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'Ghost' getting musical treatment - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

'Ghost' getting musical treatment - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety.

The 1990 pic "Ghost" will live again, this time as a stage tuner aiming for a West End bow in 2010. Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Glen Ballard, the songwriter-producer whose credits include Alanis Morissette's breakout album "Jagged Little Pill," will collaborate on the music and lyrics, while Bruce Joel Rubin will adapt the book from his own screenplay, for which he won an Oscar. Brit director Matthew Warchus ("Boeing-Boeing," "Art"), whose upcoming Broadway productions include "God of Carnage" and "The Norman Conquests," helms. New musical is produced by David Garfinkle of Gotham-based Hello Entertainment and London producer Colin Ingram, in association with Paramount Pictures.

Theater Review: Plague Over England - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Plague Over England - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

This West End transfer of the first full-length play by Nicholas de Jongh, theater critic for London's Evening Standard, dramatizes -- sort of -- a key period in the early gay rights struggle in England. Jumping-off point is the true story of actor John Gielgud's humiliating arrest in 1953 for soliciting gay sex in a London public toilet -- or in the quaint parlance of gay Brits of a certain age, "cottaging." Event presents a challenge as a dramaturgical pivot because Gielgud's arrest resulted in a gradual sea change rather than anything immediately conclusive; the tyro playwright attempts to compensate with historical research and two fictional romantic subplots.

Theater Review: Spring Awakening - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Spring Awakening - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

More than at any time since the heyday of the Broadway musical in the 1950s, young audiences suddenly find themselves excited by people singing their hearts out. That's exactly what they vote for every week on TV talent shows from "American Idol" to Britain's "The X Factor." Find a youthful formula yoked to satisfying drama and you've got a recipe for a hit -- hence the U.S. sensation "Spring Awakening." Can its success be repeated in the U.K? Judging by the powerful British cast and the canny production route, the answer is yes.

Theater Review: Duet for One - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Duet for One - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

A dramatized battle between psychiatrist and patient, the unlocking of past events to unblock the present and future... sound familiar? It could be "Lady in the Dark" or "Equus" minus the horses, but, in fact, it's Tom Kempinski's 1980 hit "Duet for One." In Matthew Lloyd's neatly phrased revival, Henry Goodman seeks to administer the talking cure to Juliet Stevenson's beleaguered musician. Kempinski's efficient handling of his themes remains theatrically effective, but the production's good taste actually exposes the play's contrivances.

New habit for Hancock | The Official London Theatre Guide

New habit for Hancock | The Official London Theatre Guide.

Esteemed British actress Sheila Hancock will don a habit for the role of the austere Mother Superior in the forthcoming London Palladium musical Sister Act. Sister Act tells the story of club singer Deloris Van Cartier, who, after witnessing a violent crime is put in protective custody in the one place the cops are sure she won’t be found – a convent. Disguised as a nun, she quickly finds fans amongst her fellow sisters, but manages to get on the wrong side of the convent’s Mother Superior. Soon the singer turns her attention to helping the convent’s off-key choir, but, with the mob on her tail, she risks blowing her cover for good. Making her West End debut, Patina Miller will join Hancock in the role of Deloris, the character that Whoopi Goldberg created in the original 1992 film of the same name. Dad’s Army and EastEnders actor Ian Lavender will star alongside the two as Monsignor Howard. Hancock’s extensive film, TV, radio and theatre career spans over 40 years. She first appeared on the West End stage in 1978 as Mrs Hannigan in the musical Annie. Her most recent stage credits include The Anniversary at the Garrick theatre, Under The Blue Sky at the Royal Court and In Extremis at the National Theatre. In 2007 Hancock took home the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Cabaret at the Lyric theatre. The actress has also twice been nominated for a BAFTA award, her television work including New Tricks, Bedtime, The Russian Bride, Bleak House and EastEnders. Last year she appeared in the award winning Holocaust film The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.

La Cage lengthens London run | The Official London Theatre Guide

La Cage lengthens London run | The Official London Theatre Guide.

La Cage Aux Folles, the hit musical set in a glamorous St Tropez drag club, has announced an extension to its current run at London's Playhouse theatre. The announcement that La Cage will continue until 26 September caps an exciting week for the fabulously camp show; Tuesday saw the Menier Chocolate Factory production named Best Musical at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.

