Sophie Dahl Makes West End Debut in MonologuesDate: 28 September 2001
Sophie Dahl (pictured) will make her West End debut alongside Sian Phillips and Miriam Margolyes in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues when it re-opens at the 350-seat Arts Theatre next month. The show closed last week at the New Ambassadors, where it enjoyed an extended four-and-a-half month run. Prior to its last performance there, the production had already secured its new home at the Arts Theatre. It is now booking into January 2002.
Vagina producers are making good on their long-term plans, as told to Whatsonstage.com this summer, to find a more permanent West End home where they aimed to emulate the long-running cult success of the New York production, in which a constantly rotating trio of high profile female celebrities draw in the crowds. The Dahl-Phillip-Margolyes triumvirate will get the ball rolling, steering the show for four weeks up to 17 November 2001. Further high-profile casts are due to be announced shortly.
Dahl, the granddaughter of writer Roald Dahl, is best known as a model. Actress Margolyes briefly returns to the theatre in Vagina before filming begins on the second Harry Potter film. And West End veteran Phillips comes to the Arts direct from her solo cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse as part of that theatre's annual "Divas at the Donmar" season.
Originally seen Off-Off Broadway in 1996, the award-winning Vagina Monologues first came to London in 1999 when it ran for a six-week season, with Ensler on her own, at the fringe King's Head Theatre in Islington. During that UK outing, a special Valentine's Day performance, repeating a similar affair run the year before in New York, was also mounted at the West End's Old Vic Theatre. Joining Ensler on stage for the V-Day celebration were a host of British and American actresses, including Kate Winslet, Natasha McElhone, Melanie Griffiths, Marisa Tomei, Cate Blanchett, Calista Flockhart, Gillian Anderson, and Jane Lapotaire.
The current West End production first opened at the New Ambassadors in May with Ensler herself presenting the works solo. She was soon replaced by regularly refreshed threesomes which included Jerry Hall, Pam Ferris, Jenny Éclair, Maureen Lipman, Edie Falco, Sophie Okenodo, Mariella Frostrup, Amy Irving, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Dannii Minogue, Kika Markham and Meera Syal.
The Vagina Monologues, subtitled "An Anthropological Exploration", reveals a series of different women's stories and experiences involving their genitalia. The material was gathered from hundreds of intimate interviews, conducted by Ensler, in which women were asked probing questions such as "If it (your vagina) could talk, what would it say?". The show is produced in London by Sally Greene for Old Vic Productions and Mark Goucher and presented by arrangement with David Stone.
At the Arts Theatre, The Vagina Monologues replace the Pet Shop Boys-Jonathan Harvey musical Closer to Heaven which will close 13 October 2001.
- by Terri Paddock
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