Billy Crudup is to take on the role that won Gary Cooper an Oscar in a new stage adaptation of the 1952 western High Noon. Based on Carl Foreman’s screenplay, the production will receive its world premiere at the Harold Pinter theatre in London in December, providing a nail-biting alternative to Theatreland’s jollier festive fare.
High Noon, once voted the greatest western ever made, unfolds in real time counting down to the noon arrival of a train in the town of Hadleyville in New Mexico. In the film, Cooper plays Will Kane, a newly married marshal on the brink of retirement, who hears that an outlaw is heading to town seeking vengeance. The drama explores the divide between personal concerns and public duty, not just through the marshal’s dilemma but also through the characters of his wife, Amy, and the townspeople whose support he seeks.
Amy will be portrayed by Denise Gough (People, Places and Things) in the play, adapted by Eric Roth (whose films include Forrest Gump) and directed by Thea Sharrock. It marks Crudup’s return to the West End after his debut in 2024 in Harry Clarke, a one-man play in which he assumed 19 characters. The star of Almost Famous, Big Fish and The Morning Show, Crudup is a Tony award-winner who has starred on Broadway in plays by Stoppard, Beckett and Chekhov.
Producer Paula Wagner said that High Noon “will bring the urgency and heart of the classic film to audiences in a way that feels both timeless and powerfully alive today”. Her fellow producer Tom Werner said: “Every once in a while, I see a play whose themes stick with me long after I leave the theatre. Those experiences are both thrilling and astonishing. It happened recently when I saw Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray. And it happened when I saw High Noon this summer in a workshop.”
Westerns are rare in the West End although an adaptation of another Oscar winner, Brokeback Mountain, was staged in 2023 and Sam Shepard’s True West was put on in 2018 with Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn.
High Noon has set and costume designs by Tim Hatley, lighting design by Neil Austin and music by Chris Egan. It is at the Harold Pinter theatre from 17 December until 7 March. Tickets go on sale on 25 September.