According to this article in Playbill:

The musical adaptation of The Color Purple is winding up a summer workshop with its star La Chanze before its upcoming Broadway run this season.

Production spokespersons previously confirmed (May 3) to Playbill.com what a casting notice revealed -- a June 13-July 12 workshop was being held in New York City with a projected production on Broadway this fall.

The new musical based on the well known Alice Walker novel (which inspired the better-known film) made its world premiere at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in fall 2004 and is readying its New York debut. With a number of theatres now becoming available, an announcement regarding dates is expected shortly.

The story of "The Color Purple" centers on Celie, a woman who endures insurmountable hardships within her own family and struggles to find her identity and love. The production warns that it "contains adult situations."

Wow. Adult situations...I wonder if that means there will be a scene about
Celie going to the airport only to find her flight has been cancelled and she has to wait hours in line to re-book and then finds out she won't be able to fly home for two days 'cuz everything is booked. That's the situation this adult found herself in at La Guardia tonight!

Also, I can just imagine the Variety headlines:

If The Color Purple loses money: "The Color Purple is in the Red!"
If The Color Purple makes money: "The Color Purple is in the Black!"

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My Plane Crazy producer friend Kendra Bator told me about a reading she went to on Monday night for a show called Happy Days The Musical!

Yes sirree, a musical based on the 1970s TV sitcom... You know, the whole gang, including The Fonz, Ritchie, Joanie, Chachie, Potsie, Ralph Malph, Mr. and Mrs. C...

The book is written by none other than Garry Marshall and the music and lyrics are by Paul Williams, of Kermit's "Rainbow Connection" fame, "An Old Fashioned Love Song", "We've Only Just Begun", and many other hits of the '70s. He also wrote the music to the Streisand hit "Evergreen". Kathleen Marshall is one of the producers.

Of course I asked her if the Happy Days Theme (It was written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox) was in the show, and yes, it appeared at the end.

Garry Marshall narrated the reading and apparently it was high-larious (big surprise -- he is just naturally funny!). It sounds like this was the very first reading and it's in somewhat of an embryonic stage. Apparently the music wasn't very rock 'n' roll-y, but more sentimental (very Paul Williams).

Exploring the depths of Arthur Fonzerelli's character should be quite the undertaking, so I'm interested in following the progress of this project.

So what's next from the '70s TV archives?

- Laverne and Shirley The Musical Revue?
- J.R. Does Dallas?
- "The Life" of T.J. Hooker?
- Three's "Company" (a salute to Sondheim...)

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According to this article in Playbill:

Colm Feore, the respected stage and screen actor who played Cassius in Broadway's recent Julius Caesar, will play Fagin in Oliver! in 2006 at the Stratford Festival, his artistic home in Canada.

Stratford artistic director Richard Monette announced a partial list of 2006 plays on June 27.

Oliver!, at the mainstage Festival Theatre, will be directed by Donna Feore, a Stratford veteran who, like husband Colm, has worked 14 seasons at the famed festival in Ontario.

First I see Colm Feore's mug on my Globe and Mail TV guide, and then last night after a long day I turned on the TV and caught the last 10 minutes of Colm Feore as Julius Caesar in the wonderfully swishy Senate stabbing scene of EMPIRE. Hey, nice alliteration!

Not as much blood as I hoped for (maybe it was all absorbed by the bedsheets they were wearing...) but still engaging. And his final death position on the floor was nicely art directed.

And now Stratford! I wonder how the whole husband/wife thing will work out. I'm used to telling my husband what to do and say, so maybe it will work out well for the Feores!

"I'm reviewing the situation..."

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Suzy Conn turns 29...yet again!

To quote the infamous Holly Banks "...and that's why I'll stay 29 'til I die..."

Here I am in New York City, working on my musical...is there a better way to spend your birthday? Well, I guess if my family were here it would be better, but it's pretty darn good! And my friend (and New York producer on Plane Crazy) just treated me to a lovely continental breakfast (which included two much-needed Americanos). Now it's off to Midtown for more meetings...

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Hey, this is cool. Venus Airlines, the featured airline in my new musical Plane Crazy which is part of this year's New York Musical Theater Festival, has just introduced a new "retro campaign" that harkens back to the airline's heydey in the 1960s.

According to this article from AdAge, Gus "Guppie" Crenshaw, grandson of Venus Airlines founder Sam Crenshaw, had this to say about the new campaign:

"Venus Airlines was one of the stars of the mid-sixties Jet Age revolution, and our reputation for the sexiest "stews" in the sky was a big part of our success. As my grandfather used to say, "If you have to fake it, just shake it..." and our stews were shaking their bottoms for the bottom line.

And although Venus Airlines has gone through a rough patch over the last thirty years, being basically reduced to a single crop-dusting contract in southern Dakota, we feel that the time is right for the Venus Airlines message to emerge once again into the "sexy skies"...

I think the the buzz on Venus is on the move. Even Broadway shows like Plane Crazy are featuring Venus as an example of blossoming womanhood in the 1960s."

Say Gus: "Our new "Va-Va-Venus" campaign is a clever play on our "VA" (Venus Airlines) acronym, and the secondary meaning of "Va", which in Spanish is "Go". So, from the perspective of one of the sexiest countries in the world, it's "Go-Go-Venus", which is also a nice play on the "Go-Go Girl" sensibility of my grandfather's airline."

When asked about a potential backlash from millions of offended women across the country, Gus laughed and responded, "Dude, c'mon, everyone likes to look at sexy stews..."

