Issue #180: October 15, 2006

• Bebe Neuwirth returns to the revival of Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre in December but not in the role of Velma Kelly that she originated ten years ago but as Roxie Hart.

• Television veteran Patricia Heaton will do a turn Off-Broadway in The Scene at  Second Stage, which opens on January 11.

• Wicked just opened its limited run in Toronto at the Canon Theatre and has been embraced with stellar reviews.  A sell-out the last time in town, it is probably safe to say it will do the same again.

• Les Miserables continues to smash all musical theatre records…and there’s no end in sight.  On October 8 the beloved musical became the longest running musical in London theatre history.  It was Cats that passed the mantle to the Victor Hugo based classic.  In addition to its over 21 years on the West End Les Miz has spawned 56 professional companies, played in 38 countries and 223 cities and has been seen by an estimated 54 million people.  Given the fact that when it opened at the Barbican Theatre by the Royal Shakespeare Company it received scathing reviews, I’d say it’s done quite well.  Next challenge….a Chinese version to tap into the huge potential this last frontier for musical theatre has to offer.

• Auzzie husband and wife team, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton take on the Sydney theatre scene with the 2007 Sydney Theatre Company’s season. Blanchett is tapped to direct David Harrower’s drama Blackbird and friend Phillip Seymour Hoffman makes his Australian directing debut of Upton’s world premiere Riflemind.  But if you’d like to get a taste of these two stage dynamo’s directing know how you can catch the December double bill of Blanchett’s staging of Harold Pinter’s A Kind of Alaska and Upton’s direction of David Mamet’s Reunion.

• I had the pleasure of taking in Legends when it was previewing in mid-September.  The Toronto engagement is I believe a pre-Broadway run with the “Dynasty Duo” of Joan Collins and Linda Evans.  An entertaining evening with these two glamorous women of a certain age, I thought the supporting cast was at times stronger than the dueling divas!  Since this was the first engagement for the production I’m sure that they will work the kinks out and will eventually present a thoroughly entertaining night at the theatre.