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Gwynnie, Madge
and Matt Damon may have departed the West End, but still
they keep comin'.
This week sees
the arrival of movie and tv stars Woody Harrelson and
Kyle MacLachlan at the Comedy Theatre, playing two brothers
reunited after a 23-year absence, in On An Average Day.
 Next
month, husband-and-wife movie team Susan Sarandon and Tim
Robbins (pictured left) will bring the current off-Broadway
hit The Guys, about the firemen who attended the World Trade Centre
attack, to the Edinburgh Fringe for two performances only, on 14
and 15 August at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. Perhaps they'll be persuaded
down south to the capital afterwards…
Glen and Glenn
September brings
the battle of the Glen(n)s to the National Theatre: Glenn Close
and British actor Iain Glen star in a revival of A Streetcar
Named Desire (public booking opens 29 July, and don't delay).
There are also
rumours of two Andersons on the way to the West End - Gillian,
the X-Files star, in a new play by Michael Weller, What the
Night is For, and Pamela, possibly, in a revival of the 50s
Broadway play The Girl Can't Help It.
Already confirmed
for October, meanwhile, is Jane Krakowski, best known as
Ally McBeal's secretary Elaine Vassel, leading the cast of
another off-Broadway import, Fuddy Mears (Arts Theatre).
Two dames
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| David Hare's
The Breath of Life will feature Dames Maggi Smith and Judi Dench |
But its not just
American stars that will be gracing London stages in the autumn:
leading the homegrown returnees are Maggie Smith and Judi
Dench, seeking to prove there is nothing like two dames as they
play two women who have had an affair with the same man in the premiere
of David Hare's The Breath of Life (Haymarket, October).
Also making a more
rare stage return is Brenda Blethyn, once a stalwart of the
London theatre in the 70s and early 80s, but now best known for
such films as A River Runs Through It (opposite Robert Redford)
and her Oscar-nominated turn in Secrets and Lies. She will now star
in the title role of Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession (Strand,
October).
Downsizing
And, undeterred
by the bad reviews she has received for two previous London stage
appearances - in Bus Stop and The Graduate - Jerry Hall will
be going smaller scale to Hampstead's tiny New End Theatre to star
in a new American play, Benchmark, directed and co-written by Michael
Rudman and opening in September.
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