By Lee Hall
Inspired by a book by William Feaver

Directed by
Max Roberts

Ian is currently appearing in Lee Hall's award winning comedy at the National Theatre, The Pitmen Painters, prior to Broadway. The role of Robert Lyon, the artist and art teacher who inspired the pitmen to paint, was created by and for Ian Kelly in the initial run of the play with Newcastle Live.

North East Arts Council Culture Awards: Performance of the Year

London Evening Standard: Best Play

The Guardian: 'Amongst a whole set of sharply individualised performances...Ian Kelly [is] inspirational and exemplary'

The Stage: 'The ensemble acting is first-rate, especially from Ian Kelly as the principled but ethically ambiguous figure of the art academic Robert Lyon'

Variety: '...played by Kelly with a keenly observed mixture of prejudice and passion'

Mail on Sunday: 'The finest ensemble acting at the National Theatre since The History Boys'

The Observer: 'Amongst a series of sublime performances - there is much to relish in Ian Kelly's deliciously sly turn as the men's teacher'

Evening Standard: 'This perfectly pitched and acted production, manages to be tragic, funny and illuminating in one fell swoop of energy'

The Times: 'Ablaze with intellectual vigour, political passion and incendiary emotional energy. A beautiful work of art that everybody should see'

National Theatre Box Office

Produced by
The Ideas Foundry

Directed by
Simon Green

Beau Brummell opened on May 9th 2006 at 59e59 Theater, New York to coincide with the launch of Kelly’s biography of Brummell and the Anglomania Fashion Exhibition at the Metropolitan Art Museum, New York.

New York Times: ‘This story of a man who is remembered for his clothes begins with the title character (Ian Kelly) stark naked. He is in the tub, holding a razor to his throat and threatening suicide, but he allows his valet, Austin (Ryan Early), to stop him... Mr. Kelly is extremely funny, engaging and intensely sympathetic as Brummell, tossing out grand observations ("Excess is the antithesis of style," "How can one be lonely with a looking glass?") as if to the manner born while conveying with aching pathos the quiet agonies of a ruined man trying not to see through his delusions.’

New Jersey Star Ledger: ‘The dramatic engine that pushes this 90 minute play is a fit, assured Ian Kelly, a certified golden boy of a glittering age, cutting a debonair figure as Brummell. Easy but elegant in his manners, more cool than cruel in attitude, Kelly depicts the bon vivant to his fingertips. Ian Kelly brings out the faded glory of Beau Brummell’

theatermania.com: Naked talent: ‘As the legendary half-mad dandy, Ian Kelly -- who has written his own just-published biography, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style – nakedly displays his rich endowment of talents in his first-rate portrait of the first gentleman of fashion. Not only does he emerge from Brummell’s bathtub au naturel, showing off an imposing physique and more skin than has been seen on the New York stage in some time, but he also gets way below the skin of this fascinating man, capturing the hauteur and self-confidence that remain despite his descent into madness. Though Kelly doesn't offer the audience anything to eat, as he does in his other show in the festival, Cooking for Kings, he provides considerable food for thought about the fleeting nature of celebrity in his sharp characterization – not to mention considerable eye-candy. If Paris Hilton is smarter than she seems, she'll come to see this show -- and then take up a useful trade pronto!’

New York Theatre Wire: ‘Kelly, guided by Simon Green's sensitive direction, turns the play about the debouched dandy into a moving testimony to friendship, pride and endurance…the result is a blending of scholarship and theater that is entertaining and enlightening in the best sense of both words. Even those whose interest in fashion is limited to what color T-shirt to wear with their jeans will find "Beau Brummell" fascinating.’

Backstage Magazine, New York: ‘In Beau Brummell, part of the Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters, we first see Ian Kelly standing naked in a bathtub with a razor poised menacingly at his throat. For several reasons the image is certainly jaw-dropping and nicely symbolic: in this two-hander by Ron Hutchinson, the playwright seeks to portray a man stripped of the wondrous world of his own creation. The character is quixotic, unable to face reality, and bordering on madness, and Ian Kelly adds to this touches of the witty, the dashing, the poignant -- and certainly the interesting; the playwright does make a case for Brummell as the first celebrity: As Austin puts it, "What were you famous for? Just for being famous." A further compelling picture of a modern hero by Ian Kelly -- yes, our same actor – is also available in the same Kelly’s biography: Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style’

nytheater.com: ‘Quick wit, gradual reveals, and terrific acting combine for an evening that is highly amusing. Lights rise on a hysterical, suicidal, and buck-naked Brummell finishing his bath. Ian Kelly, who has written a biography of Brummell, plays the man with precision. Kelly’s posture, the turn of his head, prove his character’s dictum, “Genius is in the wearing of clothes. To be dressed well, to say the right thing at the right time, that’s the nearest we ever get to the divine.” Kelly captures this belief and eyes the result of each additional garment in a full length mirror. He exudes dignity without ostentation.’

