Jessica Lewis - Page 197

Reports are circulating that the off-Broadway Hit, ALTAR BOYZ, may be getting big screen treatment and that Tony-winning Avenue Q librettist Jeff Whitty has been tapped by the show's creators to adapt the script for the film.

Just in from Variety is news that the members of SEIU 32BJ have now voted to authorize a strike should the union's bargaining committee decide that one is necessary. While this doesn't mean that they will strike, it does bring the threat of a strike closer to reality.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that DreamWorks Studios has acquired film rights to Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel War Horse, which they will present on the big screen. Billy Elliot scribe Lee Hall will create the screenplay adaptation.

GLEE creator Ryan Murphy has revealed to TheWrap that the next installment of GLEE, beginning April 13, feature more musical numbers per episode.

The U.K.'s Daily Mail reports that producing maestro Cameron Mackintosh is developing a new Musical based on the film A Private Affair, renamed Betty Blue Eyes. The musical adaptation has been named in honor of the Queen of England and porker. It will be performed for her upcoming Queen's Diamond Juibilee celebration.

Character actor Charles Davis, who performed the role of Og in the first installment of Finian's Rainbow for over 1000 performances from 1947 - 1948 on Broadway and on tour, died of an apparent heart attack in Thousand Oaks California at 84.

In a special feature this week, the New York Times profiles Broadway's MEMPHIS, providing insight into the show's 6-year journey to Broadway and 900+ rewrites.

Theatre agent John Buzzetti has joined William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME) as head of the agency's theatre department, it was announced today in a joint statement by the WME Board. Buzzetti's renowned clients have been the recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, the Kesserling Prize, and Outer Critics Circle Award.

Annette Bening, who plays the famed feminist in playwright Joanna Murray-Smith's comedy The Female of the Species, will be sharing the Geffen Playhouse stage with a diverse group of acclaimed actors: David Arquette (Scream, Never Been Kissed), Tony Award nominee Mireille Enos (Big Love, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway), Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie), Julian Sands (A Room with a View, Boxing Helena) and Josh Stamberg (Drop Dead Diva). The production is helmed by Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Randall Arney and begins in previews on February 2 with an official opening night of Wednesday, February 10, 2010.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), in association with Jonathan Reinis, Jamie Cesa, Eva Price & Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is proud to present the Broadway premiere production of Wishful Drinking, created and performed by Carrie Fisher and directed by Tony Taccone at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th St).

Laura Osnes will return to the role of Ensign Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater's Tony Award winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC, directed by Bartlett Sher, beginning Tuesday, January 5 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Kelli O'Hara, who originated the role in the production, will play her last performance on Sunday, January 3.

Ken Ludwig's comedy LEND ME A TENOR starring Anthony LaPaglia, Tony Shalhoub, Jan Maxwell, Mary Catherine Garrison, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Jay Klaitz, and Brooke Adams, directed by Stanley Tucci, will bow on Broadway on April 4, 2010 at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). Preview performances begin March 11. Additonal casting will be announced.

Acclaimed actor/director Tony Goldwyn will star as J.D. Sheldrake, with Tony Award winner Katie Finneran as Marge MacDougall, and Tony award nominee Brooks Ashmanskas as Mr. Dobitch, joining Emmy Award winner Sean Hayes and Tony and Emmy Award winner Kristin Chenoweth in the musical comedy PROMISES, PROMISES at the Broadway Theater (1681 Broadway). Previews will begin Saturday, March 27th, 2010, at 8pm, with an opening night of Sunday, April 25th, 2010. The first-ever Broadway revival of PROMISES, PROMISES is produced by Broadway Across America (John Gore, Thomas B. McGrath, Beth Williams), Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Candy Spelling, Pat Addiss and The Weinstein Company.

The Miami Herald reports that Miami producer and former director of Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse, Arnold Mittelman, who ran Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse from 1985 until it's closing in 2006 is planning the first Broadway revival of The Rothschilds, a 1970 musical written by Sherman Yellen and featuring a score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.

John Kander, the renowned, Tony Award-winning composer of such beloved musicals as CHICAGO, CABARET, KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN and many others, will be honored by Vineyard Theatre at the company's annual Gala on Monday, March 8th beginning at 6 PM at the Hudson Theater in Manhattan, it has been announced by Douglas Aibel, Artistic Director of Vineyard Theatre. David Hyde Pierce - Tony Award-winner for his appearance in the musical CURTAINS by John Kander and his collaborator, the late Fred Ebb - will host.

Composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Fosse, Godspell, Pippin) will be honored with the inaugural Junior Theater Festival Award for his contributions to the Advancement of Musical Theater for Young People. The two day festival event, which is produced and presented by iTheatrics and Atlanta's Theater of the Stars, will take place at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta from January 15-17.

ET's Mary Hart hosted 'A Salute to the Kennedy Center Honors' on Wednesday night at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Kennedy Center inductees gathered to discuss what the honor means to them.

Today, Joe's Pub released a schedule of upcoming events January events. Broadway favorites included in the line-up are Julia Sweeney, the tribe of Hair, and Lauren Ambrose. Just added performers include Shemekia Copeland, Kristina Train, Mato Nanji and more (1/10), World Famous *BOB*: One Man Show (1/24), Cyro Baptista's Banquet of the Spirits (2/2) & Carrie Newcomer: CD Release (3/28). For more information, visit www.joespub.com.

The New York Times this week profiles the women of FELA! - the nine unnamed, almost speechless figures that decorate the stage of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, representing the 27 wives of the Nigerian Afrobeat musician and political activist.

Nominees for the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for outstanding performances in 2009 in five film and eight primetime television categories and for the SAG honors for film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center's Silver Screen Theater in West Hollywood.