Darren Day Forces Way Back into West End???

Could you swallow musical man Darren Day as a gruff serial rapist? Producers of the curiously named Itchy Feet Theatre are betting that you will. Despite some lacklustre, pre-show marketing and the fact that he spends most of the show blindfolded, Day has impressed some critics – not least our own Mark Shenton – with his performance in a London retread of American playwright William Mastrosimone Extremities, in which he plays an attacker who has the tables brutally turned on him (See News, 22 May 2003). Not all the press has been positive. Several tabloids have painted the production as a major come-down for the performer, best known for bigger-budget roles in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Great Expectations, Copacabana, Summer Holiday, Grease and The Rocky Horror Show as well as for his on-screen ‘semi-tryst’ last summer with ‘It’ girl Tara Palmer-Tompkison on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, watched by million. Extremities has a limited four-week season on the fringe at Islington’s Old Red Lion where, according to press reports, houses have been as small as just 20 people. However, insiders say it’s a savvy ploy to build momentum and allow Day and his fellow cast members to find their acting feet ahead of a West End transfer. Only time will tell.