Billy Crudup to Star in Adaptation of Classic Western Film High Noon in the West End

Tony Award winner Billy Crudup will star in the world premiere of High Noon, a new play by Eric Roth adapting the 1952 western that starred Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, in the West End. The play, which also stars Olivier Award-winner Denise Gough, will run at the Harold Pinter Theatre from December 17 to March 7, 2026. Thea Sharrock directs.

The film, with a screenplay by Carl Foreman and directed by Fred Zinnemann, won four Academy Awards. Hailed as one of the greatest westerns ever made and set in the American West of the 1800s, High Noon promises to ride on themes as relevant now as they were then. Courage vs. Cowardice. Justice vs. Peace. Duty vs. Desire. And at its heart, is the bond between Will Kane and Amy Fowler—a love tested by impossible choices as the clock ticks down to the return of deadly outlaw Frank Miller on the high noon train. The clock is ticking. Tick: Begin a new life together? Tock: Or take a stand for the greater good? As time runs out, one truth remains: if you don’t stand up for what’s worth saving, you risk losing it all.

Crudup’s Broadway credits include starring roles in The Elephant Man, The Pillowman and The Coast of Utopia, earning a Tony Award for the latter. He made his West End debut in the U.K. premiere of the one-man play Harry Clarke in 2024. A popular film and TV star, he has received two Emmy Awards in 2020 and 2024 for his work as Cory Ellison in the Apple+ TV hit The Morning Show.

Gough won the Olivier Award for her performance in Duncan MacMillan’s People Places and Things and earned a Tony nomination in 2018 for her Broadway debut in Angels in America. Her other stage credits include The Duchess of Malfi, The Royal Court’s Oh Go My Man and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Ahasverus, The Plough and the Stars, The Birds at the Gate in Dublin and The Grouch at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She can also be seen on Andor on Disney+.

Roth, who makes his debut writing for the stage with High Noon, has been nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay—Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star Is Born (2018) and Dune (2021)—winning for Forrest Gump.

High Noon will feature set and costume design by Tony and Olivier Award-winner Tim Hatley, lighting design by Tony and Olivier Award-winner Neil Austin and the composer and music producer is Chris Egan.