Village Voice: ‘Ron Hutchinson's Beau Brummell—based on the biography by Ian Kelly, who plays Brummell—is a sort of Rake's Regress. It finds Brummell exiled in Calais—friendless, penniless, possibly syphilitic, and reduced to nakedness. Kelly—fit and lean—has great fun and huge success playing the man of style in decline ‘

New York Irish Echo: ‘Considering that Brummell was celebrated for his clothes, it comes as something of a surprise that when the lights come up Ian Kelly, the excellent actor playing the title role is nude. If a mere two actors can be said to be giving an ‘ensemble’ performance the perfectly matched, flawlessly balanced duo composed of the sleek Kelly and rumpled Early gives solid claim to qualify; their skill and their timing combine to make Hutchinson’s concise play seem even briefer than it is…played expertly and movingly by Kelly’

In 2004 Ian Kelly was asked to adapt his book, Cooking for Kings, for the new York stage as a one-man show; part of the first Brits Off Broadway Festival launching the new arts complex at Park Avenue and 59th Street, called 59e59.

Cooking for Kings, a show in which Ian both cooks, acts, and, ultimately, feeds his audience, garnered rave reviews in 2004 and was brought back ‘by popular demand by the theatre in 2006 in rep with Ron Hutchinson’s Beau Brummell in which Kelly played the Beau.

These reviews are mainly from the second, larger space production of Cooking for Kings, produced by The Ideas Foundry, a new UK based production outfit supporting new writing across all media.

Anthony Bourdain: 'A magnificent work. Ian Kelly is at the vanguard of the new rock’n’roll of culinary literature.'

Food Arts Magazine: 'The most inspiring play in New York this year.'

The Times (Giles Coren): 'Ian Kelly – actor, writer and chef: the Dirk Bogarde or Sam Shepard of the kitchen…I was really truly bowled over.'

New York Theater Wire: 'Kelly's performance is as tart as a lemon, as sweet as chocolate, as savory as a thick stew. And finally, it is as satisfying as a banquet. From early childhood most people learn to equate food with love. But few take the metaphor to the same extremes as legendary French chef Antonin Careme, whose life story is told in Ian Kelly's one-man-show "Cooking for Kings." Kelly fills his play with tantalizing details and garnishes them with ironic wit and clever wordplay. As a performer, Kelly has boundless energy and tremendous powers of concentration and he makes a technically difficult play look deceptively easy. While Careme, who is actually cooking, grabs bowls, pots and utensils from an overhead rack and chops, stirs and heats, he describes his activities with the zest of Julia Child. And Careme is accomplished at multitasking. He is never at a loss for words. He never loses his train of thought. If Careme's story is fascinating because of the famous people he knew, the tumultuous times he lived in and the many innovations he made in the art of cooking (from the dishes he made to the hat he wore), it is powerful on a more personal level. Kelly portrays the great chef as vain and sarcastic but also vulnerable and ultimately tragic.'

New York Irish Echo: ‘Kelly is unforgettably compelling as Careme’ by Joe Hurley. This prolific performer Ian Kelly has written a book, Cooking for Kings, and adapted it into a solo show…Careme, in the person of the agile, fast-moving Kelly… seems as adroit at handling the myriad pots, pans, colanders and other utensils that hang above him as he is at telling his stories so it easy to become convinced that, if asked, he could effortlessly whip up one of Careme’s multi-coursed banquets…Every instant of Cooking for Kings is compelling and many come close to defying belief. As eloquently and wryly delivered by the remarkable actor and writer Ian Kelly the show ends up delivering an unforgettable portrait of the culinary world and the world’s first celebrity chef.'

A Busy Day, the lost comedy by Fanny Burney commissioned by Sheridan for the 1800 season at Covent Garden, played first in Bristol in 1994 and then on the London fringe in 1995 before its eventual West End production, of 2000, which opened first at the Bristol Old Vic and later transferred to the Lyric, Shaftesbury Avenue.

Ian Kelly played Frank Cleveland in both productions and helped champion its West End premiere, which he co-produced.

‘Worth it all for the stand-out performance of Ian Kelly…the comic genius of a young Alex Jennings’ Theatre Record

‘notable for its discovery of Ian Kelly whose flamboyant and perfectly timed performance as the young coxcomb Frank out-fops Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and out-camps Graham Norton’ The Independent

‘A beautifully observed performance’ The Daily Mail

‘Ian Kelly is irresistibly objectionable as the young ne’er-do-well’ John Peter, The Sunday Times

‘Another red-head to watch is the rising star Ian Kelly’ Mail on Sunday

‘Ian Kelly truly shines’ The Evening Standard

‘The funniest performance on stage in London is Ian Kelly in the Kings Head production of Fanny Burney’s A Busy Day – go see a star in the making’ Maureen Paton, LBC Radio

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