Storming the West End: Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind stars Darius Danesh as Rhett Butler and Jill Paice as Scarlett O'Hara. Danesh became a household name thanks to the reality TV competitions Pop Stars and Pop Idol; Paice is best known for her West End role in The Woman in White Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Rhett and Scarlett were famously played by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in the Oscar-winning 1939 film Gone With the Wind. The movie was based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling, 1,000-page novel, which is set in Georgia during the Civil War Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

It's almost 70 years since the film opened in Leicester Square, just round the corner from where the new musical is being staged Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Margaret Martin wrote the music, lyrics and book for Gone With the Wind - an ambitious undertaking considering it is her first musical Photograph: Linda Nylind

Jill Paice as Scarlett O'Hara and Edward Baker-Duly as Ashley Wilkes. Scarlett is secretly in love with Ashley but he is engaged to another woman Photograph: Tristram Kenton

As the Civil War rages in the South, the plantation owned by Scarlett's family is torched and Scarlett must protect herself from a Yankee soldier Photograph: Tristram Kenton

After a series of unsuitable suitors, Scarlett is drawn to Rhett but the pair share a tempestuous relationship and the story famously ends with Rhett rejecting her Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The production has got off to a rocky start. Cuts have been made to its epic running length (now three and a half hours), one preview was cancelled due to a cast member's injury, and another performance was called off due to technical rehearsals. Nevertheless, tomorrow is another day... Photograph: Tristram Kenton