UK Roundup

When you build a theatre expected to last for five years, and then it's still going strong over 30 years later - is it about time for it to be rebuilt? Jude Law led the campaign this week as The Young Vic Theatre announced it was seeking donations of up to £12m for its rebuilding. The Young Vic, which had a sell-out success last year with musical Simply Heavenly (still tipped for a West End transfer), is a 400 seater theatre that's 'semi-in-the-round' - though they want to increase that number to 600. It actively supports new directors with its acclaimed Genesis Directing scheme.

The box office tills are ringing sweet sounds this month; major productions The Woman in White, The Producers and Mary Poppins have begun raking in the cash for their openings. Lloyd Webber's new musical opens in September at London's Palace Theatre and Mary Poppins also takes to the air in September, only a little out of London in Bristol. The Producers, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Lee Evans, begins previews in October.

Comedy Fuddy Meers finally gets its UK performance! For those in the dark about this, let me explain. First seen at the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play, about a woman for whom everytime she wakes up she forgets what she did the day before, was originally scheduled for the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, but that got scrapped as they thought a direct to West End run would be better. That plan, to star Jane Krakowski, fell through too. Now Sam Mendes' new company is to produce the play out of town in Birmingham ahead of a hoped West End run.

Another Broadway show transfers to London this week, only not quite on the same level as The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, etc.. no it's Hershey Felder's one man show George Gershwin Alone. Despite fairly low box office takings on Broadway, the biography of the short lived composer will open at the Duchess Theatre on February 6^th. It replaces a successful run of Pinter's Betrayal.