Sad news to start this week: Million Dollar Quartet is closing. After nearly a year in the West End, the musical which celebrates the four greats of rock’n’roll (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins) will close on 14 January at the Noel Coward Theatre. (The producers are planning to take the production on a tour of the UK, so this isn’t necessarily the end for this show!)

Are you a fan of The Kings Speech? The Oscar-winning film actually started life as a play by David Seidler, which is happily being produced at the Richmond Theatre next March. The Kings Speech is directed by former RSC Artistic Director Adrian Noble and stars Charles Edwards as King George VI. I think it’ll make a fantastic play; can’t wait to see it!

And now this week’s cast news:

• Ugly Betty star America Ferrera will swap her trademark poncho and braces for fishnets next month when she makes her West End debut in Chicago at the Garrick Theatre as Roxie Hart
• Joely Richardson will become the third member of her incredible family to play Ellida in Ibsen’s The Lady From The Sea, when she takes on the role at the Rose Theatre in Kingston next year
• The cast of Noises Off at the Old Vic has been announced: Celia Imrie, Janie Dee, Robert Glenister and Amy Nuttall are just some of the big names gracing the Old Vic stage this Christmas

More next week!

Rebeca Vallim, a singer from Rio de Janiero, tells us about the exciting Brazilian music scene in London for our World in London project.

How long have you been living in London?
Almost six years now. What I really like about living in London is all the different cultures in one place.

Where have you performed in London?
All around London, including Guanabara, Ronnie Scott’s, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Favela Chic, Pizza on the Park, Rose Theatre Kingston, On Anon, Barbican and The Green Note.

I’ve also performed at different London festivals, like Thames Festival, Carnaval del Pueblo, Summer in Holborn and Bloomsbury Festival.

What is your favourite place to perform?
It’s really hard to say!  Probably the Southbank Centre as they’re very supportive of artists, and encourage and promote Brazilian music, like with Festival Brazil this summer. The audience are great too, people aren’t busy drinking or chatting – they come to appreciate the music.

What is the Brazilian music scene like in London?
The Brazilian music scene in London is very varied, with rhythms from North to South of Brazil. It’s exciting, there’s so much happening.

You can hear all kinds of Brazilian music in London: bossa-nova, samba, maracatu, forró, samba-rock, pop, country, chorinho, samba-reggae and others…

Where do you go to listen to Brazilian music in London?
The last places I’ve been to hear Brazilian music were Guanabara for a concert by Diogo Nogueira, a great sambista of the new generation; Royal Albert Hall to see Gilberto Gil, an icon of Brazilian music; and Koko to see the great singer Maria Rita.

I also recommend the Tia Maria restaurant in Vauxhall, which has live samba and choro every Thursday.

So where can we see you perform?
I perform in a number of different bands: Rebeca Vallim & Band, Mafua de Yaya, Viramundo, Umpatacum and Maracatudo Mafua.

My next gig is Brazilian Night at Ronnie Scott’s Bar, upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho, on 9 Dec from 8pm.

Ever since, Hay Fever has been coveted by the most fabulous of older actresses, including Edith Evans and Judi Dench. The Rose Theatre is lucky to have not one but two established actresses taking on the role, Celia Imrie (whom I saw) takes the first half of the run, and Nichola McAuliffe the second.

This comic Coward at his very best. However the play’s success also depends on the chemistry and innuendo created on stage by the cast. Hay Fever is a farce set in an English country house in the 1920s. We are introduced to the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and watch the hysterical consequences as each invites a guest to stay for the weekend.

The Rose Theatre has a contemporary feel with a simple stage that allows it to be transformed for each production. Hay Fever’s set was beautifully ornate with a real attention to detail, similar in fact to Coward’s Waiting for Wings that I saw a few weeks ago.

Celia Imrie commands the stage and seems to relish the experience of being Judith Bliss. Hay Fever’s younger roles are taken on by Georgia Maguire and Joshua McGuire (both recent drama school graduates) playing the two bratty Bliss children, chasing each other around the stage and being deliciously unaware of their conceited selfish behaviour. I enjoyed watching the interaction between mother and children, especially how Judith acts with her younger, more beautiful daughter, flitting between pride and jealousy.

This play is right up my street, I enjoyed it so much I was still laughing in the intervals… I even forgot about my dreadful cold. The Bliss family are utterly dysfunctional, but work in their own way. I think there is something here for everyone to identity with. I certainly thought the mad melodramatic ensemble on stage were really quite similar to my own rowdy, Bohemian family!

Hay fever continues until Saturday 23 October.

Well, news about semi-finalist Steph Fearon bounced into my inbox this week. Fearon will be starring in a summer revival of Smokey Joe’s Café at the brilliant Landor Theatre, one of South London’s best pub theatres from 13 July. Smokey Joe’s Café showcases the musical of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller who wrote On Broadway, Jailhouse Rock and Stand By Me: plenty for the lovely Steph to get her winning vocal cords around!

From newbies to oldies: My Family star Robert Lindsay is coming back to the West End later in the year. He’ll play Aristotle Onassis in Onassis, Martin Sherman’s play about the last five years in the life of the Greek shipping magnate, focussing on his relationships with Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas and his son Alexandros. The show, which is a transfer from Chichester, opens in London on 12 October (previews from 30 September). I think Robert Lindsay’s great. He’s won two Laurence Olivier Awards, and his other stage credits include Oliver!, Me And My Girl and Richard III.

And there’s news of another favorite Olivier Award winner coming to London in the autumn. The ever-wonderful Celia Imrie will play in Noel Coward’s classic comedy of bad manners, Hay Fever, directed by Stephen Unwin at the Rose Theatre from 23 September to 23 October.

Finally, if you’re already bored of the World Cup and starting to think about Christmas(!), there’s news of the Rose Theatre’s Christmas show. The Three Musketeers will be the Rose’s first musical, running from 27 November to 2 January. It’ll  feature music by George Stiles and lyrics by Paul Leigh, with a good dose of royal intrigue and sensational swordplay into the mix!

And the National are teasing us with their Christmas news: Catherine Tate is to star in a revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings this December… but they don’t have the exact dates finalised yet…