'Inspector' transfers to Wyndhams

Daldry's revival takes over for 'Shawshank'

By DAVID BENEDICT

Director Stephen Daldry's revival of 'An Inspector Calls' will move to Wyndhams Theater in December.

LONDON -- Director Stephen Daldry's revival of his celebrated 1992 production of "An Inspector Calls," currently playing a strictly limited West End season at the Novello Theater, will transfer to Wyndhams Theater in early December for a 16-week season -- filling the gap created by the early shuttering of the stage adaptation of "The Shawshank Redemption."

A success at Dublin's Gaiety Theater earlier in the year, the Paul Elliott, Breda Cashe, David Ian and Pat Moylan presentation of "Shawshank" opened Sept. 13 and was initially skedded to run until Feb. 14. But following indifferent notices, the show will now close Nov. 29 after 100 performances at the Wyndhams.

The London runs of "Inspector Calls," presented by PW Prods., Kenneth H. Wax Ltd. and Oliver Royds, follow a highly successful U.K. tour. Its Novello berth was limited due to the arrival of Debbie Allen's all-black production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," opening Dec. 1.

An early closing notice also has been posted for the West End preem of "Prick Up Your Ears," the bio-drama by Simon Bent about Brit legit scribe Joe Orton and toplined by Matt Lucas (BBC TV's "Little Britain"), cast as the lover who murdered Orton.

The show opened to mixed notices but was stymied by the withdrawal of Lucas within a week of the opening following the suicide of his ex-partner.

Con O'Neill joined the cast and received high praise but, according to a spokesman, box office sales were insufficient to sustain "Prick Up Your Ears," produced by Sonia Friedman Prods., Kim Poster for Stanhope Prods. and Lee Menzies.