News

Actress Nicole Kidman is in talks to return to Broadway for the first time in 14 years.

The Hours star is interested in leading the cast of Terence Rattigan's play After The Dance - about a novelist who leaves his wife for a younger woman - when it opens on the New York stage next year.

Kidman is reportedly in negotiations to portray wife Joan Scott-Fowler, who struggles to tell her husband David how much she cares for him as their marriage crumbles, according to Britain's Daily Mail.

British actress Nancy Carroll previously played the role opposite War Horse star Benedict Cumberbatch in a critically-acclaimed 2010 production in London's West End.

Kidman made her Broadway debut in director Sam Mendes' 1998 production of The Blue Room.

Sheridan Smith has won Best Musical Actress for her performance in Legally Blonde: The Musical at tonight’s 35th Olivier Awards in London. The stage version of the MGM comedy also won Best New Musical, while Jill Halfpenny won Best Supporting Musical Performance. Britain’s state-backed National Theatre swept the board with seven wins across two productions. Thea Sharrock’s production of After the Dance won four awards for Best Revival, Best Actress for Nancy Carroll, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Adrian Scarborough and Best Costume Design. Howard Davies picked up Best Director for his production of The White Guard, which also won Best Lighting and Best Set Design. Presenters at this year’s show, held at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, included Patrick Stewart, Matthew Fox (Lost), Rupert Everett, James Purefoy and Jonny Lee Miller. Those in the audience included Derek Jacobi, Tamsin Grieg and Joan Plowright.

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest production Love Never Dies is in line to be one of the big winners at the Laurence Olivier Awards in Britain next month after picking up seven nominations.

The theatre impresario's Phantom of the Opera sequel has received nods in the Best New Musical category, as well as musical acting nominations for the show's stars Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Summer Strallen, despite mixed reviews from critics.

Acting veteran Sir Derek Jacobi is up for the Best Actor prize for his acclaimed turn in King Lear, and will compete for the honour against David Suchet (All My Sons), Mark Ryland (La Bete), Roger Alam (Henry VI) and Rory Kinnear (Hamlet).

Emma Thompson's sister Sophie is up for Best Actress for Clybourne Park alongside Episodes star Tamsin Greig for The Little Dog Laughed, Tracie Bennett for End of the Rainbow and Nancy Carroll for After The Dance.

Clybourne Park, The Little Dog Laughed, Sucker Punch, Tribes and End of the Rainbow will compete for the Best New Play honour.

The awards, which celebrate the best of the year's West End shows, will take place at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 13 March.