Olivier Winner Sheridan Smith Tapped for West End Bridget Jones Musical

Olivier Award winner Sheridan Smith is close to landing the role of hapless single Bridget Jones in the West End musical adaptation of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary, according to the U.K.'s Independent. While Smith participated in several readings of the musical, which features music by Lily Allen, no casting or start date has been confirmed.

Smith won an Olivier Award for playing Elle Woods in the West End production of Legally Blonde and earned an additional nomination for Little Shop of Horrors. She has also appeared in Flare Path and TV's Gavin and Stacey and Two Pints of a Lager and a Packet of Crips.

"Every girl at some point feels like Bridget Jones," Smith told the newspaper earlier this year. "I'm constantly wearing Spanx, eating ice cream, and feeling a bit lonely. Parts like Bridget and Elle are the parts I like—real girl power. Bridget is great because she's more downtrodden. She falls over all the time, or makes an arse of herself and I'm totally like that. I always joke that I'm going to be a spinster with 100 dogs, live on a hill and smell of wee."

Bridget Jones was first introduced in a series of newspaper columns by Helen Fielding, before becoming a book by Fielding and then a mini-Hollywood franchise, with two films starring Oscar winner Renee Zellweger as Bridget. Fielding is said to be working on the script for the stage version as well as an additional novel. The films' stars have also been in discussion for a third movie.