In recognition of the support and friendship for Venus Airlines from Plane Crazy, Venus Airlines is supporting Plane Crazy by giving 100 Venus Airlines Mile High Club miles to everyone who attends a performance of Plane Crazy.

As a competitive response, other airlines are expected to soon follow suit.

Plane Crazy will be appearing this fall at The Beckett, 410 West 42nd Street
(south side of West 42nd Street, between 9th & Dyer Avenues).

Performance times are:

Thursday, September 15 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, September 17 at 4:30 pm and 8:00 pm
Thursday, September 22 at 1:00 pm
Friday, September 23 at 4:30 pm
Sunday, September 25 at 1:00 pm

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OK, this is a bit of a stretch, but SO DAMN COOL. I would love this, if anyone is looking to give me a surprise...it's only 150,000 pounds.

I'm thinking this fort would make an amazing musical theater venue, just off the Welsh coast. It could be the new East West End...

Plus the guns that are still inside could come in handy with an unruly audience!

Stack Rock Fort, about 800 yards off the west Wales coast near Milford Haven, is for sale for 150,000 pounds.

The 19th Century fort -- complete with a couple of cannons -- dates back from the time of Napoleon, when it was initially built as a defence for the river Haven.

But it has nowhere to sleep at present, and the new owner will have to sort out sewage, water and power.

The fort, completely surrounded by water and with its own jetty, was built on a small island to protect the area from invasion.

Mary Joyce, manager at Haynes Agency in Pembroke, said they had never sold anything like it.The current owner bought it at auction, but hasn't done much with it -- I think he used to go there for picnics

"It is very rare -- inspection is going to be difficult, as it has to be by boat, although we have lined up someone up who runs a helicopter and they are checking out landing areas," she said.

"There are no services from what we can see -- there is damp inside and no accommodation, but there are a couple of guns inside."

Ms Joyce said there was no solid interest yet, but they had talked to a couple of developers, who had "talked about doing something in the tourist industry". "There has been a mention of a marine life centre, and someone talking about just using it as an island, a retreat," she said.

She explained that the previous Welsh-based owner had only visited the historic site a few times.

"The central part was built around Napoleon's time and the outer ring was built later -- around the 1850s," she said.

(via this post in BoingBoing)

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From this article in SFGate:

After building a musical reputation playing with a big name like West, Thompson got his big break in 1958 with a record deal from RCA. Signed alongside Esquivel, Billy May, Nelson Riddle and a crop of other musicians destined to be Hollywood stars, Thompson was asked to be the answer to Ray Conniff, on rival label Columbia. There was just one problem.

"Bob hated Ray Conniff," says Spenser Thompson. "My father thought Ray Conniff was a total square. You see, Bob was hip. Bob had soul."

Thrilled just to be playing music, Bob Thompson kept quiet and started making his records. It was the beginning of what was a somewhat badly marketed and mismanaged career. While Esquivel and Mancini easily carved niches in movies and on bachelor-pad record players, Thompson's music went largely misunderstood and underappreciated by RCA.

"Bob will tell you that they just didn't sell," says Spenser, who for years also took the LPs for granted, like an overlooked decoration in the family home. "But a lot of it had to do with Bob not having a management, no agent and no marketing, to direct his career."

Clearly ahead of his time, Bob Thompson brought new sophistication to studio technology, and the right people took note, says Van Dyke Parks, who produced Brian Wilson's classic album "Smile."

"Bob's records always had that snap, crackle and pop," says Parks, who befriended Thompson in 1969. "He was one of the first to create sounds in true stereo, like having a train sound as if it were traveling from your left to your right. This was new to the ear. And it was exciting."

For his final LP, "The Sound of Speed," and in a sort of orchestral punkish act of rebellion, Thompson made an album entirely based on the noises of modern transportation. But it would be many years before the album, filled with jazz harmonies and swing arrangements, would be fully appreciated and understood.

Thompson's most successful music was heard by millions of people every day, even though most of them never knew who he was. From 1961 to 1978, Thompson recorded the scores to more than 3,000 television commercials, from "Get That Great GM Feeling" and "Go-Go Goodyear" to "King Cobra -- Silver!"

(via this post in BoingBoing)

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DARN! I loved this movie, and I was really looking forward to seeing this show. However, it looks like some hard decisions were made, and The Mambo Kings is being shelved. And they've got a marquee and everything on Broadway!

Daryl and Jordan Roth will not make their first collaboration on Broadway with the musical The Mambo Kings. The mother-son producing team announced the show will not reach New York.

"We are deeply grateful for the amazing dedication and remarkable spirit of the entire cast, crew and creative team of The Mambo Kings," said Daryl and Jordan Roth. "While we had pursued several incredibly talented people to join the team and help us realize the full potential of the show, it became apparent to us all that the production could not successfully go forward on the current schedule."

The stage version of Oscar Hijuelos' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel made its world premiere at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre, opening May 31 to lackluster reviews. The work was next slated for a berth at the Broadway Theatre, starting previews July 20 and opening Aug. 18.

Speculation in the theatrical community in recent weeks had Tommy Tune and Maury Yeston as possible show doctors with names like Jerry Mitchell, Jason Robert Brown and David Ives also being bandied about. Production spokespersons did not confirm any change in the creative team.

Based on the Hijuelos' "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love," the musical follows the same story of two Cuban brothers who travel to New York City in 1949 with dreams of becoming recording stars. The Latin siblings -- flashy, guitarist Cesar and his shy, trumpet-playing brother Nestor -- rise to fame from the dance halls to perform as Desi Arnaz's cousins on "I Love Lucy."

