?'No More Mr. Nice Guy for Alice Cooper! According to the New York Post's Michael Riedel, rocker Alice Cooper is currently in negotiations to take on the role of supervillain the Green Goblin in Broadway's SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK.
Theater historian and prolific author Ethan Mordden is this week's guest on THEATER TALK, discussing his newest book with co-hosts Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins. The witty and insightful writer, a true aficionado of and expert on musical theater, offers an overview of the art form's evolution, which he chronicles in Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre, a comprehensive overview of the great American art form.
Broadway is the ultimate goal for many theatre majors who want to work in stage production. With so many eligible candidates flocking to NYC looking for that big break, you need to stand out from the pack. Learn valuable tips on how to get hired on Broadway (and Off) from our panel of backstage super-stars who live the dream! (For full schedule of events, speakers' bios etc., go to www.cencom.org.) This seminar is free.
THEATER TALK, co-hosted for its 22nd consecutive year on New York television by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, premieres its 2013-2014 season by focusing on two new Off-Broadway successes, The Old Friends by Horton Foote at Signature Theatre and Fetch Clay, Make Man by Will Power at New York Theatre Workshop.
Last night at his home Tommy Tunehosted a cocktail party the one and only Carol Channing welcoming her back to NYC. Ms. Channing was toasted and honored by guests including Tyne Daly, Donna McKechnie, Lucie Arnaz, Lorna Luft, Brooke Shields, Liliane Montevecchi, Robert Klein, Michael Riedel, Frank DiLella, Arlene Dahl, Peter Glebo, Wayne Gmitter, Jim Caruso, Bruce Vilanch, Chris DiLella Jamie deRoy, Richard Skipper and more. Cinderella's Laure Osnes and her husband Nathan Johnson serenaded Ms. Channing with Before the Parade Passes By.
Sierra Boggess (Broadway's The Little Mermaid, Master Class, The Phantom of the Opera, West End's Love Never Dies) made her 54 Below debut on Monday, August 19. Following the performance. Boggess was greeted in her dressing room by Sherie Rene Scott (Bogess' co-star in The Little Mermaid), Imogen Lloyd Webber (political commentator and daughter of Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote two of the musicals in which Boggess has recently starred), and New York Post columnist Michael Riedel.
According to the New York Post's Michael Riedel, Dave Malloy's electropop opera NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 is considering a Fall transfer to Broadway's Jujamcyn-owned St. James theater.
The European premiere of a new chamber version of the Tony award-winning Broadway musical TITANIC is now playing at Southwark Playhouse and there's lots of buzz surrounding a possible West End or even New York transfer. Composer Maury Yeston told New York Post's Michael Riedel: 'These are very early days. It only just opened and who knows how many folks from here have seen it yet? But they did a terrific job, and it's so powerful in a small space! Very gratifying for the production to get such a warm and wide reception. I so wish Peter were here to see it.'
Today in the NY Post, Michael Riedel writes 'Chenoweth has another show in her future - a revival of Cy Coleman's 1978 operetta "On the Twentieth Century," which she hopes to do with Peter Gallagher. She'd play Lily Garland, the temperamental movie star (Madeline Kahn in the original). It's a perfect role for her, and she generated good buzz when she appeared in a reading at the Roundabout a couple of years ago.'
Just a few months ago, Michael Riedel reported that Bette Midler has been approached for a revival, for which she seemingly passed, telling interviewers that she didn't see herself wanting to carry an entire musical for 8 shows a week. Now, it might be Kristin Chenoweth's turn.
Following a recent trend of A-list movie actors enjoying successful runs on the Broadway stage, it appears that matinee idol Tom Cruise and funnyman Jim Carrey are now on the hunt for their own shot at the Tony.
Jason Rabinowitz, Christina Sajous, Jennifer Sanchez, Frederick Weller and Renee Elise Goldsberry have been getting great reviews and audience reactions in I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, the final Encores! Off-Center presentation of the 2013 season. Today, Michael Riedel reports that the successful response might earn the show a transfer.
According to the New York Post Michael Riedel, dueling stage versions of the life and times of the classical musician are currently in the works.
Tickets for Harold Pinter's Betrayal, starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Rafe Spall, and directed by ten-time Tony Award-winner Mike Nichols, have only been available for a week, and according to the New York Post, the show has alredy reached $5 million in sales. Michael Riedel writes that the play 'will likely be sold out by the time it plays its first performance Oct. 1.'
The Major League Baseball All-Star break (the game is on Tuesday night) has always been considered the midpoint of the season and as a lifelong fan I've always enjoyed reading those analyses from writers that assess the best performances of the first half. Since July is also the middle of the calendar year, I thought it might be fun to present a cabaret equivalent of a baseball midseason report. So . . . (drum roll) . . . presenting the Best (and My Favorite) 20 New York Cabaret Shows and Performances of (the first half) of 2013.
Now according to the New York Post's Michael Riedel, a transfer to Broadway following its runs in San Diego and Washington D.C. is ' definitely a possibility.' Sources tell BroadwayWorld that casting is currently underway and to stay tuned for the exciting announcement on who will be the newest stars to take on Violet and Daisy Hilton.
According to Showbiz411.com, Clive Davis announced during a reading for his book at the 92nd Street Y last night that his top pick Bartlett Sher has signed on to direct the 2014 Broadway revival of MY FAIR LADY. Sher's recent credits include South Pacific, Golden Boy, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
Tune has, well, fine-tuned the show since Miami, and will open it in Los Angeles in the fall. The Nederlanders are quiet backers, and if 'Fifty Four Forever' is well-received, look for its disco ball to twirl above Broadway next spring, just in time, perhaps, to upend next year's Tony Award race.'
The show has been said to be aimed towards Broadway since it first opened, with American producers on board from day one. Today, Michael Riedel reports in the New York Post that 'Tune, now 74, is getting back in the game. At the behest of his good friend Jimmy Nederlander, a theater legend in his own right, Tune's in London inspecting a new show called 'Top Hat.'
THEATER TALK goes Off Broadway to feature the creators of two of the hottest tickets in town, Sontag: Reborn at New York Theatre Workshop and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 at Kazino.
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