Issue #70: July 15, 2001

• The producers of Tru are hoping to repeat their success with a one-man show, Mr. Goldwyn, starring Alan King as the movie mogul responsible for countless screen classics. Following in the Tru tradition, the first performances will take place in late July at New York Stage & Film.

• Playwright Arthur Miller’s first produced play (1944), The Man Who Had All the Luck, will be brought to Broadway by way of the Williamstown Festival. The festival production (July 18 to 29) stars Chris O’Donnell with Scott Ellis in the director’s chair. No date or theatre is yet confirmed for New York but I’ll let you know when that info becomes available.

• Valerie Harper has taken over Linda Lavin’s role in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife. Michele Lee and Tony Roberts are expected to continue in their roles.

• Mike Nichols will be using Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull instead of a Richard Nelson adaptation previously announced. The Public Theater’s production at the Delacorte Theatre this summer will be another starry production.

• Korea’s longest running hit, Cookin, plans a North American debut at Boston’s Shubert Theater September 4 to 23, then continues on a 12-week tour which, if all goes well, will end up on Broadway. A cross between TV’s Iron Chef and Stomp, this “percussion-fest cooking sensation” combines music, comedy, dance and traditional Korean art forms. The show opened in Seoul in 1977 where it is still running. Successful tours have been made to the U.K., Europe, Asia, Australia and Israel.

• Even though Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest West End musical will close on September 1, plans are in place to debut The Beautiful Game in North America at Toronto’s Canon Theatre (formerly The Pantages). Toronto-born director of the musical, Robert Carsen, will head up the creative team which also includes designer Michael Levine, another Torontonian. Even though the musical received mixed reviews in London, the hope is to tour the Toronto company to other major cities to test the waters for Broadway. No actual opening date is set but it looks like it will be the fall of 2002.

• The London revival of George S. Kaufman’s The Royal Family opens November 1 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Directed by Peter Hall, the limited run will star Dame Judi Dench as the American theatrical matriarch — can a Broadway stop be in the cards? — let’s hope.

• A “new” musical based on Irving Berlin’s 1954 movie White Christmas will open at the Savoy on October 8.

• The latest news on The Full Monty in Toronto is that it is moving out early. It looks like the box office wasn’t as robust as the producers expected. Originally set to close on July 31, then extended to September 1 after opening night, the musical will now move out on August 5. This early close doesn’t bode well for the rest of the tour when the first date has to get out of town early.

• The latest news on The Full Monty in Toronto is that it is moving out early. It looks like the box office wasn’t as robust as the producers expected. Originally set to close on July 31, then extended to September 1 after opening night, the musical will now move out on August 5. This early close doesn’t bode well for the rest of the tour when the first date has to get out of town early.