Hollywood stars hit the West End

Despite Jude Law’s depature from London for a hot ticket role on Broadway’s in Hamlet (and to throw oranges at NYU gawkers), there is still plenty of rich celebrity sightings to be had on stage in London’s West End.

Fortunately for us, the gaping hole he’s left in London’s celebrity scene is filled by a number of Hollywood stars hitting the capital’s own theatre district. You can still catch Kevin Spacey in Inherit the Wind at the Old Vic, while in December legendary James Earl Jones brings that voice to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello. In 2010 MGM legend Debbie Reynolds tours Britain with her one-woman show ahead of a West End season and the original Broadway cast of Hair gets a transplant to the UK.

James Earl Jones (far right) and cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, photo credit Jeff Fasano

The London celebrity scene is also complemented by Brit starlets taking a break from LA. Oscar-nom’d Keira Knightley debuts as a vacuous Hollywood starlet in the The Misanthrope. Rupert Friend – getting steamy with Emily Blunt’s Young Victoria next month – appears in The Little Dog Laughed in January. Jonathan Pryce (Pirates…, GI Joe) is in Pinter’s The Caretaker, while Kim Catrall returns ahead of Sex and the City 2 by starring in Noel Coward’s Private Lives.

Last but not least, the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, will bring the cool to the role of Captain Hook this December at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool.

More at www.londontheatre.co.uk

-Elliott Frisby, contributing editor