\nBy Difficult though it may be, try to imagine Robert Downey Jr and Sean Penn practising their scales as they warm up their voices to sing for roles in the movie version of Les Miserables.<\/p>\n They\u2019re just two of the names being studied by film executives involved in pre-production for the movie version of mega-musical Les Miserables.<\/p>\n Tom Hooper, who won a best director Oscar for The King\u2019s Speech, is in the final throes of sorting his deal with Working Title and Cameron Mackintosh to direct the picture. He\u2019ll sign in a few weeks, then go into a huddle with writer Bill Nicholson to complete the screenplay.<\/p>\n Singing voices? Sean Penn, left and Robert Downey Jnr, right, have been mooted as possible leads for a new film version of Les Miserables<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A casting director will then be appointed, followed by other key production staff. Mackintosh championed the opera tenor Alfie Boe to me months ago, and he wants the singer to screen-test for Valjean. When Boe played Valjean at the 25th-anniversary Les Miserables concert it was one of those rare moments of alchemy when the emotion of a singer\u2019s voice matched the character he was playing. That\u2019s the level of quality needed for the film.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But if Boe were cast as Valjean, the producers would have to compensate by\u00a0casting major names to play the other characters such as Javert; the thieving Thenardiers; Marius; Cosette; and Fantine.<\/p>\n That could mean someone like Hugh Jackman being cast as Javert. \u2018There are a number of well known actors who can sing, and we have to evaluate them,\u2019 an executive working on the film told me. <\/p>\n \u2018The question is: Who are the potential tenors to play Valjean? And who are the potential baritones to play Javert? <\/p>\n \u2018For instance, what do we know about the vocal range of someone like Robert Downey Jr? We know he can sing, but what\u2019s his voice like? Is he a tenor or a baritone? By all accounts Michael Fassbender, an actor of enormous range and power, has a striking baritone, so his name would join the column marked Javert. So too could Vincent Cassel, who played the choreographer in Black Swan.<\/p>\n Actors who can sing: Hugh Jackman, left, could be cast as Javert, but so too could Vincent Cassell, right, who has a good baritone<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cassel has told me how he watched his father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, play the director Zach in A Chorus Line at Drury Lane, and musicals have long been a part of his life. In any case, Hooper will come in with his own casting ideas, including the likes of Colin Firth in the Javert list; Helena Bonham Carter and Laura Linney as Madame Thenardier possibilities; and Timothy Spall as a candidate to play her husband.<\/p>\n Anne Hathaway sang a spoof version of On My Own at the Oscars, and at the Vanity Fair Oscar party one studio executive wondered whether the actress was, in fact, auditioning in front of studio chiefs \u2014 and a global audience \u2014 for the role of Eponine.<\/p>\n Marion Cotillard won an Oscar for her Edith Piaf and she\u2019s already on a wish list of actresses to play Fantine.<\/p>\n Once Hooper has his Valjean, filming could start next year. Meanwhile, he might want to go to see Alfie Boe, Matt Lucas (as Thenardier) and newcomers Lisa-Anne Wood as Cosette, Alexia Khadime as Eponine, and Mountview graduate Craig Mather as Marius when they take over those roles at the Queen\u2019s Theatre from June 23.<\/p>\n …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..<\/span><\/p>\n Medieval stoner movie maiden: Natalie Portman is like a shot of adrenaline in new movie Your Highness<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Natalie Portman told me the jokes the crew told her when she was filming the comedy Your Highness in Belfast were beyond blue.<\/p>\n \u2018Their dirty jokes made me laugh so much. I wasn\u2019t outraged, although they were\u00a0 scandalous!\u2019 the Oscar-winning actress told me as she recalled making what could politely be termed a medieval stoner movie with Danny McBride, James Franco, Toby Jones, Damian Lewis and Zooey Deschanel on locations in County Antrim and County Down.<\/p>\n Natalie smiled and continued: \u2018However, there\u2019s a time and a place for jokes and sometimes things are inappropriate \u2014 like first thing in the morning, like 5am \u2014 but I\u2019m not too precious about that kind of thing.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear she\u2019s not at all precious about being in Your Highness. In fact, she gets right into the high spirits of the film. <\/p>\n Her character, Isabel, doesn\u2019t appear for half an hour or more, and she\u2019s like a shot of adrenaline.