The novel was adapted for the film starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas directed by Arne Glimcher. Glimcher now provides book (with Hijuelos) and lyrics for the musical version which features music by Carlos Franzetti -- who also scored the film. Sergio Trujillo served as choreographer with Glimcher as director for the California premiere.

Bad luck befell the production two weeks prior to its California debut when previously announced star Billy Dee Williams left the production "due to an aggravated hip condition," a release stated. Williams was to play nightclub impresario Fernando Perez, a role that went to David Alan Grier (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum).

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Drowsy strikes again!

According to this article in Playbill:

Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster is in discussions to star in the American premiere of the new musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone for the Ahmanson Theatre, Playbill.com has learned.

Foster, who won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her alternately daffy, plaintive and heartfelt work as Thoroughly Modern Millie, would again be able to show off her comic side: The Drowsy Chaperone is a fractured musical spoof of 1920s musicals.

Foster, recently a Tony nominee for Little Women, would play Janet, the bride, in the show-within-a-show by Bob Martin & Don McKellar (book), Greg Morrison (music) and Lisa Lambert (lyrics).
Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot) will direct and choreograph the musical for the pre-Broadway Ahmanson run in Los Angeles November 8 to December 24. A New York City reading/workshop is planned for July. Casting for other parts is ongoing, although author Robert Martin will play Man in Chair, the musical comedy maven and narrator who introduces us to the plot and backstage tales of his favorite (fictive) musical, 1928's The Drowsy Chaperone.

The suspense is killing me!

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A moment of silence please!

Four Broadway shows are closing today, Sunday June 26! Brooklyn, La Cage Aux Folles, On Golden Pond and Mark Twain Tonight! are all making their final performances today. Too bad they couldn't hold on until after the holiday weekend...

Also closing today is the hit touring company of The Producers...

According to this article in Playbill:

After June 26, there will only be one company of The Producers playing in North America.

Following its last performance in Fort Worth, TX, on June 26, the second national tour of the smash Mel Brooks-Thomas Meehan musical will leave for a three-week Tokyo run and then shut down.

According to a statement, "As The Producers...is such a significant property, Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman want to personally supervise the creation of the next incarnation of the touring production. In doing so, the caliber of the show will be maintained while being able to meet the physical demands of the upcoming route. The scheduled tour has been delayed one year to accommodate the schedules of Mr. Brooks and Ms. Stroman, both of whom are committed to completing and promoting the film version of the musical..."

Hmm...

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For all you airline nuts out there, here's something that sounds fantastic. It's the Airliners International Convention, to be held in Milwaukee from July 21st - 23rd.

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I'm in training for the LOTR musical!

I went to the TKTS line in New York on Friday in the blazing heat and sun and thankfully most of the tourists were absent, the smarter ones staying cool in the Hershey Times Square store or Virgin Megastore. I was able to quickly score a ticket for Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Longacre Theatre on 48th.

The play stars Bill Irwin (who won a Tony for leading actor in a play) as George; Kathleen Turner (who was nominated for a Tony for leading actress in a play) as Martha; Mireille Enos as Honey; and David Harbour as Nick.

This was my first play that had three Acts with two 12-minute intermissions! Act 1 is "Fun and Games", Act 2 is "Walpurgisnacht" and Act 3 is "The Exorcism".

Wow was it ever long -- it started at 8 pm and ended at 11 pm (way past my bedtime...). I kept myself alert and awake by changing seats after each intermission until the last hour found me in the Second Mezzanine with a handful of other people (it was cooler up there for some reason) with my legs comfortably draped over the empty chair in front of me. Those New York theaters are a bit hard on long-legged knob-kneed gals like me!

Don't get me wrong -- I loved it! The whole cast was great. My favorite was Bill Irwin -- he has such great body language that he uses to define a character, and so many levels of intensity -- you are always working to see if he is being jolly, sarcastic, furious or whatever, as you would if you were meeting someone for the first time, as his guests in the play were. My second fav was Mireille Enos. Honey is the smallest role as the somewhat proper wife of Nick, who gets drunk on Brandy and spends a fair bit of time vomiting in the bathroom. My guess is it's a hard role to play (doing drunk realistically is never easy) and make an impression amidst Irwin and Turner, but she did.

Kathleen Turner was great, a real powerhouse. But I found she sort of blustered through at one level of intensity.

Although the play is long, it doesn't feel draggy. There is a lot of repetition in Albee's dialogue but it doesn't feel repetitive. Instead, it feels natural, the way people would actually talk to one another. Especially between the the old married couple George and Martha.

In the Playbill programme, Bill Irwin describes it this way:

Edward Albee is an alchemist. If his scripts were to show up without his name on them at a regional theatre, the dramaturg would probably say, "This is a talented guy, but we've got to get him to cut back." He repeats himself. But an alchemic magic happens. You feel it onstage. There's mundane back and forth language, and then it will elevate -- and then suddenly some storytelling revelation has taken place.

If you get the chance, go see Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf -- soon.

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OK: It's OFFICIAL. Here are the dates for Plane Crazy's fabulous New York debut at the New York Musical Theatre Festival.

We'll be appearing at The Beckett, which is located in Midtown as part of the Theatre Row complex on 42nd Street. It's a great theater, and it will be a great venue for Plane Crazy. The new Beckett Theater is located on the lower level of the Theatre Row complex. Housing 99 seats, this intimate space features fixed, plush seating as well as heat and air conditoning. Although it has the same name, this is not the same old Beckett Theater. This brand new, state-of-the-art theater has a wide stage and great sightlines in every part of the house.

