James Dreyfus and Maureen Lipman are to play lead roles in Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy Harvey at Birmingham REP.
Dreyfus will be Elwood P Dowd, the man who has a friendship with a six-foot tall, invisible rabbit called Harvey.
To save the family’s reputation Elwood’s sister Veta, played by Maureen Lipman, takes him to see a psychiatrist. But this sets off a whirlwind of confusion and chaos as everyone tries to catch a man and his invisible rabbit.
Harvey premièred on Broadway in 1944. Six years later Mary Chase adapted it for the big screen, with James Stewart in the role of Elwood P Dowd.
James Dreyfus won an Olivier Award for best supporting performance in a musical for his role as Russell Paxton in The Lady in the Dark at the National Theatre.
He also played Dr Pangloss in Candide and Humphrey in The Common Pursuit, both at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Pauncefort Quentin in Noel Coward’s The Vortex at the Rose Theatre Kingston, O J Berman in Breakfast at Tiffany’s at the Haymarket Theatre, Emcee in Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre and Carmen Gia in the original cast of The Producers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Maureen Lipman previously starred in Glorious! by Peter Quilter at the REP and the Duchess Theatre. More recently she appeared in Daytona by Oliver Cotton as part of the REP’s re-opening season in autumn 2013.
She won an Olivier Award for best comedy performance in See How They Run and also appeared in Trevor Nunn’s National Theatre production Oklahoma! opposite Hugh Jackman.
The cast of Harvey also includes David Bamber as William R Chumley, Desmond Barrit as Judge Omar Gaffney, Felicity Dean as Betty Chumley, Ingrid Oliver as Myrtle Mae Simmons, Amanda Boxer as Miss Ethel Chauvenet, Sally Scott as nurse Ruth Kelly, Youssef Kerkour as Duane Wilson, Jack Hawkins as Lyman Sanderson and Linal Haft as E J Lofgren.
Lindsay Posner directs. Design is by Peter McKintosh with lighting by Howard Harrison and sound by Paul Groothuis.
Harvey runs at Birmingham REP from Friday 6 February until Saturday 21 February.