Claudia Shear, casting about for a new project, has set her sights on the 1961 Noel Coward musical Sail Away. According to a report in New York Newsday, the Dirty Blonde star is considering reworking the tuner for a production at New York Theatre Workshop, the Off-Broadway house where Blonde began before bouncing to Broadway. Shear is currently reprising her dual role as Mae West and a Mae West worshipper in the tour of the Tony-nominated show (now in Washington, DC).

Sail Away is currently fresh in the minds of New York theatregoers; Elaine Stritch sings the show's most famous number, "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" every night in her one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty. In addition, Stritch, who starred as cruise hostess Mimi in the original Broadway mounting, recreated the role in a celebrated 1999 concert performance.

Shear told Newsday she had Stritch's blessing to explore the musical anew. The Coward estate, meanwhile, has given the actress permission to refashion the project for NYTW. Director Christopher Ashley would direct a coming workshop.