On The Boards and In The Wings 2002

Issue #43: April 1, 2000
Special Double Issue—next issue May 1

The Laramie Project — the play based on the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shephard - will be making its way to New York. Following the success of the Denver engagement, the play will open at the off-Broadway Union Square Theatre on May 18 — previews begin on April 25.

TV’s Frasier, Kelsey Grammer, will return to Broadway this summer in that Scottish Play. Following rehearsals, which begin on April 19, Macbeth will preview in Boston before a June opening in New York. No Broadway theatre has been confirmed.

The Manhattan Theatre Company’s current production of The Wild Party (one of the two musicals by the same title) will close April 2 with no transfer to Broadway as previously believed. The producers weren’t taking any chances since the reviews for this production were mixed.

Now that she’s got an Oscar, Mira Sorvino is going to try her hand at Broadway. She makes her debut in the Classic Stage Co.’s production of Luigi Pirandell’s Naked on April 9.

Broadway continues the trend to bring Hollywood movies to the musical stage. The following productions are currently in various stages development: composer Marvin Hamlisch, lyricist Craig Carnelia and writer John Guare are adapting the 1957 film The Sweet Smell of Success for the stage. The movie, which was recently profiled in a Vanity Fair article, starred Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. A summer workshop is planned. Another movie getting ready for its Broadway debut is the 1987 Moonstruck, which scooped Cher an Oscar. A reading will take place this month for another movie to stage adaptation, this time it is John Waters’ 1988 movie Hairspray. And last but not least is the 1951 Alec Guinness classic The Man in the White Suit. Producer Ron Kastner is currently meeting with writers and directors to move it forward.

The Roundabout Theater Co. will open its production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 30.

French film star Jean-Paul Belmondo returned to the stage last month in Montreal. The 67-year-old former heartthrob starred in Frederick ou le boulevard du crime (Frederick, or the boulevard of crime) at Theatre St-Denis. No word whether or not the play will transfer to Broadway.

Washington’s Arena Stage production of Guys and Dolls will take their standing room only run on tour the summer of 2001. Starring Maurice Hines and staged by Charles Randolph-Wright, this classic version was given the go ahead by the estate of composer-lyricist Frank Loesser.

The North American premiere of Mamma Mia! opens in Toronto on May 23 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. ABBA fever hit town on March 28 when co-producer and former ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus visited rehearsals. Canadian star Louise Pitrie heads the cast along with Tina Maddigan, Mary Ellen Mahoney, Gabrielle Jones, David Mucci, Gary Lynch, Lee MacDougall and Adam Brazier. Following the extended Toronto run the production will hit the touring circuit with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Boston. Plans are afoot for a Broadway production.

It looks as though Donald Sutherland will not be taking his play Enigma Variations to Broadway this season. However, London audiences will benefit from this change of plans. Apparently it can be mounted on the West End for a fraction of what it costs on Broadway. No date or theatre has been mentioned — it will be depend on the availability of Mr. Sutherland and his co-star John Rubinstein.

Lord Lloyd Webber’s new musical The Beautiful Game opens at The Cambridge Theatre on September 19. The Cambridge is one of the ten theatres the musical mogul acquired when he bought Australian-owned Stoll Moss Theatres in early January.

With Lloyd Webber’s September opening there will now be five major new musicals expected in London over the next few months. Among them are the April 6 opening of Lautrec, followed by the May 23 bow for Notre-Dame de Paris and the October 17 opening of Napoleon. The fifth is Cameron Mackintosh’s The Witches of Eastwick, which begins previews on June 24.

A real force in the Latin American theatre scene, Mexico’s Corporacion Interamericana de Entretenimiento (CIE) has made its mark in Spain. In November their production of Rent opened at an 800 seat theatre in Barcelona and in December a production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast opened at the Lope de Vega in Madrid. The arrival of Beauty and the Beast heralds in a new era of big Broadway musicals in Spain and with it playing to over 90 per cent capacity in the 1,465 seat theatre it will be in residence for a long time to come.

Disgraced theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky is back in the news in Toronto. Apparently he and the advertising agency for the country’s National Post Newspaper had differences regarding the television advertising campaign for the paper. The owner of the National Post, Conrad Black, is an old friend of Drabinsky’s and a former Livent board member. Black hired the former Livent chief as a “creative marketing consultant”. Isn’t that how Livent got into trouble?