UK Roundup - Billy Elliot, Kathleen Turner, Dawn French, Sound of Music

Jukebox musicals seem to be taking a sharp nosedive recently. Despite Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You being almost the only profitable ones in the genre, several contenders still line themselves up in the hope of following suit. Daddy Cool - based on the hits of Boney M - places songs such as 'Rivers of Babylon', 'Mary's Boychild' and 'Daddy Cool' in the East End of London with a story mirroring Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In the lead male role is Harvey from garage act So Solid Crew; a band which gained notoriety for its offstage criminal activities – Harvey himself was charged for assaulting a police officer earlier this year. Daddy Cool is directed by Andy Goldberg, the director behind the successful West End staging The Bomb-itty of Errors. It opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre on May 16th.

And finally, the big story of the week seems to be about one which has the fewest solid details. Andrew Lloyd Webber's planned revival of The Sound of Music, which has been in planning for years, is said to be using an American Idol style audition process to find its leading lady. Lloyd Webber's in talks with the BBC about filming How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? at the London Palladium next year – more details when they come. In other news, I heard that Julie Atherton's been cast in Avenue Q as Kate Monster, yet there has still been no official venue announcement. Fingers crossed for a theatre soon.