Sean Foley (director)

Sean Foley (born 21 November 1964) is a British director, writer, comedian and actor. Following early success as part of the comedy double act The Right Size and their long-running stage show The Play What I Wrote, Foley has more recently become a director of successful West End comedy productions.

Early career and The Right Size[]

Foley and Hamish McColl formed The Right Size in 1988.^[2] They devised and performed in the shows, with regular creative team collaborators such as director Jozef Houben,^[3] designer Alice Power,^[4] and songwriter Chris Larner.^[5][6] Their style combined elements of clowning, physical comedy, mime, slapstick,^[7] vaudeville and variety.^[8][9] The Right Size's major successes were Do You Come Here Often?, about two strangers stuck in a bathroom for 25 years, and The Play What I Wrote, a tribute to Morecambe and Wise.^[1] The Right Size were active until 2006.

Acting[]

Foley has played some major parts in traditional scripted roles, including Freud in Hysteria by Terry Johnson at Birmingham Rep in 2007,^[10] and the single role in the film of Samuel Beckett's Act Without Words I directed by Karel Reisz.^[11] He appeared alongside Mark Rylance in I Am Shakespeare at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester in 2007.^[12] He was a member of the Oxford Youth Theatre during his time at the University of Oxford, where he studied history.^[10]

Writing and directing[]

Foley made his stage directorial debut in 2007 with Pinter's People.^[1] He then directed several stage shows by stand-up comedians including Joan Rivers, Nina Conti and Armstrong and Miller.^[13]

He achieved significant West End success in 2012, when he directed productions of The Ladykillers (for which he was nominated for the 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director) and Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. He also, with Patrick Barlow, co-directed and co-wrote a four-actor stage adaptation of Ben Hur at the Watermill Theatre, a regional English theatre.^[14]

In 2013, Foley made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut, directing Thomas Middleton's A Mad World, My Masters.^[15] The production was well received by UK critics.

It was announced in June 2013 that Foley would be directing Matthew MacFadyen and Stephen Mangan in a theatrical adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, to be titled Perfect Nonsense, at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, from 30 October 2013.^[16][17] Foley also directed the X Factor stage musical, I Can't Sing! The X Factor Musical, which premiered in 2014.^[18][19]

Foley adapted and directed The Painkiller starring Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon during the Kenneth Branagh season at the Garrick Theatre in the West End in March 2016. He also adapted Eugène Ionesco's Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It starring Josie Lawrence and Trevor Fox in March 2017 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He directed his and Phil Porter's adaptation of Molière's The Miser starring Griff Rhys Jones, Lee Mack and Mathew Horne at the Garrick Theatre which was nominated for a 2018 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. He also directed Noël Coward's Present Laughter for Chichester Festival Theatre in April 2018 starring Rufus Hound as Garry Essendine with Katherine Kingsley and Tracy Ann Oberman.

Foley also adapted and directed The Man in the White Suit for the stage, starring Stephen Mangan and Kara Tointon, beginning at the Theatre Royal, Bath for three weeks before transferring to the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End from 9 October until 7 December 2019.

In February 2020, Foley directed The Upstart Crow by Ben Elton, based on the BBC TV series with David Mitchell reprising his role as William Shakespeare at the Gielgud Theatre, London. The production was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production closed early.

On 19 March 2019 it was announced that Foley was appointed to become artistic director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre succeeding Roxana Silbert.^[20] Foley's inaugural season was due to start in 2020 with his new production of the Broadway musical Something Rotten! However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the production has been postponed to at least 2022.^[21]

Awards and nominations[]

Olivier Awards[]

Winner

• 1999 Best Entertainment, Do You Come Here Often
• 2002 Best Comedy, The Play What I Wrote

Nominations

• 2002 Best Actor (with Hamish McColl), The Play What I Wrote
• 2006 Best Entertainment, Ducktastic
• 2010 Best Entertainment, Arturo Brachetti: Change
• 2012 Best Director, The Ladykillers
• 2012 Best New Play, The Ladykillers
• 2018 Best New Comedy, The Miser

Tony Awards[]

Nominations

• 2003 Best Special Theatrical Event, The Play What I Wrote

Selected other work[]

Television[]

• Spine Chillers
• Wild West
• Happiness
• People Like Us
• The Fitz
• Brass Eye

Radio[]

• The Remains of Foley and McColl
• Foley and McColl Again
• The Goldfish Bowl

Film[]

• Mindhorn (2016)

References[]

External links[]

• Sean Foley at the Internet Broadway Database
• Sean Foley at IMDb
• Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Kenneth Branagh (22 May 2003). "A conversation with the cast and director of "The Play I Wrote"". Charlie Rose (Interview: video). Interviewed by Charlie Rose. PBS. Archived from the original on 18 May 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2009.