Here are the details:

The Beckett
410 West 42nd Street
South side of West 42nd Street, between 9th & Dyer Avenues.

Directions: Closest subway: A, C, E to 42nd Street. Walk west on 42nd Street to the theatre.

Performance times are:

Thursday, September 15 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, September 17 at 4:30 pm and 8:00 pm
Wednesday, September 21 at 1:00 pm
Friday, September 23 at 4:30 pm
Sunday, September 25 at 1:00 pm

Tickets will go fast. Many of last year's shows sold out within days of the Festival's opening. In fact, Festival-wide, 85% of all tickets were sold! Since we expect Plane Crazy to sell out quickly, you might want to consider becoming a member of NYMF to guarantee a seat at Plane Crazy and all of your favorite shows.

When you become a member you will be the first to have access to NYMF '05 passes and tickets.

Passes will go on sale to members only on August 1st before being made available to the public on August 15th.

Individual tickets will go on sale September 1st.

Only members can take advantage of this opportunity so click here to join!

To read more about tickets to NYMF 2005, you can click here.

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I've just had the pleasure of meeting (well not quite face-to-face yet) actress Leslie Becker.

Actually she's more like a quintuple threat -- writer, actress, singer, dancer, life coach...

Speaking with Leslie on the phone, I wasn't surprised to learn she wrote The Organized Actor, a best selling day/life planner for working actors. As Leslie says on her Web site:

Impressively, Leslie has been seen most recently on Broadway in Nine and she received critical acclaim for originating the role of The Queen in the new Broadway tour of Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt. She has also recently appeared as Mary Canty in the off-Broadway production of The Prince and the Pauper and as Meredith Parker in Bat Boy. She also starred in Private Lawrence, a one-woman play inspired by the life of Gertrude Lawrence in NYC. She’s also been featured in Hal Prince's Show Boat, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and as Mrs. Claus in the Radio City Christmas Show.

Now that's an organized actor!

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According to this article in Playbill:

The latest edition of Forbidden Broadway reopens June 24 at its new home, the 47th Street Theatre.

The long-running Gerard Alessandrini revue ended its run at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre May 29. This revamped version of Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims' Unit will include new jabs at Sweet Charity's Christina Applegate, La Cage aux Folles' Robert Goulet, Doubt's Cherry Jones and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's Kathleen Turner.

The company at the 47th Street Theatre includes Ron Bohmer, Jason Mills, Megan Lewis, Jeanne Montano and David Caldwell at the piano. Created, written and co-directed by Alessandrini, the creative team also includes Phillip George (co-director), Alvin Colt (costume designer), Megan K. Halpern (set designer) and Marc Janowitz (lighting designer).

This edition of Forbidden Broadway pokes fun at such Broadway shows as Wicked, Avenue Q, Movin' Out, All Shook Up, Good Vibrations and Mamma Mia!. The show won the 2005 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revue.

Normally I wouldn't be wildly excited about this kind of parody, but my producer friend Michael Rubinoff insists that I see it. I must admit I have been curious to see it in the past, so hey, what the heck!

I'd better go see Doubt, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf first, so I can fully appreciate the jabbing. I guess it's too late for Good Vibrations...

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Inquiring minds want to know!

My blogger (and Blogher) friend Elisa told me that Foothill Music Theatre has started rehearsing for their summer production of Brigadoon.

If you're interested to see what they're wearing under their kilts, check it out at http://fmtcurrent.blogspot.com

For more information on Foothill Music Theatre, check out their website at http://foothill.edu/fa/brigadoon

And remember, if it's not Scottish, it's crap!

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Well, as I predicted I heard the song "Artificial Flowers" for the third time! But maybe it doesn't count because it was Kevin Spacey singing, not Bobby Darin. Last night I was feeling a little bummed, so I did what I always do.

I went out and bought butter tarts and rented a movie musical. I should have loved this Bobby Darin biographical movie, (co-written and directed by and starring Kevin Spacey) but I didn't.

I enjoyed it and glad I saw it but I don't think I'll need to see it again. According to the note at then end credits, it wasn't "strict" re-telling of the Bobby Darin life story, but a creative reenactment. I found out all sorts of stuff I hadn't known before (but to be honest I didn't know much about his personal life to begin with).

The woman he thought was his mother was actually his grandmother and the woman he thought was his sister turned out to be his mother. For some reason I'd had the impression he was a "bad" guy, beating up Sandra Dee etc., but the movie shows exactly the opposite. According to the movie, he had a real relationship with Sandra Dee, with real love and he was a "good" guy, if not perfect.

Apparently Sandra Dee never remarried -- and remained in love with Bobby until she died on February 20 of this year (Bobby Darin died in 1973 after heart surgery). His early death stemmed from the rheumatic fever he'd had as a kid (he wasn't supposed to live beyond 15.) Again, for some reason I thought it was hard living that did him in! So I was glad to get all this new information.

Two things bugged me about the movie.

Firstly, Kevin Spacey was too old and lacked the performing charisma to carry off Bobby Darin. I longed to hear the original tracks. Ironically Kevin Spacey's insistence to sing and perform all the songs really highlighted what a talent Darin was, since Darin didn't have that amazing a voice, but had "it". This is well described by his son, Dodd:

"Not to denigrate other artists," Dodd Darin says of his father, "but other people of that early-Sixties era, they just faded, because they really were kind of homogenized. This artist, my dad, was different. He came from the gut. Because he didn't have a great voice, he didn't have Fabian or Presley's looks. But what he had was the desire and charisma and talent. When you saw him on the stage, he was ten feet tall. All that came through in the music."

