Today just seems to be the day for theatre news. The following are some items I noted during my lunchtime newsreading:
- As we were talking about musicals for kids, the casting for “Shrek, The Musical” on Broadway has been announced. Brian d’Arcy James, will be playing the title character, Shrek. Cry-Baby‘s Chester Gregory II has been cast as Donkey and Avenue Q Tony nominee John Tartaglia has been cast as Pinocchio. Rounding out the announced cast is Sutton Foster as princess Fiona, Christopher Sieber as Lord Farquaad and Kecia Lewis-Evans as the dragon. The musical opens on Broadway for previews on Nov. 8th, after an August tryout in Seattle. Lyrics and book are by David Lindsay-Abaire, with music by Jeanine Tesori.
- However, not for kids is “A Very Brady Musical”, just announced for Theatre West in Hollywood June 6-July 20. The show has book by Lloyd J. Schwartz and Hope (Schwartz) Juber, and music and lyrics by Hope Juber and Laurence Juber. According to the producers, the basic story is as follows: “Through a misunderstanding, the Brady kids overhear a loud argument between their usually perfectly-in-love parents. The kids think their parents might be heading for a divorce and dig in to raise money to obtain marriage counseling for their woe-stricken parents. Greg operates a car service; Marcia dates for money; Peter and Jan put on magic shows; and Bobby and Cindy look for money in couches. Did you ever imagine what the Bradys’ might look like in a holding cell at the local police station? Somehow even Alice gets in some legal trouble for fraud. All the while Mike and Carol are desperately trying to have sex, something they have never done since they’ve always had six kids in the house and have never had any alone time.” Supposedly, the show provides “a great evening of reliving some special Brady moments that you secretly wished had happened.” Ah, yes, “special Brady moments”. Does anyone have some mental floss to erase that image?
- A number of dates and venues for the “Spring Awakening” tour have been announced. Alas, Los Angeles is not one of them (but San Francisco is). However, the article notes that “Additional dates and venues are expected to be announced shortly.”, so perhaps it will show up as part of the Ahamanson or Broadway/LA season.
- Hitting the news quite a bit is the new Pasadena Playhouse production of “Mask”, based on the 1985 Cher film, with a book by Anna Hamilton Phelan, and music and lyrics by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. We’ll be seeing this on April 5, so you can look forward to a review then. It’s always nice to see a Broadway bound musical before it hits Broadway.
- The Los Angeles Drama Critics have given a number of awards to productions I actually saw, such as “13” at the Mark Taper Forum and “Zanna Don’t” at West Coast Ensemble.
As a PS to this post: the news about “Mask” gave me the impetus to go to the American Theatre Wing website. I regularly listen to their podcast, “Downstage Center”, and think that Sheldon Epps would be a great interviewee. So I sent them a message. Imagine my surprise when I received a reply from Howard Sherman himself, executive director of the Wing. We had a delightful email conversation… but I need to get the Playhouse to let them know when Sheldon will be in NYC.
