Scarlett Johansson to Star in Lincoln Center South Pacific?

Michael Riedel in today's New York Post reports that film star Scarlett Johansson is "in the running" to play Nellie Forbush in the planned 2008 Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific. Other stars such as Reese Witherspoon and Kelli O'Hara are said to be on the wish list as well for what's being described as a "sexy revival" of the show. Auditions are said to begin in a few weeks time.

Scarlett Johansson has long expressed interest in starring in a Broadway show and is said to be a big fan of musical theatre. Her name was last bandied about for the London revival of The Sound of Music, for which she met with producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, but a deal was never reached. 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 The Prestige, Match Point, In Good Company, Lost in Transltion, Eight Legged Freaks and An American Rhapsody.