Issue #26: July 19, 1999

• Polly Draper has taken over for the recently departed Natasha Richardson in Closer, currently at the Music Box Theater. Draper may be familiar to fans of the ’80s TV series Thirtysomething. She will soon be seen in the upcoming movie The Tic Code with Gregory Hines.

• The Roundabout Theatre Co. is planning a revival of Rodgers and Hart’s The Boys From Syracuse. Associate artistic director Scott Ellis will direct the production slated for the 2000 Broadway season.

• Composer-lyricist Jeanine Tesori is currently working on the new musical Don Juan de Marco which is on track for a workshop in late winter or spring 2000 before it opens on Broadway in the fall of 2000.

• Even though the Broadway production of Titanic, The Musical has closed, the Tony-award winner lives on–on the road. Currently in Washington, D.C. until August 21, the tour is solidly booked through to August 2000.

• Sir Cliff Richard, former British teen heartthrob from yester year, is planning a musical based on his life, with original title Cliff: The Musical. Richard’s other stage project opens next month at the Theatre Royal in Windsor. Harry’s Web is a futuristic fantasy musical with 70 of his songs.

• Australian producer Ben Gannon has hit the big time downunder with his 1998 musical The Boy From Oz making him the 14th wealthiest Oz entertainment personality. The musical, based on the life of singer-songwriter Peter Allen, played to sold-out houses in Sydney and Brisbane. As it is the most successful original Australian musical, there are plans afoot for Broadway and West End engagements in 2000.

• In addition to Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart and Shakespeare In Love Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow doing stints on the boards this summer, Felicity star Scott Speedman returned to his old stomping grounds in Toronto to perform in the Equity Showcase Theatre workshop of Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. The stage is a popular place for many familiar television stars at this time of year. Catch Wayne Knight (3^rd Rock From the Sun, Seinfeld) currently on Broadway in the Tony award-winning play Art. Friends star David Schwimmer did a turn at the Massachusetts Williamstown Theater Festival in Glimmer Brothers.

• Sixty-two-year-old producer Allan Carr lost his battle with cancer on June 29. Carr, the man behind the 1984 Tony-winning musical Le Cage aux Folles and the 1978 classic movie Grease starring John Travolta, will be remembered for his colourful personality and missed by the entertainment industry.