After a little mouse made a guest appearance in the April 27 performance of Lend Me a Tenor, PETA stepped in with a gift and some words of advice. PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman sent a letter to Music Box Theatre manger Jonathan Shulman with helpful tips on keeping mice out of the theatre, and included two humane mousetraps that will contain these wee would-be actors without harming them.
“Humane mouse control at the Music Box is a win-win solution,” Reiman said in a statement. “Mice, without coming to harm, will get the message that they have no business in show business, and audiences will be guaranteed that everyone who appears on stage is supposed to be there. We’re encouraging Jonathan Shulman to find a solution that everyone can live with—including the mice.”
The furry co-star (Tito Mouse-relli, as he is known on his newly minted facebook page) escorted himself offstage after an explanatory ad lib from actors Justin Bartha and Tony Shalhoub. With PETA’s help, his star turn will be the last scene-stealing surprise these Broadway stars will have to contend with. (To read about the mouse’s stage debut, click here.)
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Hunter Foster, who was Tony-nominated for his performance in Little Shop of Horrors. Foster, who is currently playing Sam Phillips in the new musical Million Dollar Quartet, has blogged for Playbill.com all week; his final entry, a video blog, follows:
John Gallagher, Jr. and the cast of American Idiot took over the stage of “The Late Show with David Letterman” April 29 to rock out on the show’s version of the Green Day hit “Holiday.” (Green Day fans might also recognize a snippet of Green Day’s “Basket Case,” played by the Letterman Show band as an introduction to the segment.)
American Idiot, inspired by the 2004 Green Day album of the same name and featuring all Green Day music, opened April 20 at Broadway’s St. James Theatre. Green Day frontman Bille Joe Armstrong co-wrote the book with Tony winner Michael Mayer, who directs the piece.
Grab your lighters, rock fans; after over a year on Broadway, Rock of Ages is packing the tour bus and hitting the road!
Set in 1987 on the sunset strip, Rock of Ages is an arena rock love story full of everything that made the 80s great – or made them the 80s, anyway. Acid washed jeans, hair, hair, hair, guitar shredding and the music of Journey, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake and many more.
The nationwide tour launches Sept. 21 in Chicago starring Constantine Maroulis. To find out when it rocks and rolls into a city near you, visit http://www.rockofagesmusical.com/tour.
Andrew Lippa, the composer-lyricist whose musical The Addams Family is a hot-seller on Broadway at the moment, is juggling a number of projects in the post-opening sunshine — from completing a world-premiere recording of his musical with Brian Crawley, A Little Princess, to continuing work on the Jules Feiffer-inspired musical, The Man in the Ceiling, a Disney show.
Plus, there’s more.
“I do have a really sizable project, akin to The Addams Family, a large Broadway project that is very close to having the star of our choice join us,” he told PlayBlog. “But, I cannot say what it is or with whom it is, yet, because of the sensitivities surrounding all of that stuff.”
There is always a “but” with these premature conversations about future projects, isn’t there? Can’t we get a scoop?
Broadway's Mamma Mia! is joining in the fight against breast cancer by dedicating its May 5 performance to Komen Greater NYC, the Greater New York City affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The evening will begin with a pre-show reception at Sephora Times Square, complete with Express services, mini-makeovers and goodie bags. A pink runway will sweep the evening’s audience into the lobby of the Winter Garden Theatre, where special signage will be present as well as a table with educational materials about breast health and Komen Greater NYC programs. 100 percent of the proceeds from Mamma Mia! breast cancer/pink ribbon merchandise sold at the evening’s performance will go to Komen Greater NYC.
Discounted tickets for that performance and others are also available. Visit givenik.com to purchase discount tickets to Mamma Mia! now through May 9, and 5 percent of those proceeds will go to Komen Greater NYC.
“We are very excited about this partnership with Mamma Mia!” Komen Greater NYC CEO Dara Richardson-Heron said in a statement. “The show is a huge favorite of women — mothers, daughters and girlfriends — the people that our organization serves.”
Since being established in 1990, the Greater New York City Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure has raised close to $50 million to fund the fight against breast cancer, and disburses up to 75 percent of its net income to local programs offering breast health education, screening and treatment in the five boroughs of New York City, on Long Island and in Westchester and Rockland Counties.
For more information, visit www.komennyc.org, or call (212) 293-CURE.
