The Queen Plans to Size Up Kristin Scott Thomas in ‘The Audience’

Back in October it was announced that Kristin Scott Thomas would portray Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience, a role famously originated by Dame Helen Mirren.  The play’s London run was so hugely successfully that Mirren took it to Broadway.

“I was so pleased to be asked to play The Queen in Peter Morgan’s brilliant play,” Thomas told The Telegraph.  “To be directed by Stephen [Daldry] will be a real privilege and I am very much looking forward to meeting my Prime Ministers when we start rehearsals in March. 

“To see myself wearing the crown and wig suddenly makes it feel all rather real!”

Come April 21st, Mirren will pass that crown on to Thomas, where a certain birthday girl will be watching very carefully.  According to the Daily Express, the Queen plans to see the show upon its return to London.

Morgan said that Her Majesty “has asked to see the play herself.”

The Audience imagines the conversations that took place between the Queen and her 12 prime ministers during their weekly meetings at Buckingham Palace.

“She apparently said she was sorry to have missed it on its last run and I think that’s partly because it just took that long for enough people to have seen it in her circle to tell her it’s worth seeing,” Morgan said.  “I know her private secretary came and various former high-ranking courtiers and present courtiers.”

Morgan also directed Mirren in The Queen (2006), which earned the actress an Oscar for portraying the Monarch in the days following Diana’s August 1997 death.  I’m not totally in love with Morgan’s acceptance speech after winning Best Original Screenplay at the 2007 Golden Globes.

“What do we have to do to get our leaders to listen to us?” Morgan asked the audience. “What do we have to have to do to get them to change tack?  In 1997, 2.2 million people went on the streets of London, sleeping rough, bringing the biggest city in Europe to a standstill, so that a stubborn 70-year-old lady would fly from Aberdeen to London.  What are we going to have to do when it’s really important?”

Thankfully someone started playing music and off he went.  If you want to know my thoughts on the Queen’s decision to stay with her grandsons who had just lost their mother, click here.

The Queen, to the best of public knowledge, has chosen not to watch the film.  Friends told The Telegraph that she’d rather not relive a week that was very difficult for her and her family.  She’s also not found of watching others portray her.

“It’s hard enough for her to have to look at a video of herself after an event,” a friend told the paper.  “But to try to watch somebody else being you is almost impossible.”