After playing four of the biggest female leads in musical theatre, Alexia Khadime was looking for a different kind of role.
And she found it when director Kwame Kwei-Armah cast her as Rita Marley — wife of reggae legend Bob — in One Love: The Bob Marley Musical.
‘It’s just so far removed from anything that I’ve done,’ Alexia told me. ‘It’s about someone’s life! I’m not playing a made- up character.’
After playing four of the biggest female leads in musical theatre, Alexia Khadime was looking for a different kind of role
I first saw her as Nala in The Lion King. Then she played Elphaba in Wicked; followed by Eponine in Les Miserables and, most recently, Nabulungi in The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales theatre.
To prepare for Rita (rehearsals start on Monday) she has been immersing herself in books and documentaries about Marley and his life.
‘Rita could easily be seen as “the wife”, who didn’t contribute — but she did,’ Alexia stated. ‘She was his rock. She had kids with him. And she was known to sing prior to meeting Bob Marley.’
The 33-year-old actress has the right heritage to portray Cuban-Jamaican Rita, because her parents and grandparents were born and raised in Jamaica (though Alexia herself was born in North-West London).
She said she’s often surprised at the good luck she has enjoyed.
Director Kwame Kwei-Armah cast her as Rita Marley (right) — wife of reggae legend Bob — in One Love: The Bob Marley Musical
‘When I was younger, being an actress never entered my mind as a career. I was at school studying psychology, maths and English literature — and then I was offered a job playing Ronnie Spector in Leader Of The Pack.’
One Love will run at Birmingham Rep from March 10. Bob Marley will be played by Amsterdam-based singer Mitchell Brunings, who portrayed the singer when the musical premiered (under a different title) at the Centre Stage Theatre in Baltimore, where Kwei-Armah is artistic director. He has subsequently rewritten the piece for its British run.
Jacade Simpson will play Peter Tosh, and Newtion Matthews will be Bunny Wailer — who, with Bob, made up The Wailers.
NHS nurses can get two free tickets each to watch the dress rehearsal of new musical The Girls, by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, on Saturday, January 28.
They have to show their NHS ID card to pick up tickets in person at the Phoenix Theatre box office at 10am, when it opens, for the 2.30pm dress rehearsal of the musical’s first preview that night.
The show is based on the film Calendar Girls, about how members of the Rylestone and District Women’s Institute posed nude for a charity calendar.
Producer David Pugh said he wanted to do something for nurses, whom he felt are underappreciated.
Can't sing, won't sing, says Nicholas
Nicholas Lyndhurst has joined Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe in Carousel — but he won’t be singing.
I asked if he could, in fact, sing, and he replied cheerily: ‘Not at all!’ Before adding: ‘Fortunately, I don’t have to.’
Lyndhurst has taken the dual roles of the Starkeeper and minister Dr Seldon in the show about star-crossed lovers Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow.
Nicholas Lyndhurst has joined Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe in Carousel
The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic will run at the London Coliseum, complete with 70-piece orchestra, from March 10.
In fact, the actor can ‘technically’ sing — as fans of his TV show Goodnight, Sweetheart will know — but not like Boe or Jenkins. ‘The producer said: ‘We shouldn’t be offering you this part!’
Indeed, when I spoke to Michael Linnit, who’s putting on the show with Michael Grade, he laughed and said: ‘He can’t sing a note. But he’s thrilled to be in a musical. He just likes doing different things.’
Lyndhurst was bowled over when he saw Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard at the Coliseum last year. ‘The fact it was semi-staged gave you an opportunity to focus on the performance,’ he stated.
But there are personal reasons for jumping onto Carousel. His grandfather, Francis Lyndhurst, was a scenic designer for what was known as the ‘Lone Panto’ — staged at the Coliseum in 1939 and so-called because it was the only panto in town that year. ‘You can imagine why they weren’t in the mood for “It’s behind you!” ’
And the Coliseum is where he first saw his wife: Lucy Smith.
Nicholas was starring in a play at Wyndham’s Theatre. Some ballet dancers saw the show at a matinee. ‘They sent us a note saying if we ever wanted tickets to see them at their matinee, to let them know. We pitched up at the Coliseum, and she was dancing in Cinderella,’ he recalled.
He watched her in the corps de ballet and knew she was the girl for him.
‘It’s come full circle for me and the Coliseum,’ he stated.
Ben a billionaire against all odds
Ben Whishaw will star in American playwright Christopher Shinn’s new play, Against
Ben Whishaw will star in American playwright Christopher Shinn’s new play, Against, which Ian Rickson will direct as part of the Almeida Theatre’s new season.
Opening night is set for August 23, though tickets will go on sale in May.
Against is about an aerospace billionaire who experiences a life-changing moment, and then sets out to change the world.
It made me think of the late eccentric American entrepreneur Howard Hughes, except the play is contemporary, and Hughes died back in 1976. In any case, the name of Whishaw’s character is Luke.
The actor last appeared on the London stage at the Almeida a couple of years ago in James Macdonald’s production of Bakkhai.
WATCH OUT FOR...
Roger Allam, who will portray Roy Jenkins in Steve Waters’s play Limehouse, about how Jenkins founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981 with the Gang of Four: David Owen (Tom Goodman-Hill), Shirley Williams (Debra Gillett) and William Rodgers (Paul Chahidi). Nathalie Armin will portray Debbie Owen, David Owen’s wife, when the play runs at the Donmar from March 2. Jenkins had returned from Brussels in 1981, after serving as president of the European Commission, to find an unelectable Labour Party and the Tories dominated by Margaret Thatcher, and quickly set about attempting to forge a new party.
Roger Allam, (left) will portray Roy Jenkins (right) in Steve Waters’s play Limehouse, about how Jenkins founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981
Aisling Loftus and Matthew Needham, who have been cast in director Lyndsey Turner’s production of Martin Crimp’s pitch-black comedy The Treatment. Ms Loftus plays Anne, a woman who is bound and gagged by her abusive husband, and subsequently sells her story to film-makers.
Instead of making Anne’s story a sympathetic study of a domestic violence victim, the scriptwriters add layer upon layer of industrial film-making tropes until her life is unrecognisable. Opening night at the Almeida is April 28.
Vivienne Acheampong, Mark Edel-Hunt, Jack Tarlton and Chris New, who star in Duncan Macmillan’s adaption of Paul Auster’s metaphysical mystery City Of Glass, set against a backdrop of fictional private detectives.
The play is being directed by Leo Warner at HOME in Manchester from March 4, followed by a run at the Lyric Hammersmith.
James Graham, who has written a fact-based drama called Ink, which will be directed by Rupert Goold at the Almeida. It’s a drama about The Sun, and how Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb created the tabloid. The play opens on June 27. Graham’s This House, set in the Houses of Parliament, is currently being revived at The Garrick.
Daily Mail