Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
Brian Cox, Nicola Coughlan, Daniel Kaluuya & Kit Connor Among Cast For Sam Mendes Audible Series ‘Oliver Twist’
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Brian Cox (Succession), Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton), Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and Emilio Villa-Muhammad (The Man Who Fell to Earth) are heading up the all-star cast of Audible Original title Oliver Twist, produced by Oscar winner Sam Mendes (1917).
Released today on Audible, the adaptation of Dickens’ classic will also star Kit Connor (Heartstopper), Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Julia Davis (Gavin & Stacey), Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso), Patricia Allison (Sex Education) and Diane Morgan (Motherland).
The classic story follows a young orphan born into the grimmest of 19th century English workhouses, faced with a life of grinding poverty.
Despite this, Oliver (Villa-Muhammad) is a fighter and after being evicted from the workhouse for asking for “more” and surviving a stint as an undertaker’s assistant, he walks many miles to London and finds a whole new life with a gang of young pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger (Elijah Wolf) and their guardian Fagin (Cox).
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