Luke Perry’s Harry Meets His Sally In London’s West End

By James Inverne
December 1, 2003

Producer James Tod is to bring a big-screen film to the stage, starring a small-screen heart-throb, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

The 1989 Rob Reiner movie “When Harry Met Sally” covered a lot of ground (it opens with a cross-America car journey), but in fact mostly consists of dialogues and conversations and as such, could make a good stage show. Tod certainly thinks so, and has landed Luke Perry – who shot to fame as the hunky face of TV’s “Beverly Hills 90210” – to play Harry, the role taken by Billy Crystal in the film.

At 38, Perry’s the right age (Crystal was about 42 when he shot the film). Loveday Ingram is lined up to direct Marcy Kahan’s adaptation of Nora Ephron’s script. The production is scheduled for the Theatre Royal, Haymarket from Feb. 10, 2004, with opening night set for Feb 20. The initial booking period will extend until the end of May 2004. Other casting and details have yet to be finalized.

The show is clearly hoping to replicate the success of another recent West End screen adaptation, The Graduate. However, whether Perry’s box office pulling-power can match up to the naked charms of that productions string of famous Mrs. Robinsons (including Kathleen Turner, Amanda Donohoe and Jerry Hall) remains to be seen.