A few tidbits of theatre news, noted over lunch:
- From the “You Rang” Department: There appears to be good response at the latest workshop of the “Addams Family” musical. What’s interesting is that they are not drawing on either the movies or the TV show, but going back to the original source cartoons. The musical is set in the present day, and the Addams family lives in a spooky castle in the middle of Central Park. The plot is a bit like “Meet the Parents,” with Gomez and Morticia throwing a dinner party for the parents of their daughter Wednesday’s boyfriend. Casting, at least for the workshop, featured Nathan Lane (Gomez), Bebe Neuwirth (Morticia), Kevin Chamberlain (Uncle Fester), Marylouise Burke (Grandmama) and Terence Mann and Jan Maxwell as a “normal” couple. Book is by Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, who wrote “Jersey Boys”. Music is by Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party). The show will debut in Chicago in November, with a Broadway opening in April 2010.
- From the “Do you feel lucky, punk?” Department: There’s a possibility that “Magnum Force” the sequel to Dirty Harry, may be headed to Broadway as a musical. English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, an admitted Magnum Force obsessive, will compose the score and intends to produce the show with MTV executive Bill Flanagan.
- From the “Still Waiting For The Cast Album” Department: The musical “Sister Act”, which we enjoyed when we saw it at the Pasadena Playhouse a few years ago, is getting another production: This time in London’s West End. No word on whether this will be recorded, although I hope it is. But then again, I’m still waiting on a recording of “The People Vs. Mona”. We saw this at the Pasadena Playhouse in the 1990s, and there was a concert cast recorded in April 2008 but has no release date.
Moving to the “Decline and Fall of the Newspaper Empires” Department, it looks like the Los Angeles Times is dropping the Metro California section soon…. and the once great LA paper declines some more. [ETA: And they’re cutting 70 newsroom positions, and 300 staff overall.] I’d switch over to the Daily News, but they are even worse (as BANG folks should know).