Issue #27: August 3, 1999

• During Mondays in August you can take in the sweet sounds of Tony award winner, Melba Moore, at Nick Ashford’s Sugar Bar at 254 West 72nd Street. Ms. Moore is best known for her roles in Hair and Purlie and was most recently on Broadway as Fantine in Les Miserables.

• Stage and screen icon Lauren Bacall will help celebrate Noel Coward’s 100th birthday when she stars in Waiting in the Wings. The revival of his 1960 play will begin previews on December 3 and opens on December 16 – Coward’s birthday. No theatre has been confirmed as of yet.

• Acting legend Uta Hagen, whose career has spanned over 60 years, will be making her debut at the 2000 Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Ms. Hagen will star in Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories, which will have a four-week run at the Tom Patterson Theatre next August. Recipient of a Tony award in June for lifetime achievement, Ms. Hagen’s Broadway debut was in The Seagull in 1938. It was her role as Martha in the 1962 Broadway production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf that she is most famous for.

• The American premiere of producer Cameron Mackintosh’s Martin Guerre begins previews on September 17 with the opening at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis 12 days later. Everything is on track with rehearsals beginning on August 9 with Hugh Panaro in the title role, Erin Dilly, Stephen Buntrock and Jose Llana in the other principal roles.

• Prime Suspect star Helen Mirren is planning a November return to the West End in the premiere of Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories. The production will embark on a five-week tour October 1 prior to landing at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Ms. Mirren is expected to commit to 12 weeks in London. Are you starting to see a pattern here – obviously a play of great interest not only in the UK but in Canada as well. Can a Broadway run be far behind?

• The curtain is set to go down on Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Miss Saigon currently at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. By the time it closes on October 30, five weeks after the musical celebrates its 10th birthday, it will have played 4,264 performances, surpassing My Fair Lady’s record of 2,281 at the same theatre.

• Tony Kushner(Angels in America) is returning to the Royal National Theatre’s studio space Cottesloe in 2000 with his adaptation of an early Goethe play, Stella.

• 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.

• Rock legend Peter Townshend has finished his latest rock opera, Lifehouse. Best known as a member of 60s and 70s rock band The Who, and composer of the first ever rock opera Tommy in 1969, Townshend began this project nearly 30 years ago. The debut of Lifehouse will take place on December 5 on BBC Radio in the UK. We’ll have to wait and see what the future plans are for staging the new work.