Strangers on a Train full steam ahead for the Gielgud?

An eagle-eyed reader informs us that the programme for Michael Grandage's current production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the West End's Noel Coward theatre includes a telling note from producer Cameron Mackintosh.

In his welcome letter, Mackintosh reveals that Strangers on a Train is the next show bound for the Gielgud, which is one of the theatres he owns alongside the Noel Coward.

The Gielgud had reportedly been ear-marked for the West End transfer of Mackintosh's new production of Barnum at Chichester, but that is no longer happening.

Adapted from Patricia Highsmith's 1950 thriller, Strangers On A Train was famously adapted for film by auteur director Alfred Hitchcock, starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker as the titular strangers who meet on a train and plot to 'swap' murders.

The stage version is rumoured to feature Laurence Fox, recently seen in the West End in Our Boys, and Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston in the roles.

American film director Robert Allan Ackerman is reportedly attached to helm the production, with playwright and screenwriter Craig Warner adapting the script.

Produced by Bond movie supremo Barbara Broccoli, Strangers on a Train will follow Private Lives at the Gielgud, which closes next weekend (21 September).

Keep posted on WhatsOnStage.com for further details of this production as they come available