Scarlett Johansson to Star in West End Sound of Music?

Variety reports this morning that Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is set to produce a spring 2006 revival of The Sound of Music in the West End is now looking for Scarlett Johansson to be the show's star. Trever Nunn is set to direct the revival. Johansson was reported earlier this year as having spent much time at the post-Oscar parties with Andrew Lloyd Webber discussing musical theatre. Lloyd Webber appears to be taking a personal hand in casting the show, with news earlier this year that he personally approached, and had been turned down by Richard Gere to play Count von Trapp.

Johansson has limited stage credits, but was enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Institute where she had the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience. Before Scarlett got a film role she made her professional acting debut opposite Ethan Hawke in the off-broadway production of 'Sophistry' at the age of 8.

Scarlett Johansson first attained worldwide recognition for her performance as Grace Maclean, the teen traumatized in a riding accident, in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer. More recently, her performance as Rebecca Doppelmeyer in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World (alongside Thora Birch) earned her the Toronto Film Critics Association award for Best Supporting Actress. A native New Yorker, Johansson made her professional acting debut at age eight in the off-Broadway production of Sophistry at New York's Playwrights Horizons. Her breakthrough film role, as Manny in Lisa Krueger's critically acclaimed Manny & Lo, earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.

Since then, Johansson has starred in several other films including Match Point, In Good Company, Lost in Transltion, Eight Legged Freaks and An American Rhapsody.