Issue #124: February 15, 2004

• It looks as though the long struggle to get Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's controversial Assassins on the boards is over.  Previews begin March 26 with an April 22 opening at Studio 54.  The cast of "assassins" includes Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Houser fame. Originally scheduled to debut on Broadway in the fall of 2001, the Roundabout production was cancelled following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

• Brit Eddie Izzard is counting on his A Day in the Death of Joe Egg success to bring in an audience to a production of Macbeth in 2006.  Izzard has expressed a desire to play the role and has indicated his ideal Lady Macbeth would be .Egg co-star Victoria Hamilton.

• A new musical based on legendary soccer player Diego Maradona is currently playing in Buenos Aires.  The title (translated) 10, Between Heaven and Hell, follows his career through the '70s to the '90s as the world's best soccer player and Argentinean hero.  The producers are looking to take the musical to New York and London as well as the soccer hotspots Italy, Spain and Japan.

• VBW a European musical production company is set to premiere it's musical adaptation of the cult film Barbarella, which made Jane Fonda a household name. The March 11 opening in Vienna features the music of Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics fame.  The producer has compiled a rock n' roll team of designers including Mark Fisher (Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd), costumers Patricia Fields and David Dalrymple (Britney Spears, Sex and the City) and lighting designer Willie Williams (U2, R.E.M).  

• Ann Miller, the tap dancing legend with legs that went on forever, died of lung cancer on January 22.  One of my first brushes with stage greatness was in the fall of 1984 at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto when Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney came to town in Sugar Babies for a three-week run. I remember seeing her dance, already more than 60 years of age, and tap the rapid fire for which she was famous; at one time her taps were timed at 500 taps a minute.  Her first Broadway appearance was in 1939 in George White's Scandals  which featured her show stopping Mexiconga number catapulting her into the film world.  She didn't return to Broadway until 1969 when she took over the title role of Mame.  Miller then toured in Anything Goes in the '70s.  It was in 1979 she starred in Broadway's salute to vaudeville in Sugar Babies.  After  two years  with the show on Broadway Ms. Miller took the show on the road and toured for the next 10!   If you missed seeing her on stage you may remember her performances in the movie classics Easter Parade, On the Town and Kiss me Kate.   Her final on-screen performance was in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive in 2001. Miller's contribution to the world of tap is part of dance history.