Daniel Ryan and Beverly Rudd lead the new names in the full company for The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, which opens in the Dorfman on 2 December before touring England in the new year.
Daniel Ryan takes the role of Ray Say, the small-time chancer who hears an opportunity where everyone else hears a shy girl singing, in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. The National Theatre announced the full company for Jim Cartwright’s play this morning, ahead of a run in the Dorfman that opens on 2 December.
Ryan, whose credits include The Bay on ITV, is joined by Beverly Rudd as Sadie, Adonis Siddique as Billy and Noel White as the Telephone Man, with White also understudying Ray Say and Mr Boo. Rudd is known to television audiences from Trollied; Siddique’s stage credits include Withnail and I at Birmingham Rep, and White’s include Hamlet at the National.
They join three principals announced earlier this year. Francesca Mills, an Ian Charleson Award winner whose screen work includes Silent Witness, plays the title role; Olivier Award winner Jill Halfpenny, seen in ITV’s The Long Shadow, plays her mother Mari Hoff; and BAFTA winner Paul Chuckle, of Channel 5’s The Madam Blanc Mysteries, plays the club owner Mr Boo.
Completing the company are Alice Croft, Kofi Dennis and Nicky Swift, who appear in the ensemble and cover, in turn, Little Voice, Billy and the Telephone Man, and Mari Hoff and Sadie.
Cartwright’s play sends a young woman into her bedroom with her late father’s records and out of it again against her will. Alone upstairs she sings Judy Garland and Billie Holiday note for note; downstairs her mother’s new man works out what that voice might be worth. Robert Hastie, the National’s deputy artistic director, directs.
He is joined in the creative team by set and costume designer Janet Bird, lighting designer Paul Pyant, sound designer Mike Walker, composer and music director David Shrubsole, movement director Ira Mandela Siobhan, fight and intimacy director Bethan Clark, dialect coach Hazel Holder and voice coach Zoe Littleton. Casting is by Alastair Coomer CDG and Harry McDonald.
The production then leaves London for a tour of England supported by Arts Council England, opening at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle on Wednesday 3 February 2027 and finishing in Plymouth on Saturday 20 March. Each venue hosts its own regional press performance on its first night.
- 3-6 February 2027: Newcastle Theatre Royal
- 9-13 February 2027: Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
- 16-20 February 2027: Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
- 23-27 February 2027: The Lowry, Salford
- 2-6 March 2027: The Marlowe, Canterbury
- 9-13 March 2027: Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
- 16-20 March 2027: Theatre Royal Plymouth
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is booking at the Dorfman from Wednesday 2 December 2026 to Saturday 23 January 2027, with press night on Thursday 10 December 2026. Performances run Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2pm, and the run includes captioned, BSL-interpreted, audio-described and relaxed performances.
