Issue #37: January 1, 2000

• Stage and film comic star Nathan Lane will hit the boards in June in a new Broadway revival of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s 1939 comedy The Man Who Came To Dinner. Two-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks (Six Degrees of Separation and Guys And Dolls) will direct.

• It is the season for closings! Now that the holiday box office boom is over the following productions will be shuttering:

  January 2
    the off-Broadway Thwak
    Kat & The Kings
    The Scarlett Pimpernel
  

  January 9
    It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues (there will be a national tour this summer)
  
  January 16
    after 800 performances Ragtime takes a bow
  

  January 23
    originally scheduled to run to Feb. 6 The Rainmaker closes early

• Even though Liza Minnelli’s Minnelli on Minnelli closed on January 2 there are 17 cities that will host the Broadway legend’s hit show. Cities and dates have not been confirmed but we will let you know when we know.

• Dusty Springfield, the 60s pop icon, is the subject of a new musical Dusty—The Musical, slated to tour the regions before heading to the West End. The songstress known for her hits “The Look of Love,” “I Only Want To Be With You” and “Son of a Preacher Man” died of cancer in early 1999. The tour kicks off on February 23 at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre then it’s on to Coventry, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Aberdeen. The West End theatre and opening date is yet to be determined.

• Three of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s current productions will be featured at BAM’s (Brooklyn Academy of Music) spring season (May 10–27.) More than 50 artists will make there way to New York to perform in Michael Boyd’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, T.S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion staged by Artistic Director Adrian Noble and Gale Edward’s production of Schiller’s Don Carlos.

• Veteran Italian stage impresario Pietro Garinei negotiated with 20^th Century Fox for the rights to transform the movie hit Mrs. Doubtfire into an Italian musical called Thank Goodness for Maria. The run in Rome sold-out at the Teatro Sistina and the show is now on the road for 14 weeks stopping in Turin, Milan and Naples. Given the huge success with this adaptation, Garinei is looking at other hit films to bring to the musical stage in Italy.

• That talented Jude Law, currently starring with Matt Damon and Gwenyth Paltrow in this season’s hottest movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, is no stranger to the stage. I remember seeing him in an outstanding performance on Broadway in April 1995 opposite Kathleen Turner in the highly acclaimed production of Indiscretions. His scene coming out of the bathtub is most memorable! Although in his current movie he plays an American it is his British home where his career began. From 1987 to 1990 he worked with the National Youth Music Theatre. In 1994 he created the role of Michael in the Royal National Theatre production of Les Parents Terribles (Indiscrestions). Jude has also acquired numerous television and film credits including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Paul Anderson’s Shopping.