We recently posed five questions to Lynn Shaw, one of the producers of the current Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker, which stars Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin as Helen Keller and is currently in previews at Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre.

How did you get involved with The Miracle Worker?

I got involved with The Miracle Worker because it was as though a light bulb went off over my head. I was just cooking in my kitchen and I decided that I must find out more about this incredible story about to be told on stage for the first time in 50 years and be a producer to help bring this play to the public. I then just contacted our lead producer David Richenthal and…the rest is history.

What is a producer’s job for a Broadway play?

I believe that a producer’s job is everything. Obviously raising capital for the production is a huge responsibility but for me, it does not end there. I believe that every producer must become an ambassador for his or her show and do everything in his or her power to promote and sell tickets. The bottom line is to make your investors their money back and then some. One should call upon every contact they have and make it happen…from press opportunities to marketing to meeting and greeting at the theatre. I like to act as a personal concierge as people really enjoy and respond to great customer service. My mind never stops thinking of new ways to promote the show from having my husband, talk radio personality Lionel, moderate talk-backs to calling upon anyone that I have ever worked with and have relationships with to help out.

How does producing a Broadway production compare to an Off-Broadway show?

I believe that Broadway and Off-Broadway are comparable these days. Both take much hard work, dedication and raising money. It’s a risky business but…the rewards outweigh the risk if one pushes hard in every way possible to make the show a success.

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Jerome Robbins’ “ballet in sneakers,” NY Export: Opus Jazz, takes on a new life in a film conceived, created, produced and danced by members of the New York City Ballet.

Presented on the “Ed Sullivan Show” to acclaim in 1958, the work featured a jazz score by Robert Prince and “told the story of disaffected urban youth through movement that blended ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing with Latin, African and American rhythms to create a powerfully expressive, sexy and contemporary style,” according to press notes.

NYCB has created a scripted film version that was shot on location with 35mm film across New York City, including the pre-renovation High Line, McCarren Pool, Coney Island, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens.

Matt Wolf and Anna Farrell also created a 15-minute documentary about the film, that captures the history of Opus Jazz and features original West Side Story cast member Eliot Field, as well as original Opus dancer Sondra Lee.

The film will debut as part of the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival, and have its broadcast premiere March 24 on PBS’ “Great Performances.”

Here’s a look at the trailer:

“Not the Messiah (He’s A Very Naughty Boy),” a comedic oratorio by Monty Python members Eric Idle and John Du Prez, will be screened in digital cinemas across the U.K. and Ireland March 25.

The Spamalot creators penned the piece, which was inspired by Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian.” Based on Handel’s infamous work, “Not the Messiah” was filmed in October 2009 at Royal Albert Hall.

The cast features Idle, William Ferguson, Shannon Mercer, Rosalind Plowright, Christopher Purves, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes. Du Prez conducted the BBC Orchestra for the performances.

John Fiedler’s claim to fame was that he supplied the voice of Piglet in the “Winnie the Pooh” movies, but he was physically quite recognizable as well. Most people remember him as the milquetoast Juror #2 among “12 Angry Men,” but Bruce Norris knows him as Karl Lindner in A Raisin in the Sun (also on film), the unctuous spokesman for an “improvement association” who tried to talk Sidney Poitier and family out of moving into Clybourne Park and disrupting the community’s all-white status quo.

Therein hangs another play, called Clybourne Park, by Norris, and it just went into extra innings at Playwrights Horizons because of its critical reception.

Fiedler and a school teacher can be thanked for this, according to the play’s director, Pam MacKinnon: “Bruce grew up in Houston in a very much all-white neighborhood, and he had this subversive junior-high school English teacher who showed him this play by Lorraine Hansberry, and it really stuck in Bruce’s head for years and years.”

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Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts has completed work on the screenplay for his acclaimed family drama August: Osage County.

In a recent interview with Chicago’s Modern Luxury magazine, the playwright discusses the film adaptation, its progress and his dream cast.

Letts tells CML: “Here’s what’s true: The producers acquired the rights to August: Osage County and hired me to write the screenplay and I’ve written it. Nobody has been hired. There is no director, there are no actors, there is no date. There are a lot of rumors, but none of them are true. People are taking their time to make sure it gets done right. No one is rushing to get something up there that’s half-ass.”

When asked to provide who his ideal cast would be, Letts replied, “Sure, the original cast.”

Letts was asked if he thought the original Steppenwolf cast would end up in the film and stated: “No, and there are good reasons why — mainly financial reasons. But if I was in charge of that decision, I would have the original cast come back and do it and put it on film.”

Here are the best-selling theatre CDs for the week ending Feb. 27, 2010, as reported by billboard.biz.

It looks like Avenue Q’s Lucy the Slut won’t be making Colorado Springs, CO, feel “Special,” at least not before they get to meet her in person.

The puppet temptress’ cleavage has been on prominent display on billboards and at bus stops in most areas of the country where the musical’s touring production has played. But according to the Los Angeles Times, the ads will not be running in Colorado Springs, presumably because of conservative objections to the content.

Initially, the city’s Lamar Advertising company didn’t seem to have a problem with the ads, said Kristy Maple, the marketing director for the show’s booker, NewSpace Entertainment. But eventually, things changed: “It was going to the presses, and a top executive said, ‘We can’t do this in Colorado Springs.’”

Jeff Moore, an account executive at Lamar, told the Colorado Springs Gazette, “If I have to explain it to my 4-year-old or my grandmother, we don’t put it up.”

The Los Angeles Times said that Lucy’s puppet costars would be featured in bus ads in Colorado Springs, including closeted gay investment banker Rod. (Hmmm … well, he is a Republican…)

Avenue Q won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical. Following the closing of the Broadway production this past summer, the musical re-opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages.

—Thomas Peter