Beyonce wants to be a soul sister

By Baz Bamigboye for the Daily Mail
Updated: 04:55 EDT, 3 July 2009

Sexy nun on the run: Could Beyonce take the lead role in a film of the stage version of Sister Act?

Beyonce's got religion - showbiz style - and wants to star in a movie version of the stage musical Sister Act.

She slipped quietly into the London Palladium several days ago, during a break from her UK I Am Sasha Fierce tour, and took a pew to watch Patina Miller and Sheila Hancock rock to the Lord in the Sister Act musical.

Beyonce was taken by Alan Menken's gospel-to-R&B score and enjoyed Glenn Slater's clever lyrics (Glenn has also written the lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies), and has asked her representatives to persuade Disney to develop the show into a film vehicle for her.

If this comes to pass, she would take on, in musical form, the part Whoopi Goldberg created in the 1992 Sister Act film, although the stage version moves the action from the West Coast to Philadelphia.

Beyonce, 27, would play sexy lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier, on the run from gangsters and forced to disguise herself as a nun.

The Mother Superior part (Maggie Smith in the movie, Sheila Hancock in the musical) could go to Meryl Streep, who has form playing nuns, and can sing.

Beyonce is also considering recording one of the show's hit numbers, Take Me To Heaven.

If Beyonce's prayers are answered, it won't shoot until at least 2011, after Sister Act opens on Broadway in October 2010.

The producers, Stage Entertainment, wanted to take Sister Act to New York in the coming spring but it's not enough time to get the show right. Menken and Slater continue to fine-tune the production and tinker with the Sister Act cast album, which hits stores and iTunes on July 27.

There's also the little problem of who will direct it on Broadway. Peter Schneider, who directed the London show, was sidelined in the weeks running up to Sister Act's Palladium opening.

An associate director was brought over from Germany to work with actors, and associates of Schneider put the show together.

Sister Act the musical: Patina Miller as Deloris Van Cartier with her cast of nuns

Schneider will still be involved but the likelihood is that a new director will be hired to give Sister Act some heavenly help on Broadway.

Meanwhile, the musical, dubbed 'red-hot family entertainment' by Ben Brantley, the New York Times drama critic during his annual summer sojourn in London, is playing to healthy, but not packed, houses at the 2,000-plus seat Palladium.

I'm surprised it's not yet the scorching hit it should be.

...and Russell's a rockin' Robin!

Russell Crowe was in a generous mood when he dined at a Welsh inn during a break from filming Robin Hood.

Crowe played guitar, performing Everly Brothers hits like Bye, Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie for fellow diners, ate a meal of mussels and the chicken special and left a hefty tip.

Crowe had been shooting Ridley Scott's film Nottingham, which also stars Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong and Oscar Isaac, at nearby Freshwater West beach on the Pembrokeshire coast.

After the day's filming ended, he and a party of pals hit the Carew Inn and delighted staff and patrons with his Everly Brothers renderings.

Wisely, the Oscar-winning star removed his Lincoln green leggings before venturing out in public.

Brain Conley in Michael Ball's frocks...

Brian Conley steps into Michael Ball's frocks as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray at the Shaftesbury on July 26. Well, not quite. 

You see, Conley's a little slimmer than Ball, who has been an Olivier award-winning sensation in the part, and even with a fat suit on, Conley's arms are too slim.

The designers are trying to work out how Conley can look as if he's put on weight all over.

You need a lot of body to fill out a 54DD.

I should point out that Ball wore a fat suit as well, as did John Travolta in the movie version. I'm keen to see how Conley fills the role, so to speak, because Ball played Mrs Turnblad as an assuredly female character and not as a man in drag.

Anyway, the show continues (deservedly) to be one of the big West End successes and a lot of that is down to Ball.

But I recall being knocked out by Conley's brilliant musical portrait of Al Jolson several seasons ago, so I know he can do it.

Held captive in the house of Windsor

Maggie Smith is being wooed back to the London stage with a play about Maitre Suzanne Blum, the ruthless octogenarian lawyer accused of virtually holding the Duchess of Windsor prisoner in her Parisian villa Le Bois, in the Bois de Boulogne.

