A new stage production of Willy Russell’s Educating Rita will tour in 2019, starring Stephen Tompkinson as Frank and introducing Jessica Johnson as Rita.
It opens at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick on April 18 and will then visit The Lowry in Salford, Bradford’s Alhambra Theatre, Nottingham Theatre Royal, Theatre Clwyd in Mold, Bath Theatre Royal, Salisbury Playhouse, Exeter Northcott, Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, Wolverhampton Grand, Theatre Royal Wakefield and Sheffield Lyceum. Further venues to be announced.
The play was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and played at the Warehouse Theatre, London in 1980, starring Julie Walters and Mark Kingston. Walters reprised her role in the film opposite Michael Caine.