Saturday, August 18, 2007

Puttin' on the Ritz

All the scoop on everything from screen to stage:

- Yep, that's the first real look at Shuler Hensley as Young Frankenstein's monster above, with Roger Bart as the good doctor. For more official pics from the Seattle pre-Broadway engagement, including Megan Mullally in a fabulous red dress and Sutton Foster in a shocking blonde wig, head over to Broadway.com.

- Sutton's brother Hunter is keeping it in the family ... the Frankenstein family that is. He will play Dr. F in the Off-Broadway "serious" musical take on the story.

- Film and TV faves are popping up on stages all over the place: former Falcon Crest hunk Lorenzo Lamas is the King of Siam in The King and I, and Law and Order vet S. Epatha Merkerson will try to fill the house slippers of Shirley Booth in a revival of Come Back, Little Sheba.

Following his Tony win for Monty Python's Spamalot, Mike Nichols looks to be making a full-on comeback to Broadway with two star-studded productions in the works: a revival of The Country Girl starring Oscar-winners Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand and the debut of Farragut North with our guy Jake Gyllenhaal.

- Grease: You're the One That I Want continues to sprout success stories. First, "Ambitious Danny" Chad Doreck will join the Altar Boyz as Matthew.

Austin "Hot Danny" Miller and Kate "Serious Sandy" Rockwell will appear in the musical drama Tully (In No Particular Order).

And my personal favorite Danny, Derek "Wholesome Danny" Keeling is set to co-star in the new musical version of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities with James Barbour. With those two onboard, maybe they should call it A Tale of Two Hotties.

Meanwhile, "Slacker Danny" Max Crumm and "Small Town Sandy" Laura Osnes recently hit the studio to record the new Grease cast album.

- Fresh off the one-night wonder that was the American Idol musical (proof that there is a god) comes news that another Fox TV favorite, Family Guy, is hitting the stage.

- If you didn't get enough of High School Musical from this weekend's Disney Channel blitz for the new sequel (which was excellent, by the by, better then the original), then take a look at Broadway World's look backstage at all the various stage incarnations of the teen phenomenon that just keep coming (High School Musical on Ice, any one?).

- Get a double dose of Xanadu cutie Kerry Butler over at Playbill.com, with a Seth Rudetsky chat and a "brief encounter".

- For more diva darlings, see Broadway.com's interview with Legally Blonde's Laura Bell Bundy and another behind-the-scenes video for Disney's The Little Mermaid.

- Paging would be Inspector Clouseaus: Oscar-winning songwriter Leslie Bricusse is working on a Pink Panther stage musical.

- The new TV movie version of the Tony-winning revival of A Raisin in the Sun will air on ABC the day after the Oscars, while the Tony-winning The History Boys returns to the West End - with a new cast.

- Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on Stage (yes, that's the title) has announced its first American tour.

- And finally: Charles Busch and Julie Halston, together again! The two cult superstars are back onstage in The Lady in Question.

Links via Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld.com and Playbill.com.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks for all the updates on all things musical. As a big fan of Altar Boyz, I must say alot of people are happy to hear about Chad. He's coming to a great musical. He'll have fun there.

Kirby Holt said...

"Hello, my name is Kirby. I am an Altarholic."