The Wire’s Dominic West Returns to the West End in Butley

Dominic West, best known for his starring role in HBO’s crime drama The Wire, will return to the West End stage in the title role of Simon Gray’s Butley. The revival will begin performances at London’s Duchess Theatre on June 1 and open on June 6, directed by Lindsay Posner.

West starred as Baltimore cop Jimmy McNulty in all five seasons of HBO’s The Wire; his other screen credits include The Devil’s Whore, Centurion and 300. His London theater credits include The Seagull, As You Like It, The Voysey Inheritance, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Life Is A Dream. On Broadway, West starred in a revival of Design for Living.

Joining West on stage will be Penny Downie, whose recent credits include Hamlet with the RSC and the Clint Eastwood feature film Invictus, and Paul McGann, whose screen credits include Withnail and I, Doctor Who and Luther. Additional casting has yet to be announced.

Butley centers around the unfortunate life of a literary professor who suffers the loss of his wife and his lover all in one day. When Butley's estranged wife, Anne, announces her intention to marry a mutual friend, and his live-in lover and office mate Joey moves out to join another man, Butley is even more out of sorts than usual. And to top it off, his ill-respected colleague has just published her book on Byron—a task 20 years in the making.

Butley premiered at London’s Criterion Theatre in 1971, starring Alan Bates and directed by Harold Pinter. It bowed on Broadway the following year, and was revived in 2006 starring Nathan Lane in the title role.

Peter McKintosh designs the production, which will end its limited engagement on August 27.