Britney Spears offered West End Stage role in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Britney Spears has been offered the chance to play Blanche DuBois in an upcoming London stage play of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.

The Toxic singer, who earlier this week helped CBS sitcom ’How I Met Your Mother’ achieve its highest ever rating, would be following in the footsteps of actress Vivien Leigh if she decided to play the role of tragic alcoholic Blanche DuBois.

"Britney’s been on the list for some time but was considered too risky. Her appearance in How I Met Your Mother changed all that. She had poise, timing and flair," The Daily Express quoted an insider, as saying,

"We wanted her for Blanche because while she’s technically too young, who else could embody this fallen Southern belle so well? "Britney’s done it all, from being desired beyond all others to facing ridicule that she can’t quite understand - pure Blanche.

"She’s living out the story, so to harness that on stage would be amazing for an audience to see and therapeutic for Britney, too," the insider said.And while the troubled pop star has only been offered to play the lead role, her casting has already caused uproar on the London stage.

Theatre director Brian Timoney is extremely annoyed with the idea of casting Britney because he believes that the singer can’t do justice to the role."This is an outrage. Tennessee Williams must be turning in his grave. Blanche was one of his most complex characters and the role requires a highly skilled actress to do it justice," he said.

"This is obviously a ruse to get large audience numbers."Artistically speaking, casting Britney is like giving Shakespeare to a bricklayer. She wouldn’t have got through the door at the auditions for my production," he added.

Besides banning Britney from his production, Timoney said that he will urge people to boycott her performance. "Tennessee Williams wrote characters that need extensive development and talent to portray with any sort of depth," he said.

Robert Goodman, who appeared in Martin Scorsese’s film ’Gangs of New York,’ is starring in Timoney’s production."Casting Britney as Blanche is like letting the lunatics out of the asylum," he said."She might be able to empathise with the character but you need someone who knows what they are doing to play such a complex part," he added.

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