WATCH OUT FOR...
ALEX BRIGHTMAN, who is terrific as the out-of-work musician who finds himself — when pretending to be a substitute teacher at a stuffy U.S. fee-paying school — in the musical version of the movie School Of Rock at the Winter Garden Theater. Julian Fellowes has adapted the film, which starred Jack Black, and Andrew Lloyd Webber has written the score. I particularly liked the numbers If Only You Would Listen and Stick It To The Man. Folk forget that the good Lord’s a rock ’n’ roll dude at heart. The school kids in the show are amazing, playing their own instruments (drums and guitars) and acting up a storm. School of Rock opens officially this Sunday. When I saw Fellowes at a preview, he was concerned about whether director Laurence Connor will be able to find children who can sing, dance and play instruments when the show transfers to London. CYNTHIA ERIVO, Jennifer Hudson and Danielle Brooks, who star in director John Doyle’s superb version of the musical The Color Purple, which is now in preview at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. It ran at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013, and is a far superior version to the one that ran in New York several years ago. Erivo (pictured) reprises the part she created at the Menier and the British actress is sensational. In act two she sings a number called I’m Here, and at the performance I attended she stopped the show and the audience rose as one and applauded her. It was one of the most incredible moments I’ve witnessed on Broadway in years. FUNNY GIRL, which opened this week at the Menier Chocolate Factory, garnering rave reviews for its luminous star, Sheridan Smith. The musical has already got a West End transfer — it will move to the Savoy on April 9 — and the original 12-week run there has just been extended, meaning it’s now booking till September 10. So go get tickets! There has been chatter here in New York about the possibility of Ms Smith and director Michael Mayer bringing the show to Broadway in 2017. Purely rumour, at the moment, but a lot of people would like to see it happen. LUPITA NYONG’O, who gave her final performance on Sunday in Danai Gurira’s eye-watering, potent play Eclipsed at the Public Theatre. Guirra explores how women are treated as chattels by an African warlord during a civil war, and looks at the choices they are forced to make in order to survive. Nyong’o (pictured), who won an Oscar for 12 Years A Slave and is in the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens, is excellent. So are her fellow cast mates Pascale Armand, Stacey Sargeant, Zainab Jah and Akosua Busia. The production moves to Broadway in February.