Issue #85: April 1, 2002

• The first casualty of the spring season is the musical revue One Mo’ Time which closed on March 24 after only 21 performances. It was a huge success off-Broadway 20 years ago at the Village Gate, but the Broadway production received mixed reviews and a pan by the ever-important New York Times. Revivals aren’t always as successful as the originals.

• The Virginia Theater will be the site of the first major revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. Forty-four years after its world premiere the musical under the watchful eye and clever reworking of David Henry Hwang will open on October 17. This following a successful fall 2001 run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

• The Viennese-grown musical Dance of the Vampires will make its New York debut in November. Based on Roman Polanski’s cult film this production will star Michael Crawford (The Phantom of the Opera) with John Rando directing.

• The production of I’m Not Rappaport, recently at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, will head to Broadway in mid July with stars Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen in tow.

• Recent reports indicated that Dame Judi Dench was looking to take some well-deserved time off. However there are reports that she and another Dame—Maggie Smith—will be co-starring in David Hare’s new play The Breath of Life in the fall, then doing a Broadway stint the following spring. Let’s hope the two Dames make it to the stage since they will inevitably make stage, and box office, history.

• Sam Mendes wraps up his stint as artistic director at the Donmar Warehouse with a bang when Gwyneth Paltrow teams with her Shakespeare in Love director John Madden in the June production of Proof.

• Revered on world stages, actress Irene Worth died March 10 of a stroke, ironically, on her way to see Edward Albee’s new Broadway play The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? During her 85 years, Ms. Worth graced the New York and London stages and played Canada’s Stratford Festival four times, including the inaugural summer season in 1953 that also included Sir Alec Guinness. Along with Guinness she worked with Sir John Gielgud, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Noel Coward, Andre Serban and Sir Ian McKellen. She won three Tonys and Obies and the Evening Standard Award and was an Honorary Commander of the British Empire. Ms. Worth made her Broadway theatre debut in 1943 and there began a stage career that spanned more than 50 years. Her last appearance was in September at London’s Almeida Theatre with Paul Scofield in I Take Your Hand in Mine.