Plans to stage a 3.5 million dollar pre-Broadway tour of Easter Parade in Australia later this year have been scrapped. Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan had agreed to play the show in Brisbane,Sydney and Melbourne following a succesful workshop staging of the Irving Berlin musical late last year in Sydney.
The lack of a suitable theatre in Sydney is being cited for the cancellation. All large theatres in that city are expected to be housing big musicals-Rent,Jekyll and Hyde,Showboat and the Peter Allen bio-musical Boy From Oz. The only possibility,the State Theatre was rejected by Tommy Tune as the size of the show would need to be scaled down to fit the theatre.
Australian producer John Frost says the show is still expected to hit Broadway in March 1999 after an out-of-town tryout in the United States.
--By Peter Ford
Australia Correspondent
