Comic takes on West End lead

Eddie Izzard is to take an acting role on the West End stage.

He will take the lead in A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg when it transfers from the New Ambassadors to the Comedy Theatre on December 5.

He replaces Clive Owen as the character Bri, a father learning to cope with the demands of a severely disabled child in the revival of Peter Nichols' groundbreaking 1967 comedy.

Victoria Hamilton and Prunella Scales will continue in their roles.

Izzard is increasingly moving away from stand-up and towards acting.

He has previously starred in the West End as Lenny Bruce, in the biographical play Lenny at the Queen's Theatre.

Big-screen appearances include roles in The Avengers and Velvet Goldmine, and he is to play Charlie Chaplin in the forthcoming Peter Bogdanovich movie The Cat's Meow, about a death on the yacht of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst.

Published: 12 Nov 2001