Theater Review: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Number one -- never mix music with politics," says lunatic Ivanov in "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour." But with trademark topsy-turvy logic, Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn ignored their own advice. Their dissidents-meet-dissonance piece does exactly that. If few have seen it since its 1977 premiere that's because it requires numerous actors plus an onstage symphony orchestra. But despite sometimes dazzling stagecraft, the National Theater's revival gradually gives way to the feeling there's rather less here than meets the eye and ear.

National Theater unveils new season - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

National Theater unveils new season - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

A new push into the growing market for closed-circuit screenings of stage productions in movie theaters and a new play reuniting “The History Boys” scribe Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner highlight the National Theater’s 2009 season. Hytner, who is the National Theater’s artistic director, said Wednesday that the screenings, dubbed “NT Live,” are regarded by the National as an experiment. Four of its 2009 productions will be filmed in front of an audience who will pay a reduced price for those shows.

'Sister Act' heads to West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Sister Act' heads to West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Whoopi Goldberg has teamed with Stage Entertainment to produce a London incarnation of "Sister Act," the tuner adaptation of the 1992 pic in which Goldberg starred.

Goldberg will not appear in the legit version, opening in June at the London Palladium. Former Disney exec Peter Schneider, long associated with the project, directs.

Buddy rocks off in Feb 2009 | The Official London Theatre Guide

Link: Buddy rocks off in Feb 2009 | The Official London Theatre Guide.

The Buddy Holly Story will end its rocking West End run at the Duchess theatre on 7 February 2009, four days after the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s tragic death.

West End unlocks intimate 'Cage' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: West End unlocks intimate 'Cage' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Many a tiny downtown delight has wound up looking worse for wear after being repositioned in the West End. But that's clearly not the case for the triumphant arrival at the Playhouse Theater of the Menier Chocolate Factory's "La Cage aux Folles."

The trick was holding on to what made this revival so smart in its initial fringe outing earlier this year. The production papered over the cracks -- chasms, more like it -- in Harvey Fierstein's heart-on-sleeve but schematic book by adding front-row tables and spilling the action out into its 160-seat venue so auds felt they actually were in the intimate club of the show's title.

Despite expansion to a 777-seater, set designer Tim Shortall has retained that intimacy. A row of tables again lines the front of a stage-within-the-stage, which, together with Nick Richings' adroit lighting, has the welcome effect of tying auds more closely to the action than they expect.

'Thriller' set to scare West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Thriller' set to scare West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

With a live tuner version of the Michael Jackson video ``Thriller'' rumored to be in the works Stateside, London is getting its own Jackson musical, ``Thriller - Live,'' skedded for a West End run beginning in January.

Backstory: The Flight of The Seagull, Broadway.com Buzz

Link: Backstory: The Flight of The Seagull, Broadway.com Buzz.

The Royal Court Theatre's acclaimed production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" has arrived on Broadway starring Olivier Award winner Kristin Scott Thomas as Madame Arkadina and indie movie favorite Peter Sarsgaard as the diva's younger lover, Trigorin. What makes this century-old play (being performed in a new translation by "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" playwright Christopher Hampton) catnip to actors? The Backstory takes us to Russia, just before the turn of the 20th century.

Helen Mirren to star in 'Phaedra' - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: Helen Mirren to star in 'Phaedra' - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

Helen Mirren will return to the National Theater in June to play the title role in Racine’s tragedy “Phaedra,” one of several new additions to the National’s 2008-09 slate announced alongside the publication of the org’s annual report.

The production, also starring Margaret Tyzack, will be helmed by National a.d. Nicholas Hytner, who also announced further classic revivals, none with casting or dates yet fixed.

'Priscilla' will play West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Priscilla' will play West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

The tuner rendition of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" has nailed down its West End dates and theater, playing the Palace beginning in March.

London incarnation of the hit Oz musical will star Jason Donovan, Oliver Thornton, Clive Carter and Tony Sheldon, reprising the role he created in Sydney. Original director Simon Phillips helms.

Stage version of "Priscilla" preemed in Sydney in 2006 and went on to play Melbourne as well as venues in New Zealand, grossing about $75 million.

