Issue #229: July 1, 2009

• My what a night... the 2009 Tony Awards! Wonderful to see Angela Lansbury win her fifth statue for her performance in Blithe Spirit.  And the three young fellows who won for Billy Elliot... couldn't have been cuter.  Unlike the Oscars this show ticked along and bowed out just a couple of minutes past eleven.  The big winner was Billy Elliot: The Musical with 10 Tony’s and a highlight was Auzzie Geoffrey Rush winning for Exit the King…one of my favourite shows. 

• Not all shows on Broadway boded well with the excitement of the Tony’s…the revival of Guys and Dolls closed on Sunday, June 14 along with the play reasons to be pretty.  Both Exit the King and God of Carnage, winners of Tony’s, closed as schedule on June 14 rather than extending.

• It looks like Rosie O’Donnell is taking another stab at Broadway, this time starring in a revival of Babes in Arms.  No dates or theatre information available just yet.

• The Jerry Herman musical La Cage aux Folles which is currently in London looks to be heading to Broadway next spring.  The Olivier Award winning revival is looking to bring the Brit star Douglas Hope to headline.

• The Tony’s saluted a number of road companies…one being the number of productions of Jersey Boys currently playing all around North America.  What a lovely salute to the show having five Frankie Valli’s singing on stage at one time.

• With the death of Michael Jackson it looks like The Nederlander Organization will be putting the planned new musical Thriller on hold.  It was announced in January that they were working on staging the new musical based on the record album… though the producer said “everything’s ready to go… right now we’re grieving the loss of Michael.”  Also there may be some dispute on a rights issue….so we’ll have to take a wait and see attitude on this to see how it all shakes out. 

• Jan Rubes, a pioneer of Canadian opera, theatre, radio, television and film, died on June 29 at the age of 89.  A true renaissance man, Rubes immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1948 already with experience performing with the Prague Opera.  In his new homeland he found work as a soloist with CBC radio and hosted a CBC television children’s series.  Rubes was an original member of Opera Festival Company of Toronto the precursor to the Canadian Opera Company where he was active up until 1989.  Rubes also directed operas as well as joining the Stratford Festival from its opening in the early 50’sperforming there for a number of decades as well.  However he may be familiar to the masses as the Amish grandfather in the 1985 Harrison Ford film Witness.