Spacey: Let me entertain you

Kevin Spacey today unveiled a new season of plays at the Old Vic in a bid to revive his fortunes as artistic director of the theatre.

The season, Spacey's third since he took over the running of the Old Vic, includes productions of two Shakespeare comedies and a revival of John Osborne's state-of-the-nation play The Entertainer.

In the face of mounting criticism of his artistic directorship, the Oscar- winning American actor is moving away from largely unsung works to established classics.

The Entertainer will be staged from February 2007 in a production marking the play's 50th anniversary. Spacey had been linked with the role of struggling music-hall performer Archie Rice but the part will be played by Robert Lindsay, with Pam Ferris as his long-suffering wife.

Lindsay played the role, immortalised by Sir Laurence Olivier, at a one-off performance at the Royal Court earlier this year. Evening Standard Theatre Critic Nicholas de Jongh wrote: "Robert Lindsay seizes the role and powerfully makes it his own."

Spacey said Lindsay was taking on "a part he was surely born to play. A household name on stage, he appears all too rarely on stage".

Spacey, who won a Critics Circle Award for his performance in Richard II earlier this year, will put on two Shakespeare comedies in January - The Taming Of The Shrew and Twelfth Night.

The productions will be staged by all-male theatre company Propeller, directed by Edward Hall, whose father Sir Peter Hall ran a season at the Old Vic in 1997.

Spacey said: "Edward Hall shares our ambition to present Shakespeare with clarity and invention and we believe his approach to staging these plays will appeal to the widest possible audience."

As previously announced, Spacey will star in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's play A Moon For The Misbegotten, directed by Howard Davies.