Issue #246: November 15, 2010

• The anticipation of the theatre community to get a glimpse of the $60 million Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark continues to increase with yet another delay of previews. Instead of December 21 for first curtain it is now scheduled in January. Sounds like behind the scenes could prove to be more entertaining than the actual musical. I have visions of Lord of the Rings dancing in my head. 

•  Bette Midler is part of the transition team that is working on taking the Toronto production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert: the Musical to New York. After seeing the production in the early weeks of the Toronto run I’m not sure how one will improve on this hilarious night of theater. But if anyone can it is the Devine Miss M. 

• Kiefer Sutherland is handing in his Jack Bauer credentials for a Broadway debut. The television and film star treads the boards for the first time in March in a revival of That Championship Season along with Chris Noth and Jason Patric.  

• James  MacArther was adopted into theatre royalty….but it was TV’s catch phrase “book’m Dano” on the 60s – 80s Hawaii Five-0 series that he will be most remembered for. Son of playwright Charles MacArthur and Helen Hayes and godmother silent screen legend Lillian Gish there was no doubt he was destined to make his mark in the entertainment world. Spotted early on he appeared in Walt Disney movies Kidnapped, Third Man on the Mountain, Swiss Family Robinson and The Light in the Forest. He also appeared on stage, following in his mother’s footsteps, including the lead role in 1981 Stanford Community Theater production of The Front Page….which was co-written by his father in the late 1920s.  Twenty years earlier his stage career won him the Theatre World Award for best new actor for his performance in Invitation to a March. In 1975 MacArthur shot his favourite episode of Hawaii Five-0… with his mother, Helen Hayes, who played his Aunt Clara. MacArthur died October 28 at the age of 72.