Waitress star Katharine McPhee says she’s been surprised by the reaction of London audiences - and is now planning to invite her old schoolfriend Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to watch the show.
McPhee and Meghan went to the same Los Angeles High School and performed in musicals together when they were teenagers.
They met up again in London two days ago when they both attended the WE Day charity event at Wembley Arena.
McPhee said they reunited backstage at the event, where Prince Harry spoke to a crowd of thousands, and they posed for a photograph together.
She said: “She was lovely and she remembered me, she remembered my sister more specifically because they were in the same class, and she said, ‘I’m just sitting around waiting for the baby to come.’
“I’d like her to come to the show - but no pressure on her, I’m hoping she will and I’m going to invite her through some mutual friends.”
McPhee, who rose to fame when she was runner-up in the fifth series of American Idol, plays the title character in the musical which has already been a hit on Broadway.
She said she had been surprised by the response from the London audience, saying the opening night had been “amazing”.
She said: “People said the audiences are different in the US and the UK and they are more reserved in the UK but I have not found that at all.”
The show’s director Diane Paulus admitted she had worried about bringing a show, set in a traditional American diner, to London.
She said: “I thought is this going to play? “This very American story about life in a small town and then we hit that first preview and the rest was history.
“The audience came, they rooted for the characters, they understood the humour, they understood the real people depicted in the show because this is a musical about real, messy, people.”
Earlier this year McPhee posted a picture on Instagram of her together with the Duchess.
The picture showed them as young performers in California posing together after a school show.
“Meghan and I did musicals together as kids,” she captioned the image.
“She grew up to be the Duchess of Sussex and I grew up to star on the West End, so same life if you ask me.”