The drama is being written by Nicholas Wright, based on Caroline Blackwood's scathing book The Last Duchess. 

The Last Duchess: Suzanne Blum (left) and Maggie Smith

It stemmed from Blackwood's assignment, in 1980, to write an article for the Sunday Times about the Duchess, the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, who captured the heart of Edward VIII and caused the Abdication crisis.

Several years later, Blackwood produced a tome which turned out to be more about Maitre Blum's conniving efforts to thwart her access to the Duchess than about Wallis Simpson herself.

Blackwood raged against Maitre Blum, variously describing her as a 'malignant old spider', 'necrophiliac' and 'demented'. Blackwood wrote that Maitre Blum kept 'glaring at me with the utmost hostility'.

Wright, whose plays include Vincent In Brixton and The Reporter, both produced at the National Theatre and directed by Richard Eyre, has started adapting Blackwood's book.

It will be directed by Eyre, who originally bought the option to adapt the book, and will end up on stage most likely some time next year or early in 2011.

Robert Fox, who was one of the producers behind the recent Tony award-winning Broadway shows God Of Carnage and Exit The King, has worked with both Maggie and Eyre several times.

He said he has spoken with the double Oscar-winning actress about the part. 'It could be a wonderful role for Maggie, but we are at a very early stage and we proceed cautiously,' Fox added.

Fox produced Maggie's last West End outing, The Lady From Dubuque, at the Haymarket two years ago.

The actress is currently shooting Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang with Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

On Tuesday the latest Harry Potter, The Half Blood Prince, premieres in London and she repeats her role as Minerva McGonagall, Hogwarts professor of Transfiguration.

Later in the year she will be seen in the film From Time To Time, directed by Julian Fellowes.

Phantom 2 will be fantastic promises Lloyd Webber

Leading roles: Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo

Andrew Lloyd Webber has confirmed that soprano Sierra Boggess and baritone Ramin Karimloo will star in the world premiere in London of his Phantom Of The Opera sequel, Love Never Dies.

He told me that the £10million (probably more) show will open at the Adelphi Theatre 'early next year', adding that 'if it's any later, I'll go crazy!'

The show's award-winning designer, Bob Crowley, will test 'magic' scenes involving a life-sized automaton version of Christine Daae, the Phantom's beautiful protegee, at the Adelphi in September or October.

'I don't want to wait till next year and find that we're held up by some illusion,' the composer said. 'We'll set it up and fix any problems in the autumn.'

Creating the automaton, and ensuring that it works, has been one of the problems that caused Love Never Dies to delay from an initial, hoped-for opening this year.

Another factor was finding enough sets of performers to play the two main leads on three continents simultaneously. One idea had been for Love Never Dies to open in London, New York and Shangai at the same time. Lloyd Webber conceded that it's unlikely that will now happen.

'Where will we find three voices like that?' Lloyd Webber wondered aloud, as we listened to Ms Boggess's soaring soprano voice during a playback session at a recording studio in Battersea, South London.

Lord Lloyd-Webber and his long-time collaborator, music producer Nigel Wright, were playing me excerpts from the Love Never Dies concept album. 'She's pretty wonderful,' he added. And she is.

'It's the first time that the leads on an album of mine have gone on to open in the actual stage show. When Sierra and Ramin open in London, Broadway will want to see the original stars, so you can't say to London: "OK, listen to them for two weeks and then New York gets them."

'I personally feel that what will now happen is that Sierra and Ramin will open in London early next year and then go to New York in the autumn of 2010. I think once the album comes out, hopefully before Christmas, a lot of singers will come out of the woodwork and we'll find new Christines and Phantoms for the other productions,' he explained.

My sense of Love Never Dies is that it's the best score Lloyd Webber has produced, and that once he hands it over to director Jack O'Brien it can be moulded into the best musical London has seen in years.

However, Lloyd Webber, looking wistful as we listened to his powerful melodies, wondered whether there would be an audience for Love Never Dies.

