Hot on the heels of Patti LuPone, who is currently giving London her Maria Callas in Master Class, and our own Sian Phillips in a breathtakingly lookalike Marlene Dietrich celebration, we are due for a summer of huge female stars in various vehicles.

Dame Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins are due in Albee's recently Broadway-revived A Delicate Balance; and Felicity Kendal is at the Old Vic Tom Stoppard's new version of The Seagull.

Meanwhile, the Chichester Festival for this summer has an amazing line-up of female superstars, among them Twiggy (making a rare return to the stage with Maureen Lipman in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit), Kathleen Turner (doubling a new solo about Tallulah Bankhead with a rare revival of Maugham's Our Betters) and Julie Christie (in the Duras Suzanna Andler). There are also a few men in the Festival's all-star line-up, but not so you'd notice.

So if you've been thinking of crossing the Atlantic, this summer would be the time to do it.

The ladies will be waiting. -- By Sheridan Morley