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Scary Mel B Joins National Tour of Monologues

Scary Spice Mel B will add her name to the long list of female celebrities to appear in Eve Ensler's celebration of female sexuality, The Vagina Monologues. The pop star will appear in the hit play's first UK tour, which launches a ten-week schedule on 9 September 2002.

Mel B (pictured) will appear alongside two veterans of Monologues' continuing West End run - comedian Rhona Cameron and Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite (whose films include Mission Impossible and Seven Years in Tibet) - for one week only, 17 to 21 September 2002, at The Lowry in Salford, the second tour stop.

The tour will be launched at Bath's Theatre Royal, from 10 to 14 September 2002, with a cast of Lesley Joseph (TV's Birds of a Feather), Nina Wadia (Goodness Gracious Me) and Tanya Moodie (Le Costume and The Prince of Homburg on stage). Prior to the tour launch, Joseph and Moodie will join comedian and actress Morwena Banks in the West End production at the Arts Theatre from Monday, 19 August.

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?".

During its West End run to date, the Olivier-nominated production has featured regularly refreshed three-strong companies, which have included stars such as Ruthie Henshall, Loretta Swit, Jerry Hall, Pam Ferris, Jenny Éclair, Maureen Lipman, Edie Falco, Sophie Okenodo, Mariella Frostrup, Amy Irving, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Dannii Minogue, Kika Markham, Meera Syal, Sophie Dahl, Miriam Margolyes, Suzanne Bertish, Elizabeth McGovern, Nina Wadia, Helen Lederer, Lauren Ward, Lisa Stansfield, Celia Noble, Donna Air, Jackie Clune and Anita Dobson.

Following Bath, The Vagina Monologues tour will continue until 7 December 2002 to Salford, Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Sheffield, Glasgow, Brighton, Richmond and Guildford. The concurrent West End production is booking at the Arts until 12 October 2002. It is likely to transfer to another venue after that. To date, it has moved back and forth between the Arts and New Ambassadors theatres since first opening in the West End in May 2001.

- by Terri Paddock

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