Actors have just two days before curtain rises

Shaw — “Am reserving two seats for my show. Come bring a friend — if you have one.”

Churchill — “Impossible to be present for the first one. Will attend the second — if there is one.”

One-night-only productions are less of a rarity these days (who can forget the Muggleton Players’ staging of Young Saddam: the ballet?), but two-day rehearsals are, for good reason, discouraged.

Eyebrow Productions’ gala performance of Me and My Girl will be the third of their Showtime Challenges (after Into The Woods and Sweet Charity), 48-hour theatrical adventures designed to raise money for charity, in this instance, the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Rose, Furber and Gay’s musical comedy goes into rehearsal on Friday, October 24 at 7.30pm, and 48 hours later goes on stage at the 2,000-seater London Palladium. Moreover, the production has a cast of 120 (nearly one person for every minute of the show, which has to be giving Lord of the Rings a run for its money). When Dame Judi Dench, a prominent supporter, was informed of the latest project she was “astounded”. A play, she said, would be difficult enough; but a musical . . ? Stephen Fry called the whole idea “wildly deranged”. (I’m still holding out for Aida — ad libbed.) One or two of the cast might already be familiar with The Lambeth Walk, The Sun Has Got His Hat On and Leaning On A Lamppost; but, in all other respects, the spirit of the challenge is being strictly upheld. Though they already have their scripts, the cast are not allowed to meet, let alone rehearse, before T–48hrs.

The line-up includes two up-and-coming Oxfordshire actors: David Luke and Paul Lincoln. Their names have been changed for Equity reasons (that’s not a joke) and, in keeping with the rules of the game, they have indeed never met.

It was only after Luke was recalled for a second audition that he realised he had worked with Eyebrow Productions before.

“I was in their production of Into The Woods, at the Apollo. It had a children’s chorus in which I sang a solo: they remembered me from that.”

That was 2004. Luke, from Headington, did all his early shows in Oxford. He has since graduated from the Bath School of Performing Arts and, schedule allowing — he also does lots of singing and drama tuition — divides his time between Oxford and London.

In his West End debut, he finds himself playing the Major Domo, the guardian and gate-keeper of the Hareford country house.

The Harefords are short an heir, and, thanks to the misbehaviour of the 13th Earl, Bill Snibson of Lambeth finds himself with their great riches thrust upon him. But, like Eliza Doolittle before him, the new Earl must learn to play the part or the executors will not pay out.

“He’s a cockney guy, basically,” says Luke, “who now spends lots of time interacting with his servants and rich relatives, trying to learn.”

Needless to say, other members of the Hareford family think the inheritance really ought to be theirs. Cue Paul Lincoln, who plays Gerald Bolingbroke, “a bit of an upper-class English twit” — “I’ve played a couple of those now, in fact. I’m getting a little worried about typecasting!” — who was hoping to get his hands on the money.

Lincoln grew up Witney, though he was born in Lincoln, whence his acting handle, and has a long track record of musical performance in Oxfordshire, up to and including the final of the 1995 Oxfordshire Young Musician of the Year competition.

He studied modern languages at Sheffield (French, German and . . . Swedish: “no-one else was doing it”), but soon enough found himself playing Emcee in Cabaret and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, as well as being musical director for a production of Billy.

In 1999 he moved to France to work as a paralegal (“it pays a salary, which is more than can be said for this acting malarkey!”) and promptly forgot about theatre for three years, until he discovered an English-language theatre group in Paris, The International Players.

“I did one show and I was hooked.” And when Deborah Warner came looking for chorus members for her Paris production of Julius Caesar, Lincoln landed his first professional role, and decided it was time to enter acting full-time. He returned to the UK and trained at London’s Drama Studio, during which time he appeared at the Globe as part of the Sam Wanamaker Festival. (To this day he has never acted in Oxford, though he did get wind of a certain production of Into The Woods. “I’d just done it in Paris, too, but I couldn’t get back to Oxford.”) Though there are no big names in Me and My Girl, it comes with support of Dench, Fry (who revised the show in 1984), Robert Lindsay (who starred in that revival, taking the Olivier for Outstanding Performance of the Year, as well as a Tony in the New York version), and Joanna Lumley.

“Wildly deranged” indeed, but all very much in a good cause. Bring a friend — if you have one. There’s no second night.

Me and My Girl is at the London Palladium on Sunday, October 26, at 7.30pm. Tickets: £17.50-£35. Box office: 0870 890 0145 or visit www.seetickets.com