The Stratford Shakespeare Festival announced April 24 that Anika Noni Rose would not be playing Cleopatra in Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra this season. The reason? Scheduling conflicts with her television filming of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. What took everybody so long to figure that out? It seemed pretty clear to me March 14.
Ms Rose is presently on Broadway starring in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production has been held over to June 22. This extension will not interfere with the television filming. Interestingly in Playbill-on-Line, March 4, in a Q and A Ms Rose was asked what leading role she was dying to play. She answered: Cleopatra. But no mention that at the time she was scheduled to play the role, albeit Shaw’s version, at Stratford. Playbill-on-Line reported Ms Rose being cast in the television series March 11.
Interesting. Did she know then (March 4 or 11) she wasn’t going to Stratford?
Ms Rose will be replaced by Nikki M. James who will also be playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Stratford.