Issue #15: January 17, 1999

• The king of the mini-series, Richard Chamberlain, will join the Broadway revival of The Sound of Music on March 9. Following his 17–week Broadway stint he will hook up with the national tour. Currently booked for 40 weeks, the tour begins at the Colonial Theater in Boston in August then on to Detroit and Cleveland with the other cities yet to be confirmed. Chamberlain’s last Broadway and touring appearance was as Professor Henry Higgins in the ’93 revival of My Fair Lady.

• Canadian actor Victor Garber is heading back to Broadway to co-star with Nathan Lane in Stephen Sondheim’s new musical, Wise Guys. Due to hit the stage in the fall, this will be Sondheim’s first Broadway project since the staging of Passion in 1994.

• In the first few months of the year 2000 Julie Taymor’s production of The Green Bird will open on Broadway. The 18th century play by Carlo Gozzi was first seen in New York at the Off Broadway Theater for a New Audience in 1996. Taymor’s magic with puppetry, which won her one of two Tony awards for Lion King, will once again be put to the test.

• It’s been reported that on March 3rd former Annie star Andrea McArdle will replace current Belle, pop singer Toni Braxton, in Broadway’s long-running musical hit Beauty and the Beast.

• Another Broadway veteran, Lea Salonga, returns to her Tony award-winning role of Kim in Miss Saigon beginning January 18 for a limited run.

• Gerald Gutierrez will direct the Lincoln Center Theater production of Ring Round the Moon opening at Broadway’s Belasco Theater on April 15. The revival of Jean Anouilh’s play will star Fritz Weaver. Also close to signing are Frances Conroy, Tony-winner Irene Worth, and Simon Jones, most recently seen on Broadway in The Herbal Bed.

• A revival of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show will open at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. The role of Frank N. Furter, made famous in the movie by Tim Curry, will star Scream 2 actor and Courtney Cox fiancé David Arquette. The original stage production debuted in London in 1973 with the New York premiere in 1975. Let’s hope they will take this production on the road so followers can dig out their umbrellas and do the Time Warp!

• Following the huge success of David Holliwell’s 1960s farce Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs starring Ewan McGregor, which closed Dec. 23 at the Hampstead Theatre in North London, the show will transfer to the West End’s Comedy Theatre. Performances begin January 20 for a limited eight-week run.

• Avant-garde composer Phillip Glass will premiere his new works at the Salzburg Festival, which runs from July 24 to Aug. 29. On Aug. 28 Glass’ Choral Symphony No. 5 in 12 Parts, Requiem, Bardo and Nimanakaya is scheduled. Other confirmed programs include a new work by Theatre de Complicit founder and director Simon McBurney on Aug. 21. Opening night of the festival will be the world premiere of Cronaca Del Luogo (Chronicle of a Place) conducted by Sylvain Cambreling.

• Tom Stoppard, one of the world’s most honoured playwrights, is currently enjoying kudos from the film community for his latest screenplay Shakespeare In Love. Voted best screenplay by The New York Film Critics Circle, Shakespeare In Love is his latest film project; he has also written the screenplays for Billy Bathgate, The Russia House and Empire Of The Sun. The celebrated playwright broke onto the theatre scene at Britain’s National Theatre in 1967 at the age of 29 with Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead. For the past 30 years audiences have enjoyed his many works, among them Travesties, The Real Inspector Hound, The Real Thing and Arcadia.