The New York Post's Michael Riedel is reporting that country superstar Reba McEntire may be back on Broadway next year, starring in a revival of "Anything Goes" for the Roundabout.
McEntire pulled off a theatrical coup seven years ago, transforming a lackluster revival of "Annie Get Your Gun" into 'knockout' musical theater reminds Riedel in his ‘Broadway Matinee' column in the New York Post.
"The show that had been dying at the box office, then suddenly became the hottest ticket in town, regularly grossing nearly $1 million a week - and this was before the advent of the hateful "premium-priced" seats" reports Riedel.
Reba, who had no theater experience before "Annie Get Your Gun," had a lot of fun as the toast of Broadway, and she's always said she'd be back again one day. No performer had caused such excitement in a role on the New York stage since Michael Crawford brought his poetic and iconic Phantom to life in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.
Riedel reveals that, "Reno Sweeney, the evangelist-turned-nightclub singer in "Anything Goes," is a good part for her. Ethel Merman played it originally - note that The Merm also created the role of Annie Oakley - and Patti LuPone did well by it back in the 1980s."
The revival will likely be directed by Kathleen Marshall, who staged the Roudabout's Tony Award-winning production of "The Pajama Game" a couple of years ago. For the full Post article, with some other exciting upcoming casting news click here.
Reba McEntire appeared on Broadway in early 2001, as the star of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. Reba's critically acclaimed performance received every other major theatre award except the Tony, which was ineligible for as a replacment. She received unprecedented unanimous acclaim from the theater media. The New York Times declared, "Without qualification the best performance by an actress in a musical comedy this season." Annie Get Your Gun marked Reba's debut as a stage actress. McEntire replaced Bernadette Peters in the classic role.
South Pacific: In Concert From Carnegie Hall starring Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile de Bacque, and Alec Baldwin as Luther Billis was her next New York stage based home run.
The Oklahoma bred country star took on the one-night-only concert role of Nellie Forbush June 9, 2005 -- the role Mary Martin immortalized in the 1949 Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, South Pacific.
The rialto's toughest critics, led by The New York Times' Ben Brantley, instantly surrendered. "Open-voiced and open-faced, she was born to play Nellie," Brantley wrote of the Carnegie Hall benefit performance, adding that the entire production was performed "in a state of nearly unconditional rapture. It was one of those nights when cynicism didn't stand a chance."
She joined with Brian Stokes Mitchell again when he made his solo debut at the renowned Carnegie Hall on Monday, October 15, 2007 in an Actor's Fund benefit concert directed by Richard Jay-Alexander.
Reba McEntire is a Grammy award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American country music singer and performer, and actress. Sometimes referred to as "The Queen of Country", she is known for her lively stage-shows and pop-tinged ballads. She has issued 31 albums, with over 55 million records sold worldwide in her 33-year career.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
