| Issue #9: October 17, 1998
- Composer Frank Wildhorn may prove to be a triple threat
on Broadway in ’99. Currently represented by The Scarlett
Pimpernel and Jekyll & Hyde, it is his production
of The Civil War, which opens at the St. James on April
22, that will afford him a musical monopoly.
- Speaking of The Scarlett Pimpernel, which has had trouble
finding an audience since it opened on November 9, 1997, it
looks like the cast shake up is about to settle down. Douglas
Sills, who received the best notices when the musical opened,
will continue in the lead role. Broadway veteran Rex Smith
(Grease, Grand Hotel and Anything Goes)
will replace Terrence Mann. Rachel York (City
of Angels and Les Miserables) will replace Christine
Andreas as the hero’s love interest.
- Mega-producer Cameron Mackintosh must have been relieved
when the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco was finally renovated.
The historic theatre is the only venue in the area that can
house the $12 million touring production of Miss Saigon.
The award-winning musical will play through November 29th.
- It’s not quite the West End, but Sir Ian McKellen
is heading north of London to Leeds for his next stage appearance.
The West Yorkshire Playhouse will host the stage legend in three
classic theatre pieces beginning Oct. 29 through to Feb. 27.
If you are fortunate enough to be in the vicinity you can catch
the master in the role of Dr. Dorn in Chekhov’s
The Seagull, then as Garry Essendine in Noel Coward’s
Present Laughter. His final appearance will be as Prospero
in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. If you can’t
make it to Leeds then you can see McKellen on the big
screen in two new films–Apt Pupil and Gods and
Monsters–due out within weeks of each other later this
fall.
- The intimate 174 seat Hampstead Theatre in North London will
play host to David Holliwell’s 1960s farce Little
Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs. Trainspotting
star Ewan McGregor will lead the cast when previews
begin November 12 for the limited run which closes December
23.
- The discovery of the Edward III play, which
has existed for over 400 years, has finally been authenticated
as a work by William Shakespeare. It is now reported
that the first staging of the Bard’s play will be by a
small Halifax theatre company–Shakespeare by the Sea. No
date has been confirmed but the one-man play will star Patrick
Christopher, head of the acting program at Dalhousie University
in Halifax.
- He’s eye candy for any woman who has a pulse and can
be seen each week as Bobby Donald on producer David E. Kelly’s
The Practice. Dylan McDermott made his Broadway
debut in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues, which
played on Broadway in the ‘80s.
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