she directed the world premiere of Lessness by Samuel Beckett in consultation with the author. Recent productions include: Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Oleanna and Switzerland (Theatre Royal Bath & West End); Witness for the Prosecution (London County Hall).
Other credits include: Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, As You Like It, The Maid’s Tragedy, Comus, A Masque In Honour Of Chastity (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Winter’s Tale, Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar (RSC/ Stratford/London/New York); Baby Doll, The Night Season (National Theatre/West End); The Importance of Being Earnest (West End/UK tour); Fortunes Fool (London’s Old Vic); King Lear (Theatre Royal Bath); The Beggar’s Opera (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Private Lives, Glass Eels, Comfort Me with Apples (Hampstead); Don’t Look Now (Crucible, Sheffield/Lyric Hammersmith); Tonight at 8.30, Stairs to the Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre); Ghosts, Gaslight (Royal & Derngate).
Lucy co-founded The Print Room in Notting Hill Gate and was artistic director from 2010 – 2012. Directing credits include: Fabrication, Snake in the Grass, Kingdom of Earth and Uncle Vanya. Opera credits include: Cave (LSO/ROH Printworks London); Gudrun Fier Sang (Copenhagen dry dock); Jenufa (ENO); Cheryoumushki 1958 (Lyric Hammersmith); Noyes Fludde, Triptych, Mary of Egypt (Aldeburgh); Pasolini’s Teorema (Maggio Musicale Florence/Munich Biennale/Queen Elizabeth Hall); Mitridate (Wexford Opera Festival).
Colin Richmond
Costume and Set Designer
Colin Richmond trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama gaining a first class honours and the Lord Williams Design Prize in 2003. In the same year Colin was a Linbury Prize Finalist. Colin is a companion of the Liverpool Institute of performing arts.
Theatre includes: 101 Dalmatians the musical (Open Air Theatre, regents park ), Grease (West End/UK tour), The Magicians Elephant (RSC), Wendy & Peter Pan (Bunkamura Tokyo/RSC/ Leeds playhouse); The Royal Hunt of the Sun (Parco, Tokyo); The Witches of Eastwick (Cameron Mackintosh/Cirkus Stockholm); Annie (West End/ South Africa/Toronto/UK Tour); Grease, Sunset Boulevard (UK Tour); Pressure (West End, Edinburgh Lyceum/Chichester Minerva); Titus Andronicus, (RSC); Breakfast with Mugabe (RSC/West End); Spring Awakening, (Headlong); Sunshine on Leith (UK tour), Animal Farm, (Leeds Playhouse); Come on Home, Jimmy’s Hall, (Abbey, Dublin); Sweeney Todd (WNO/La Monnaie /Royal Danish Opera); The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Dancing at Lughnasa, (Birmingham Rep); Twelfth Night, Betrayal, (Sheffield Crucible); All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra (The Globe); Beautiful Thing, (West End/UK tour).
TV and film includes: Doctor Who (BBC); Old Friends and Other Days (NI Opera/ Causeway Pictures).
Ballet includes: Merlin (Northern Ballet), Pinocchio (National Ballet of Canada, Texas Ballet Theater).
Opera includes: Carmen, The Magic Flute, Kiss Me Kate, (Opera North).
Oliver Fenwick
Lighting Designer
Theatre includes: The Father and the Assassin, Tartuffe, The Great Wave, Ugly Lies The Bone, The Motherf**ker With The Hat, The Holy Rosenburgs, The Passion, Happy Now? (National Theatre); The Magician’s Elephant, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, The Jew of Malta, Wendy and Peter Pan,The Winters Tale, The Taming Of The Shrew, Julius Caesar, The Drunks, The Grain Store (RSC); Girls and Boys, Lela & Co, Routes, The Witness, Disconnect (Royal Court); Sweat, One Night In Miami, The Vote, Berenice, Huis Clos (Donmar Warehouse); My City, Ruined (Almeida); Passover ,White teeth, Holy SH!t, The Invisible Hand, Multitudes, Red Velvet , Handbagged (Kiln Theatre); Sweat, King Lear, Admissions, Red Velvet, Di and Viv And Rose, Handbagged, The Importance of Being Earnest, Bakersfield Mist, The Madness Of George III, Ghosts (All West End); Calendar Girls the Musical (Tour):To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park & Barbican); Saved, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric, Hammersmith); Oleanna (also west end) Right Now, Therese Raquin, The Big Meal, King Lear, Candida (Bath) Into The Woods, Sunday In The Park With George (Chatelet Theatre, Paris).
