On The Boards and In The Wings 2006 - Issue #171

On The Boards and In The Wings, by Janine

Serving the Theatre Community since 1998

Issue #171: May 15, 2006

After more than 1500 performances, Menopause the Musical closed on May 14. The smash hit musical played to more than one million people throughout the world and is now included in a very elite group of Off-Broadway shows. In fact, there are more productions going on worldwide than those of Stomp and Blue Man Group combined.

Ralph Fiennes is back on Broadway in the revival of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer. This dazzling production from Dublin’s Gate Theater can be seen at the Booth Theater until July 30.

Another movie to musical is in the works. Director Jerry Mitchell has signed on to bring Legally Blonde to the stage in April 2007.

From one Lord to another….Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber made a 24-hour flying visit to Toronto to catch the matinee of The Lord of the Rings in Toronto. He was scouting the production to possibly make its London debut at his prestigious Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Apparently he liked what he saw, met the cast back stage then flew back to the UK.

Those manly swans of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake have taken earlier hiatus. Apparently the tour stumbled a bit on the road with the producers canceling dates in Washington, D.C, Toronto, Philadelphia and Baltimore due to slow ticket sales. However, their plans to tour the production internationally are still moving ahead.

Another Matthew Bourne project has a rosier future. His production of Edward Scissorhands lands at Toronto’s Hummingbird Centre in April 2007… on its way to Broadway.

Tony winner Idina Menzel will don the green paint again when she reprises her role as Elphaba when Wicked opens on September 27.

Another role reprisal begins on May 23 when Canadian songstress Alanis Morissette hits the West End in her Off Broadway role in The Exonerated.

Brian Cox returns to the stage in Tom Stoppard’s latest work, Rock’n’Roll on June 3 at the Royal Court Theatre under the direction of Trevor Nunn. This is Cox’s first theatre piece since his last outing in Uncle Varick in Edinburgh in 2004. Those who are followers of the HBO series Deadwood can catch Cox in the third season as a theatre producer, when it begins airing on June 11.