Issue #146: February 15, 2005

• Eamonn Walker (HBO's "OZ") has signed on to play Marc Antony opposite Denzel Washington's Brutus in Julius Caesar, which opens on April 3 at the Belasco Theater.

• Dame Edna is knocking them dead again on Broadway. so much so they've extended her stay to June at the Music Box Theater.  As always with this one woman cyclone you attend at your own peril and be prepared to suffer great pains from laughter at her latest incarnation Dame Edna, Back With a Vengeance!

• The touring production of the Broadway hit Wicked is doing gangbusters in Toronto.  The limited engagement set to open on March 8 for a seven week run at the Canon Theatre is 90% sold.  However, Mirvish Productions, the Toronto presenter, will have a limited number of tickets for the box seats available by lottery an hour before the performance. those in line drop their names into a hat and if drawn then they can buy the seats for $25.00 cash. 

• Broadway veteran Jerry Zaks is casting the Old Vic's production of The Philadelphia Story.  In the starring role is the Old Vic's artistic director Kevin Spacey  and talks have been reported that Debra Messing is to play the Tracy Lord role. made memorable on film by both Katherine Hepburn and Grace Kelly.  Originally it was Laura Linney penciled in as Tracy Lord but she has a scheduling conflict.  If all goes well with the London run look for a Broadway production to be mounted next season.

• One of the greatest writers of the 20^th century is dead at the age of 89. Arthur Miller, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, leaves a legacy of thought provoking and insightful literature.  He believed theatre was "the sound and the ring of the spirit of the people at any one time."  His plays are classics and are performed continuously globally in the theatre capitals of the world.  From Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge  Miller gives his audience a unique take on American culture.  It is unfortunate that with an overwhelming wealth of material it is his brief marriage in 1956 to Marilyn Monroe that steals the headlines upon his death.  His 1964 play After the Fall is an autobiographical view of his life with the film star and her subsequent suicide in 1962.  His last production Resurrection Blues, premiered in Minneapolis in 2002. a writer, creator, visionary to the end.