The Broadway Musical Blog – Musical theater news and gossip from the Great White Way
Dishing out daily (or almost daily) Broadway musical news and gossip. The companion site to The Broadway Musical Home (broadwaymusicalhome.com), a directory of Broadway musicals with the story, songs, merchandise, video clips, lyrics, tickets, rights & awards for almost 200 shows.Archive for September, 2009
Spielberg to create a TV to stage production: Showtime series to trace the development of a new Shaiman/Wittman composed show
According to Variety, director Steven Spielberg is developing a Showtime series that will trace the creation of an original musical by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can) with the aim of taking it to Broadway.
The producers for the project are Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who adapted Hairspray and Chicago for film and Gypsy, Annie and The Music Man for television. No other collaborators have yet been announced.
Some great new musicals are in the works
Regina Spektor’s Beauty
Singer/songwriter Regina Spektor, playwright/director Tina Landau (Floyd Collins) and lyricist Michael Korie (Happiness, Grey Gardens) are working together to create a new Broadway-aimed musical called Beauty, which “uses the 1812 Grimm fairy tale ‘Sleeping Beauty’ as a jumping off point for a contemporary and hauntingly provocative story of beauty lost and beauty found.” The show, which is looking at a 2011-12 Broadway season run, is produced by the same folks behind Broadway’s upcoming The Addams Family.
Richard Matheson’s Somewhere in Time
Original novelist/screenwriter Richard Matheson is co-writing a stage musical version of Somewhere in Time with writer/producer Ken Davenport, composer Leslie Arden and director Stafford Arima (Altar Boyz). Stay tuned for more news about this exciting new production.
Hollmann and Kotis’ Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life)
The Tony Award winning authors of Urinetown the Musical, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, are opening their next show, Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life) - ”the strangest story ever to be musicalized” - with Chicago’s American Theater Company. No Broadway run has yet been announced, but I’m thinking it’s likely to head that way.
Lots of Lion King News
Lots of news regarding Lion King, the first show to surpass 50 million audience members worldwide:
Objects from the show will join the collection of artifacts with Broadway origins in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
The cast of The Lion King will also be performing on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars on Wednesday, September 23.
And … Cameron Pow joins the Broadway cast as Zazu fresh from the West End and North American touring productions.
Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel’s little baby boy, Walker Diggs
Aww! How cute is Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel’s little Walker!?
Phantom: Love Never Dies is officially headed to Broadway
It’s happening – Andrew Llyod Webber confirmed at Phantom of the Opera‘s 9,000th performance that the sequel to show, Phantom: Love Never Dies will open in London in March and on Broadway in November of 2010.
Broadway’s longest running show, Phantom of the Opera, reaches another staggering milestone – 9,000 performances!
Tonight’s performance of Phantom of the Opera will mark the show’s 9,000 Broadway performance!
Since its debut on January 26, 1988, the Broadway version of Phantom of the Opera has grossed $740 million and has been attended by over 13 million patrons. Internationally the show has earned over $5 billion, played over 65,000 performances and been seen by over 100 million attendees.
The show has broken an unprecedented number of records, including:
• The longest-running show in Broadway history
• Largest capitalization for any show – $8 million
• Largest total advance – $18 million
• Total gross and attendance
• The number of years before a single ticket was
ever sold at the TKTS ticket booth in Times
Square – over 14 years
• George Lee Andrews who plays Monsieur
Andre continues to be the performer with
the longest time in the same Broadway show
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber confirmed that he is working on a sequel to the show, Phantom: Love Never Dies. Information about that show is forthcoming.
Video performances from Broadway on Broadway 2009
If you missed the fabulous performances at yesterday’s Broadway on Broadway concert, check out these video clips (NOTE: Some of the fan footage is better than others):
Ave Q closed on Broadway, but announced a transfer to Off-Broadway!
At the final Broadway performance for Avenue Q, one of the show’s producers announced to the cast, crew and audience members that they need not bid the show goodbye – it is transferring Off-Broadway to the New World Stages on Oct 9!
This is one of the first shows (if not the first) to make the transition from Broadway to Off-Broadway and I personally could not be more thrilled that visitors to NYC will still be able to see it.
Casting has not been announced for the Off-Broadway version, though the same set, puppets and creative team will be used for the new staging.
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