| Issue #30: September 15, 1999
- The National Alliance for Musical Theatre is holding their
11th Annual International Festival of New Musicals September
26 & 27. This is an opportunity for new works to be showcased
for domestic and foreign producers. This conference may be where
the next great musical will be discovered. Let’s hope so,
we are desperate for an original new work.
- Playwrights Horizons will kick off its 1999-2000 season with
the world premiere of the musical play James Joyce’s
The Dead. Starring Blair Brown in the role of Gretta
Conroy and Christopher Walken as her husband, Gabriel,
this star-studded production will also feature Stephen Spinella,
Sally Ann Howes and the Side Show sisters Alice
Ripley and Emily Skinner. Performances begin October
1 for a limited engagement through November 14.
- The majority of Broadway producing heavyweights were recently
in Toronto to see the workshop of The Seussical. The
three-day, $750,000 workshop was held to determine whether or
not to move forward and produce the musical for Broadway and
the road. Initial estimates for the production are anywhere
from $5 to $7 million. With that kind of investment the three-quarter
million for the workshop was money well spent on the 28 strong
Canadian and American cast. The creative team is the same that
created Ragtime. The Seussical was in the early
stages of development when the now defunct Livent Inc. was gobbled
up by the ever-growing SFX entertainment giant. It will be curious
to see who will step up to the plate to get this new work on
the boards.
- That hot actor who had all the women’s and some men’s
blood pressure rising in the Broadway production of Indiscretions
is returning to the stage. After a 4 1/2-year absence from theatre,
Jude Law will play the incestuous Giovanni in a new production
of John Ford’s Tis Pity She’s a Whore
opening at the Young Vic Theater from Oct. 1–Nov. 6. During
his hiatus from the stage, Law was dabbling in big screen
productions including Wilde, eXistenZ and the soon to
be released The Talented Mr. Ripley.
- The Playhouse at the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia
is playing host to Jane Austen’s classic Pride
And Prejudice through to October 2. Fans of Austen
will enjoy performances by Aussies Lucy Taylor and William
McInnes.
- Theatre returns to television in a series called Stages
on Screen. Public television’s New York based channel
Thirteen/WNET will debut the series with A.R. Gurney’s
Far East which was produced last season by Lincoln
Center Theater. The TV incarnation will not be a live performance
taping but a filmed adaptation. Also on deck for the six part
premiere season will be Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight,
Los Angeles directed by Mark Levin. The other presentations
have not been announced but with public television involved
you can count on first class “theatre”.
- I recently saw Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song
Trilogy on video. Although it is over a decade old, the
story is as relevant today as it was in the mid 80s. A Tony-award
winning play, the semi-biographical story can be purchased in
book form at www.chapters.indigo.ca.
Playwright, actor and gay rights activist, Mr. Fierstein
will be visiting Toronto, Canada, on November 12 as part
of the Proud Voices speaker series. The series is the
first of its kind to promote understanding of sexual diversity
issues and provide a forum for meaningful dialogue. For more
information on the Proud Voices speaker series visit
their website at www.proud-voices.com.
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