<\/p>\n Isabel\u2019s six brothers have been killed, and she\u2019s on a quest for revenge. She\u2019s an ace archer, daring with a dagger, and she can kick ass. In fact, as I was watching the picture, Isabel made me think of a grown-up Hit Girl, the character played by Chloe Moretz in Matthew Vaughn\u2019s Kick-Ass.<\/p>\n At the Oscars, where Natalie won for Darren Aranofsky\u2019s Black Swan, I remember someone asking why the actress would do movies like Your Highness and No Strings Attached because \u2018they weren\u2019t serious\u2019. But Natalie had already addressed that point with me.<\/p>\n \u2018The big thing I\u2019ve been wanting to do is not be snobby and just do prestige movies, because that\u2019s really limiting \u2014 and it\u2019s joyless to do those kind of movies all the time. I don\u2019t want to fit into some mould of respectability. <\/p>\n \u2018Meryl Streep doesn\u2019t do the so-called \u201cright\u201d kind of film all the time. Sometimes it\u2019s just about having fun. I think it\u2019s important to be irreverent and make a point of not meeting other people\u2019s expectations.\u2019<\/p>\n Your Highness, which is full of reefer madness, is quite ridiculous and you\u2019re likely to find it a hoot if you\u2019re all zooted up on Red Bull. <\/p>\n And if the sight of Danny McBride\u2019s randy pot-head prince chasing a flock of sheep around a field is your idea of a good time, then this is your movie!<\/p>\n ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………<\/span><\/p>\n Alex Kingston plays a sexual animal, with an appetite to match<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex Kingston is returning to the London stage as a\u00a0\u2018very sexual animal\u2019.<\/span> Alex plays\u00a0Lady Milford, a British beauty\u00a0at the German court of\u00a0a Chancellor who is played by Ben Daniels. \u2018She\u2019s\u00a0a sensual British aristocrat \u2014 a very sexual animal, with an appetite to match,\u2019 said Michael Grandage, who will direct the play which begins performances\u00a0 on June 8. Lady Milford has her eye on\u00a0young Ferdinand, to be played by Max Bennett, who was in Grandage\u2019s\u00a0production of Dante\u2019s Death at the National last year. <\/span> Alex and Felicity\u00a0have been keen to work together again ever since they\u00a0made the film\u00a0 Like Crazy, which was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival. The two actresses played mother and daughter. <\/span> However, in Luise Miller, Finty Williams will take the part of Felicity\u2019s mother.<\/span> ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n The Royal Opera House already plays host to the Baftas and I\u2019m hearing the venue could do the same for next year\u2019s MasterCard Olivier Awards. It\u2019s great that the Society of London Theatres is building on what it achieved this year. However, BBC TV must get its act together, too, and provide a better show for viewers \u2014 not the kind of patronising slop they served up this time.<\/p>\n ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n David Mamet is to premier his new play The Anarchist in the West End<\/p>\n<\/div>\n American playwright David Mamet has decided to premiere his new play in London\u2019s West End.<\/p>\n The drama, called The Anarchist, was described by producer Matthew Byam Shaw as a \u2018fascinating sword-fight of a play\u2019 about two women \u2014 the governor of a prison and a lifer trying to convince her that, after years behind bars, she\u2019s ready for parole.<\/p>\n However, gradually, we\u2019re made aware that the prisoner has been involved in a violent political organisation \u2018loosely based on a Baader-Meinhof or Weather Underground-type anarchist group\u2019, Byam Shaw said \u2014 although he stressed that the play was not based on any particular real-life revolutionary.<\/p>\n The award-winning Rupert Goold will direct it in the West End in the autumn. \u2018We now want two of our leading actresses to fence with each other,\u2019 Byam Shaw said.<\/p>\n The actresses would be star names and they would need to be approved by Mamet. The roles call for thespians in their 50s.<\/p>\n Goold directed Mamet\u2019s Speed The Plow in the West End 11 years ago. Certainly, his last play Race, which I caught in New York two seasons ago, was a bit flabby on Broadway (a New York friend joked acidly that \u2018no one was at the races\u2019), and it could have benefited from a more rigorous production process at, say, the Donmar, Almeida or Royal Court.<\/p>\n Anyway, if The Anarchist gets off to the right start in London then it will certainly transfer to Broadway.<\/p>\n ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n Kate Winslet (pictured) who gives one of the great performances of the year so far as James M. Cain\u2019s heroine Mildred Pierce in director Todd Haynes\u2019s five-part HBO drama of the same name.<\/p>\n Haynes sticks strictly to Cain\u2019s novel, taking huge chunks of dialogue direct from the book so it doesn\u2019t go off in a murderous tangent like the movie (which won Joan Crawford an Oscar).