CONFIRMED: Robin Williams Heads Back to Broadway in BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO in 2011October 21, 2010The New York Times reports today that Robin Williams may be returning to the Great White Way in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, an Iraq War play - a Pulitzer Prize finalist - written by Rajiv Joseph that last had a critically successful run in Los Angeles. The production could open as early as the Spring of 2011 assuming that a deal can be reached with Williams and producers Robyn Goodman and Kevin McCollum.
STAGE TUBE: Kelsey Grammer Talks Guest Stint on '30 Rock'October 21, 2010La Cage star Kelsey Grammer will appear on an upcoming episode of 30 Rock, playing a man of questionable morals who robs a Carvel. Click below to hear Grammer talk '30 Rock' below and get a sneak peak of Grammer on set with Jane Krakowski.
Photo Flash: GLEE 'Rocky Horror' Full Preview!October 21, 2010Just in time for Halloween, Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show, was released on Tuesday October 19. Paying homage to Richard O'Brien's cult musical masterpiece, the Glee cast injects their distinctive style to such Rocky Horror Show classics as 'Time Warp,' 'Damn it, Janet' and 'Whatever Happened to Saturday Night,' 'Touch A Touch A Touch A Touch Me'. This special Rocky Horror Show themed episode airs Tuesday, October 26 at 8:00 pm et/pt on FOX. Want to hear all the songs? Click here! For a full photo preview, see below!
Bedford, Ivey et al. Lead Roundabout's IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST on Broadway October 21, 2010Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is pleased to announce the full company of the new Broadway production of Oscar Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by and starring Brian Bedford as 'Lady Bracknell,' at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd St.). The cast will also feature Dana Ivey as 'Miss Prism,' Paxton Whitehead as 'Reverend Chausible,' Santino Fontana as 'Algernon Moncrieff,' David Furr as 'Jack Worthing,' Tim MacDonald as 'Merriman,' Paul O'Brien as 'Lane,' Charlotte Parry as 'Cecily Cardew,' and Sara Topham as 'Gwendolyn.'
STAGE TUBE: 'A Broadway Celebration at the White House' Airs Tonight on PBS, 10/20October 20, 2010As BroadwayWorld has previously reported, A BROADWAY CELEBRATION: IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE will premiere tonight, October 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS stations nationwide, followed by an encore presentation at 10:00 p.m. The sixty-minute television special is emceed by Nathan Lane and includes Idina Menzel, Brian d'Arcy James, Audra McDonald, Chad Kimball, Elaine Stritch, Marvin Hamlisch, Karen Olivo, Tonya Pinkins, Assata Alston and a youth ensemble from the Joy of Motion Dance Center and Duke Ellington School of the Arts, with Danielle Arci and Constantine Rousouli.
Cuccioli & Diaz Join JACQUES BREL RETURNS at the Triad in Nov.October 20, 2010Jacques Brel RETURNS ...The Music of Brel, Blau, Shuman and Jouannest en Cabaret announced that Bob Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde) and Natascia Diaz (The Capeman) will join the cast for the remainder of the run at The Triad, 158 West 72nd Street, NYC. Presented by Dan Whitten, Mark Beigelman, Peter Martin and Tiger Theatricals, Jacques Brel RETURNS... is a new cabaret production featuring highlights from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris as well as Brel songs not in the original score.
Photo Flash: GLEE 'Never Been Kissed' Stills!October 20, 2010Production stills for the November 9 episode of GLEE on FOX, 'Never Been Kissed,' have been released! In the episode, the Gleeks adopt some 'unconventional' methods of self control, much to the behest of Coach Beiste.
Mutrux's BABY, IT'S YOU Musical Gets New ProducersOctober 20, 2010Variety reports today that the biographical musical about composer Florence Greenberg by Million Dollar Quartet producer and book writer Floyd Mutrux is being prepped for a 2011 Broadway opening. Entitled Baby, It's You, the musical is aiming to open in the winter of 2011, co- directed by Mutrux and Sheldon Epps. Mutrux and Epps also collaborated on the Pasadena Playhouse production in November of 2009. The show premiered at the Coast Playhouse in Los Angeles prior to its Pasadena run.
Baldwin, Linney et al. Head to Paley Center this FallOctober 20, 2010This Friday, SPACE TOURISTS: Christian Frei (who made the Oscar- nominated WAR PHOTOGRAPHER) follows the adventures of Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari, who became the first female space tourist in the world. Her childhood dream of space travel is made possible not by NASA, but the Russian Federal Space Agency. The cost of Ansari's ten-day journey into space and onto the international space station is twenty million dollars, including a rough landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Hoffman Leads DEATH OF A SALESMAN on Broadway, Fall 2011; Nichols DirectsOctober 20, 2010The New York Times has just broke the news that stage and screen vet Philip Seymour Hoffman and Linda Emond will lead a revival of Death of a Salesman on Broadway as Willy and Linda Loman. The production will be directed by Mike Nicols and open on Broadway next fall. Hoffman and Nicols have been working out details for the production for months, according the report. The pair last collaborated on 2001 production of the Seagull in Central Park.
Shannon to Lead Wright's MISTAKES WERE MADE at Barrow Street; Opens 11/14October 20, 2010Producers Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter, who presented the critically acclaimed landmark production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, will next present the New York premiere of the new comedy, Mistakes Were Made, by Craig Wright with direction by Dexter Bullard. The two-character play features Academy Award-nominee Michael Shannon as producer Felix Artifex and Mierka Girten as his assistant Esther, and reunites the creative team of the Off-Broadway smash hit Bug (Bullard, Shannon and Barrow Street). The 16- week limited engagement will begin performances Friday, November 5, 2010 at the Barrow Street Theatre. Opening night is set for Sunday evening, November 14, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Murphy, Huffington et al. Honored with 2010 Hetrick-Martin Emery Awards, 11/9October 19, 2010The Hetrick-Martin Institute celebrates the 2010 Emery Awards on Tuesday, November 9, by reflecting on its 31-year history and looking forward to the next generation of leadership and creative minds to empower the LGBTQ youth of today and change public understanding and acceptance of the community to ensure the safety of our youth.
STAGE TUBE: Seinfeld-Helmed 'COLIN QUINN' Releases First Broadway Commercial October 19, 2010Jerry Seinfeld directs Colin Quinn in Colin Quinn Long Story Short - the one-man theatrical show moving to Broadway after a successful run off-Broadway. Comically channeling the demise of great world empires, Colin Quinn uses his 'articulate brand of comedy' in taking audiences through an uproarious history of the world in 75 minutes. From his personification of Caesar as the original Italian mobster to his complaints about Ancient Greece and Antigone giving way to Costco and Snooki, Quinn is at his satirical best, taking on the attitudes, appetites and bad habits that toppled the world's most powerful nations. Colin Quinn Long Story Short proves that throughout human history, the joke has always been on us.
Luhrmann Workshops 'The Great Gatsby' with DiCaprio, Mcguire & HallOctober 19, 2010Livejournal.com reports today that Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby McGuire and Rebecca Hall led a workshop of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby remake in the roles of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan, respectively. The roles were last made famous on screen by Robert Redford, Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow in Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation, directed by Jack Clayton. Luhrmann is co-writing this new adaptation alongside Craig Pearce. Luhrmann, of course, will also direct.