Dateline 22nd April, 2001
Who's out? Who's in?
Three major London shows have been hit by illness. As we reported recently, Martine McCutcheon (My Fair Lady) ended up in hospital with a virus and a streptococcal throat infection. She is now in rehearsal, preparing to return, but her health is said to be still a little uncertain, so no one at the National is prepared to say when she will return or how many performances she will do.
Ian McShane (The Witches of Eastwick) is rumoured to be about to leave the cast. He has not appeared for over four weeks due to a severe bout of shingles.
Anna Friel (Lulu) has been ordered to rest by doctors after suffering a back problem.
Japes to close early
Simon Gray's Japes (Haymarket) is to close on 28th April, two weeks early. It will have run for twelve weeks.
Stones to start filming next year
Filming of Marie Jone's comic hit Stones in His Pockets, currently at the Duke of York's, is to begin in summer 2002. It has just opened on Broadway, with the original cast.
West Side Story revival
A revival of the classic musical West Side Story, totally faithful, we are told, to the orginal Broadway production, has opened in Liverpool and is due to tour until the automn. It will visit Edinburgh, Hull, Oxford, Birmingham, Manchester, Sunderland, York, Bath, Norwich, Eastbourne, Bournemouth, Aberdeen and Wimbledon.
Gillen for Almeida Chekhov
Aidan Gillen is to play the main character in the Almeida's production of Chekhov's first play Platonov. The play was written in his student days and was only discovered, in an incomplete state, twenty years after he died.
Blue/Orange opens in the West End this week
Joe Penhall's RNT success, Blue/Orange, opens at the Duchess on 24th April and is due to run until August at the earliest.
Morley in an another Coward revival
Sheridan Morley is to direct another Noel Coward revival at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Noel Coawrd Tonight consists of two one-act plays: Red Peppers and Shadows of the Evening. It is thirty years since either was performed in the West End. Jane How, Annabel Leventon and Jeremy Clyde are in the cast of the show which will run from 9th May to 9th June.