The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel adapted for the stage, to tour the UK for the first time in 2022 prior to the West End.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel UK Tour
A new stage adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s best-selling novel is to be directed by Lucy Bailey. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel UK Tour starts at Richmond Theatre on 30 August 2022.
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.
Based on Deborah Moggach’s 2004 novel These Foolish Things, 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 as well as the United Kingdom.
The interlinked 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-it-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.
Deborah Moggach said:- “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’re assembling an amazing cast, so I hope they bring you plenty of laughs and some warm sparks of recognition.”
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel tour will star Hayley Mills (Pollyanna, The Parent Trap,Whistle Down the Wind), Paul Nicholas (Jesus Christ Superstar, BBC 1’s Just Good Friends, Eastenders), Rula Lenska (ITV’s Rock Follies, Coronation Street, Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother), 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)
Producer Simon Friend continues: “I have been a huge fan of Deborah Moggach’s writing for years, so it’s an honour to work with her on this exciting new adaptation of her beloved story, which I feel has always called out to be experienced as live theatre.“
Deborah Moggach has written 20 novels including These Foolish Things which became The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden. Deborah’s screenplay for the 2005 Working Title movie of Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen, was nominated for a BAFTA. Adaptations of other writers’ work include Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, The Diary of Anne Frank and Anne Fine’s Goggle-Eyes, which won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Adapted TV Serial. The movie, Tulip Fever, based on her novel of the same name starred Christoph Waltz and Judi Dench. Deborah has adapted some of her other novels for television: Seesaw, Close Relations, Stolen and Final Demand. Double Take,Deborah’s first original stage play was produced at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
Lucy Bailey directs the new production. Lucy studied English at Oxford University where she directed the world premiere of Lessness by Samuel Beckett. Recent productions include: David Mamet’s Oleanna (UK Tour & West End); Gaslight (UK Tour); Witness for the Prosecution(London’s County Hall); Ghosts (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Switzerland (Bath Ustinov / West End); Cave (a site specific opera for London Sinfonietta and Royal Opera House, at the Print Works, London); Comus, A Masque in Honour of Chastity (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Globe); Kenny Morgan (Arcola, London).
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is produced by Simon Friend.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel UK Tour Dates
Richmond Theatre
30 August – 10 September 2022
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Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
13 – 17 September 2022
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Theatre Royal Brighton
20 – 24 September 2022
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Theatre Royal Glasgow
27 September – 1 October 2022
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Theatre Royal, Newcastle
4 – 8 October 2022
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Hall For Cornwall, Truro
11 – 15 October 2022
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Churchill Theatre, Bromley
18 – 22 October 2022
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Theatre Royal Norwich
25 – 29 October 2022
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Curve Leicester
1- 5 November 2022
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The Lowry, Salford
8 – 12 November 2022
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New Victoria Theatre, Woking
15 – 19 November 2022
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Theatre Royal Bath
28 November – 3 December 2022
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