Simon Friend Entertainment has announced that another of the UK’s best-loved actors, Rula Lenska, (ITV’s Rock Follies, Coronation Street, Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother) is the latest cast member to be confirmed for the upcoming tour of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The Titian-haired star joins recently announced cast members Hayley Mills (Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, Whistle Down the Wind) and Paul Nicholas (Jesus Christ Superstar, BBC 1’s Just Good Friends, Eastenders) in this feel-good tale of love, adventure, and starting-over which starts a major new UK tour in Richmond this September.
Rula Lenska was born Countess Roza-Marie Leopoldyna Lubienska in St. Neots to Polish parents who had fled their homeland, their family estate having been confiscated by Communist forces. Following her education at an Ursuline College in Kent, she became an actor, gaining her first notable starring role in Rock Follies in 1976, going on to appear in many iconic television series such as Robin of Sherwood, Doctor Who, EastEnders, To The Manor Born and Minder, ITV’s Coronation Street as Claudia Colby, and most recently a BAFTA-nominated Inside No 9 for BBC 2.
A passionate stage actor, she has appeared in The Vagina Monologues, Calendar Girls, Pygmalion, Seven Deadly Sins, Four Deadly Sinners, Eurobeat at the Edinburgh Festival, and 84 Charing Cross Road. She is involved in the development of a one-woman show about Rita Hayworth.
When not working Rula is a devoted grandmother and a practicing Buddhist, who is involved in the support of several conservation charities such as Born Free, Animal Asia, and The Daphne Sheldrick Trust.
She has lent her instantly recognizable voice to several audiobooks and was in several series of the much-loved radio show, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which first aired on BBC Radio 4 in May 2005. Her autobiography My Colourful Life is available now.
Paula Wilcox was previously announced to join the cast but has had to withdraw from the production due to scheduling. Further casting is to be confirmed.
The play’s book is written by Deborah Moggach who now adapts her bestselling novel 2004’s These Foolish Things for the stage, it having previously inspired the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated film. The cherished story will be brought to life on stage when it opens at the Richmond Theatre on Monday 5th September 2022 and is directed by Lucy Bailey (Oleanna, UK Tour & West End); Gaslight, UK Tour; Witness for the Prosecution, London’s County Hall).
Based on the Sunday Times bestseller which inspired one of this century’s most treasured films, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel takes us on a journey to India with an eclectic group of British retirees as they embark on a new life. The luxury residence is far from the opulence they were promised, but as their lives begin to intertwine and they embrace the vibrancy of modern-day India, they are charmed in unexpected and life-changing ways.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a joyous, feel-good comedy about taking risks, finding love, and embracing second chances, even in the most surprising of places.
The film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (directed by John Madden) saw its UK theatrical release in 2012. Within two weeks of its cinematic distribution, the film had topped the UK Box Office and went on to become a hit internationally performing as one of the highest-grossing films of 2012 in Australia and New Zealand in addition to the United Kingdom.
The interwoven stories of the film’s stellar ensemble, which included Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Celie Imrie, and Ronald Pickup – with Dev Patel as the put-upon owner of a past-its-best hotel for ‘the elderly and beautiful’ – shone a light on issues such as the outsourcing of care and NHS treatments, the complexity of family relationships around the world, love, compassion, and companionship in our twilight years.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is produced by Simon Friend, Jenny King, Trafalgar Entertainment and Gavin Kalin.
Get ready for the journey of a lifetime.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – 2022 Tour Dates
Mon 5th – Sat 10 Sept Box Office: 03330 096 690
Richmond Theatre, Richmond
Tue 13 – Sat 17 Sept Box Office: 0114 249 6000
Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
Tue 20 – Sat 24 Sept Box Office: 0844 871 7650
Theatre Royal, Brighton
Tue 27 Sept – Sat 1 Oct Box Office: 0844 8717647
Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Tue 4 – Sat 8 Oct Box Office: 08448 11 21 21
Theatre Royal, Newcastle
www.theatreroyal.co.uk
Tue 11 – Sat 5 Oct Box Office: 01872 262 466
Hall for Cornwall, Truro
www.hallforcornwall.co.uk
Tue 18 – Sat 22 Oct Box Office: 0343 310 0020
Churchill Theatre, Bromley
www.churchilltheatre.co.uk
Mon 24 – Sat 29 Oct Box Office: 01603 630 000
Theatre Royal, Norwich
www.norwichtheatre.org
Tue 1 Oct – Sat 5 Nov Box Office: 0116 242 3595
Curve, Leicester
www.curveonline.co.uk
Tue 8 – Sat 12 Nov Box Office: 0343 208 6000
The Lowry, Salford
www.thelowry.com
Tue 15 – Sat 19 Nov Box Office: 0333 009 6690
New Victoria Theatre, Woking
Tue 22 – Sat 26 Nov Box Office: 01223 503 333
Cambridge Arts Theatre
www.cambridgeartstheatre.com
Mon 28 Nov – Sat 3 Dec Box Office: 01225 448 844
Theatre Royal, Bath
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
2023 Tour Dates
Tue 17 – Sat 21 Jan Box Office: 01227 787787
Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
www.marlowetheatre.com
Tue 24 – Sat 28 Jan Box Office: 0333 009 6690
Milton Keynes Theatre
Tue 7 – Sat 11 Feb Box Office: 0115 989 5555
Theatre Royal, Nottingham
www.trch.co.uk