Caroline O'Connor in Bombshells
Tweet

O'Connor Bombshells Finish Fortnight Early, 16 Oct

The West End transfer of Caroline O'Connor’s Edinburgh Fringe First-winning one-woman show Bombshells will finish a fortnight early at the Arts Theatre. It opened on 6 September 2004 (previews from 3 September) and had been booking up to 30 October (See News, 25 Aug 2004). It will now close on 16 October.

Born in Lancashire, England, O’Connor was raised and trained in Australia before returning to the UK to attend the Royal Ballet School. Her many previous West End musical credits include Me and My Girl, Hot Stuff, Cabaret, Romance Romance, The Rink, Is There Life After High School? and Mack and Mabel, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award in 1996.

Down Under, O’Connor’s credits have included West Side Story, Oklahoma, Man of La Mancha and Chicago (as Velma Kelly), in which she also made her Broadway debut in 2002. On screen, she has played “Nini Legs-in-the-Air” in Moulin Rouge and appeared in this year’s Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely. In March 2005, she’ll star alongside Willard White in Jude Kelly’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town for English National Opera at the London Coliseum.

Bombshells was written especially for O’Connor by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith (whose Honour was mounted at the National last year). A series of six monologues, O’Connor plays characters of multiple nationalities and ages, from 15 to 64.

The show premiered in Melbourne in 2001 and was recently a sell-out in Sydney. In Edinburgh, where an abridged version ran during the Festival this past August, Bombshells was awarded a Fringe First (See News, 13 Aug 2004). No further productions have yet been announced for the Arts Theatre.

- by Terri Paddock

Related Content