Issue #42: March 15, 2000

• Bringing Broadway to the masses, the recent formation of Broadway Television Network (BTN) is slated to produce up to four hit musicals a year for the pay-per-view audience. The tapings are done in the theatre before a live audience. BTN has already filmed Smoky Joe’s Café and Putting It Together for airings later this year.

• Choreographer-director Susan Stroman (Contact, Crazy For You) is currently in rehearsals for the upcoming revival of The Music Man scheduled to open on April 27 at the Neil Simon Theatre.

• The long-awaited debut of Enigma Variations at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto is a triumph. The limited run starring Canadian Donald Sutherland brings this renowned actor back to the stage after a 20-year absence. When the play closes on April 1 the next stop hopefully will be Broadway.

• Following the untimely death of director Mike Ockrent the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles has postponed indefinitely the opening of The Night They Raided Minsky’s so the creative team can regroup. In its July 12 — September 3 slot will be a revival of Finian’s Rainbow. This revival was seen last fall at Miami’s Coconut Grove Playhouse and Cleveland’s Playhouse Square. The Broadway opening is expected in the 2000-2001 season.

• Director-choreographer Matthew Bourne has a number of projects in the works including a stage version of Tim Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands. In late 2001 look for a regional workshop with a West End debut soon after.

• The onset of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia will also highlight the country’s various performing arts organizations. A new arts report indicates that the 31 companies that receive government grants are drenched in red ink. The 300 page final report from a yearlong inquiry into the performing arts sector indicates that a $52M(A) government bailout package is needed. However, the report does suggest that a number of similar companies can merge and/or share various subscription programs. It remains to be seen what will ultimately happen following a March meeting of federal and state ministers.

• Sarah, a reader of this column, recently wrote in my guestbook a wish that there was somewhere readers can voice their comments on recent theatre experiences and have them heard. She wanted to warn her New York friends “not to buy into the hype of Taller Than A Dwarf and save their money.” Sara had seen the production in Boston and did not much care for it. I’ll pass your comments on in the column if you wish to enter them on the guestbook page.

• Versatile Canadian actor John Colicos died in Toronto at the age of 71 recently. Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, Colicos began his acting career at the Dublin Gate Theatre in Ireland. At the age of 22 he became the youngest actor to play King Lear at London’s Old Vic. He starred in the first-ever Stratford, Ontario production of Timon of Athens and took over the lead in Cyrano de Bergerac from fellow Canadian Christopher Plummer also at Stratford. His extensive movie career included a notable success supporting Richard Burton in the 1970’s epic Anne Of A Thousand Days. Other screen appearances were Red Sky At Morning (1971), Scorpio (1973), and a scene stealing role in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). He was a regular on the 1978-79 series Battlestar Galactica that also starred fellow Canadian Lorne Greene.