RIALTO CHATTER: Douglas Carter Beane to Re-Write Broadway's SISTER ACT?

Michael Riedel reports in the New York Post this morning that Douglas Carter Beane has been named the new book writer for the Broadway installment of the West End's SISTER ACT.  He will be replacing Cheri Steinkeller and Bill Steinkellner, who once upon a time wrote scripts for television's "Cheers," "Who's The Boss" and "The Jeffersons."

Beane is best known in the theater world for Xanadu, The Little Dog Laughed, which was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play, and Mr. and Mrs. Fitch. Additional works include the screenplay of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, and several plays including The Country Club and As Bees in Honey Drown, which ran at New York's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1997. Beane won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Xanadu. He is also the artistic director of the Drama Dept. Theater Company in New York.

Producers Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment announced this week that the new Broadway musical, SISTER ACT, will play the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway) this spring. Preview performances are scheduled to begin on March 24, 2011. Opening night is confirmed for Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Casting and on sale date will be announced shortly.

SISTER ACT features an original score with music by multi-Academy, Grammy and Golden Globe Award-winning composer Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Enchanted), and lyrics by Tony Award-nominee Glenn Slater (The Little Mermaid). Original book is by multi-Emmy Award winners Cheri and Bill Steinkellner ("Cheers"). Directed on Broadway by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks (Guys and Dolls, A Funny Thing...Forum, Smokey Joe's Café), the production features choreography by Tony and Olivier Award nominee Anthony Van Laast (Mamma Mia, Bombay Dreams) and is based on the Touchstone Pictures motion picture Sister Act written by Joseph Howard.

SISTER ACT has broken the record for the highest grossing single performance (December 2009) and highest weekly gross (August 2010) for any musical ever at the London Palladium. The hit show began previews there on May 7, 2009 and opened June 2 to rave notices, remaining a runaway favorite with audiences ever since.

The record-breaking production has been seen by over a million people and was nominated for four Olivier Awards, including Best Musical, as well as seven Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers Choice Awards, winning two. The show's Original Cast Recording is also a big favorite with fans, recently reaching Number 1 on the iTunes Soundtrack chart. A German production will open in Hamburg in December 2010, followed by productions in Australia, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Italy, France and Spain soon after.

Producer Whoopi Goldberg stepped into the role of Mother Superior this summer for a limited three-week engagement and the critics found SISTER ACT as heavenly as it was on opening night.

When disco diva Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a murder, she is put in protective custody in the one place cops are sure she won't be found - a convent! Disguised as a nun, she finds herself at odds with both the rigid lifestyle and an uptight Mother Superior. Using her fabulous disco-ness and killer voice to inspire the choir, Deloris breathes new life into the church and community, but in doing so blows her cover. Soon it's nun-on-the-run time but she finds salvation in the heavenly power of her newly found sisterhood. Based on the mega-hit feature film, SISTER ACT features an original Alan Menken/Glenn Slater score with a vast inspiration of musical styles from Motown, soul and funk to great big disco anthems and Barry White inspired musical comedy.
SISTER ACT will feature scenery by Klara Zieglerova (Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention), costumes by Lez Brotherston (Swan Lake, The Car Man, Edward Scissorhands), lighting by Natasha Katz (The Coast of Utopia, Aida -Tony Awards) and sound by Mick Potter (The Woman in White - Olivier Award). The music department includes Musical Supervisor Michael Kosarin and Orchestrations by Doug Besterman.

Ticket information, including on sale date and point of purchase, will be announced at a later date.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.