Kristin Scott Thomas to Fill Helen Mirren's Royal Shoes When 'The Audience' Returns to the West End

Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Four Weddings and a Funeral) will step into the role of Queen Elizabeth II formerly occupied by Helen Mirren when Peter Morgan's comedy The Audience re-opens in London's West End in the spring.

The production will begin performances at the Apollo Theatre on April 21, 2015 and open officially May 5. Though press materials indicate it will be a new version of the play, director Stephen Daldry will be back. Further casting has yet to be announced.

Despite her busy screen career, Scott Thomas is well known to London stage audiences. Currently playing the title role in Sophocles' Electra at the Old Vic -- described by Paul Taylor in The Independent as "an evening of unalloyed magnificence" -- she has also appeared in London in Harold Pinter's Betrayal and Old Times and Michael Blakemore's production of Chekhov's Three Sisters among others. She also appeared on the West End in The Seagull, winning an Olivier Award and reprising the role on Broadway in 2008.

Altogether she has received four Olivier nominations. She has also performed in a number of French plays (she is half-French), and won a BAFTA.

While Kristin Scott Thomas gives royal audiences to the United Kingdom's Prime Ministers one after another in London, Helen Mirren will be reprising the role on Broadway in a limited engagement from February 17, 2015 through June 28, 2015.