The second thing was the artificial/fantastical construction of looking back over his life. This worked beautifully in De-Lovely, but in Beyond The Sea, seemed forced and overly constructed. Go figure.

I think I'll go listen to "Artificial Flowers" and get my real third time in...

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According to this article in Playbill:

Tony Award winners Jerry Mitchell and Jack O'Brien are no longer attached to New Line's film version of the Tony-winning musical Hairspray.

Variety reports that choreographer Mitchell and director O'Brien, who were set to co-direct the film, departed the production when the start date was moved from fall 2005 to spring 2006. The industry paper also reports that Rob Marshall, who helmed the Academy Award-winning movie musical "Chicago," is at the top of New Line's list of hoped-for directors.

New Line now plans to release the film in summer 2007 rather than Christmas 2006. Filming will begin in Toronto next spring with "second-unit work" in Baltimore, the setting for John Waters' original movie.

How exciting! Another movie musical is shooting in Toronto! (Chicago was filmed there as well...) Is Toronto becoming the movie musical capital of the world? Do I hear a LOTR movie musical is in the works in the not so distant future? If they know what's good for them they'll get Elaine Overholt to vocal coach the Hairspray cast (she did that on Chicago for Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, and Richard Gere).

And Rob Marshall would be a great choice for director of Hairspray the Movie...hey, how about Norman Jewison? His Jesus Christ Superstar is one of the most innovative movie musicals ever made, in my opinion.

Good Morning Toronto!

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Eeks...first it was The Apprentice the Musical and now this article in Playbill...can the end be far behind?

Inspired by the trials and tribulations of taste-monger and business icon Martha Stewart, writers John G. Ekizian and James-Allen Ford have created Martha! The Unauthorized Musical, the first act of which gets a June 27 reading in Manhattan.

The cast for the 7 PM industry reading includes Sally Wilfert (Assassins and Tom Sawyer) as domestic diva "Martha Blake" and Nora Mae Lyng (Forbidden Broadway and Into the Woods) as the working-class Polish mother who lovingly refers to her daughter as a "grandiose, opinionated, pain-in-the-ass."

According to the writers, "The show tells the life story of Martha Blake, who, with guile and glue gun, rises from her working class Polish roots to become doyenne of American domesticity and one of the most successful businesswomen in American history. There's also a nasty bit about insider trading thrown into the mix to assure that Martha! The Unauthorized Musical is a tale of Shakespearean proportions with a strong second act. No food icon goes unskewered as Martha gets help and advice from Julia Child (in a ballet, naturally) and Aunt Jemima…'the beloved yet politically incorrect icon associated with the inferior, mass-market pancake mix.'"

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A loyal Blogway Baby reader asked me to suggest some books on writing and producing musicals. There are a million books out there and lots of ways of going about writing new musicals, but I thought I'd give a sampler of some of the books I've read along the way.

First off, listen to as many cast recordings, read as many librettos, and see as many shows on stage as you possibly can. I am a firm believer in learning through osmosis. Learn what you like and what you don't like and why. That will help guide you when start writing.

Secondly, if possible, find someone with whom you can collaborate. I know I wrote the book/music/lyrics to Plane Crazy, but every book you pick up will tell you to avoid that at all costs. I agree. Musicals are collaborative by nature so you can't avoid it, so get a good relationship going early. Even if its just someone to give you pep talks now and then and talk you down off the ledge!

Thirdly, find a topic/story/idea (preferably original or in the public domain!) that you really care about and have a great depth of interest in. This is a long, long process and you can't afford to get sick of your own material early on!

Fourthly (fourthly?) get into a musical theater writing program. BMI holds one in New York, Theatre Building Chicago holds one in Chicago, and more and more colleges and universities are offering workshop writing programs. Educate yourself.

Finally, be prepared to write, write, and rewrite. 'Nuff said.

Here are some of my fav books (inspiring and educational) that I've read (and re-read) along the way:

The Making of Series: The Great Broadway Musicals (My Fair Lady, Gypsy, West Side Story, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls). These books by Keith Garebian are golden. Not only are they full of great insider anecdotes and hilarious stories, they also show you firsthand that musicals are an evolutionary art and "classics" don't happen overnight. As they say, plays with music go into rehearsal and musicals come out of rehearsal.

Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chain. This is about the making of Sondheim's Follies and is considered a must-read.

Making Musicals: An Informal Introduction to the World of Musical Theatre by Tom Jones. This is by the lyricist/librettist of The Fantasticks, and is charming, funny, and very accessible for a beginner.

Also, Lehman Engel has a few on both writing and producing. Browse bookstores (Theatrebooks in Toronto is fab!), go online and just start reading! I always like to read as many as I can so I can start to see the similarities and universalities and weed out the personal biases or angles.

Most of all, enjoy what you are doing! Remember, "there ain't nothin' like a musical...nothin' in the world!"

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According to this article in Playbill:

"What A Glorious Feeling", a new musical about the making of the classic M-G-M picture "Singin' in the Rain" -- and about the strained relationship between co-directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen -- will get its world premiere in Michigan this summer.