Musical theatre fans are saying “gimme, gimme” after reading the Bloomberg.com news item that Tony Award winner Sutton Foster is in talks to star in a Roundabout Theatre Company Broadway revival of Cole Porter’s musical Anything Goes, perhaps for 2010-11.
Roundabout had no comment, but PlayBlog has independently learned that discussions are indeed happening. Foster’s belt is as famous as that of Santa Claus, and the role of Reno Sweeney in the 1934 musical comedy will give her a chance to use it. Depending on the version being staged — original? 1962 Off-Broadway rewrite? 1989 Lincoln Center rewrite? a new hybrid? — Reno’s Porter-folio includes the big-voiced numbers, “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” “You’re the Top” and title song, plus the more rueful “I Get a Kick Out of You,” with perhaps “Buddie, Beware” and “Friendship” thrown in for kicks.
Ethel Merman, Eileen Rodgers and Patti LuPone have played Reno, the evangelist-nightclub singer who travels across the Atlantic and finds love. Bloomberg.com mentioned that Kathleen Marshall might direct the revival.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Hunter Foster, who was Tony-nominated for his performance in Little Shop of Horrors. Foster, who is currently playing Sam Phillips in the new musical Million Dollar Quartet, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his fourth entry follows:
It’s 8 AM and I am off to play softball for the Million Dollar Quartet/Addams Family team. Love the Broadway Show League. It’s taken my legs about a week to recover from last week’s game but I think I’ll be fine. All I know is that if you saw Million Dollar Quartet over the weekend and Sam Phillips was walking gingerly, with a slight hitch in his gait, that was because old man Foster played Softball last Thursday and pulled every little muscle in his “gams.”
Some of my favorite memories of playing for the Show League over the years include when we were doing the Grease revival — the first Grease revival. Like when Rosie O’Donnell got in a fight with our left-fielder because he went after a ball and ran over our second baseman, whom Rosie happened to be dating at the time. Or Adrian Zmed telling me he had a friend who wanted to play for us that year and lo and behold who shows up? Meat Loaf. First time in my life I’ve ever got the chance to say this: “Nice catch, Meat.” Or our Pink Ladies, who would all show up in cut-off Daisy Duke blue jeans and high athletic socks only to flirt with the umps and talk dirty to the opposing batters.
Jack Noseworthy, who in recent years played the title role in Pippin at the Paper Mill Playhouse, will play Pip in a musical version of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, which world-premieres at the Utah Shakespearean Festival July 1-Aug. 28.
The role of Pip was shared by John Mills and Tony Wager in David Lean’s famous 1946 film version and played by Ethan Hawke in Alfonso Cuaron’s 1998 remake. Noseworthy’s Broadway credits include Jerome Robbins’ Broadway and Sweet Smell of Success.
Jules Aaron will direct the piece in Cedar City, UT. It goes into rehearsal May 17. Great Expectations: The Musical has music by Richard Winzeler, lyrics by Steve Lane and book by Brian VanDerWilt and Steve Lozier, adapted by Margaret Hoorneman. Visit www.bard.org.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Hunter Foster, who was Tony-nominated for his performance in Little Shop of Horrors. Foster, who is currently playing Sam Phillips in the new musical Million Dollar Quartet, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his third entry follows:
My failed attempt to awake to “Turkey Lurkey” continues. My alarm clock just doesn’t want to play the song. But, I did wake up to an interesting thought: what constitutes a musical? Yes. Sometimes those things just pop into my head at 9 AM along with how many glasses of wine did I really drink last night?
It is truly one of the strangest seasons I’ve ever seen. There are only two — let me repeat that — TWO musicals that have an original score: Addams Family and Memphis. The rest of the musicals — including my own, Million Dollar Quartet — use pre-existing material. And some musicals, including American Idiot and Come Fly Away, also have little if any spoken dialogue. I haven’t seen Sherie Rene Scott’s Everyday Rapture but from what I hear, despite the fact that it’s blissfully well written and she’s giving a dynamite performance, the show has more in common with Elaine Stritch’s wonderful At Liberty than Oklahoma! And with the opening of Enron last night, with its theatrical use of song and dance to tell the story of the collapse of the Texas business giant, many people wonder if it’s more of an original musical than the revue Sondheim on Sondheim.
