Dateline 18th February, 2001
Jacobi and God in the West End
Derek Jacobi returns to the West End stage on 15th March when Hugh Whitemore's God Only Knows opens at the Vaudeville. It will replace Madame Melville which closes on 11th March.
It is expected that Richard Nelson's play, which stars Macaulay Culkin and has been running for five months, will transfer to New York.
Stewart to return to his roots
Patrick Stewart is to return to his native Yorkshire later this year to appear in J.B. Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. The play will be directed by WYP's artistic director Jude Kelly.
It's all Greek!
The latest production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which opened on 16th February, is Mr Heracles by poet Simon Armitage, a version of the Euripides play Herakles. This is the third classically based play to open in the last few weeks, following Euripide's Medea, directed by Deborah Warner and the massive Tantalus.
Mr Heracles will run until 17th March.
Lulu opening postponed
The opening of the Almeida's new production of Wederkind's Lulu has been put back by a week because Anna Friel tripped during rehearsal and suffered a hairline fracture and a torn ligament. She is expected to make a quick recovery and rehearsals are proceeding but, on medical advice, the opening has been put off until 19th March.
Black signs up for Bollywood
Lyricist Don Black is to join the creative team of Bombay Dreams, the so-called Bollywood musical which is being produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The book is written by Meera Syal, a novelist as well as being one of the stars of the Asian TV comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, and the music by A.H. Rhaman.
Arts to host Pet Shop Boys musical
The Arts Theatre will be the venue for the premiere of Closer to Heaven, written by pop group the Pet Shop Boys, based on the book by Jonathan Harvey. The show will open in May.
Dirty Blonde coming to London?
Rumour has it that the play Dirty Blonde, about Mae West, will transfer to London from Broadway this summer. The play is written by and stars Claudia Shear.
Extending
The follow have announced extensions to their runs: