Beckham stars are put through their paces . . .

THE team behind the Bend It Like Beckham musical are playing way off-field as they prepare the show for the West End, in the hopes of avoiding unwanted attention.

A ‘development workshop’ was held l ast Saturday. Samantha Barks (below), one of the standouts of the Les Miserables movie, played Jules — the part taken by Keira Knightley in the 2002 film version that helped propel her to stardom.

Newcomer Tara Divina was cast as Jess, the football-loving Sikh schoolgirl who wants to curl the ball into the back of the net like her hero.

Also taking part in the run-through were Frances Ruffelle, Shobna Gulati, Preeya Kalidas and Richard Fleeshman.

However, no cast deals went beyond the workshop. The company was instructed not to talk or tweet about their participation in the performance that was directed by Gurinder Chadha — who also directed and co-wrote the film.

Apparently, there’s concern that any early reports i n the press — such as this piece — will serve to heighten expectation.

‘ What i f we can’t live up to the attention? People get upset and l ash out. Look what happened to t he Spice Girls musical,’ an insider noted.

Composer Howard Goodall and lyricist Charles Hart will continue to work on the score (I’m told it’s impressive), the book will be tightened and a choreographic workshop held before the year’s end.

The cast rehearsed for two weeks before the workshop performance. Whether or not they continue with it depends on availability and other factors.

The goal is to have Beckham up and scoring by late 2014 or early 2015 — but not to sign any contracts for a theatre until the score and book have been tweaked to near-perfection.

Slowly does it for Bend It Like Beckham. A good friend of mine, who has nothing to do with the show, said that with its mixture of sounds and flavours, it sounded a lot like the big, original British musical we’ve all been waiting for. We will see.

NATALIE CASEY, who was Donna in TV’s Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, will join Flora Montgomery, Edward Bennett and Sarah Woodward in In The Next Room or the vibrator play at the St James Theatre, London, from November 13.