Director Tom Mullen conceived the intimate small-cast show, which he calls "a play with music" and an "exploration of creative and romantic temperaments" set in the heyday of the M-G-M movie musicals. It's also a revealing portrait of the late dancer-actor-director-choreographer Kelly, played by Broadway Contact veteran Sean Martin Hingston.

"What A Glorious Feeling", however, might be considered the highlight of the season for its sheer ambition: A new piece -- with Broadway players in the cast -- borrowing legendary real-life show biz names and using songs from the M-G-M movie musical catalog.

The piano and percussion show doesn't use famous songs to advance plot (that characters aren't singing to one another, per se). The tunes show rehearsals, set a mood or create the atmosphere of the studio system in the 1950s.

Mullen told Playbill.com that Gene Kelly is not seen here as the clean-cut, fresh-faced character known from such pictures as "On the Town," "Anchors Aweigh" and "Singin' in the Rain." He's driven, conflicted, jealous and demanding.

In the show, as in life, his partnership with director Stanley Donen splinters professionally and personally. Dancer Jeanne Coyne, a dance assistant for the men, is the woman in the middle of a romantic triangle here. She eventually became wife to both men, at different times. Donen is the only one of the three still living.

The cast includes Broadway Contact veterans Sean Martin Hingston as Gene Kelly and Colleen Dunn as Jeanne Coyne, and Broadway veteran Michael Gruber ("Swing!", "Kiss Me, Kate", "My Favorite Year") as Stanley Donen, with Brynn Curry as a young Debbie Reynolds and Gordon Thompson as Arthur Freed and Busby Berkeley.

Mullen, a fan of the 1952 movie "Singin' in the Rain," which is considered by many to be the apex of M-G-M's musical films, read biographies of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, including a book by Kelly's ex-wife Betsy Blair, and "was intrigued that Kelly and Donen never spoke again after 'Singin' in the Rain' -- although they had to when they fulfilled a studio contract [for 'It's Always Fair Weather']."

When Mullen discovered there were professional and personal complications with dancer Coyne, Mullen felt he stumbled onto the stuff of good backstage musicals -- and, he said, the makings for a good episode of an "E! True Hollywood Story."

Jay Berkow (Off-Broadway's popular Jolson and Company) wrote the book to "What A Glorious Feeling".

Jamie Rocco is choreographing and has choice song material to work with, including tunes from "Royal Wedding," "Singin' in the Rain," "Cover Girl," "On the Town," "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and obscurities cut from "Singin' in the Rain"

Mullen said the style of "What A Glorious Feeling" is unique and not traditional.

"It's a play with music and dance," he said. "You'll see the rehearsal process, fragments of routines and sections of famous numbers. There's very little singing it, there's a lot dance -- Jamie Rocco's calling it a hybrid show."

The skeletons of famous movie dance routines are seen in "What A Glorious Feeling", and Rocco also creates his own original choreography. Video will also be used in the show, but no M-G-M material is being screened.

Is it a negative view of Kelly? "I think it's a really great emotionally-hopeful piece," Mullen said. "You get to see this man who think you know so well. You see his madness and his genius and you feel incredibly sympathetic toward him."

Designers are Robert Wojik (costume), Jen Kules (lighting), George Lee (set) and Steve Tabor (sound). Michael Sobie is musical director.

WOW! I don't know about you, but that sounds really cool. I'm dying to see this. I'm not only a huge Singin' in the Rain fan, but I love Gene Kelly (I even went to see him in Xanadu...). I've read a lot about him, and I never got the impression he was a "bad" man -- ie. cruel, backstabbing, or racist.

But I have read over and over again that he was EXTREMELY competitive in EVERYTHING he did. Whether concerning the business, women, or even a simple tennis game he might suggest his guests play at one of his many parties. This never surprised me, given his vision and impact on the biz, and his insistence on doing all his own stunts (which eventually left him crippled as an old man).

Normally I'm not overly excited about old songs recycled, (with songs of this caliber I don't mind so much) but this sounds so darned interesting, especially the focus on dance and resurrecting some of the old movie choreography! It sounds like they are creating this just for me!

We often talk about what happened to the movie musical, and it is clear that its heydey was driven by individuals (duh!) like Kelly and Donen and Freed (among others). Big surprise that big personalities got into feuds. When these personalities left the biz, the art form got temporarily waylaid.

My fabulous husband gave me a great book called Greatest Musicals, The Arthur Freed Unit by Hugh Fordin which looks like some kind of university press reprint but which contains in fascinating detail (budgets, sketches, letter) Freed's process of creating movie musicals. Once I finish it I'll give a more thorough report.

In the meantime, Gotta Dance!

Technorati tags: Broadway Music Movie Musicals Musicals Blog Blogs Theater Theatre Entertainment

I'll be with them in CD Blossom Time! Boy does this sound like an absolute BLAST ! I just got this email inviting me to:

SWING ROSIE's CD Release SWING DANCE PARTY!

You are invited to a special celebration:

The Mod Club Presents

SWING ROSIE's CD Release and Swing Dance Party!

Tuesday, July 5th

Dance to the girls' signature three-part harmony swing with Guest Star Christopher Plock and the Swingin' Outlaws

Tickets $10
Doors at 8pm
722 College St. W.
416-588-4663

We'll have lots of great music to dance to on that big dance floor, starting with a solid hour of swing featuring Guest Star Christopher Plock and his Swingin' Outlaws, and then of course, the main event: SWING ROSIE in concert! Invite all your friends and every Swing Rosie fan you know, to help us celebrate this great occasion and for ONE NIGHT ONLY, you can take home Sing Cool, Swing Hot for just $10. Don't miss it! Come and Dance the night away!

