P - The Queen's Theatre

Queen’s actors land a plethora of plum roles
Richard Brightiff in The
Servant of Two Masters
Rebecca Reaney as Jack
in Queen’s panto Jack and
the Beanstalk
Photos: Nobby Clark
The Spring Season at the Queen’s Theatre may be
drawing to a close, but far from putting their feet up,
members of cut to the chase… will be busy throughout
the summer in a variety of theatre roles up and down
the country.
Richard Brightiff and Rebecca Reaney are set to become
theatrical big cheeses when they appear in The
Mousetrap, the longest-running show in the world.
Richard will take on the part of Sergeant Trotter (a role
previously played by the revered Richard Attenborough)
while Rebecca has landed the part of Miss Casewell. The
old-school murder mystery by Agatha Christie, showing at
St Martin’s Theatre in the West End has been playing to
audiences for an astounding 56 years.
Rebecca, who was Jack in Queen’s panto Jack and the
Beanstalk, and Richard, a Queen’s stalwart last seen as
cheeky Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters, are
following in the footsteps of two other members of cut to
the chase… - Loveday Smith and Kevin Pallister - who
have actually just left the cast of The Mousetrap. Loveday
played the part of Mollie Ralston and remarkably, Richard
directly replaces Kevin in the role of Sgt Trotter!
Richard says he was sought out by director Mark Piper,
with whom he had worked some years ago, and invited to
audition for the role. He beamed: “My success has been
down to both Mark remembering me and the excellent
grounding I have received during all my work at the
Queen’s Theatre.”
Meanwhile, cast members of the Queen’s last production
Twelfth Night will also be treading the boards in a wide
range of theatre over the next few months.
Stuart Organ and Oliver Beamish, who played Sir Toby
Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek respectively, will join the
cast of Richard III at the Ludlow Festival; Georgina Field,
who played Maria, is appearing at the New Vic in Don
Giovanni; Nick Lashbrook (Sebastian) is off to the
Watermill Theatre, Newbury, for a run of Sunset
Boulevard; while Steve Simmonds (Antonio) and Rowan
Talbot (Valentine) appear in the Rude Mechanical’s Noah
Babel’s Ark.
Stuart Organ and Georgina
Field in Twelfth Night
Rowan Talbot, Matt Devereaux, Steve Simmonds
and Nick Lashbrook in Twelfth Night