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McGregor's musical debut in Donmar-ATG's Guys and Dolls
Alistair Smith

Ewan McGregor will make his musical stage debut in a new West End production of the classic Broadway musical Guys and Dolls.

The Scottish actor will take the lead role of Sky Masterson and will be directed by Michael Grandage, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, at a West End venue which has yet to be confirmed. The revival is a co-production between the Donmar and the Ambassador Theatre Group. It will be their first collaboration outside of the Donmar's 250-seat venue.

McGregor signed up after Grandage agreed to postpone the musical to accommodate the Star Wars actor's filming schedule. He has not appeared on the London stage since 1999, when he starred at the Comedy in Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs.

Though he sang and danced in Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge, this will be the actor's first appearance in a stage musical. It will also be the first new London production of Frank Loesser's classic in 23 years.

The Donmar Warehouse has also announced its forthcoming spring and summer season for 2005. It opens with the world premiere of Owen McCafferty's adaptation of JP Miller's Days of Wine and Roses, followed by a revival of David Greig's The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman he Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Neil LaBute's new play This Is How It Goes, and Peter Oswald's new version of Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart.

Meanwhile, Grandage's Sheffield Theatre's production of Don Carlos will transfer to the Gielgud Theatre in 2005, where it will have a limited 12-week run from January 28.

It will retain its original cast, with Richard Coyle appearing as Don Carlos, alongside Derek Jacobi, Claire Price and Una Stubbs. This world premiere of Mike Poulton's new adaptation of Friedrich Schiller's 1787 play will be Grandage's last production for Sheffield Theatres, after he announced his resignation from the post this summer.

• Debbie Kurup, Oliver Tompsett, Ashleigh Gray, Shona Lindsay and Damien Edwards will join series regulars Paul Spicer and Julie Atherton in the first anniversary gala of Notes from New York at the Trafalgar Studios on Sunday 21 November. Meanwhile Spicer, who is co-founder of the series, has been cast as the Prince in Kenneth Alan Taylor's 21st anniversary production of Sleeping Beauty at the Nottingham Playhouse this Christmas.

Joining Spicer and guests in the gala, as previously announced, will be Emmerdale star Amy Nuttall, former S Club 7 member Jon Lee and Julie Atherton, who is currently starring as Serena in the West End production of Fame. The programme, which is still to be released, will include music by ten contemporary US composers, including the Pulitzer Prize winner, Jonathan Larson.

• The National Theatre has announced details of its new season from January to April 2005. It will include August Strindberg's A Dream Play in a new version by Caryl Churchill, Frederico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba in a new version by David Hare and A Minute Too Late devised by experimental company Complicite. Also as part of the new season, The History Boys by Alan Bennett has been extended to April 23, Fix Up by Kwame Kwei-Armah has been extended to March 23, and The Mandate by Nikolai Erdman has been extended to January 26.

• Queen musical, We Will Rock You, has been extended by six months at the Dominion Theatre. The show has had more than 700 performances and has a box office gross to date of more than £41 million. It is now booking up to October 29, 2005.

Tuesday 9 November 2004 04:50 PM

 

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