Centering on a bus trip taken by three drag performers, "Priscilla" was penned by Stephan Elliott, who wrote and directed the 1994 pic, and Allan Scott. Score is comprised of pre-existing tunes, many from the disco era.

Planned productions of "Priscilla" include an upcoming North American staging to begin in Toronto as well as versions in Germany and Sweden. Show also returns to Sydney next month.

"Priscilla" begins perfs at the Palace March 10 ahead of a press night set for March 24.

Theater Review: Eurobeat - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Eurobeat - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Landing in the West End after two years of touring in Oz and Britain, "Eurobeat" is a hilarious spoof of the Eurovision Song Contest, the annual musical pageant that is as ingrained in the fabric of European pop culture as it is little-known in the U.S. Prod succeeds because it knows and reveres Eurovision, and is equally canny about Brit auds' love-hate relationship with the songfest. Shameless with its marketing techniques (auds' mobile phone numbers are captured during live text voting that decides the fictional contest's winner), "Eurobeat" is a license for producer/director Glynn Nicholas to print money.

Theater Review: Now or Later - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Now or Later - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Public vs. private lives, free speech vs. fundamentalism, principles vs. expediency, personal histories, sexuality and dirty tricks on the eve of a U.S. presidential election. It takes serious nerve to pack all that -- and more -- into 75 minutes. Intermittently, the strain shows, but in Dominic Cooke's flawless production, Christopher Shinn's engrossing new drama premiering at the Royal Court, "Now or Later," delivers a cumulative emotional punch that ultimately matches its thematic audacity.

London gets in on the 'Act' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: London gets in on the 'Act' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Whatever happened to Peter Schneider? The energetic, erstwhile Mouse House chair and prexy in charge of animation unexpectedly ankled in 2001 to return to his first love: theater. Chief among his projects since then has been helming the stage-tuner version of "Sister Act." The latest on his show that tried out at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2006 and at Atlanta's Alliance Theater early last year: Casting notices recently went out for its London incarnation.

Theater Review: Twelfth Night - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Twelfth Night - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

This pared-down production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" first appeared as part of the RSC's Complete Works Season in 2006, and is now touring Britain and Europe. The concept is Shakespeare as a jazz gig: There is no set, just a bunch of musical instruments, packing cases and cables on the stage. The contemporary street-clothed actors and musicians hang out as the audience enters, and the action begins when Jonathan Broadbent recites the play's famous first line: "If. If music. If music be..." The result is engaging, but not as cool or convincingly spontaneous as seemingly intended.

Theater Review: Lipsynch - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Lipsynch - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

A nine-story, nine-hour epic of continent-crossing lives, director/co-writer Robert Lepage's "Lipsynch" is held together by the theme of oral vs. aural communication. Interlocked characters illustrate dramas about recorded and live speech and song, tales of individual timbres, voiceovers, dubbing, language and translation. Yet Lepage mistakes breadth of vision for depth. While there's impressive theatrical conjuring along the way, creative rigor and tension are ultimately lost. Lepage has almost endless resources, but he lacks an editor.

Menier sets 'La Cage' for winter - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: Menier sets 'La Cage' for winter - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

The Menier Chocolate Factory’s London production of “La Cage aux Folles” will have a West End run in the winter, beginning perfs at the Playhouse Theater in October.

Douglas Hodge, who played drag performer Albin in the production’s run at the Menier last winter, reprises his role for the West End. Other characters will be played by new thesps, including the part of Albin’s partner, Georges, to be portrayed by Denis Lawson.

Terry Johnson directs the 1983 Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein tuner about a gay couple whose son is set to marry the daughter of a right-wing politico.

Currently at the Menier is “They’re Playing Our Song,” to be followed by productions of “The White Devil” and then “A Little Night Music.” Latter is rumored to star Maria Friedman.

“La Cage” runs at the Playhouse Oct. 20-Jan. 10, with a press night set for Oct. 30.

