From Mary Poppins child star to Profumo femme fatale in Lloyd Webber’s latest

Actress Charlotte Spencer first hit the West End stage aged 12 as one of the children in Mary Poppins.

Today she was named as Christine Keeler in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical about the Profumo political scandal that rocked Sixties Britain.

A second Charlotte — Blackledge — will make her debut in the show as Keeler’s friend, Mandy Rice-Davies. And Alexander Hanson, star of Jesus Christ Superstar and A Little Night Music, will play the title role of Stephen Ward, the society osteopath who introduced Keeler to cabinet minister John Profumo at a party on Lord Astor’s Cliveden estate.

Profumo’s affair with Keeler, also the reputed mistress of an alleged Soviet spy, hit the headlines after the minister lied about it in the Commons 50 years ago. Ward was charged with living off the proceeds of prostitution and eventually killed himself.

Spencer said she was “absolutely over the moon” to be playing a figure with “such an important role in our history”. The 21-year-old said she was captivated by Keeler, now 71, because “she was such a mystery”.

They have not met but she and Hanson were introduced to Rice-Davies when they performed songs at Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Sydmonton Festival at his Hampshire estate. “She was really sharp and had a good sense of humour,” Spencer said.

She added that Rice-Davies, 68, who gave Lloyd Webber notes on details, said the actress had caught “Christine’s mannerisms really well”. Spencer added: “Considering the girls were so young they were very classy in the way they dressed. It was never provocative. It was the Audrey Hepburn style.” Spencer is reunited with her Poppins director, Richard Eyre, on the show.

Stephen Ward previews at the Aldwych Theatre from December 3.