Fry Takes to Old Vic Stage with Ayckbourn & Bette Davis???

In addition to screen-to-stage play All About My Mother (See The Goss, 11 May 2006), what else is the Old Vic’s soon-to-be-announced season likely to include? Artistic director Kevin Spacey confirmed a year ago that, after panto success with Ian McKellen in Aladdin, Stephen Fry’s new version of Cinderella would premiere at the theatre this Christmas (See News, 9 May 2006) – while the Guardian reports today that Fry, who hasn’t trod the boards since fleeing with stage fright from Simon Gray’s Cell Mates in 1995, may even appear in the production to narrate. At last year’s press conference, Spacey also laid out plans to premiere Malcolm McKay’s Bette and Joan (exploring the relationships between Hollywood’s Bette Davis and Joan Crawford) and Frank McGuinness’ Londoners (based on Henry Mayhew’s Victorian text London Labour and the London Poor), revive Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests trilogy with Matthew Warchus directing, and reunite with Trevor Nunn, who directed him in 2005’s Richard II.