Issue #18: February 28, 1999

• Broadway producer Dodger Theatricals (Titanic The Musical, The King & I, etc.) are looking to revive the Music Man in the fall of ’99. Talks are underway to woo Alec Baldwin to take the lead role. Mmmm a Baldwin brother on Broadway!!!

• Country fans can see one of their own when Pam Tillis joins the cast of Smokey Joe’s Café for a three-week run beginning March 16.

• A revival of The Lion In Winter by the Roundabout will open at the Stage Right Theater on March 11 starring Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing. First staged at the Ambassador Theater in March 1966, Robert Preston starred as King Henry II and Rosemary Harris as his wife. You may remember the movie version, which starred Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn.

• A new musical based on James Joyce’s short story The Dead bypasses its scheduled Off-Broadway stint and moves directly into the now vacant Vivian Beaumont Theater. The producers are trying to secure the $3million in financing needed to mount the production but with Broadway diva Patti LuPone interested in the project financing should be easy. All going well look for The Dead to open in the spring.

• Now that producer Livent is no longer competition in Toronto for Mirvish Productions, the savvy theatre gurus on King St. W. have announced their upcoming season. As mentioned previously in this column the North American touring premiere of Disney’s Lion King will open in April 2000. The other theatre fare for subscribers and single ticket buyers will include: The Pajama Game, June 1999; Enigma Variations, September 1999; Cabaret, September 1999; Art, November 1999; The Needfire, January 2000 and The Memory Of Water, February 2000. It looks like they will be keeping both The Royal Alexandra and The Princess of Wales theatres very busy!

• Janis Joplin fans can get their fix when The Cleveland Playhouse opens "Love Janis" March 5 (previews begin March 2) through to April 4. Add to the pilgrimage a visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum (where Joplin was inducted in 1995) to see the memorabilia exhibit which runs from Feb. 26 to May 2. And if that’s not enough they are holding a symposium on March 7. For more information on what is happening at The Cleveland Playhouse check out their web site at http://www.cleveplayhouse.org/.

• West End theatre owners Stoll Moss are reported to be in the running to buy out bankrupt Livent. Stoll Moss currently owns 11 West End theatres including the London Palladium, Her Majesty’s Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The company is reported to be looking for an international profile and the Livent stable of theatres is quite attractive.

• Noel Coward’s celebrated Private Lives will once again grace the West End at the Lyttelton Theatre on May 13. Directed by Phillip Franks audiences first enjoyed this delightful comedy in 1930.

• Shelagh Stephenson’s comedy The Memory of Water has been extended at the Vaudeville Theatre to May 22.

• The Australian company of Les Miserables continues its extended run at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. It is scheduled to play through to December ’99.

• Who says Spain is a Broadway free zone? Scheduled to open at Madrid’s Lope de Vega Theatre on March 17, Grease is currently in previews. How does one say "Grease is the word" in Spanish! Also, while in Madrid you can catch Kander and Ebb’s Chicago at the Apolo Theatre.

• She plays Andy’s Assistant District Attorney wife on television’s long-running police drama NYPD Blue, but Sharon Lawrence is a veteran of the Broadway and touring stage. Among her career highlights were roles in Cabaret and Zorba. She is returning to the New York stage on March 16 in the Public Theatre’s production of Ellen McLaughlin’s Tongue of a Bird.