Opera includes: Carmen (Welsh National Opera)Werther (Scottish Opera); Hansel and Grettel (ENO and Regents Park); Noyes Fludde (Stratford East); The Merry Widow (Opera North & Sydney Opera House); Samson et Delilah, Lohengrin (Royal Opera House).
Mic Pool
Sound Designer
Mic has designed the sound for 8 other productions directed by Lucy Bailey; The Postman Always Rings Twice, Dial M for Murder, Fortunes Fool, Gaslight, Around The World in 80 days, The Graduate, Switzerland, and Witness for the Prosecution.
West End and Broadway credits include: Art (West End Broadway and Worldwide); No’s Knife (Old Vic and Abbey Dublin); Brand, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Haymarket); The King’s Speech (Wyndham’s); The Madness of George III (Apollo); The Unexpected Man (Duchess); When We Are Married (Savoy) and The 39 Steps (West End and worldwide) for which he received a Tony Award – Best Sound in a play for the Broadway production.
Other work Includes: The Captain of Kopenick (National Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Seagull, The Roundhouse Season of Late Shakespeare Plays (RSC); Vulcan 7 (UK Tour); Alzira (Buxton Festival); Kathleen Turner-Finding My Voice (The Other Palace); Silver Lining (ETT); Beryl, Single Spies (Rose Theatre Kingston); The Stopping Train, Overworlds and Underworlds (Gavin Bryars); Smoking with Lulu, Blueberry Toast (Soho); Our Country’s Good (Out of Joint); Touched, Faith Healer, Restoration (Royal Court); You Never Can Tell, The Ice Chimney, Summer with Monika (Lyric Hammersmith); Shockheaded Peter, Rambert Dance Company (international tours).
Kuljit Bhamra
Composer
Kuljit is best known as a pioneer of the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different cultures.
He has worked on numerous film scores, including Bhaji on the Beach, A Winter of Love, Bend it Like Beckham and appearances in The Guru, The Four Feathers, Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.
Kuljit also performed as on-stage percussionist in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical Bombay Dreams. He went on to write the Indian music for the West End musical The Far Pavilions and later co-orchestrated the music for the stage adaptation of Bend it Like Beckham in which he also played tabla in the orchestra.
He has recorded and produced over 2000 songs and is the recipient of many awards including a platinum disc for outstanding record sales presented by the much-loved BBC Radio DJ, John Peel.
Kuljit is passionately committed to promoting the understanding of Indian instruments, and broadening their use in all types of music. In his ongoing mission to Demystify Indian Music and democratise Indian drumming, he created a Tabla Notation system which is now being used by composers and music students worldwide. Recently, he created the world’s first electronic tabla which he developed in his company Keda Music.
His cutting-edge projects and ground-breaking educational work earned him the prestigious honour of MBE in 2009.
Ginny Schiller CDG
Casting Director
Ginny has been an in-house casting director for the RSC, Chichester Festival Theatre, Rose Theatre Kingston, ETT and Soho Theatre and has worked closely with Bath Theatre Royal and Ustinov Studio for the last decade.
She has cast extensively for the West End and touring circuit as well as for the Almeida, Arcola, Theatre Royal Bath and Ustinov Studio, Birmingham Rep, Bolton Octagon, Bristol Old Vic, Charing Cross Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cyrmu, Frantic Assembly, Greenwich Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Headlong, Leicester Curve, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Marlowe Studio Canterbury, Menier Chocolate Factory, New Wolsey Ipswich, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Northampton Royal & Derngate, Nottingham Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Drum, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Shared Experience, Sheffield Crucible, Traverse Edinburgh, Wales Millennium Centre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Wilton’s Music Hall, Young Vic and Yvonne Arnaud Guildford.
She has also worked on many television, film and radio productions, including the recent BBC Radio 4 series The Nuremberg Trials.
Breman Rajkumar
Associate Director
Breman is Literary Manager at Bristol School of Acting, where he is also adapting two productions, including his own modern retelling of Don Quixote, which he will direct at Tobacco Factory Theatres main house in Spring 2023.
