As first reported exclusively on this website, Mich/>ael Ball will temporarily replace Olivier-nominated Mich/>/>ael Crawford as Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. Crawford – suffering from flu - had been largely absent from the show for approximately a mont/>/>h now and producer Sonia Friemdan has drafted in another big theatre name to take his role. Mich/>ael Ball is due to start his UK/>/> tour in May so will only have a limited run with the show from February 22nd when it is expected Crawford will return on April 4th. The Woman in White stars Maria Friedman and has been nominated for five Olivier Awards including Best Musical. It is running at the Palace Theatre and due to open on Broadway on November 10th this year.
Just two months after the birth of her baby, Suzanne Shaw is to play the Narrator to her fiancé Darren Day's Joseph in the closing months of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Day has appeared in the show many times before, but shot to the headlines last year when he had a brief affair with the woman playing the Narrator, alas not partner Shaw. With a well-documented love life in the tabloid newspapers, Shaw is famous for being a member of pop group Hear'Say, whilst Day has been on the musical theatre scene for many years. The show, which has been running since March 2003, will close at the New London/>/> Theatre on April 2nd - the duo join on February 14th. The New York/>/> sensation Blue Man Group are expected to replace the show.
Politics and theatre go hand in hand, with plays like Democracy and Guantanamo/>/> seen to be leading the way. But politics is not often found in the form of a musical.. which is exactly what's happening in Blunkett – the Musical. David Blunkett was Tony Blair's Home Secretary in the Labour government from 1997 until the end of last year, when a stormy affair and rows over a speedy visa application interrupted ministerial duties. With the tabloid newspapers hounding him, he eventually stepped down, and now – it seems – onto the stage, courtesy of journalist Ginny Dougray. Having interviewed all the people involved with Blunkett, she is looking forward to an anticipated April opening – a massively speedy turnaround for a musical. A showcase will take place at a pub in Yorkshire/> later this week.
Glenn Carter, who recently finished starring in the UK/>/> tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, is to take the lead role of Bobby in Sondheim's Company at the Derby Playhouse. Carter has previously appeared on Broadway playing Jesus opposite Tony Vincent's Judas, and also played another "Jesus" (aka, The Man) in Whistle Down the Wind. Set in New York/>/>, Company follows five married, once married, or soon to be married couples and their mutual friend, Robert, a 35 year old bachelor who has been unable to connect in a long-term relationship. The Derby Playhouse are increasingly putting themselves on the regional theatre map, with a critically acclaimed 2004 season including another Sondheim masterpiece - Sweeney Todd.
Kevin Spacey's second season at the Old Vic is starting to take shape. I attended a reading by Arnold/> Wesker of his one-woman monologue 'Whatever Happened to Betty Lemon' this week, and at the event he revealed that he is scheduled to be part of Kevin Spacey's second season at the Old/> Vic/> Theatre/> in London. The play – Groupie – is a two-hander that has been running in Italy/>/> for three years, but was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 with Barbara Windsor and Timothy West. At present, it has never been performed on stage in Britain/>/>. Wesker jokingly hoped it would be 'his pension', but that plans were not yet rock solid. He was launching the Nottingham Playhouse's new season, where a revival of his play Chicken Soup and Barley will take place. Let's hope to see him back in London/>/> soon.
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