RIALTO CHATTER: Brian Stokes Mitchell Joining WOMEN ON THE VERGE?

BroadwayWorld.com has learned from a reliable source that Tony-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell is in final contract negotiations and is fully expected to join WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. All offers are said to be out to Sherie Rene Scott and other performers (that they are keeping under tabs) and a full casting announcement is expected in the coming days.

The New York Daily News recently reported that Spanish director Pedro Almodovar told press at the Cannes Festival that Jessica Biel, who took part in the staged readings of the new musical, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN at Lincoln Center, has also signed on for the full production.

If both these actors indeed sign-on, to be in the new musical, it'll be almost a year to the day that they first met as Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown in the Hollywood Bowl production of GUYS & DOLLS where they certainly proved to have 'chemistry'.

Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a rich and varied career on Broadway, television, film, voice-overs and recording, along with appearances in the great American concert halls. His Broadway career includes performances in Man of La Mancha, Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime, King Hedley II and Mail, which earned him a Theatre World award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. His long television career began with a seven-year stint on Trapper John, MD. Numerous film and TV appearances include Ugly Betty, One Last Thing, recurring roles on Crossing Jordan and Frasier, PBS' Great Performances, DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt, South Pacific at Carnegie Hall, and his Presidential Debut in The Singer and the Song from the White House.

Patti LuPone, Jessica Biel, Sherie Rene Scott, Paulo Szot and Oscar Isaac were amongst the actors participating in a staged reading of the new musical 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' at Lincoln Center Theatre this Spring. 

The Lincoln Center will present a musical version of the Pedro Almodóvar film WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, with book by Jeffrey Lane, music and lyrics by David Yazbek and direction by Bartlett Sher. The show will begin previews Saturday, October 2 when it will reopen the newly restored Belasco Theatre (111 W. 44 Street). Opening night is Thursday, November 4.

Based on Pedro Almodóvar's internationally acclaimed 1988 film, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is set in late 20th-century Madrid and tells the story of the intertwining lives of a group of women whose relationships with men lead to a tumultuous 48 hours of love, confusion and passion.

Book writer Jeffrey Lane collaborated with David Yazbek on the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The winner of five Emmy, three Writers Guild, two Peabody and a Golden Globe Award, he is best known for his work on such television programs as Mad About You, Ryan's Hope, Lou Grant and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. Composer-lyricist David Yazbek made his Broadway and musical theater debuts with The Full Monty, for which he earned Tony and Grammy nominations and a Drama Desk Award. Director Bartlett Sher, Resident Director of Lincoln Center Theater, won the Tony Award for his direction of LCT's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC. He was nominated for Tony Awards for the LCT productions of The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing! and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Former Artistic Director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre, his other recent New York credits include A Prayer for My Enemy at Playwrights Horizons and the Metropolitan Opera productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffman.

Lincoln Center Theater is currently celebrating its 25th year with a season of new work. This fall LCT presented the New York and world premieres of Nathan Louis Jackson's Broke-ology, directed by Thomas Kail, Sarah Ruhl's In The Next Room or the vibrator play, directed by Les Waters, and the LCT3 production of Ann Marie Healy's What Once We Felt, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. This spring LCT is presenting the American premiere of When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell, directed by David Cromer, currently in previews in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre. It will be followed in the Newhouse by the world premiere of A.R Gurney's The Grand Manner, to be directed by Mark Lamos, beginning Tuesday, June 1. Upcoming LCT3 productions include Graceland a new play by Ellen Fairey, directed by Henry Wishcamper (May 3 - May 29), and On The Levee a play with music, conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet, play by Marcus Gardley and music and lyrics by Todd Almond (June 14 - July 10).

For more information on the Lincoln Center, visit http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/