Denise Van Who? hits Broadway

Denise Van Outen has won the chance to reprise her role as Roxie Hart on Broadway - but the star's name is nowhere to be seen on the giant billboard poster advertising the show Chicago in Times Square.

The Essex girl's 20-week run last year as the murderous minx in the steamy musical was a hugely successful departure from her television career, but she is still a complete unknown in America.

The huge poster of Miss Van Outen in her most vampish pose is already intriguing New Yorkers, but the real test will come at her first night on 18 March.

Speaking in London last night before her cameo appearance in The Play What I Wrote, Miss Van Outen said: "I am so thrilled to get this chance to play Roxie on Broadway.

"I mean, to come from the Big Breakfast to Broadway - I never thought this would happen. It is something I've only ever imagined in my wildest dreams."

However, 26-year-old Miss Van Outen is far from sanguine about her prospects of seducing New York's theatreland - in fact she is decidedly nervous about the prospect.

She said: "I just hope the Americans are going to like me."

In London, though, they love her. Her surprise appearance on stage at the Wyndam's Theatre last night drew gasps of delight from the audience.

There, Miss Van Outen became the latest celebrity mystery guest to run the gauntlet of comedy duo The Right Size in the stage tribute to Morecambe and Wise directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Like Minnie Driver and Jerry Hall before her, as part of her guest appearance the former Big Breakfast television presenter donned an extremely unappealing monk's habit to play the unlikely role of Fat Father Bug-eye.

The play is a pastiche of the routines honed by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise and stars Hamish McColl and Sean Foley, who tease their celebrity guests mercilessly. It was her role as Roxie that drew the barbs last night as the cast dressed up in fishnets and bellowed out a lusty but horribly tuneless version of All That Jazz.

Before last night's performance the show's producer, David Pugh, revealed that he has long wanted to cast Miss Van Outen in one of his plays because he used to teach her when she was a teenage hopeful at stage school.

Mr Pugh said: "Years ago, when I was starting out, I used to teach her two days a week at the Sylvia Young school and I have followed her career ever since. She invited me along when she was in Chicago, and I used to think she was great on the Big Breakfast."

Mr Pugh's show will have taken more than £1 million when it closes in May, and its success has drawn plenty of attention. He said: "We have been indundated with offers from actors and celebrities to take the guest star role - but we choose them rather carefully.

"Denise is incredibly talented - and incredibly sexy."

Ralph Fiennes, Richard E Grant, Ewan McGregor, Dawn French and Miranda Richardson are all past "mystery guests" and there are more big names in the pipeline. Supermodel Kate Moss is persistently rumoured to be among them.

However, fans of Miss Van Outen who are unable to get tickets for her brief run in The Play What I Wrote - and who lack the bank-balance to fly to New York for Chicago - can take heart.

After Clare Sweeney's run as Roxie is finished, the Basildon blonde returns from Broadway to the Adelphi Theatre in April to pull on those fishnets one more time and give London another taste of Roxie Hart, Essex-style.

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