'Piaf' spends time on West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Piaf' spends time on West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

London's Donmar Warehouse production of "Piaf," starring Elena Roger, will spend 14 weeks on the West End this fall, beginning perfs at the Vaudeville Theater in October. Roger plays Edith Piaf in the bio-play, originally written in 1978 and newly reworked by scribe Pam Gems. Sold out before perfs began, the show is currently playing a six-week engagement at the Donmar. Org's associate director, Jamie Lloyd, helms. (Lloyd was associate director on the 2005 London revival of "Evita," which starred Roger and was directed by Donmar a.d. Michael Grandage.) Arielle Tepper Madover and CMP Ltd. present "Piaf" at the Vaudeville, where the show runs Oct. 16-Jan. 24.

Theater Review: Timon of Athens - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Timon of Athens - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

It's hardly Shakespeare's most coherent or elegant text, but "Timon of Athens" emerges as a play for today in Lucy Bailey's strikingly imaginative production for the Globe. A mixture of satire and cautionary tale about a bloated, decadent society that -- in the director's interpretation -- literally eats the fabulously rich and gormlessly trusting title character alive, the bleak-toned "Timon" resonates with our credit-crunched times.

'Pearl Earring' to play West End - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Pearl Earring' to play West End - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

A new stage adaptation by playwright David Joss Buckley of Tracy Chevalier's history-meets-fiction novel "Girl With a Pearl Earring" will play London's West End, starring Adrian Dunbar as Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

National Theater unveils lineup - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: National Theater unveils lineup - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

David Hare's new play "Gethsemane" is among the notable additions to the National Theater's fall lineup, which includes the previously announced London run of Broadway hit "August: Osage County." Hare's play, his 14th to premiere at the National, focuses on a scandal exposing conflicts between money-raisers and money-spenders in political party funding. Howard Davies directs the production, with design by Bob Crowley and lights by Mark Henderson. Cast includes Anthony Calf, Tamsin Greig, Jessica Raine, Daniel Ryan, Stanley Townsend and Nicola Walker. Show beings previews in the Cottesloe Theater Nov. 4 ahead of a November 11 opening.

'Riflemind' to transfer to West End - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Riflemind' to transfer to West End - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

Kicking off a new phase of international collaboration for Sydney Theater Company, Philip Seymour Hoffman's production of Andrew Upton's "Riflemind" will transfer to a West End season at Trafalgar Studios, opening Sept. 15.

Summer saps West End energy - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: Summer saps West End energy - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Ever since British playwright Alan Ayckbourn told a newspaper last month, "I do feel the straight play is a doomed species," a flurry of comment pieces has appeared in the U.K. bemoaning the state of the West End. Theaterland is deemed to be either overrun with musicals -- snobbishly considered to be, at best, meretricious -- or filled with dark theaters. This observation is typical: "Twenty-seven West End theaters are at present offering light comedies and musical shows of which perhaps a dozen are good of their kind. The number of new plays with the slightest claim to serious attention is three." Actually, that summary is from a tirade by the late Kenneth Tynan -- widely regarded as the finest critic Britain ever produced -- who penned it in 1954. In other words, 'twas ever thus.

West End digs make hay - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: West End digs make hay - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

No one is going on the record yet, but buzz around town has it that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are getting into the saddle to ride to the rescue of the Theater Royal Haymarket. Previously teamed in the "X-Men" movies, the thesps allegedly will meet again next spring at the venue to play Beckett's absurdist clowns who are famously "Waiting for Godot." One of London's most illustrious West End venues -- Oscar Wilde's "A Woman of No Importance" and "An Ideal Husband" both premiered there -- the Theater Royal Haymarket has been struggling. In autumn 2007, it ambitiously relaunched as a producing company with ex-Almeida boss Jonathan Kent helming three shows, none of which did boffo box office.

London openings - Entertainment News, London Legit, Media - Variety

Link: London openings - Entertainment News, London Legit, Media - Variety.

London openings August through December

Theater Review: The Frontline - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: The Frontline - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

"The Frontline" is a bold and frequently engaging attempt to show a slice of contemporary London -- warts, druggies, Jesus freaks, ethnic tensions, and all. The action is set in front of Camden Town tube station, where 23 characters are presented through overlapping dialogue and occasional song. It comes across as the dark underbelly of scrubbed-up views of the city in films like "Love Actually" and "Notting Hill": Though its politics are somewhat scattershot, this is a celebration of the struggles of the "desperate invisibles" who keep London running, and who, author Che Walker clearly believes, give it its heart and soul.

