Alex - Leicester Square Theatre

SYNOPSIS

Alex

Meet Alex Masterley. He is married, middle-aged and has one child. Alex is (unsurprisingly) the protagonist of the forth-coming West End show, Alex. However, there is one small factor that sets Alex aside from other title characters across the West End theatres; Alex is a cartoon character. Appearing over the month of December 2008 at the Leicester Square Theatre, Alex Masterley, seen in the Daily Telegraph, comes to life!

In 1987, Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor created Alex, a cartoon strip that first appeared in the London Daily News. When the paper ceased, the creators moved Alex to The Independent where he has spent the past 16 years entertaining readers of the business section on a daily basis. The cartoon strip occurs in real-time which mean readers have watched Alex’s life develop including his marriage to Penny and the birth of his son Christopher. Alex works for Rupert Sterling at Megabank and has all the latest gadgets to show his status as a modern-day businessman.

Alex originally premiered at the Arts Theatre last year and has since been on an international tour playing at theatres in Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. The tour arrived back in the UK in October and will visit Windsor, Northampton and Colchester before arriving in London on November 27th 2008. The 75-minute play is a one-man act with Robert Bathurst portraying the role of Alex. Time Out commented ‘Robert Bathurst was born to play the City’s most famous investment banker’ whilst the Evening Standard thought ‘Bathurst is dream casting as Alex’. Bathurst is joined on stage by several characters from the cartoon strip but they appear in the form of animation, created by Mark Grimmer and Leo Warner of Fifty Nine Productions, a specialist in theatre projection design.

Artistic Director of Improbable Theatre, Phelim McDermott is responsible for the show’s direction. McDermott co-directed the highly-acclaimed Shockheaded Peter as well as directing Theatre of Blood at the National Theatre in 2005; a show which led one reviewer for the Daily Mail to state “I love Theatre of Blood!” McDermott has also directed several operas and is currently working on a stage musical version of The Addams Family, alongside co-founder of Improbable Theatre, Julian Crouch. The musical is set for a Broadway opening in 2009-2010, after an out-of-town tryout.

Alex appears at the Leicester Square Theatre from 25th November 2008 to December 20th 2008.