Watch out for . . .

RUTHIE ANN MILES, who will play Lady Thiang, the monarch’s number one wife, in director Bartlett Sher’s glorious production of The King AndI. Ms Miles (pictured right) was in the Lincoln Center production that starred Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe, which means that all three principals from the New York show will be playing the London Palladium from June 21. When I interviewed Ms O’Hara last year she told me she had her ‘fingers crossed’

that Miles would be joining her in the West End. I’m pretty excited, too. I remember her playing Imelda Marcos — the shoe-loving widow of Filipino dictator Ferdinand — in the Public Theater production of David Byrne’s Here Lies Love (with disco beats by Fatboy Slim). She couldn’t make the National Theatre transfer, so I’m pleased that you’ll get to see her stage artistry in this production of the landmark Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. LEO BILL, who will appear in a revival of Curtains, a dark play written by his father, Stephen Bill, which I saw back in 1987 when it first ran at the hampstead Theatre. The younger Mr Bill (left) will play a grandson who has been caring for his grandmother Ida (who will be played by Sandra Voe). Ida’s relatives have gathered at her home for her 86th birthday and events — both hilarious and harrowing — ensue. Lindsay Posner directs a cast that also features Caroline Catz, Jonathan Coy, Wendy Nottingham, Saskia Reeves and Marjorie Yates. Curtains will run at The Rose, Kingston, from February 22.