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By BAZ BIMGBOYE

Last updated at 08:34 27 July 2007


Nicholas Hoult

• Nicholas Hoult and Tommy

Jessop, who star in the BBC TV

drama Coming Down The Mountain.

It's a tale of two teenage

brothers, written by novelist Mark

Haddon. Hoult's character feels

put upon when he has to spend

more time than he wants to caring

for his brother (Jessop), who has

Down's Syndrome. It could have

been treacly but director Julie

Anne Robinson and her cast

employ a down-to-earth

approach. Hoult is emerging as

a leading man of great interest.

• Jude Kelly, who will go

from directing Carmen Jones

at the Southbank Centre's

Royal Festival Hall to staging a

musical that explores the dark

underbelly of the cotton industry

in King Cotton. It features

John Henshaw, Wendy Mae

Brown, Kirsty Hoiles and many

others. Jimmy McGovern has

written the story from an idea

by Ian Brownhill, with Howard

Goodall providing the original

score. King Cotton will run at

The Lowry arts centre in Salford

Quays from September 12, and

then at the Liverpool Empire from

September 25. By the way, I

caught Wednesday's first preview

of Carmen Jones, and Tsakane

Valentine Maswanganyi strolled on

stage and proceeded to put a pair

of knickers on! She sang very prettily

too, although Sherry Boone's

Cindy Lou stopped the show in

Act Two. There were a few hiccups

with the sound in Act One, but it

was a treat to listen to the Philharmonia

Orchestra (sharing the

musical honours with the London

Philharmonic).

Chita Rivera

• Chita Rivera, the legendary

musical theatre star,

who will bring her show,

Chita Rivera Up Close, to

Wyndham's Theatre from

September 11 for a two-week

season. For the handful of

you out there who don't

know, Ms Rivera was the

original Anita in the stage

and screen versions of West

Side Story and, if memory

serves me right, she was last

here in Kiss Of The Spider

Woman. I caught her on

Broadway about 18 months

ago in The Dancer's Life,

where she proved that at 70-

plus she still knows how to

kick her heels right up and stop a

show. The Wyndham's show won't,

obviously, have the production values

of Broadway, but it will be full

of song, dance and patter about

Chita's extraordinary life.

• Brendan Gleason and

Janet McTeer, who portray Winston

and Clementine Churchill in

Churchill At War, a 90-minute film

that director Thaddeus O'Sullivan

started filming this week for BBC

TV and HBO. Iain Glen appears as

George VI, Bill Paterson as

Clement Attlee and James D'Arcy

as Jock Colville, who was assistant

private secretary to Churchill and

Attlee. Hugh Whitemore has written

the screenplay, following on

from his powerful drama Gathering

Storm, which starred — so

memorably — Albert Finney and

Vanessa Redgrave as the

Churchills.

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