Photo Coverage: A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL With Brydon, Jensen and Harman!

Trevor Nunn directs Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval opening at the Harold Pinter Theatre this Autumn. The cast comprises Rob Brydon, Nigel Harman, Ashley Jensen, Jessica Ellerby, Barrie Rutter, Paul Thornley, Susan Tracy, Banham, Daisy Beaumont, Georgia Brown, Rob Compton, Matthew Cottleand Steven Edis. These rehearsal images are by Catherine Ashmore.

Produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Robert G. Bartner & Norman Tulchin and Adam Kenwright, A Chorus of Disapproval begins previews on 17 September 2012 with booking open until 5 January 2013.  

Designs are by Robert Jones, with lighting by Tim Mitchell, sound by Fergus O'Hare and music direction by Steven Edis. This production continues Sonia Friedman's collaboration with Ayckbourn, having previously presented his Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre and hisThe Norman Conquests on Broadway. 

The Pendon Amateur Light Operatic Society's production of The Beggar's Opera is going off the rails, that is until a handsome but shy young widower Guy (Harman) joins the group. An instant hit with the company's ferociously zealous director Dafydd (Brydon) and the show's leading ladies, including Dafydd's wife Hannah (Jensen), Guy soon gets more than he bargained for as he discovers that all the best action happens off-stage.  Classic songs fill the air as the drama on stage is mirrored by the romantic rivalry and small town squabbles causing a stir in the wings of this ambitious local show.

The world premiere of A Chorus of Disapproval was directed by Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 1984 with a cast including Lenox Greaves, Russell Dixon and Alwyne Taylor.  The London premiere at The National Theatre in 1985, also directed by Ayckbourn, starred Bob Peck, Michael Gambon and Imelda Staunton. The production then transferred to the West End the following year.