Kidman won't return to Donmar

Nicole Kidman's dazzling West End debut in The Blue Room was described as "pure theatrical viagra" and, ever since, theatreland has been on tenterhooks waiting for her return - which had been planned for this year - to the Donmar Warehouse. However, the Evening Standard can now reveal that Kidman will definitely not be performing the two roles that she had hoped to fill in the Donmar's 10th anniversary season.

But the news is no snub to the Covent Garden theatre. In fact, Kidman's decision to dedicate all of 2002 to the rigours of Hollywood, with no interludes on stage in London, was prompted by none other than the Donmar's artistic director, Sam Mendes.

A source at the theatre said: "Since the beginning of last year, Sam and Nicole have been in discussions about her coming back here to play two roles, Olivia in Twelfth Night and Yelena in Uncle Vanya."

Indeed, as recently as last September's Venice Film Festival, 34-year-old Kidman was enthusiastically talking about her theatrical reunion with Mendes, 35.

Events since then have changed her plans. Kidman has collected a ream of accolades for her performance as Satine in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge - for which she has already collected a Golden Globe and is hotly tipped to pick up an Oscar.

Added to this has been the tidal wave of publicity that followed her separation from ex-husband Tom Cruise - after which Kidman so cattily observed that her split from the diminutive actor allowed her to wear high-heels again.

The combination of critical acclaim and constant media scrutiny has elevated the Hawaii-born actress's already high-flying career into the stratosphere. "More recently they had another chat," said the the Donmar insider. "Sam advised Nicole that perhaps it would be better for her not to choose this particular moment in her film career to commit to something that would have taken her away from Hollywood for nine months - despite the fact that that 'thing' was to be appearing in two of Sam's own productions."

Although this is Mendes's swansong season at the Donmar - he departs at the end of the year, leaving Michael Grandage to take the reins - the Oscar-winning director will have many more opportunities to produce theatre with Kidman.

He plans to set up a new theatre company with Caro Newling, who has long worked at the Donmar as executive director and will also leave the 250-seat theatre not long after

Mendes. Now that Kidman is not to grace the Donmar with her presence this year. speculation will almost inevitably turn to Mendes's girlfriend, Kate Winslet, who would be an ideal candidate to step into the breach.

However, word is that Winslet is unlikely in the extreme to be the replacement .

As well as the Donmar, Kidman has been contemplating taking on a role in another great London theatre - the National.

Plans are still afoot for her to appear in Ibsen's The Lady From The Sea under the directorship of Trevor Nunn.

Nunn steps down as NT director next April, and at the moment the hope is that Kidman will be in London early next year for the run.

So, those Kidman fans who have been so patiently waiting to selfprescribe a dose of "theatrical viagra" should not despair quite just yet.

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