Con O'Neill to Replace Matt Lucas in London Prick Up Your Ears

Con O'Neill will replace Matt Lucas in the role of Kenneth Halliwell in the current London production of Simon Bent’s Prick Up Your Ears. As previously announced, Lucas left the hit production in early October after the suicide death of his former husband, Kevin McGee. O’Neill will join Chris New (as playwright Joe Orton) and Gwen Taylor (as their neighbor) on October 22 at the Comedy Theatre. Until then, the role of Orton’s murderer will be played by Lucas’ understudy, Michael Chadwick. Daniel Kramer is the director.

Based on John Lahr’s biography of Orton and the playwright’s diaries, Prick Up Your Ears tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Orton and Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington. After striking his famous lover to death, Halliwell went on to commit suicide.

“We are thrilled that Con O’Neill, an actor of such significance, is available to take on the role of Kenneth Halliwell at such short notice,” the producers said in a statement. “Given the sad news that Matt Lucas has recently received, and the role he was playing, it is understandable that he could not return to play Halliwell at this time and our thoughts are with him.”

A Tony nominee for Blood Brothers, O’Neill played record producer Joe Meek in Nick Moran’s Telstar, both on stage and in a feature film recently released on DVD. Other London stage credits include Faces in the Crowd, The Female of the Species, The Caretaker, Southwark Fair, Mother Clap’s Molly House and A Tribute to the Blues Brothers.

Prick Up Your Ears is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions, Lee Menzies, John Gore and Thomas B. McGrath.