EYE SIGHT

Marni Nixon `was' Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

Believe it or not, Glenn Close dubbed Andie MacDowell's voice in Greystoke and Andy Williams was the voice of Lauren Bacall when she sang in To Have and Have Not. As the bank managers of Angus Deayton, Miriam Margolyes, Richard Briers, Geoffrey Palmer and Joanna Lumley will attest, voice-overs are a lucrative means of income.

The dubbing queen of musicals was undoubtedly Marni Nixon, who "was" Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Natalie Wood in West Side Story, but nobody remembers her, despite her onscreen role as a nun in The Sound of Music (natch). Until now.

Comden and Green wrote Singin' in the Rain about off-stage dubbing, but it has taken Dan Rebellato's Showstopper to immortalise Nixon and all the other unseen singing talent that Hollywood used. Fittingly, it stars the quite ridiculously talented Jackie Clune (left), who is poised to burst forth from the cabaret scene where she has been wowing crowds with her luscious, smooth contralto as The Voice of Karen Carpenter. If you're after insights on Julie Andrews or want to know what Audrey got up to in the toilets, look no further.

Arts Theatre, London WC2 (0171-836 2132), from 7 Jan