I've already said how great their CD is in a previous post and now -- what a bargain -- only $10! Check out Swing Rosie's website at www.swingrosie.com and then jive on down to the Mod Club on July 5!

See you all you hep cats there!

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For the last 24 hours Myrna has been the 'bliss child'...and she is overwhelmingly excited at winning the role of Annie in the upcoming City Youth Players production of Annie Warbucks.

Annie Warbucks continues the story of Little Orphan Annie...and in fact the first bar of the musical picks up where the last bar of Annie ended.

Written by the original Annie team of Thomas Meehan (Book), Martin Charnin (Lyrics), and Charles Strouse (Music), Annie Warbucks opened July 6, 1993 and ran for 200 performances and 38 previews, all Off-Broadway. Although it wasn't the blockbuster of the original Annie which opened April 21, 1977 and ran for 2,377 performances, Annie Warbucks was favorably reviewed and has had a great second life in licensing because smaller regional theaters like to put Annie and Annie Warbucks on back-to-back, like an old-fashioned serial.

In the story, the action picks up right where Annie leaves off, when Child Welfare Commissioner Harriet Doyle arrives on the scene to inform Daddy Warbucks he must marry in sixty days so the newly adopted Annie can have a proper mother. In the end, Daddy Warbucks' whirlwind search for a fitting bride uncovers not only a plot by Doyle and her daughter to strip him of his fortune, but also his true feelings for Grace Farrell.

Full of peppy melodies, plenty of laughs, marvelous choreography, smart sets, bright lights and snappy costumes"
--The New York Times

"ANNIE WARBUCKS is an enormously entertaining evening!"
--The New York Daily News

"Surefire family fun! Charles Strouse's tunes are charmers. Well worth catching"
--New York Magazine

The production will be staged in late November at the Vaughn City Playhouse...stay tuned to Blogway Baby for dates and ticket information!

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According to this article in Playbill:

The Martin Short solo show "If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here" will have a Boston tryout prior to its Broadway arrival.

The show is currently being advertised on the Broadway in Boston website for a Sept. 27-Oct. 9, 2005 engagement. The site indicated the show will then travel to Broadway in spring 2006.

The venture was created by Short and the "Hairspray" writing team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Shaiman told Playbill.com columnist Harry Haun that it would land on "Broadway next year" and is now being written as a "one-man show with cast." He said, "What do you call a one-man show that has four people helping out? They play the other million characters. Marty can only play a billion characters. We need others to help out. It's called "If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here: Martin Short on Broadway". Anyone who likes him will be a kid in a candy store.

I WANT CANDY! I've been a big Martin Short fan since I saw him on SCTV. One of my favorite skits is when he plays a guilty lawyer being interviewed 60 Minutes-style and he just sweats -- brilliant. Or the dancing executive of Scrapco -- "look at me, I'm Nureyev! [crash]" Not to mention all his billion other characters and Broadway roles.

He's just so darn watchable. Since I missed Billy Crystal in 700 Sundays [sob] I'll have to see Martin -- road trip to Boston!

If you're a Martin Short fan, you'll remember his 1993 star turn in The Goodbye Girl, , his 1999 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in the Broadway revival of Little Me, and his most recent starring role as Leo Bloom in the Los Angeles production of The Producers.

But what a lot of people DON'T know is that Martin Short got his start in musical theater in the original Toronto production of Godspell in 1972. Stephen Schwartz has a great article on that Toronto production here: That production of Godspell also included the talents of Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) Victor Garber (Titanic, Alias), the late Gilda Radner (Saturday Night Live), Eugene Levy (A Mighty Wind, American Pie) and even the musical director Paul Shaffer (The Late Show with David Letterman).

Hey, I've got a great idea...how about a musical version of Father of the Bride? I think that Martin Short would knock a musical version of Franck out of the park...

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So a fair question here would be: "How in God's name does the classic 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid relate to musical theater?" Well, I'm glad you asked, because there are four interesting connections.

I recently got the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Special Edition DVD, which has a fantastic documentary from 1969 produced by Yale University, and narrated by Director George Roy Hill, the famous Academy-Award winning director of movies like The Great Waldo Pepper, The Sting, and Slap Shot.

Before I go any further, here are the first two connections. Firstly, George Roy Hill was also the Director of Thoroughly Modern Millie with Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore, which of course became the multiple-Tony Award-winning 2002 musical (and star-maker for the fabulous Sutton Foster, who most recently starred in Little Women the Musical on Broadway).

Secondly, George Roy Hill was also nominated for a 1958 Tony Award as Best Director for Look Homeward, Angel.

Here's the third, really cool connection. In the documentary, George Roy Hill talks about one of the scenes in the movie:

The trip they made through New York on the way to Bolivia became one of our three musical sequences. Originally, it was to be done in live action like the bike sequence [Suzy: which popularized the BJ Thomas song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head"] and I wanted to shoot it at the Fox Studio where they'd built a magnificent New York street for Hello Dolly!. But since our release date was before Dolly's, Zanuck didn't want us showing the street to the public before Dolly did. So I decided instead to make the sequence out of old still photographs of New York during the late 1890s. We took still pictures of our stars at various spots on the Dolly street, then we cut them out and we pasted them into old photographs so they would actually seem to be a part of the period pictures themselves.

We printed the whole sequence in sepia to give it the same kind of period flavor as the opening of the movie. We worked out all these moves for an animation stand, and we shot them one frame at a time.

