Issue #134: July 15, 2004

• Lovely Neve Campbell is set to make her Broadway debut in October when she plays opposite Michael Hayden in Alan Knee's Syncopation.  John Tillinger will direct and John O'Connell from Moulin Rouge fame is on board for choreography.

• The revival Jumpers hasn't experienced the box office success A Raisin in the Sun has.  The National Theater production originally slated to close August 22 packed up and left town on July 11.

• Look for a revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music to land on Broadway in the spring of 2006.  The producers have veteran Brit director Trevor Nunn on board to direct with Glen Close rumored to star.

• Some last minute changes happened recently during the previews of the new Nathan Lane-Stephen Sondheim musical The Frogs.  Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live) left the building making way for Tony Award-winner Roger Bart.  Apparently the recasting is a good thing!

• Paige Davis has traded in her tool belt from her hit television series Trading Spaces for dance shoes and the spotlight in the Broadway revival Chicago.  Currently in the lead role of Roxy, Davis trod the boards for fourteen years including understudying for Chicago before finding TV fame.

• Believe it or not the first ever tour of Hair hits the road in the fall of 2005.  During the 70s there were numerous "sit-down" productions but no real tour per sé. 

• Do you need a little Monty Python in your life?  Well Python alum, Eric Idle is in pre-production mode with his new musical Spamalot which opens at Chicago's Shubert Theater on December 21 then heads to Broadway for a March 10 opening at a Shubert Theater yet to be confirmed.  Based on the 1975 movie Monty Python and The Holy Grail  the cast of characters taking to the stage will be well worth whatever the ticket price is. Fraser's Dr. Niles Crane,  David Hyde Pierce is cast as Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So Brave. Hank Azaria best known as a voice on The Simpsons plays Sir Lancelot and Tim Curry from The Rocky Horror Picture Show is King Arthur.  All this talent and with Mike Nichols directing it is bound to keep you in stitches.

• The original method actor, Marlon Brando, passed away on July 1 and on Broadway on July 2 the lights were dimmed at 8:00 p.m..  Even though he hadn't set foot on a stage in almost fifty years, Brando is revered as the artist who revolutionized acting.  Schooled at New York's Actors' Studio, Brando made his Broadway debut in I Remember Mama in 1944. He is most remembered for his breakthrough role as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee William's A Street Car Named Desire opposite Jessica Tandy in 1947.  Before heading to Hollywood in the 50s, he appeared in the Broadway productions of Candida, Truckline Café and A Flag Is Born.  His film career is what legends are made of; recreating his role as Kowalski in the film version of A Street Car Named Desire, his Oscar winning roles in On The Waterfront and The Godfather along with performances in Guys & Dolls, Apocolypse Now, and the list goes on.  Brando..never to be duplicated.