Issue #184: December 15, 2006
Next issue January 15.

• Those who posses the legit theater strings for the musical Dreamgirls are holding their collective breath to see what the response is to the Christmas Day opening of the film version starring Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and star in the making Jennifer Hudson.  With the theater box office spike for Chicago and Rent when those two movies hit the big screen, rest assured there may be a revival in the wings for one of my favourite Broadway musicals.  Fingers crossed!!!

• The international hit Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story makes its North American debut in Toronto on October 31 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.  Mirvish Productions will be mounting the show with the original creative team but casting the entire production in Toronto following in the steps of the mega-hit Mama Mia, which began in Toronto.

• The touring production of The Phantom of the Opera will land in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre in February.  Toronto was home to a Canadian production back in the 90s that ran for 10 years but this company comes from producer Cameron Mackintosh’s New York office.  Although scheduled for a limited run they have already released another block of tickets with booking up to May.  Toronto audiences love Phantom and I’m sure they will love this production, too.

• As mentioned previously, the London mega-hit We Will Rock You makes its North American premiere in Toronto at the Canon Theatre on March 14.  The two Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor along with the writer/director Ben Elton were recently in Toronto to announce cast members Montrealer Yvan Pednault (Gallileo), Erica Peck (Scaramouche), Alana Bridgewater (Killer Queen) and Evan Buliung (Khashoggi) who most recently played Aragorn in Lord of the Rings.

• Playwright Sam Shepard will be staging the world premiere of his latest work Kicking a Dead Horse at Dublin’s Abbey Theater on March 15.

• An all-star cast including Cillian Murphy, Neve Campbell, Kristen Johnston and Michael McKean  takes to the stage in Love Song which opens on December 4.

• You may know him by his recent role on the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” but actor Peter Boyle was also a veteran of the stage.  Following a stint in the Navy Boyle headed to New York and studied under theatre legend Uta Hagen.  He toured in a road company of Neil Simon’s Odd Couple and wound up joining Chicago’s famed Second City where he honed his improvisational skills.  Boyle was last seen on Broadway in 1980 in The Roast directed by Carl Reiner.  Comedy was not his only skill; Boyle received critical acclaim when he played a hate-filled factory worker in the 1970 film Joe.  Other films he appeared in The Candidate, Monster’s Ball, F.I.S.T., Hammett, The Brink’s Job and who can forget his role in Young Frankenstein.  Peter Boyle died on December 12 in Manhattan at the age of 71.