Dateline 25th March, 2001
Yellow Submarine on
stage?
Following hard on the news that Ben Elton is working on a new show based on the music of Queen, it is reported that Michael Jackson and Yoko Ono are planning a stage version of the Beetles' cartoon film Yellow Submarine, to be performed in London.
Fame to close
The musical Fame (Victoria Palace) is to close on 8th September after a run of eleven months. It is expected that the Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate will follow it into the theatre.
My Fair Lady to transfer
The National Theatre's production of My Fair Lady will transfer to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 21st July. Booking is now open. The entire run at the National (it is due to finish at the end of June) is sold out.
Ex-EastEnders star turned pop singer Martine McCutcheon, whose performance as Eliza Doolittle has been acclaimed by critics, was admitted to hospital last week with a severe streptococcal throat infection, sinusitis and impaired blood clotting, but she is expected to be discharged this week. Her understudy, Alexandra Jay, has also received excellent notices for her first London appearance.
Starlight Express to be a film
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express is to be made into a film, the fourth of his shows to be filmed. The others are Cats, Joseph and Jesus Christ Superstar. There has also been talk of a film of Phantom of the Opera for some time.
Starlight Express has been playing at the Apollo Victoria for seventeen years.
Jude Law as Lecter
There are runours that Jude Law is to play the young Hannibal Lecter in a remake of the 80s film Manhunt, which is based on Red Dragon, the first Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris.