On The Boards and In The Wings 2002 - Issue #13

On The Boards and In The Wings, by Janine

Serving the Theatre Community since 1998

Issue #13: December 17, 1998

Last season’s Tony award winner for her performance in Cabaret, Natasha Richardson, will be returning to the Broadway stage in Patrick Marber’s Closer. The March opening at the Music Box will also star Rupert Graves in his Broadway debut.

It seems unlikely the musical Easter Parade will open on the great white way before the millenium. The driving force behind the production, song and dance man Tommy Tune, has agreed to replace David Cassidy in EFX in Las Vegas.

Spring of 1999 may see a Miles Davis version of the 1958 Gershwin classic Porgy and Bess. In November The Dallas Black Dance Theater Co. staged a performance at the Off-Broadway Hudson Theater for a benefit.

A cheeky little comedy originally from New Zealand opened in Toronto earlier this month at the New Yorker Theatre. Ladies’ Night might ring a familiar bell–the plot is that of the sleeper film hit The Full Monty, only the stage version has been presented somewhere in the world for the last 10 years! Scheduled to run until the end of January, don’t be surprised if it is extended since they have been packing the ladies in almost every night.

The highlight of the 1999 season at the Donmar Warehouse will be the revival of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing directed by David Leveaux. The season may also see the revival of this past summer’s hit Divas at the Donmar with a potential pairing of Dames Judi Dench and Diana Rigg.

Seventies superstar disco group Abba will be immortalized in a new musical Mamma Mia! Music and lyrics are by two original band members, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, and it will open April 6 at the Prince Edward.

As previously reported, the latest Aussie working man’s musical Steel City will be heading out on a 36-week national tour starting with Radio City Music Hall Jan. 26 to 30. But before the live and in person presentation you can catch a 90-minute special scheduled to air on BRAVO in the United States on Jan. 7, 10 and ll. This retrospective will include behind-the-scenes footage as well as performance frames shot downunder earlier this year.