Theater Review: Zorro - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Zorro - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Replete with arch putdowns and audience-nudging one-liners, tuner "Zorro" tries to put the camp in "gypsy encampment." Unfortunately, it also bangs on about honor, identity and dignity and takes itself so seriously it kills off its most winning personality -- a tragedy for both the remaining characters and the audience's enjoyment. Although tremendous flamenco stomping to music by the Gipsy Kings is the loudest part of the experience, it's a close call between that and the sound of a show falling between two stools. In this version of the much-novelized and filmed tale of the

Theater Review: Relocated - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Relocated - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Has Anthony Neilson finally gone too far? The playwright whose previous subjects include bipolar disorder and pornography has turned his imagination to stories of missing children, including one that apparently references Austrian basement captive Elisabeth Fritzl. Arguments will doubtless rage about whether it's too soon to dramatize the Fritzls' story, and a scene portraying Elisabeth's relationship to her father will leave no audience member indifferent. But the biggest concern about "Relocated" is not taste issues but obscurity. While experimentation is admirable, it's hard to connect the play's shards into a clear message.

Theater Review: The Chalk Garden - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: The Chalk Garden - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

It has been a long time since anyone wrote a line like "Maitland, bring the creme de menthe and two glasses." The line was consciously old-fashioned in 1955 when Enid Bagnold wrote it, and, what's more, she was using it with malice of aforethought. As Michael Grandage's magnificently taut, grippingly-acted production proves, Bagnold's iconoclastic "The Chalk Garden" is as surprising and subversive now as it was then. This is less a revival than a revelation.

Theater Review: The Revenger's Tragedy - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: The Revenger's Tragedy - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Considering the blood-soaked Jacobean drama "The Revenger's Tragedy" calls for the slaughter of at least seven characters in the final scene, it should be impossible for a production to be accused of overkill. Alas, no. Melly Still's over-produced, under-directed staging is so busy underlining its zeitgeist credentials that much of the play's depth is lost. Although Rory Kinnear is wholly arresting in the central role of Vindice, the flurry around him risks being -- to misquote the exactly contemporaneous "Macbeth" -- full of sound and fury but signifying dangerously little.

Eileen Atkins to star in 'Species' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: Eileen Atkins to star in 'Species' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

The Female of the Species” has found a new female to fill its lead role: Eileen Atkins will topline a West End production of Australian scribe Joanna Murray-Smith’s comedy this summer. Annette Bening was originally slated to star in a production of “Female” that had been skedded to bow this spring at L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse ahead of a Rialto berth. That incarnation was scuttled when Bening withdrew from the project citing personal reasons. David Richenthal and Mary Beth O’Connor, who were to have produced the earlier version, remain on board with the project, and are joined by Brit producers Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer for Nimax Theaters. Atkins (“Doubt,” “The Unexpected Man”) previously appeared in Murray-Smith’s “Honour” at London’s National Theater in 2003.

Theater Review: The Common Pursuit - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: The Common Pursuit - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Nothing dates so fast as the recent past. That makes reviving Simon Gray's 1984 play problematic. Charting a group of hope-filled undergraduates from 1968 over a decade-and-a-half of increasing disillusionment, "The Common Pursuit" was written to climax in what was then the present. However, even that scene is now more than 20 years old. And in the Menier Chocolate Factory's miscast, inert revival, it certainly feels it.

'Xanadu' skates to West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Xanadu' skates to West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Xanadu" is gearing up for a London incarnation, aiming to rollerskate onto the West End in spring 2009. David Ian ("Grease") and John Gore (owner of Key Brand Entertainment) will produce the Brit staging, leading a team that also will include the producers of the Rialto original. "Xanadu" is up for four Tonys including new musical.

Tony Presenters to Include Radcliffe, Minnelli, Baldwin, Linney & More, Broadway.com Buzz

Link: Tony Presenters to Include Radcliffe, Minnelli, Baldwin, Linney & More, Broadway.com Buzz.

