Watch out for . . .
ALEX YOUNG ( who played ‘Young Sally’ in the National’s acclaimed Follies), who will take on the role of Sally Smith, the Cockney woman who kicks off the deliciously infectious Lambeth Walk in the musical Me And My Girl.
Daniel Evans, the artistic chief of the Chichester Festival Theatre and director of the show, told me Ms Young’s audition had the creative team in tears.
‘She’s sexy, funny, intelligent . . . she’s ridiculously talented,’ he said, adding that the actress (who also directs, composes and writes) ‘is a sort of heir to Emma Thompson’.
Thompson starred with Robert Lindsay in the wildly successful Eighties revival of the musical, that had a revised book by Stephen Fry.
And Evans hinted that Fry might have done further revisions for the production, which is running in Chichester from July 2 with Matt Lucas and Caroline Quentin.
Evans, by the way, has directed Young twice: in Show Boat and Anything Goes, when he was at Sheffield Crucible.
GEMMA SUTTON, who was in Gypsy with imelda Staunton.
She will play angel, the daughter who returns from California to a rollerskating attraction at Coney island owned by her mother (Caroline O’Connor) in the musical the Rink, which runs at Southwark Playhouse from May 25.
Sutton, one of our best dancers, will work with director adam Lenson, choreographer Fabian aloise and producer Jack Maple.
SHARON SMALL, who was in Mistresses and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries on television. She will star in a touring production of Still Alice, based on Lisa Genova’s novel about a linguistics professor who must learn to deal with Alzheimer’s as it unravels her life, and the lives of her family.
Producer Michael Park tasked Christine Mary Dunford with adapting the book for the stage, and director David Grindley had a short run with it at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds last year.
The tour kicks off at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre on September 11.
Julianne Moore won a best actress Oscar when she played Alice in the 2014 film version.