Samantha Bond will make her West End musical theatre debut alongside Olivier Award winner Robert Lindsay when she takes to the stage in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels next year.
The production, which also stars Rufus Hound, Katherine Kingsley and John Marquez, will play at the Savoy theatre from 10 March.
Bond, who is well-known for her screen roles as Lady Rosamund in Downton Abbey and Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films, was most recently seen on the West End stage alongside another Olivier Award winner, Zoë Wanamaker, in Passion Play at the Duke of York’s theatre. Bond’s other theatre credits include Sean Foley’s production of What The Butler Saw, 2010’s An Ideal Husband at the Vaudeville and A Woman Of No Importance at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, but her forthcoming West End appearance will mark her first foray into the realm of musical theatre.
The stage and screen actress follows the lead of husband Alexander Hanson, who is currently appearing in the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical Stephen Ward at the Aldwych theatre.
Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell, the cast is completed by Lizzy Connolly, Gavin Alex, Darren Bennett, Niamh Bracken, Lisa Bridge, Darren Carnall, Andy Conaghan, Lizzy Connolly, Phoebe Coupe, Claire Doyle, Alice Fearn, Selina Hamilton, Ian Knauer, Lisa Mathieson, Zak Nemorin, Genevieve Nicole, Javier Santos, Todd Talbot, Dominic Tribuzio, Jon Tsouras and Zara Warren.
Based on the 1988 film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels transports audiences to the luxurious lap of the French Riviera, where the decadent world of sophisticated conman Lawrence Jameson is set to crumble with the arrival of larger-than-life conman Freddy Benson. The town isn’t big enough for the both of them, so the pair go head to head in the con of their lives, pulling out all of the stops in a bid to win the affections of millionaire soap heiress Christine Colgate.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which features a book by Jeffrey Lane, music and lyrics by David Yazbek, and designs by Olivier Award winner Peter McKintosh, will take its musical tale to Manchester and Aylesbury before taking over the venue currently home to West End theatrical concert Let It Be, which is set to close on 2 February.