The first batch of presenters for the 2008 Tony Awards have been announced. They will include Alec Baldwin, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, Richard Griffiths, Laura Linney, John Lithgow, Liza Minnelli, Mary-Louise Parker, Daniel Radcliffe, Brooke Shields and Marisa Tomei. A total of 25 competitive categories will be part of this year's telecast, which will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall on June 15.

London Spamalot Sets Closing Date; Sanjeev Bhaskar to Play King Arthur, Broadway.com Buzz

Link: London Spamalot Sets Closing Date; Sanjeev Bhaskar to Play King Arthur, Broadway.com Buzz.

Sanjeev Bhaskar has signed on to play King Arthur in the London production of Monty Python's Spamalot, beginning June 23. The musical has announced a closing date of January 3, 2009, at the Palace Theatre and will begin a UK tour in April 2009. Best known as the host of The Kumars at No. 42 and for his appearances in the radio and television sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, Bhaskar was last on stage in the West End in Yasmina Reza's Art. His film appearances include Scoop, Anita and Me, The Guru, Mystic Masseur and Notting Hill.

'Gone With the Wind' to close - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: 'Gone With the Wind' to close - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Tomorrow is not another day for the musical version of "Gone With the Wind," which will close June 14 after a short West End run marked by blistering reviews from London critics. Trevor Nunn's production of the tuner, adapted from Margaret Mitchell's epic Civil War soap opera by musical theater neophyte Margaret Martin, will have played 79 performances when it shutters. Produced by Aldo Scrofani for Columbia Artists Theatricals of New York, London producer Colin Ingram and the Nederlander Producing Company, the show clearly was conceived with a subsequent Broadway berth in mind. "Plans for a New York production are currently on hold but in the meantime we are pursuing various options that have been presented to us from interested parties worldwide," said Scrofani. Despite having a director at the helm with considerable experience wrangling megamusicals like "Les Miserables," "Cats" and "Sunset Boulevard," the ambitious show was plagued by problems from the start. It played less than three weeks of previews -- an uncommonly short period for a large-scale new musical -- with substantial changes and cuts being introduced right up until the April 22 opening night and after. Panned by critics, "Gone With the Wind" never picked up steam with audiences in London, which currently has a ro

Theater Review: Never Forget - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Never Forget - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

How furious can a producer get? The ink's dry on the contract to create a show from the back catalog of Take That, Britain's biggest boyband, which split in 1996... and the original guys suddenly announce a comeback. They play sell-out stadium gigs around the country and their new album is the fourth biggest-seller of 2007. Who wants impersonations when the real thing is back? Judging by the response of screaming fans to "Never Forget," quite a few. And while it may plumb a new low in cynical producing, the show certainly delivers to its target audience

National Theater to work Sundays - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: National Theater to work Sundays - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

In a move likely to usher in widespread change across the West End legit map, Britain's National Theater will commence Sunday performances in September, following protracted negotiations with Equity, the Musicians Union and Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theater Union. While a tiny handful of shows, including Disney's "The Lion King" at the Lyceum Theater, currently pay staff extra to work Sundays, the National's decision will break London's standard practice whereby theaters open Monday through Saturday and go dark on Sundays. In New York, by contrast, Sundays have long been a big day for matinee ticket sales. The first show to benefit from the National plan, which will undergo an initial trial period of three-to-four months, is the return season of Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris' SRO production "War Horse."

Theater Review: The Good Soul of Szechuan - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: The Good Soul of Szechuan - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

It's hard to sex up Brecht. His plays are long, episodic and didactic, and the modus operandi behind his famously alienating staging techniques is to keep audiences mentally and morally alert -- we're not talking light entertainment here. But this premiere staging of David Harrower's supple new translation of "The Good Soul of Szechuan" impressively manages to stay faithful to Brecht's principles while providing an engaging, thought-provoking evening -- though one not without its longueurs. While headliner Jane Horrocks ("Absolutely Fabulous," "Little Voice") will doubtless draw auds, the star is helmer Richard Jones' overall production concept.

