Ewan McGregor in Talks to Star in London Guys and Dolls

By James Inverne
21 Oct 2004

Donmar Warehouse boss Michael Grandage doesn’t mess around. If he says that it’s time for another London Guys and Dolls (following the immensely successful Richard Eyre production at the National — so good that nobody has dared to touch it in Theatreland since), then he’s going to get a headline-making cast.

Talks are nearing conclusion for Ewan McGregor to play Sky Masterson, with an announcement expected imminently.

McGregor last appeared on the West End stage in 1999, when he starred in David Halliwell’s Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs at the Comedy Theatre. But he’s never braved a singing role onstage. However, McGregor has sung on film, in the cult hit “Moulin Rouge.”

That film saw him play opposite Nicole Kidman, a Donmar veteran after her famous performance there in David Hare’s The Blue Room. Guys and Dolls is scheduled for some time in 2005 (McGregor wanted the show put back to accommodate his filming schedule) and is the first production that the Donmar is producing outside of its Covent Garden home.