Curtain Up! The new Broadway theatre season is here, so let's shine the spotlight on a few of the big names trying to conquer the Great White Way:
Hello Dolly!--Country music hasn't fared very well on Broadway but if anybody can break the "hick ceiling" it's going to be Dolly Parton. The fabled country star has written an original score for the stage adaptation of "9 to 5: The Musical," now rehearsing in Los Angeles. Dolly, sources say, isn't the least bit diva-ish about her songs. If director Joe Mantello doesn't think a number is right, Dolly heads to the piano to bang out a new one.
She's got stiff competition: Elton John's score to "Billy Elliot," still the show to beat, is the best he's written for the theatre. But if the songs in "9 to 5" are as catchy as the title number, Broadway could start to look like Dollywood.
CRUISIN FOR A BRUISIN: Poor Katie Holmes got off to a rough start when The New York Post reported that she's not exactly setting the box office on fire for the revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." Compared to the box office numbers the previous Mrs. Tom Cruise--Nicole Kidman--posted for her Broadway debut in "The Blue Room", Katie's got the drawing power of a kid off the bus from Allentown, Pa. People involved in the production are starting to call it "The John Lithgow Show" (Lithgow's got the starring role) in an effort to take the pressure off Katie. But, alas, those tabloid reporters and photographers lurking around the stage door all day aren't there to find out what John Lithgow's wearing.
If ALL MY SONS doesn't make any money, Holmes will take the blame. As for her performance (that minor detail), I hear she's coming along nicely in the role, and has some lovely moments with co-star Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty and Phantom of the Opera). "She's not bad at all" says a production source, who adds, in panic: "Don't use my name!" Like everybody else in the show, he's afraid that if he speaks about Holmes without authorization, the Scientologist "goons" will pay him a visit and perhaps make him "disappear."
COMEBACK FOR A TALL TAPPER:
It's been nearly two decades since 69-year old Tommy Tune (a 9-time Tony winner) has had a hit on Broadway. His last was "The Will Rogers Follies" in 1991. After a couple of flops in the mid-90's, Tune just seemed to slip away. It's been a great loss, since his kind of show--elegant, witty, bursting with inventive dancing--is always welcome on Broadway. Tune is back at the helm of a "new" old-fashioned show: "Turn of the Century," now in rehearsals at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and is written by Jersey boys creators Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, but uses the songs of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin and Gershwin. The show has had some financial troubles ($2million that was supposed to come from New York investors has yet to materialize). If the Chicago reviews are good, the money will appear and Tune will be back on Broadway.
Jeremy Piven plays a sleazy agent on HBO's ENTOURAGE, and he'll be playing a sleazy producer in the revival of David Mamet's "Speed-The-Plow", co-starring Mad Men's "Peggy"...Elisabeth Moss (in the role created by Madonna). Piven is a very good actor but the trouble is he'll be up against the memory of Kevin Spacey, who was brilliant in the show last year in London. That's not a performance you want hanging over your head.
DREAMWORKS Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg is shepherding SHREK, THE MUSICAL to Broadway, muscling in on territory long controlled by Disney, his former employer and current rival. The $25million SHREK is getting fairly good word of mouth in Seattle, although they've just brought in Rob Ashford to punch it up a bit.
(Michael Riedel-NY Post)
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