Cast draws near to '2000 Feet Away' - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

Link: Cast draws near to '2000 Feet Away' - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

Screen thesps Joseph Fiennes, Ian Hart and Phyllis Logan will return to the stage to headline "2000 Feet Away" at the Bush Theater, London's 86-seat new writing powerhouse. Bush theater a.d. Josie Rourke will helm the play, a debut from British-Australian dramatist Anthony Weigh. Set in Eldon, Iowa -- home of Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic" -- it is a response to Iowa state law barring registered sex offenders from residing less than 2000 feet of where children congregate. Other confirmed casting includes Kirsty Bushell and Roger Sloman. The play runs June 11-July 12

Theater Review: Harper Regan - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Harper Regan - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

"I bet you didn't expect this to happen, did you? Big bloody confessional kind of horror-story thing." So says the eponymous heroine of Simon Stephens' new play, "Harper Regan." Although it has the requisite ingredients for a modish dystopia -- a desperate character gone AWOL sliding toward dread and danger -- this is a million miles from David Mamet's superficially similar "Edmond." The singular quality of "Harper Regan" is its unfashionable sense of hope. Difficult contemporary family tensions have rarely been handled with such affecting restraint, tenderness and optimism.

Ravenhill shoots for war - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: Ravenhill shoots for war - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Even in a town increasingly dominated by unconventional theater events, Mark Ravenhill's play cycle "Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat" stands out as dizzyingly high concept. Recent hits like Punchdrunk's environmental "Masque of the Red Death" or Kneehigh's genre-bending "Brief Encounter" seem almost routine when compared with this sprawling project to stage 16 short plays about the contemporary experience of war. The cycle was presented over three weeks (April 3-20) by some of London's most prestigious theater organizations -- including the National, Royal Court, Gate and Paines Plough. Ravenhill calls them plays "for the iPod generation," and spectators got to attend them in whatever quantity or order they pleased

Theater Review: Gone With the Wind - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Gone With the Wind - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

If only this show made us give a damn. Forty minutes were hewed off the running time of "Gone With the Wind" during previews, but first-time theater scribe Margaret Martin's musicalization of one of the world's most famous romantic epics remains a lumbering, stolid affair. It's not for a lack of talent among the cast and A-list design and musical teams, but neither the material nor the production offers persuasive evidence as to why this well-known story needed transposing into a new form. The abiding mystery is: What made a helmer as accomplished as Trevor Nunn believe he could make the project work?

Lengthy 'Wind' blows into West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Link: Lengthy 'Wind' blows into West End - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

You can say something a helluva lot faster than you can sing it. That's just one reason tuners aren't exactly famous for their brevity. And brevity, it turns out, is the last word anyone is using to describe London's soon-to-open musical "Gone With The Wind." Trevor Nunn's production left the famous 3 hour and 45 minute Toronto premiere of "The Lord of the Rings" in the dust. Nunn's first preview on April 4 had to be canceled due to an ankle injury sustained by Natasha Yvette Williams, who plays Mammy. But the following night, the curtain went up at 7:30 p.m. and came down at 11:40 p.m.: That's 4 hours and 10 minutes. It's hardly a surprise. The current hardcover edition of Margaret Mitchell's one and only novel is 1,064 pages long, and on its initial release, the movie ran 3 hours and 46 minutes.

Theater Review: Small Change - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Link: Theater Review: Small Change - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Peter Gill is an unsung hero of modern British theater no longer, thanks largely to the championing of Michael Grandage. An actor-director with the Royal Court in the 1970s and founder of the Riverside and National Theater Studios, Gill remains an active and skilled director of new plays and classics. But his playwriting remained little known until 2002, when Grandage -- then a.d. of the Sheffield Crucible Theater -- devoted a monthlong season to Gill's work. Now Grandage's red-hot Donmar Warehouse hosts the first London production in a quarter-century of Gill's best-known play, "Small Change," written in 1976 and directed by the writer.

A First-Timer Turns ‘Gone With the Wind’ Into a Musical - New York Times

Link: A First-Timer Turns ‘Gone With the Wind’ Into a Musical - New York Times.

MARGARET MARTIN is, to say the least, a highly unlikely choice to write the book, lyrics and music for a major West End musical version of “Gone With the Wind.” In 1998 Ms. Martin, who wrote songs in her spare time and had never had a play produced, began a quixotic project to adapt the Civil War epic to the stage. She went on to win permission from the estate of the author Margaret Mitchell to mount it and then persuaded none other than Trevor Nunn to direct the thing.