GONE WITH THE WIND LAUNCH CELEB VERDICT

LEADING COUPLE: Darius Danesh and Jill Plaice

Thursday April 24,2008

CELEBRITY guests at the opening night of new West End musical Gone With The Wind were universal in their praise of leading man Darius Danesh, who plays Rhett Butler.

Christopher Biggins deemed the performance “wonderful”, asking, “Where did he get that deep voice?”

Ex-Blue member and former Chicago star Duncan James was not quite so enthusiastic.

“I thought Darius was fantastic but I thought there were too many songs,” he confides. “People don’t want to sit through a four-hour show. It could have done with some dancing.”

Pop band McFly, however, were moved to create their own piece of theatre.

“I’d love to write a musical one day. I went to stage school so that’s my background,” says vocalist and guitarist Tom Fletcher.

“Our manager is brilliant on the piano which would be a big help. I’m not telling you what it would be about though. Maybe we’re already working on it.”

Man of the moment Darius, pictured left with leading lady Jill Paice – having finally shaken off the image of the Pop Stars wally who forced fellow auditionees to embrace as he implored: “Can you feel the love in the room?” – seemed determined to recreate his most cringeworthy moment.

“I just want to get the cast into a room so we can have a toast,” he said. “Can somebody get everyone into a room?”