To be sure, nothing's a dead certainty in this business, but I will be mightily surprised if Love Never Dies doesn't excel, both artistically and commercially.

'I'm just going to hand it over to Jack in January and start rehearsals,' Lloyd Webber said.

I laughed and surmised that he wouldn't be able to 'just hand it over'. But that's why O'Brien's a good choice. He's tough.

The show is set on Coney Island, New York, around 1907 - ten years on from the final actions in Phantom Of The Opera. A mysterious figure, Mr Y, has established a freak show attraction called Phantasma.

He works with former Paris Opera ballet mistress Madame Giry (sung on the album by Sally Dexter) and her daughter Meg (now famous as bathing beauty the Ooh La La girl), sung by Summer Strallen.

Christine, an opera star, is married to Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny (John Barrowman on the record), and the mother of a ten-year-old son, Gustave. She is invited to perform at the Phantasma amusement resort.

Lloyd Webber explained that in those days, showmen always liked to present 'opera totty of the day, like Katherine Jenkins now'.

I won't give any more away, except to say that by the show's dramatically heartbreaking end, there won't be a dry eye in the house.

By the way, I asked why Ms Jenkins couldn't take over from Ms Boggess in London and he explained that Boggess's range was soprano, and that she can go right up the scale: 'Her B-flat is sensational!'

Jenkins is a mezzo soprano and her voice wouldn't suit his score.

Essentially, it's a musical about obsession, love and a composer's life work. It may also, I suspect, be the final original masterpiece of Lloyd Webber's career.

Watch out for...

• Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, who play a U.S. bomb disposal unit on rotation in Iraq in Kathryn Bigelow's powerful movie The Hurt Locker.

What makes the movie so terrific, and one of the year's best so far, is Bigelow's ability, behind the boom and blast of war, to bring us intimate portraits of the men sent into harm's way. It doesn't hurt that the actors are at the top of their game.

I can see The Hurt Locker emerging as a major Academy Award contender. Starting from the next Oscar ceremony on March 7, there will be ten best picture nomination slots to fill - up from the usual five.

On the list of best picture possibles so far, I can see Michael Mann's superb Public Enemies (in cinemas now) and the sublime animated Pixar movie UP, directed by Pete Docter which, annoyingly, won't be released here until October 9, despite opening in the States last month. It'll be well worth the wait, though.

• David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs, who are scorching in The Mountaintop, a passionate play, running at the Theatre 503 at the Latchmere Pub in Battersea, South London.

Director James Dacre, cleverly using every inch of the 503's tiny auditorium, generates two hot performances from his cast who play Martin Luther King Jr and a hotel maid (well, she's more than that, but I mustn't reveal too much) on the night before King's assassination.

Last night, the play's producers were locked in negotiations to transfer Katori Hall's intense drama to a West End venue. It's at the 503 till tomorrow night.

Lara Pulver: Starring in Parade

• Lara Pulver, who was dark-hearted Isabella in the last series of BBC TV's Robin Hood.

Lara will play the crusading Lucille Frank, the leading lady role in the Los Angeles production of the award-winning musical Parade, reprising the role she played at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre when Rob Ashford directed it there two years ago.

• Ashford's directing again and performances begin at the Mark Taper Forum on September 24.

Lara will join T.R. Knight (Dr George O'Malley in Grey's Anatomy), who portrays Leo Frank, a Jewish man caught up in racial intolerance and murder in Georgia in 1913.

• Shrek The Musical, which is looking for West End lodgings. Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of Dreamworks Theatricals and Dreamworks Animation, told me the show (which won British designer Tim Hatley a Tony for his costumes) could be here by late 2010 or early 2011.

Certainly, it won't arrive before the next Shrek film, Forever After, opens next summer or before the stage show tours the U.S.

Katzenberg described the UK (nicely) as prime Shrek country. He and fellow producer Caro Newling, of Neal Street Productions, have been looking for a London home for Shrek and there are three possibilities.

Of course, that means, something will have to close. I'll keep you posted.