How cool is that...Hello Dolly! and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid sharing the same set. I love it...musical theater is everywhere!

I think the fourth connection is obvious...the score is by Burt Bacharach, including the wildly popular BJ Thomas hit "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". Burt's connection to Broadway is of course as the composer of Promises Promises (check out the amazing CD cover art), which is the musical version of the classic 1960 Jack Lemmon movie The Apartment.

Whew...I'm going to bed now...

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Hey this sounds like fun! A union party! From an e-mail I received today:

Come out and support the Blue Man Boycott! Sunday, June 19, 5 pm, Panasonic Theatre on Yonge Street (south of Bloor at St. Mary)

Canadian Actors Equity, Toronto Musicians and IATSE need our help. The New York based Blue Man Group refuses to operate under the collective agreements of our sisters and brothers in the theatre community. Please come out to the opening night information picket and support the fight for fair wages and decent working conditions. The event will feature live entertainment and special guests. For more information on the Blue Man boycott go to www.bluemanboycott.com

Seriously, this is completely out-of-control. How could Blue Man Group let this get so out-of-hand? Check out the now quite amusing Blue Man Boycott site...I'm especially amused by the "Anti-Blue Man Experience" show that is going to happen Sunday, June 19 at 5:00 pm OPPOSITE THE PANASONIC THEATRE and featuring live entertainment and special guests. And Blue Man Group actually tried to quash this, which is so unbelievably naive it makes my teeth hurt. Check out this press release from the Blue Man Boycott site:

Sunday on Yonge Street: "Anti-Blue Man Experience" opening night rally to go ahead despite legal challenges by Blue Man Group

A major Yonge Street rally sponsored by the Blue Man Boycott Coalition will go ahead this Sunday, June 19, at 5:00 p.m. despite efforts by Blue Man Productions Inc. to legally quash it. A permit to hold the event on Yonge St. near the Panasonic Theatre has been issued by Toronto police.

"The Anti-Blue Man Experience" will coincide with the official premiere performance of the Toronto production of Blue Man Group being held at the Panasonic Theatre. The event will feature live musical entertainment headlined by the all-female all-star band, Blue(s) Woman Group, along with several special guests from the Canadian performing arts and political communities.

Last Thursday, Blue Man Productions Inc. applied to the Ontario Labour Relations Board for an injunction against the June 19 event. It asked the board to forbid picketing activity anywhere within two city blocks from the theatre, in all directions. A consultation on the application has been called by OLRB Chair Kevin Whitaker for Friday.

"We have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on our side despite Blue Man's efforts to silence us," says Susan Wallace, Executive Director of Canadian Actors' Equity Association (CAEA), one of the Coalition partners. The Toronto Musicians' Association (TMA) and Locals 58 and 822 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are the other partners.

"So besides this event being about the growing boycott of this rogue production, it is now also a celebration of the Charter, which turns 23 this year. It's great to be Canadian."

EVENT: The Anti-Blue Man Experience
DATE: Sunday, June 19, 2005
TIME: 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
PLACE: Yonge & St. Mary (south of Bloor)

For more information or to arrange interviews with spokespersons for the Coalition, contact: Victoria Lord - 416.484.9047 x 224 or 647.519.8577. Additional contact: Bill Reno - 416.223.7366

Honestly, this has been so incompetently handled by Blue Man Group that SOMEONE SHOULD BE FIRED...and a sacrificial lamb may not be a bad strategy at this point...

Technorati tags: Broadway Music Movie Musicals Musicals Blog Blogs Theater Theatre Entertainment

This sounds exciting: A thrilling new production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, will open on Broadway on November 3rd at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on 49th Street.

This version of Sweeney Todd premiered in London's West End, where it achieved virtually unanimous critical acclaim and became one of the most highly regarded theatrical events of last season.

This production of Sweeney Todd is highly unusual because there is no separate orchestra. Each of the actor/singers in the cast plays his or her own instrument (or instruments) and provide a full rendering of Sondheim's thrilling musical score. The scale of the production is intimate, with only nine actor/singer/players in the cast.

The production was brilliantly conceived -- and will be directed and designed on Broadway -- by John Doyle, artistic director of the Watermill Theatre, a small regional theater company in the South of England. It was subsequently produced at the Trafalgar Studios in the West End, and following its sell-out run there moved to the New Ambassador's Theatre.

The Broadway run will be a reproduction of the London production, but with an all-American cast, including Tony Award-winning Patti Lupone as Mrs. Lovett and Michael Cerveris as Sweeney Todd.

Patti Lupone is one of Broadway's true musical theater stars. She's been honored for starring performances both on Broadway (winning a Tony Award -- and Drama Desk Award -- as Best Actress in a Musical for Evita, and Tony-nominated as the star of Anything Goes and of The Robber Bridegroom), and in London's West End (Olivier Awards as Best Actress in a Musical for Les Miserables and The Cradle Will Rock, and nominated for that award for Sunset Boulevard).

Michael Cerveris recently won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, for his role in last season's Broadway production of Assassins. He was one of the stars of Titanic and won a Tony Award nomination for his work in Tommy. He's often appeared in movies and on television, and was the one male actor/singer who Stephen Sondheim approved without any audition. The one female actor/singer Sondheim felt no need to see was Patti Lupone.

My daughters love this musical: It's probably their favorite Sondheim musical, with Into the Woods running a close second. We can't wait to see it...we'll be at opening night!

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