Issue #28: August 18, 1999

• A deal is imminent with the Shuberts to house Sir Peter Hall’s revival of Amadeus following its seven-week engagement at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. The Oct. 10 opening in LA means we’ll see the play open sometime in December in New York. One theatre that keeps popping up for the opening is the Royale Theater where the long-running Tony winner Art is currently playing. Yes, David Suchet (Poirot of Mystery and A&E fame) and Michael Sheen from the original London cast will be Broadway bound.

• Acting legend Uta Hagen, whose career has spanned over 60 years, will be making her debut at the 2000 Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Ms. Hagen will star in Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories, which will have a four-week run at the Tom Patterson Theatre next August. Recipient of a Tony award in June for lifetime achievement, Ms. Hagen’s Broadway debut was in The Seagull in 1938. It was her role as Martha in the 1962 Broadway production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf that she is most famous for.

• The American premiere of producer Cameron Mackintosh’s Martin Guerre begins previews on September 17 with the opening at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis 12 days later. Everything is on track with rehearsals beginning on August 9 with Hugh Panaro in the title role, Erin Dilly, Stephen Buntrock and Jose Llana in the other principal roles.

• They are jumping to their feet nightly, at Royal National Theatre/Cottesloe, to applaud the compelling performance by American Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis in Martin Shermons’ Rose. In this solo performance Dukakis plays an 80-year-old Ukrainian-American Jew who is sitting shiva for a 9-year-old girl. By the sounds of things a Broadway run must be in the offing.

• Another tried and true favourite of the British theatre scene is Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The latest production currently at Theatre Royal, Haymarket, stars British comedian Patricia Routledge who may be familiar to North American audiences as the hilarious Mrs. Bucket on Keeping Up Appearances on most PBS stations.

• Even though its Broadway cousin is losing steam, producers have introduced the 11th cast of the popular comedy Art currently at the Wyndham Theatre. British comedian Frank Skinner in his West End debut joins Nicholas Woodeson, whose television credits include Great Expectations, Woman in White and Cracker. The third new member is Art Malik who is best known to television audiences as Hari Kumer in The Jewel In The Crown.

• Well you knew it would be a reality sooner or later. Diana, a one-woman musical, is currently being workshopped in Amsterdam with tryouts set for April/May 2000 and a national tour booked for the Netherlands begins in the fall of 2000. The musical is written by Maurice Wijnen, Petra van der Eerden and Amina Figarova. Belgian actress Vira Mann, known for her work in Les Misérables and My Fair Lady, will play Diana.

• Director Sam Mendes, who is best known for his stage plays, including Cabaret and The Blue Room, will make his film directorial debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. American Beauty, starring Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and Warren Beatty’s main squeeze Annette Bening, is described as a "humorous take on contemporary suburban America."