Alexander Hanson to Star in the West End's An Ideal Husband

Alexander Hanson, Samantha Bond, Elliott Cowan and Rachel Stirling will star in a West End revival of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, beginning November 4 at the Vaudeville Theatre. The production, directed by Lindsay Posner, will open on November 10.

Written in 1895, An Ideal Husband revolves around the blackmailing antics of old acquaintances at an upscale London dinner party. Sir Robert Chiltern (Hanson) is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife (Stirling) whose way of life is threatened when Mrs. Cheveley (Bond) appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns to his friend Lord Goring (Cowan), an apparently idle philanderer, for his help. For the next 48 hours all their lives will be turned upside down. The show has played the West End several times, most recently in 1996, and was turned into a 1999 film starring Rupert Everett and Cate Blanchett.

Hanson can currently be seen on Broadway in the revival of A Little Night Music as Fredrik Egerman, a role he also played in the London production of the musical revival. His other London stage credits include Marguerite, The Sound of Music, Sunset Boulevard, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida and Arcadia. Bond is best known for her role as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. She receieved a Tony nomination for Amy's View and has also appeared on the West End in Donkey's Years, A Woman of No Importance and Arcadia. Cowan recently played the title role of Macbeth at the Globe and starred in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse. His other stage credit include Frost/Nixon and Don Carlos. Stirling was last seen on stage in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rose Theatre and has also appeared in The Priory, Pygmalion and Theatre of Blood.