O’Connor gets her skates on for a role in The Rink

CArOlInE O’COnnOr is putting her skates on to star in a rare revival of musical The rink in South london.

The actress (pictured), currently appearing as a savvy countess in Anastasia on Broadway, will take on the role of Anna Antonelli the owner of a fading Coney Island seaside roller rink.

Just as the old building is being readied for demolition, Anna’s estranged daughter Angel returns after seven years hiding away in California.

Chita rivera created Anna in new York and Josephine Blake played her in london back in 1987. Ms O’Connor has a sort of six degrees of separation connection to The rink, which has music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb with a book by Terrence Mcnally. She understudied Diane langton who played Angel in london. ‘I was so young then. For me it was so exciting to be part of it,’ the award-winning O’Connor told me from new York where she’s playing Countess lily and injecting vigour into Anastasia which also has a script by Mcnally. It puts O’Connor at a great advantage. She noted that ‘it’ll be very interesting to understand Anna from the get go’, and having listened so often to The rink soundtrack, she feels she understands the show very well.

The show fits into the gender equality discussions, too. ‘This woman being left alone suddenly trying to run a business and going through upheavals, but we just didn’t talk about it. Women used to just get on with it,’ O’Connor said.

But Anna’s a strong woman. I remember seeing rivera with liza Minnelli as Angel in new York. As O’Connor observed, ‘it’s a big, demanding, challenging role.’

One, in fact, that O’Connor was born to play. She’s an indefatigable star who knows how to lift a show. As producer Jack Maple commented: ‘Caroline brings a clout to our production.’

Just as she has to shows I’ve seen her in, from Mabel in Mack and Mabel to Velma Kelly in Chicago, plus concerts, one-woman shows and movies such as Baz luhrmann’s Moulin rouge.

The rink will run at the Southwark Playhouse from May 25.

Maple joked that he spent several nights at Sardi’s in nY wooing O’Connor, wondering whether she’d leave Broadway for Elephant and Castle, where the Southwark Playhouse is located.

She could put The rink on a roll.