Theatre Gossip

Broadway star gossip for once instead of Hollywood gossip? Why not? There’s a void in gossip for us theatre geeks. Where can we find out the goings on of stage rather than screen for once? We may be a smaller population,  but we know our Broadway shows and actors, and we want to know the news.

The Bye Bye Birdie revival’s preview tickets go on sale today, and they’re doing something really cool. At noon, $10.00 tickets go on sale. $10.00! For a Broadway show! That’s absolutely unheard of, and it’s absolutely awesome of the producers to do, since so many people can’t afford Broadway tickets due to the ever inflating cost. This is your chance! And it’s thanks to Bank of America, by the way. Furthermore, Conrad Birdie himself, Nolan Gerard Funk (real name?) with composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams will greet humble ticket seekers! Sweet.

Already having performed the role in London, Jerry Springer will play the role of Billy Flynn in Chicago from August 18 to September 6, exlcuding Mondays. He’ll get to sing “Razzle, Dazzle,” which may as well be the theme song for his career.

There is a god! Production on Julie Taymor’s Spiderman, Turn Off the Dark has been stopped! It’s due to a cash flow problem. What?! Backers aren’t lining up to throw their money at a musical about a comic book hero, flitting across the stage in his pajamas? Shocking! Even with the bubbly and glowing Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane? Injustice! Well, seriously, what is an injustice is that the pause is just that, a pause, and will reportedly not affect the scheduled preview start-up date of February 25, 2010. Holy Broadway Mockery, Batman.

This seems controversial…The Columbine Project, the story of you guessed it, started previews off-Broadway July 27. This is one of those things that could be really good and profound, or it could be awful and exploitative. Let’s hope it’s the former, so playwright Paul Anthony Storiale walks away with some respect and credibility.

High Fidelity, the stage version of the John Cusack movie, didn’t fare too well on Broadway. But, hopefully it will see a better fate in Chicago, appropos since that’s where the story takes place. So, maybe audiences will feel a special bond with it. The show will run from August 17 to October 11 at the Pipers Alley Theater.

August 10th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Broadway | (0)