JO STONE-FEWINGS JOINS CAST OF THE 39 STEPS

Jo Stone-Fewings will take over the role of Richard Hannay from Monday 28 April in Maria Aitken’s Olivier award-winning hit production of The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre. Stone-Fewings most recently played the role of Sparkish to great acclaim in The Country Wife - the first production in Jonathan Kent’s Theatre Royal Haymarket Season. He will join a cast comprising Josefina Gabrielle, Martyn Ellis and long standing cast member Simon Gregor.

The 39 Steps, currently playing on Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre, will transfer to the Cort Theater from April 29 for an extended run. As well as productions on tour in the UK, in Israel, Italy and South Africa, the Melbourne Theatre Company production opens in Australia in April, with a production in Korea scheduled to open in September. In addition a further fifteen countries are scheduled to present the play over the next twelve months. To date the London production of The 39 Steps has grossed over £5 million.

Best known as Hitchcock’s 1935 classic movie thriller, The 39 Steps is directed by Maria Aitken, has designs by Peter McKintosh, lighting design is by Ian Scott, sound design by Mic Pool, and movement by Olivier Award winning Toby Sedgwick. The 39 Steps is presented by Edward Snape for Fiery Angel Ltd and Tricycle London Productions Ltd in association with the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Patrick Barlow’s critically acclaimed adaptation has been playing for over eighteen months to sell-out houses at the Criterion Theatre since its transfer (from the Tricycle Theatre) winning a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and Best New Comedy at the 2007 Whatsonstage.com awards.

Maria Aitken’s production is performed by four actors playing a minimum of 139 roles and contains every single legendary scene from the award-winning movie – including the chase on the Flying Scotsman, the escape on the Forth Bridge, the first theatrical bi-plane crash ever staged and the sensational death-defying finale in the London Palladium, besides many other favourite cinematic moments, including the memorable and controversial ‘stockings and suspenders’ scene!

Jo Stone-Fewings’ extensive theatre credits include Nikolai Rostov in War and Peace, Barrildo in Fuente Ovejuna and Alex in Ghetto all for the National Theatre, Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Richmond/Gray in Richard III and Clarence in the tour of Henry VI, Part III all for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Edgar in King Lear and Dinnesdale in The Scarlett Letter for the Chichester Festival Theatre and Clive in the West End transfer of See How They Run. His television credits include Talk To Me, Doctor Who, All the Kings Men, Waiting for God all for the BBC as well as Mine all Mine, Young Arthur and Peak Practice. On film his work includes American Friends, Wondrous Oblivion and Nine Lives.