Newcastle’s Live Theatre has announced casting for its second production of the autumn season, the revival of Lee Hall’s Cooking with Elvis.
Joe Caffrey reprises the role he played in the original production in 1998, the paralysed Elvis impersonator, and his wife will be played by Tracy Whitwell, his daughter by Victoria Bewick and Stuart by Riley Jones.
Joe Caffrey has a long-standing relationship with Live, most recently in The Pitmen Painters,
and other stage credits include Billy Elliott the Musical, and he has also worked with the Globe Theatre, Northern Stage and Hull Truck.
Victoria Bewick is a recent graduate whose TV credits include Doctors, Call The Midwife, Young Dracula (BBC), Breathless (ITV) and 13 Steps Down (Parallel Pictures).
Tracy Whitwell has worked with Live, The Mermaid and the Old Red Lion Theatre and has a string of TV and film appearances to her credit.
Riley Jones has just returned from the national tour of The Pitmen Painters. He has worked with Operating Theatre Company, Bruvvers and the Gala Theatre in Durham. TV credits include Vera and Wolfblood.
When an amateur Elvis impersonator is paralysed in a car crash, his wife and daughter are forced to cope with the aftermath. Jill tries to replace him by cooking while mam tries to replace him with sex. Unfortunately they both try their talents out on the same man, Stuart.
Max Roberts, Live’s artistic director, says, “Cooking with Elvis is one of Live Theatre’s greatest hits, so in our 40th birthday year it seemed appropriate to revive it here in Newcastle for the first time since its premiere in 1998. That it has been produced extensively nationally and internationally since our premiere is a testimony to its universal appeal, emotional intensity and wild anarchic humour.”
The production runs from 17th October to 23rd November.