A CHANCE meeting and a mutual love of Educating Rita was the spark for the major new production of the acclaimed Willy Russell play, which opens in Southampton next week.
Jessica Johnson will play Susan "Rita" White, the Liverpudlian hairdresser aiming for a better life at the Open University, opposite Stephen Tompkinson as her frustrated professor Frank Bryant.
And it all came about after a serendipitous meeting between the two leads when both were performing at Live Theatre in Newcastle.
Jessica said: "We crossed paths and got chatting, and I just said to Stephen I thought he would make an amazing Frank. I had just done a short run of Educating Rita in Durham at the Gala Theatre, and was telling Stephen how I'd love to get a longer run at this incredible role."