Gillian Anderson, best known for her role in the “X-Files” and Lily James, of “Downton Abbey” fame, will lead a stage production in London of “All About Eve,” a 1950 film drama starring Bette Davis and Ann Baxter that won six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.
Anderson will play Margo Channing, a major, but aging Broadway star, who becomes jealous and bitter toward a young assistant Eve Harrington, played by James, whose film credits include Disney’s live-action movie “Cinderella” and the upcoming “Momma Mia! Here We Go Again.”
Ivo van Hove is slated to direct the production, which will open in February 2019 at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s famed West End, according to London’s Daily Mail.
The adaptation seems primed for an American audience and will likely draw interest for Broadway run , if it’s a West End hit.
Anderson was added to the cast after Cate Blanchett withdrew from the production, citing a scheduling conflict. Anderson last appeared in London in the West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire. She played Blanche DuBois.
James, 29, appeared last year in The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company production of Romeo and Juliet, as part of the inaugural “Plays at the Garrick” season. She played Juliet.
Her London stage credits also include Playhouse in 2012, Definitely the Bahamas the same year and The Seagull and Vernon God Little, both in 2011.
She appeared in a supporting role in the popular British television drama “Downton Abbey” from 2012 until 2015.
Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”