Breman was Resident Director at the National Theatre and was previously Resident Director at Kiln Theatre. He was awarded the Directors Guild Award for Best Director.
Credits include, as Director: Fragile Land & DNA (London College of Music); Tender Napalm (Lyric Theatre Belfast); The Babysitter (Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh & Stephen Joseph Theatre); Feelings Are Weapons that can Kill (Loft Theatre, Leamington).
As Associate: Blues in the Night (Kiln Theatre); Wife (Kiln Theatre), Half God of Rainfall (Kiln Theatre & Birmingham REP); White Teeth (Kiln Theatre); The Deranged Marriage (Watford Palace Theatre & Leeds Playhouse).
Breman has led workshops for aspiring directors with NT Learning, in prisons with Synergy Theatre and taught playwriting with Maya Productions.
Breman was awarded a scholarship onto the MFA Playwriting at the Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin and previously won the Sunday Times playwriting award. Breman reads for the National Theatre, Bush Theatre and Lyric Belfast and was previously a reader for Kiln Theatre, Soho Theatre and Leeds Playhouse.
Lizzie Frankl
Props Supervisor
Theatre credits include: Grease The Musical (Dominion Theatre); Beautiful The Carole King Musical (UK Tour); Da Vinci Code (UK Tour); Ocean At The End Of The Lane (Duke Of York’s Theatre); Get Up Stand Up (Lyric Theatre); Singin In The Rain (Sadler’s Wells); Cinderella The Musical (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Palladium Theatre); Pretty Woman (Piccadilly Theatre); White Christmas (Dominion Theatre); Noises Off (Garrick Theatre); Two Ladies (The Bridge Theatre); Hansel and Gretel (ENO & Regent’s Park Theatre); The Starry Messenger (Wyndham’s Theatre); Ian McKellen Live On Stage (UK Tour); The Price (Wyndham’s Theatre); Home I’m Darling (Duke Of Yorks Theatre); An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville Theatre); The Exorcist (Phoenix Theatre); Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Apollo Theatre); Don Juan in Soho (Wyndhams Theatre); Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre); Nice Fish (Harold Pinter Theatre); Wind in the Willows (UK Tour & West End); Aladdin the Musical (Prince Edward Theatre); Funny Girl (Savoy Theatre & Menier Chocolate Factory & UK Tour); A Christmas Carol (Noel Coward Theatre); Benvenuto Cellini, Eugene Onegin & The Death of Klinghoffer (English National Opera);
Also including various productions at Regents Park Open Air Theatre, The Donmar Warehouse, The Old Vic Theatre, The Almedia, Chichester Festival Theatre & Theatre Royal Bath.
International credits include: Hamlet & Oresteia (Park Avenue Armory, New York); Guys & Dolls (Théâtre Marigny, Paris); Jesus Christ Superstar (Barbican & US Tour); Blithe Spirit (Gielgud Theatre & Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles); The River (Circle in the Square, Broadway); Singin In The Rain (Moscow & Tokyo); Testament of Mary (Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway); The Little Mermaid (Tokyo, Moscow and Netherlands); Bodyguard the Musical (UK Tour & Australia).
TV, Live Events & Music credits include: Harry Potter; A Forbidden Forest (Live Event); Brit Awards 2018 – 2022 (Live Broadcast); Mariah Carey All I Want for Christmas (European Tour); Robbie Williams The Heavy Entertainment Show (World Tour); Derren Brown, Showman (UK Tour); Monty Python Live (O2 Arena); Dymano, Seeing Is Believing (Arena Tour); Spongebob Squarepants The Musical (Nickelodeon Broadcast); Uncle Vanya (Cinema Broadcast); The 1975 Give Yourself A Try (Music Video).
