Hartford Stage announces cast and creative team for Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense”

HARTFORD, CT — February 25, 2019 — Hartford Stage announced today the cast and creative team for Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense.” The Olivier Award-winning comedy from brothers David and Robert Goodale will perform at Hartford Stage Thursday, March 21, through Saturday, April 20. Original director Sean Foley returns to stage the show, which is making its North American premiere at Hartford Stage. Three Broadway actors – Chandler Williams, Arnie Burton, and Eddie Korbich – star in the three-hander.

“I saw Jeeves & Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense’ shortly after it opened in the West End and fell for it immediately,” said Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson. “Director Sean Foley and the Goodale brothers have crafted a beautifully constructed stage farce that is both true to Wodehouse and completely successful in its own right. I couldn’t be happier to be bringing the United States premiere here to Hartford.”

A hilarious farce with inventive theatricality, the play was co-written by brothers David and Robert Goodale based upon characters created by British author P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse, a prolific writer who was considered to be of one of the most widely-read humorists of the 20^th century, often mixed humor with social commentary. Among his many creations – including Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, and Uncle Fred and Mr. Mulliner – Jeeves and Wooster are two of his most beloved characters.

Inspired in part by Wodehouse’s 1938 novel The Code of the Woosters, the Goodale Brothers’ Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense” is a fast-paced, slapstick comedy which cleverly skewers the Edwardian Upper Class. Everything goes awry when Bertie Wooster, a wealthy British gentleman with a penchant for telling stories, decides to stage a one-man show on London’s West End. Things go from bad to worse when Wooster’s loyal valet, Jeeves, valiantly steps in to help save the day.

Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense” premiered at the West End’s Duke of York's Theatre in November 2013 to rave reviews and won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2014. The Daily Mail hailed the play as “an inventive evening of bonkers comedy.” The Telegraph raved, “Wodehouse himself would have loved this production.”

Mark Goucher, who devised the original concept for the show and produced it in the West End with Mark Rubinstein, said, “After a wonderful season in the West End, and an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, I am very excited that ‘Perfect Nonsense’ will open in the United States at Hartford Stage. We hope that this show will be as well received by American audiences as The 39 Steps and The Play That Goes Wrong.”

Sean Foley’s previous work in the United States – the Olivier Award-winning comedy The Play What I Wrote – transferred to Broadway from the West End, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Event in 2003. Foley – a director, writer, comedian and actor – is a celebrated West End favorite, helming the hits The Ladykillers (for which he earned an Olivier Award best director nomination) and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw. Foley also co-wrote and starred in Olivier Award- nominated Ducktastic, a farce parodying the Las Vegas show act Siegfried and Roy, directed by Kenneth Branagh. He made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut in 2013, directing Thomas Middletown’s A Mad World, My Masters.

Chandler Williams will play Bertie Wooster. Williams previously appeared at Hartford Stage in Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9. His Broadway credits include the revivals of The Winslow Boy and Mary Stuart, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) and Translations. Williams’ Off-Broadway credits include Crimes of the Heart, Rope, King Lear, Richard III and The Mysteries. In addition to Hartford Stage, Williams has appeared regionally in productions at PlayMakers Repertory Company, the McCarter Theatre Center, Baltimore Center Stage and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Williams’ television and film appearances include The Blacklist, The Knick, Elementary, Person of Interest, The Good Wife and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Kinsey, Public Enemies and Maggie Black.

Arnie Burton will play Jeeves. Burton has appeared in Broadway productions of A Free Man of Color, The 39 Steps, Amadeus, Machinal, and Peter and the Starcatcher. His Off-Broadway credits include Lewiston & Clark, The Temperamentals, Lives of the Saints, The Mystery of Irma Vep and The Merchant of Venice. Burton’s regional appearances include performances at the American Repertory Theater, The Old Globe, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Barrington Stage, the Huntington Theatre Company and Geffen Playhouse. His film credits include The Greatest Showman, The Invention of Lying, Igby Goes Down, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and Game 6. Burton had a recurring role on the Starz mini-series Flesh and Bone and has made guest appearances on The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Frasier, Jessica Jones, Elementary and Murphy Brown (2018).

Eddie Korbich will play Seppings. Korbich has performed in the original Broadway casts of the Tony Award-winning musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, A Christmas Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Wicked, The Drowsy Chaperone, Seussical, Carousel, Sweeney Todd and The Little Mermaid. He’s appeared on over 25 cast recordings during his career. Off-Broadway credits include Assassins, Godspell, The Gifts of the Magi, Flora, The Red Menace, A Little Night Music, Eating Raoul, and Taking a Chance on Love, for which he won an Obie Award. His regional appearances include Goodspeed Opera House, La Jolla Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Korbich has appeared on television’s Blue Bloods, Nurse Jackie, The Mysteries of Laura, Elementary, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and in the films Quiz Show and Tarzan.

In addition to Foley, the creative team includes Scenic and Costume Designer Alice Power (What the Butler Saw, Vaudeville Theatre; The Painkiller, Lyric Theatre; The Play What I Wrote, Wyndham’s Theatre on the West End and the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway); Sound Designer John Gromada (A Christmas Carol–A Ghost Story of Christmas, Hartford Stage; The Trip to Bountiful and Clybourne Park, Broadway); and Lighting Designer Philip Rosenberg (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Hartford Stage and Broadway; Pretty Woman: The Musical and The Elephant Man, Broadway).

Lori Lundquist (The Age of Innocence, Hartford Stage; The Wolves, Off-Broadway) will serve as Production Stage Manager. Hope Rose Kelly (The Engagement Party, Hartford Stage, as Assistant Stage Manager; Our Town, Long Wharf Theatre, as Production Stage Manager) will serve as Assistant Stage Manager for the production.