Issue #238: March 1, 2010

• Elton John and his partner David Furnish have joined the producing team of the upcoming Broadway production Next Fall which opens at the Helen Hayes Theater on March 11.

• The next screen to stage musical is…wait for it….an adaptation of American Psycho.  Apparently the composer of Spring Awakening Duncan Sheik is tied to the project.  Nothing like homicidal Wall Street bankers creating havoc on stage.  No information yet on when or where this lively music

• Toronto can look forward to a full slate of musicals courtesy of Mirvish Productions.  The 2010-2011 season was recently unveiled and in addition to previously announced Billy Elliot: the Musical and Priscilla Queen of the Desert theatre goers will be treated to revivals of The Secret Garden and Sweet Charity and a remount of the Stratford Festival’s 2009 hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  Also on the bill will be the British comedy Calendar Girls making its North American debut. 
  

• A new musical, Rebecca, based on the 1938 novel, plans to launch its North American premiere in Toronto before heading to Broadway.  The producer announced that the West End production will open in the spring of 2011 before heading to North America for an October 2012 opening.  A German language production premiered in Vienna in 2006 and it is this production that has been translated and has Australian director Michael Blakemore attached along with Francesca Zambello who directed the Viennese production.