Lucy Hind
Movement Director
Theatre includes: Billy Elliot (Leicester Curve Theatre); Murder on the Orient Express (Chichester Festival Theatre); Girl From The North Country (The Old Vic, West End and Broadway); Hamlet (Young Vic); The Divide, No’s Knife (The Old Vic); The Light In The Piazza (Royal Festival Hall); Ugly Lies The Bone (National Theatre); Miss Littlewood (RSC); Local Hero (Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh); The Last Ship (Northern Stage and US Tour); Calendar Girls (UK Tour); The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, Sleeping Beauty (Theatr Clwyd); The Merchant Of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe and US Tour); Macbeth, The House of Bernada Alba (Manchester Royal Exchange); Snowmaiden (Opera North); Wendy and Peter, A Little Night Music, Barnbow Canaries, Refugee Boy, Wind In The Willows, The Count Of Monte Cristo (Leeds Playhouse); The Dance Hall, Aladdin, Kes (Cast); The Effect, Playing For Time, Twelfth Night, Love Your Soldiers, This Is My Family (Sheffield Theatres); Multitudes, The House That Will Not Stand (Tricycle Theatre); The Jacobin (Buxton Arts Festival).
Television includes: Hansel and Gretel, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, The Nutcracker, Peter Pan (BBC); Truthseekers (Amazon Studios); Banana (E4).
Lucy is an associate artist at Slung Low and was on the team of choreographers for the London 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony.
Chris Cahill
Costume Supervisor
Theatre includes: Grease (Dominion Theatre); Much Ado about Nothing (RSC); Blithe Spirit (Pinter Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Regents Park Theatre); Merrily We Roll Along (Tokyo); Europeana (RSC); The Witches of Eastwick (Cirkus Theatre, Stockholm); I’m Not Running (National Theatre); As You Like It (Regents Park Theatre); Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich (RSC); Harold Pinter Season (Pinter Theatre); Sunset Boulevard (UK Tour); North By North West (Bath Theatre Royal & Toronto); Vice Versa (RSC); Wild Party (The Other Palace); Annie The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre & Toronto); Wild/ Reasons to be Happy (Hampstead Theatre); I See You (Royal Court); Urinetown (Apollo Theatre, London); The Effect and Hotel (National Theatre).
Simon Friend Entertainment
Producer
Simon Friend Entertainment Limited is an independent theatre and film production company and we’re delighted to welcome you to our production of The Best Exhotic Marigold Hotel. SFE develops, produces, and manages all of our own productions, which have won Academy Awards, BAFTAs, Olivier Awards, UK Theatre and Critics’ Circle awards.
West End credits include: Bad Jews (The Arts Theatre); Life of Pi (Wyndham’s Theatre), The Girl on the Train (Duke of York’s Theatre); The Starry Messenger by Kenneth Lonergan (Wyndham’s Theatre); Admissions (Trafalgar Studios); The Height of the Storm by Florian Zeller (Wyndham’s); The Philanthropist by Christopher Hampton (Trafalgar Studios); Million Dollar Quartet (Royal Festival Hall); The Father by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton (Wyndham’s Theatre and Duke of York’s Theatre); Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon (Arts Theatre); Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet (Playhouse Theatre); Relative Values by Noël Coward (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Fences by August Wilson (Duchess Theatre).
UK tour credits include: The Da Vinci Code based on Dan Brown’s novel, Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott; Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas; The Entertainer by John Osborne; The Girl on the Train based on Paula Hawkins’ novel; The Messiah by Patrick Barlow; Titanic the Musical by Maury Yeston and Peter Stone; Around the World in 80 Days by Laura Eason; The Wipers Times by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman; Trial by Laughter by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman; The Graduate by Terry Johnson; Million Dollar Quartet by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux (UK and New Zealand); Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon; Saturday Night Fever (book by Robert Stigwood and Bill Oakes, and music by the Bee Gees); The Hypochondriac by Richard Bean (after Molière) and Things We Do for Love by Alan Ayckbourn.
US credits include: The Height of the Storm (Broadway, Samuel J. Friedman Theatre); The Closet by Douglas Carter Beane, starring Matthew Broderick (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Around the World in 80 Days by Laura Eason (US tour).
International credits include: Million Dollar Quartet (New Zealand and India) and Titanic – the Musical (Germany).
Film & Television: The Father, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colmen (winner of 2 Academy Awards & 2 BAFTAs) and The Grinch Musical (NBC & Sky).
Producer SIMON FRIEND
Excecutive Director HANNA OSMOLSKA
Production Co-ordinator KATIE SEELEY
Production Co-ordinator SASKIA BAYLIS
Production Assistant & Office Administrator EDEN LACK
Production Accountant HANNAH BOWKER
Accounts & Payroll TONI PALMER, FRANCESCA OLDNALL & GEORGE BRADLEY