Watch out for . . .

JEnnIFEr LAWrEnCE, who stars in psychological espionage thriller red Sparrow, which opens here on Thursday. The actress said the myth that audiences can only connect with white men on screen is being broken — and pointed to the box office success of Wonder Woman and Black Panther. ‘Hollywood has to re-write those old myths, because times are changing,’ she told me. Lawrence (pictured) is stonkingly good as a ballerina, forced to abandon her career because of an injury, who’s sent to a Soviet spy school to learn how to seduce her foes. ‘I had to learn ballet, just to move my arms and hands. I was naked. I was water-boarded. Could a man have withstood all that?’ she asked, seriously, before cracking up. JAIMIE PRUDEN, David Haydn and Alex James Ellison, who will star in director Dominic Shaw’s production of the Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. I saw the original Broadway version of this show, about a heartbroken father who restricts his son’s life until a young girl comes to stay. And I was pleased to hear that Shaw is stripping it back, to give it more of a modern feel when it runs at the new Barn Theatre in Cirencester from March 16. The cast will also play musical instruments. And garden (just kidding). ‘It’s rustic, but contemporary,’ Shaw told me. TIM MInCHIn and Danny rubin, who are planning to work on tightening the musical Groundhog Day (and maybe writing a couple of new songs) in the hope that a London theatre can be found to present it. That’s likely to be two or three years away, though, because the right-sized house isn’t available. Meanwhile, rob Howell’s sets, props and costumes (from the Old Vic and Broadway runs) are being housed in a shed (a big one, I guess) in reading.