Star who’s set to cast her spell on Broadway

At THE witching hour, Saoirse Ronan will leave whatever Oscar afterparty she’s at (there’s a lot of choose from: Governors Ball, Vanity Fair, Fox, the Weinsteins’, Elton John’s) and take an early morning flight to New York.

Saoirse, a best actress nominee for her role in the film Brooklyn, has a dress rehearsal on Monday for director Ivo van Hove’s production of Arthur Miller’s the Crucible. the first preview is on tuesday, having been pushed back from the previous evening to accommodate the Academy Awards. the play is Saoirse’s stage debut. She plays Abigail Williams, the young maiden whose fling with goody-two-shoes farmer John Proctor sparks a witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts.

‘It’s a bare, stripped-down Crucible,’ Saoirse told me. ‘ It’s not like any Crucible you’ve seen before, which is exciting. It has been amazing to rehearse — but I’m terrified!’ She said the sets and costumes make it feel (and look) more contemporary than other revivals.

‘Ivo’s redefined it, the way he did Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge,’ she said, referring to the acclaimed Young Vic production that transferred to Wyndham’s theatre and then on to Broadway. Producer Scott Rudin has surrounded Saoirse with an A-list cast that includes Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okonedo and Ciaran Hinds. Finola Dwyer, who produced Brooklyn with Amanda Posey and BBC Films, said she had anticipated that her leading lady might receive an Oscar nomination. ‘Everyone was prepared,’ she said, ‘ and the Crucible team have been wonderfully accommodating.’ Brooklyn’s also in the Oscar shortlist for best film, and for best adapted screenplay by Nick Hornby. Saoirse’s rivals for best actress include frontrunner Brie Larson, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence and Charlotte Rampling.