Though he's busy lining up a new musical based on Durrenmatt's The Visit for 1999-2000, producer Barry Brown has another Broadway targeted show in the offing for late this year.
"It's a new, original theatre evening with Bea Arthur," Brown told Playbill On-Line (March 4). "It's more theatre than nightclub, and we haven't selected the material yet, but there'll be lots of singing. It's an evening built around her." The tentative title is "A Bea Arthur Evening."
Charles Randolph Wright, who staged The Diva Is Dismissed Off Broadway, will direct the piece, which may go regional before coming to New York ("She's willing to tour," says Brown. "So we may tour first.")
Arthur's credits include The Threepenny Opera and a recent Los Angeles mounting of After-Play. She's best known for playing the lead on TV's "Maude."
-- By David Lefkowitz
