Issue #40: February 15, 2000

• Canadian pop diva Alanis Morisette is heading to New York for a two-week stint in the off-Broadway show The Vagina Monologues. Morisette will star alongside fellow Canadian Andrea Martin when she makes her stage debut on March 21 at the Westside Theater. Others who have appeared in Eve Ensler’s play include Rosie Perez, Gina Gershon and Ricki Lake.

• Arthur Miller’s The Price will exit the Royale Theatre on March 5 due to poor ticket sales. This will make way for the London transfer of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen.

• The revival of two of Neil Simon’s eighties classics Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound will return to Broadway next season and perform in repertory. The two works are considered to be autobiographical with the character Eugene Jerome in the role of the legendary playwright. Tony winner Linda Lavin will reprise her role as Kate Jerome in Broadway Bound as well as taking on the same character in Brighton Beach Memoirs — a career first. National casting will take place in March with rehearsals beginning in December. A pre-Broadway run will be at Florida’s Coconut Grove Theater where producers plan five performances of one play then three of the other each week. The New York theatre and opening date have not yet been confirmed.

• Toronto’s Mirvish productions announced their 2000-01 season which kicks off in November with Dame Edna, The Royal Tour followed by the comedy hit of the Edinburgh Festival Stones in His Pockets then the Toronto Soulpepper production’s revival of the 1907 comedy A Flea in Her Ear. Michael Healy’s The Drawer Boy and the sleeper musical comedy hit of last season The Drowsy Chaperone will both make their commercial debut. The season will close with the North American Premiere of the London hit Mamma Mia!

• Lautrec opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre for a six month run beginning April 6. Written by Charles Aznavour and Shaun McKenna the musical bio is based on the famous French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

• In Johannesburg, South Africa, award-winning playwright and stage director John Kani is joining a movement to urge the Pretoria government to step up funding for arts and culture. Currently in London where he is rehearsing fellow South African Athol Fugard’s play The Island, Kani warned the dismantling of such institutions as The NSO (National Symphony Orchestra) is a sign of things to come. In order for their culture, history, language and art to flourish it is imperative for the government to continue and increase funding, he said. Although the amount of money has not changed, the post-apartheid government distribution is much broader. Let’s hope that activists like Kani will continue to campaign for the preservation of South African culture.

• Well, there is a plethora of television personalities burning up the boards on Broadway these days. For instance, former General Hospital and Melrose Place regular Jack Wagner is currently playing the lead in the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Recently reported was the limited run of All My Children soap star Susan Lucci in Annie Get Your Gun. And the Sondheim musical Putting It Together, which just recently closed, saw a weekly performance by talk show diva Kathie Lee Gifford. The award-winning production of Chicago has seen the likes of Vicki Lewis (NewsRadio), Nana Visitor (Star Trek Deep Space Nine), Marilu Henner (Taxi), Robert Urich (Spenser: For Hire) and Jasmine Guy (A Different World) in various editions of the musical.