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Issue #151: May 15, 2005
- It was confirmed recently that writer-director Conor McPherson's Shining
City will open on Broadway in October following a short
run in August in San Francisco. McPherson was last
represented on Broadway by the award winning The Weir. Shining
City opened in London at the Royal Court last July before
its September engagement at Dublin's Gate Theatre.
- Spamalot ran away with "the lot" when the Tony nominations
were announced on Tuesday, May 10. The Python spoof on its
own 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is up
for 14 awards including best musical, best director for Mike
Nichols and for best actor two of the leading men. Tim
Curry and Hank Azaria. Also taking in a number
of nominations is another film-turned-musical, Dirty Rotten
Scoundrels, which snatched 11 noms including best musical
and pitted its two leading men John Lithgow and Norbert
Leo Butz against one another for best actor. The third
nominee for best musical. another film to stage. is The
Light in the Piazza. also securing 11 nominations. The
final best musical nominee, The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee, is that little off-off-Broadway jewel
that caught the eyes of producers who saw the potential for
a transfer to The Great White Way. And a good gamble it was
since Spelling Bee collected six nominations. The nominations
for best revival of a musical are Sweet Charity, La Cage
aux Folles and Pacific Overtures.
- In the run for Tony in the best play category, which has
some of the strongest works in years, includes John Patrick
Stanley's Pulitzer Prize winner Doubt, Martin
McDonagh's The Pillowman, Michael Frayn's Democracy and August
Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. It is interesting to
note that Denzel Washington and his Julius Caesar production
were completely shut out of the nominations. In the best revival
of a play category you find Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,
Glengarry Glen Ross, Twelve Angry Men and On Golden
Pond all in the running for the statue. The Tony Awards
will be handed out on June 5 at 8 PM on CBS with Hugh Jackman reprising
his hosting duties.
- Look for Dame Diana Rigg to return to the Broadway
stage next spring as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of
Being Earnest.
- Also in the works is a bio-play on the life of Montgomery
Clift being adapted by biographer Patricia Bosworth, who
penned the 1978 bestseller Montgomery Clift. Still
in its infancy, the creative team are planning to workshop
the project in 2006.
- David Mamet's Romance will debut in London
at the Almeida next season. The farce just wrapped an off-Broadway
run at the Atlantic Theatre.
- Film star Val Kilmer takes the lead in a revival of The
Postman Always Rings Twice when it opens at the Playhouse
Theatre on May 24.
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