Calder to Succeed Cox in the West End's Rock 'N' Roll; Extension Announced

David Calder is set to replace Brian Cox on September 26 in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'N' Roll. Calder joins original cast members Sinead Cusack, Rufus Sewell, Alice Eve and Anthony Calf in Trevor Nunn's acclaimed production. The play, which received its world premiere at the Royal Court in June before transferring to the West End's Duke of York's Theatre in July, has also announced a six-week extension. It is now booking to November 5.

Calder plays the role of a Cambridge Marxist professor, clinging to his Communist beliefs even as the system is being dismantled in Czechoslovakia, where the play is also set. Calder's recent theatre work includes Five Gold Rings and Conversations After a Burial at the Almeida Theatre, The Little Foxes at the Donmar Warheouse and Home at the Oxford Stage Company. On television, his most high profile roles include Detective Inspector George Resnick in the crime series Widows, and Nathan Spring in the science-fiction drama Star Cops. Other TV credits include Tumbledown, A Question of Attribution and Wallis and Edward. His films include Defence of the Realm, American Friends, The King is Alive and the soon-to-be-released Goya's Ghosts and Perfume.

In his Theatre.com Review of Rock ‘N' Roll, Matt Wolf called Stoppard's work a "long, sometimes clunky but, in the end, emotionally liberating play." Rock ‘N' Roll has broken house box office records at the Duke of York's, and it is expected that after its extension, it will have recouped its investment. Discussions are also underway for a possible Broadway production.