Cheryl Tweedy’s West End debut is one to watch

For an industry so dependent on glitz and glamour, the West End has never quite mastered the celebrity debut. While big names might be a surefire way of shifting tickets, they have an unfortunate knack for ending up in mediocre plays – even when they’re as famous as Madonna.

The problem is partly structural. A-listers aren’t exactly cheap, and their schedules are notoriously tight. Faced with those constraints, theatreland has developed an unfortunate habit of putting box office names – John Malkovich, Damian Lewis, even Lindsay Lohan – into derivative three-handers by David Mamet. They might be easy to make, but they rarely deliver.

But are the days of celebrity mediocrity finally over? Last week came news of a seriously big theatre debut: Cheryl Tweedy (or as she prefers to be known these days, just ‘Cheryl’). In just a few weeks’ time, the former Girls Aloud star will play the leading role in one of the West End’s most recent hits: the crowd-pleasing creepfest 2:22 A Ghost Story.