<\/p>\n I much prefer watching Kate\u2019s sublime study of a woman who, in the midst of the Depression, finds herself raising two daughters alone after she suggests her husband go play rummy full-time with his mistress. <\/p>\n Mildred tries to make it on her own terms, running a business at a time when women were supposed to stay at home. But her life is made a misery by her cold-eyed daughter Veda. <\/p>\n Evan Rachel Wood, Guy Pearce, Melissa Leo and Brian F. O\u2019Byrne also star in this\u00a0 major-league TV drama that will air on Sky Atlantic in June. Amanda Holden, Richard Blackwood and Nigel Harman are his co-leads, but it\u2019s Lindsay who will have to set the pace. I think because he is a proper actor who also happens to sing he will fare better than the folks I saw playing the part in America. They weren\u2019t able to project beyond all the green make-up and latex. <\/span> \u2018Singing in Shrek isn\u2019t going to be a problem,\u2019 the actor told me. \u2018It\u2019s the six-inch heels Shrek wears that bother me.\u2019<\/span> He\u2019s approaching the show simply as being about a guy and his girl. \u2018It\u2019s a universal love story about somebody who can\u2019t possibly be loved because of the way he looks.\u2019 <\/span> The creative team have changed the show from top to bottom and it\u2019s now a sharper musical comedy. <\/span><\/p>\n Liza Minnelli, who has been to see the new musical Betty Blue Eyes, in previews at the Novello Theatre. Ms Minnelli was very taken by Sarah Lancashire\u2019s big, Act 1, razzamataz number Nobody. So much so that she\u2019s asked\u00a0for permission to use the song in her act.<\/p>\n I think she will put the tune over very well in cabaret but I sincerely hope she\u2019s not thinking of taking Ms Lancashire\u2019s\u00a0role \u2014 a post-war wife struggling with rationing \u2014 if Betty Blue Eyes \u00a0heads to Broadway! <\/p>\n Ms Lancashire has made Joyce Chilvers her own. The box-office has picked up because of good word of mouth \u2014 which is, sadly, more than I\u2019m hearing about The Wizard Of Oz at the Palladium.<\/p>\n Jon Snow, the C4 news anchor, who made a tremendous job of auctioning a beautiful cape given to him by Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The garment fetched \u00a31,800 at the Tricycle Theatre\u2019s 30th birthday bash. The theatre, which produced the acclaimed Great Game epic drama about Afghanistan, also raised \u00a316,000 from an Antony Gormley drawing.<\/span><\/p>\n ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n Trevor Nunn\u2019s stirring production of\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nBaz Bamigboye<\/a>
Last updated at 12:26 AM on 1st April 2011<\/p>\n
But there will be no motion picture if the right actors can\u2019t be found to play the main leads of Jean Valjean, the heroic ex-prisoner, and Inspector Javert, his relentless pursuer.<\/p>\n
\u2018Same with Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn, Michael Sheen, Benedict Cumberbatch and Keanu Reeves.\u2019<\/p>\n
They are just people being discussed \u2014 no one has been approached or spoken to yet. <\/p>\nNat is all a-quiver<\/h2>\n
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The actress, who is famous for her performances in ER and Doctor Who, will join the Donmar Warehouse Theatre\u2019s production of Schiller\u2019s Luise Miller, which stars Felicity\u00a0Jones in the title role.<\/span>
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Others cast in what sounds like\u00a0a pretty cool company include David Dawson \u2014 yet another alumnus of the Royal Court\u2019s\u00a0play Posh, Lloyd Everitt, John Light and Alexander Prichett.<\/span><\/p>\nMamet coup for West End<\/h2>\n
![\"David](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/bde740d3260_233x242.jpg.jpg\")
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It\u2019s a smart move for the playwright to have a world premiere in London because there\u2019s a sense that, sometimes, we understand his work better here. <\/p>\nWatch out for<\/h2>\n
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Nigel Lindsay, who will play the title role in the musical Shrek at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on May 6.<\/span>
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Lindsay\u2019s last musical was Guys And Dolls and before that he was \u2018Nauseuous Nigel\u2019 in a punk band he performed with when he was growing up in Rickmansworth, Hertforshire.<\/span>
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\nTerence Rattigan\u2019s Flare Path, featuring tip-top performances from
\nSheridan Smith, Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Harry Hadden-Paton,
\nwill extend its run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket till June 11. The
\npossibility of it going to New York is being explored for later this
\nyear, or early next.<\/p>\nExplore more:<\/h3>\n
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