Dreamgirls Star to Appear Opposite Christopher Plummer On Stage

When Dreamgirls came out last fall, most of the critical praise focused on Jennifer Hudson and, to a lesser extent, Eddie Murphy. But the only classically trained actor in the cast, Anika Noni Rose, went largely unnoticed (probably because she had to share the screen with Hudson and Beyonce Knowles). In 2004, Rose won a Tony award for her performance in Broadway's Caroline, or Change. Next summer, she will play Cleopatra opposite the Caesar of Christopher Plummer in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the Stratford Festival of Canada in Ontario. Plummer, of course, is a legendary actor of both stage and screen; his most famous screen role is probably Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, but on stage he is closely associated with Shakespeare, especially (in recent times) the role of King Lear. Officials at the festival claim they want to provide a variety of plays, but still focus mainly on Shakespeare-they plan to rename the festival the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.