Sound of Music rumoured to be replacing Chitty at Palladium

Published Tuesday 24 May 2005 at 16:40 by Alistair Smith

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has posted closing notices at the London Palladium, fuelling speculation that Andrew Lloyd Webber is about to announce that his long-awaited production of The Sound of Music will replace it.

Costing £6.2 million, Chitty became one of the most expensive West End shows when it opened at the Really Useful Theatres venue in April 2002. It covered its costs within 18 months and went on to take £70 million at the box office. It will finish on September 4 and is scheduled as the Christmas show at the Sunderland Empire as part of a nationwide tour.

Lloyd Webber, whose Really Useful Group owns the Palladium, is thought to be lining up The Sound of Music for the venue, possibly to open before Christmas. It is a project that the producer and composer has been working on for many years but has waited for the right venue before bringing it to London.

• Agatha Christie’s thriller And Then There Were None will open in October in the West End, in a new adaptation by Kevin Elyot. The production, directed by Stephen Pimlott, is a new stage version of Christie’s novel, which was originally adapted for the stage by the author herself and premiered at the St James Theatre in London in 1943. This new adaptation will be produced in London by Act Productions, Nelle Nugent and Karl Sydow. Venue and casting have yet to be confirmed.

• A special one-off performance of Little Women - The Musical will be held at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on October 2. Starring Dave Willetts and Stage columnist Dillie Keane and narrated by Sandi Toksvig, the performance will take the form of a concert version of the show with a full orchestra. A full-scale West End production is being planned for an extended run in 2006. This preview performance will be conducted by Steven Edis and directed by Gillian Gregory and is produced by Dudley Russell for Pelion Productions.

• Adrian Lukis will replace Kevin Spacey as CK Dexter Haven in the Old Vic’s production of The Philadelphia story from June 20 to August 6, when the theatre’s artistic director is away filming Superman Returns. Spacey will then return to play the role for the final four weeks of the production, which closes on September 3. It opened at the Old Vic on May 10, after previews from May 3, and is directed by Jerry Zaks.