David Tennant to make Almeida debut in The Entertainer revival
David Tennant will play Archie Rice in a revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer at the Almeida Theatre in London from early 2028.
Dominic Cooke will direct the production. It will be Tennant's first appearance at the Almeida, WhatsOnStage reported on 15 October.
Cooke is the Almeida's artistic director, the person who leads the theatre's programme. He succeeds Rupert Goold in the post and joined the theatre in 2026, The Guardian reported.
A revival means a new staging of an older play. The Entertainer was first seen in 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre. Laurence Olivier played Archie Rice in that original production.
That history runs close to Cooke. He was previously artistic director of the Royal Court. The link to Osborne is also recent at the Almeida, which staged Look Back in Anger in 2024.
Tennant and Cooke have worked together before. Cooke directed Tennant in C.P. Taylor's GOOD at the Harold Pinter Theatre. The production was booked as an 11-week season when its dates were announced in May 2022.
Tennant's most recent stage work was Macbeth. That production played at the Donmar Warehouse and then in the West End, the group of large commercial theatres in central London. His performance won a WhatsOnStage Award.
He has never played the Almeida before. The venue is known for new writing and revivals in an intimate room, where the audience sits close to the stage.
The announcement lands in a busy autumn for the theatre. A new 15-minute play by Caryl Churchill will have its world premiere at the Almeida and run from 16 to 23 October, The Stage reported.
For audiences, the wait is part of the story. Early 2028 is still more than a year away. The announcement so far names a star, a director, a play and a venue, with exact dates, further casting and ticket details to follow.
