Curtain to fall on Acorn Antiques

London's most expensive musical, Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques, is to close after only 16 weeks in the West End.

However, it is not the £65 top ticket price that has doomed the show, which was a near sell-out: it is closing because the producers felt unable to find an actress to replace Julie Walters in the starring role of Mrs Overall.

Victoria Wood did hint that she hoped Acorn Antiques would run and run. But
when the show opened in February, she confessed that finding a replacement for Walters would be like "the hunt for the new Scarlet O'Hara".

Despite ticket sales of 96 per cent capacity, it will close at the Haymarket Theatre on 21 May to coincide with the end of Walters's and the other stars' contracts.