Waiting for Godot Roger Rees

Roger Rees

Vladimir

Roger Rees, newbie Beckettian, new, too, to the historic Haymarket Theatre, can redress the balance with 22 years of Shakespeare at the RSC, from spear-carrier to associate artist. Among many RSC productions, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Richard II, Henry VIII, Pericles, Cymbeline, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Three Sisters, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Winter’s Tale, The Duchess of Malfi, The Relapse, The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising, Factory Birds and The Suicide come to mind. More prominently, Macbeth, starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench (two of the funniest people in the world) and Hamlet, starring himself (not funny), come to mind. Plus, perhaps, the eponymous hero in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, for which Mr Rees won the Tony Award, Olivier Award, and an Emmy nomination for Best Actor.

On and off-Broadway, Mr Rees starred in Indiscretions, with Kathleen Turner, Eileen Atkins, Cynthia Nixon and Jude Law, directed by Sean Mathias (Tony, Drama Desk nominations); John Robin Baitz’ The End of the Day (Obie Award); Uncle Vanya, with Derek Jacobi (Brooks Atkinson); The Uneasy Chair (Playwrights Horizons); The Rehearsal (Roundabout); The Misanthrope, opposite Uma Thurman (CSC), and the premiere of Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s musical, A Man of No Importance, with Faith Prince (Lincoln Center Theatre).Back home, in the West End, Mr Rees created the starring roles of Henry and Kerner, both opposite Felicity Kendal, in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and Hapgood, and played opposite Jane Lapotaire in his own thriller, Double Double, co-authored with Jersey Boys author Rick Elice. Some of Mr Rees’ movies are: The Ebony Tower (opposite Laurence Olivier), Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Bob Fosse’s Star 80, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julie Taymour’s Frida, Sudden Manhattan, Substance of Fire, If Looks Could Kill, The Prestige, The Treatment, The Scorpion King, The Emperor’s Club, Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, Happy Tears, The Pink Panther, Game 6, Next Stop Wonderland, Peter Greenaway’s A Life in Suitcases, Crazy Like a Fox, Going Under, The Invasion (with Nicole Kidman), The Narrows and Almost Perfect, to be released later this year.

Known to TV audiences as Lord John Marbury on NBC’s The West Wing and Robin Colcord on NBC’s Cheers, recently Roger played Dr Colin Marlow, ‘old flame’ of resident Christina Yang, on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy; and appeared in OZ, My So-Called Life, MANTIS, Warehouse 13 and TV movies The Crossing, Double Platinum, Titanic and Liberty.Mr Rees, former Associate Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, directed, among others, Julius Caesar, Turkey Time and John Bull. In America he directed Red Memories (NYSF); Mud, River Stone (Playwrights Horizons); The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Old Globe); Arms and the Man (Roundabout), and an episode of HBO’s OZ. With the much-loved Collegiate Chorale in New York he directed Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, Phillip Glass’ Juniper Tree, Gershwin’s White House Cantata and Kurt Weill’s Firebrand of Florence. He conceived and directed Here Lies Jenny, starring Bebe Neuwirth, choreography  by Ann Reinking, at the Zipper Theater, New York, and in San Francisco. Roger recently completed three wonderful years as the Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he directed The Rivals, The Film Society, starring Cherry Jones, Simon Grey’s The Late Middle Classes, Anything Goes, Herringbone, starring BD Wong, Double Double and played Petruchio while directing The Taming of the Shrew, opposite Bebe Neuwirth. He continues to tour America with his acclaimed one-man show, WHAT YOU WILL; an historic, histrionic and somewhat hysterical one-horsed gallop through all things Shakespearean, premiered at the Folger Shakespeare Theater, DC.  Mr Rees’ latest project, Peter and the Starcatchers, a prequel to Peter Pan, written by Rick Elice and co-directed with Alex Timbers, hits New York next January.

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