UK Roundup - Kim Cattrall, Gavin Creel, Last Five Years

Kim Cattrall – who made her West End debut last year as the bed-ridden Claire in Whose Life is it Anyway – has been tipped to return to the London stage as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. Writing in the Sunday Times, Richard Brooks reports that Cattrall – famed for her role in TV's Sex and the City – will open the Rose of Kingston, a theatre pioneered by Sir Peter Hall intended to establish a theatre company formed largely of graduates from Kingston University. Her performance in Hall's production of Whose Life is it Anyway garnered positive reviews; 'both absorbing in its intelligence and moving in its pain' (Telegraph), 'a tremendous performance' (Guardian), therefore a London return - albeit slightly out of the West End - could prove a success.

American Gavin Creel - Tony nominated for Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway – is to job swap with another Gavin in London. Whilst Gavin Lee - who created the role of Bert in London's Mary Poppins – recreates his role on Broadway, Creel will come over here and replace Lee in the London version. The Disney/Cameron Mackintosh production has been running in London since December 2004, and though most of the original cast have long since left, Gavin Lee has remained for over a year and a half of performances, not to mention out of town previews in Bristol. Among Gavin Creel's other credits are Stephen Sondheim's Bounce and the recent revival of La Cage Aux Folles.

Part reality TV show, part insightful documentary The Play's The Thing, a Channel 4 programme in which theatre producer Sonia Friedman aims to premiere a new play by a first time writer direct in the West End, has announced its winner. On The Third Day, by 51 year old teacher Kate Betts, which – if the early documentary footage proves true - is about a man who believes he is Jesus Christ, opens officially for critics on Thursday at the New Ambassador's Theatre. Friedman points out in a press release that in 1956 there were approximately 16 new plays in the West End; 'on 22 June 2006 there will only be one new play in the West End – On the Third Day'. The cast is Maxine Peake, Paul Hilton, Tom McKay and Tom Silburn. It is booking until September 2nd.

Dates have finally been announced for Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years in London. Just hours after Brown writing in his online blog that 'in the last forty-eight hours, things got completely f***** up and now I don't know what's happening', the Menier Chocolate Factory – who have left it late to announce dates, and still not announced its cast – revealed that previews begin on July 18th for a season until September 30th. The two-hander, directed by Matthew White, is one of the most eagerly awaited musicals for avid musical theatre fans; the CD has an almost cult like status, particularly amongst students studying musical theatre in Britain. The off-West End theatre also presented the UK premiere of Tick Tick Boom by Jonathan Larson.

Just weeks after announcing that David Hasselhoff would make his pantomime debut as Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the New Wimbledon Theatre, production company First Family Entertainment have now issued a statement withdrawing the actor from the production, due to his commitments to appear on Simon Cowell's America's Got Talent in the States. Though they promise a 'major star' in his place, theatregoers who have booked on the strength of Hasselhoff's name may find themselves disappointed by his replacement. Audiences will now have to make do with co-stars Bobby Davro and Sarah-Jane Honeywell until a bigger name is announced.

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