® Theatre Geek TV: Check out the hotties in this backstage video peek at last June’s Broadway Bares 17, an annual fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

® Kenneth Branagh is directing a new film version of Sleuth with as many real-life plot twists as the original Anthony Schaffer play. Michael Cain is portraying the older novelist this time around and Jude Law will play the young actor (played by Cain in the 1972 film). To make the film an absolute must-see, the script is being penned by British playwright (pause) Harold (pause)…Pinter. Thanks to Playgoer for the heads up.

® Steve on Broadway wonders what will be the next Mel Brooke’s movie to be made into a giant Broadway musical. Should we prepare to see Megan Mullally as Lili von Shtupp singing “I’m Tired” to critical acclaim?

® Michael Cerveris is EVERYWHERE: This Tony Award winning actor will perform in Shakespeare Goes to the Opera in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera beginning at 6:30 on Monday, September 17 and will also be seen in a reading of Shaw’s Man and Superman as part of the Shaw Festival beginning at 7:00 on the same night. Talk about a double-threat!

® A couple of benefits concerts that sound intriguing:

• Kevin Earley, Susan Egan, Thomas Griffith, Ty Taylor, Matthew Morrison, Cindy Robinson, and Tom Schmid will star in a special one-night performance of Chess on September 17 at Los Angeles’ Ford Amphitheater. Part of the evening’s proceeds will be donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
• Jason Alexander (Mendel), Malcolm Gets (Marvin), Vicki Lewis (Trina), Andrew Samonsky (Whizzer), Hudson Thames (Jason), Kathy Garrick (Charlotte) and Sue Goodman (Cordelia) are the cast for a benefit performance of Falsettoland at the Wilshire Theatre on September 8.

® Since I already gave you the low down on what will be opening on Broadway in the next few months, I thought I would travel a little south and give you a preview (via the Washington Post) of what’s going on in the Washington DC theatre scene soon. If you miss Michael Hollinger’s play, Opus, which was featured in today’s New York Times, it will be playing at the Washington Stage Guild Sept 6-30.

® Golda’s Balcony is Feldshuh-less: The film version of William Gibson’s play, Golda’s Balcony will begin it’s engagement at Manhattan’s Quad Cinemas on October 10, and will be released throughout the US later this year. The film stars Valerie Harper as Golda Meir. Harper played the role in the national tour of the show. Tovah Feldshuh was nominated for a Tony Award for playing the role on Broadway.

® May I Buy a Fork? The Royal Shakespeare Company will be selling over 7,000 Costumes, worn in shows from Beauty and the Beast to Merry Wives: The Musical.

® Lance Bass will host this year’s free Broadway on Broadway concert in Times Square. This annual event will begin at 11:30am on September 16. Over 50,000 fans are expected to enjoy the concert that includes performances and/or appearances from stars of Broadway’s musicals and plays.

® the nytheatre i treats us to a very well-researched Fall preview of what will be opening on Broadway from now through the end of the year.

® Theatre Geek TV: I raved about my experience seeing Billy Elliot: The Musical in previews. Now this video of Billy Elliot highlights, and interviews with the two actors who originally played Billy brings it all back.

® SkyCity Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand is presenting Sammy: The Incredible Journey of Mahatma Gandhi through September 1. According to director, Lillette Dubey, the play examines many sides to the once spiritual leader of India, “One is the ordinary man, Mohan, and the other is the Mahatma who provokes him, who makes him question his actions. It is a way to access Gandhi’s inner voice because the aim was always to pull him out of history books and make him alive.”

® From David Bell’s Hot Guy Alerts, meet Cory Grant of the former Fringe hit, The Lightning Field.

® The Worst Pies in San Franciso: Judy Kaye kicks off the tour of John Doyle’s Sweeney Todd at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Kaye won a Tony for her work in The Phantom of the Opera. and filled in one week on Broadway in the Doyle staging of Todd while original star Patti LuPone was on vacation.

® Sir Ian Mckellan will speak at the Guthrie Theater on Oct. 8 as part of the theater’s Global Voices program. The Guthrie’s Global Voices forum annually brings world-renowned artists to its stages for “dialogue, insight and inspiration” the theater’s website said. Sir Ian will later be seen at the Guthrie in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s productions of King Lear and The Seagull.

® Dolly Parton told listeners on radio station Go Country 105.1 in LA that the musical version of 9 to 5, for which she has written the score, will open on Broadway in 2009. According to Playbill.com, the cast of an earlier workshop, with Joe Mantello at the helm, included Allison Janney (in the Lily Tomlin role), Stephanie J. Block (in the Jane Fonda role) and Megan Hilty (in the Dolly Parton role); with Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago) as office snitch Roz; Marc Kudisch (Thoroughly Modern Millie) as the boss, Mr. Hart; and Andy Karl (Legally Blonde), among others, including an ensemble.

® Theatre Geek TV: A video of Lone Star Love in rehearsal.This wild west musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor begins Broadway previews November 1 at the Belasco Theatre.

® Michael Feingold of the Village Voice writes an enlightening article on why Grease was such a hit in it’s hey day, and why the reviving of it must stop! “Grease, in its present form, is the theatrical equivalent of an asteroid: a chunk of old rock that, when it was young and hot, broke loose from the reality to which it had been anchored and now, cooled down, drifts aimlessly through space…Unless it happens to collide with you, there’s no particular reason to bother about it.”

® Now THAT’S a Theatre Geek: Man proposes to fiancé onstage at Spelling Bee.

® I don’t usually pay much attention to Broadway grosses, but an article from Ticketnews.com caught my attention, now that there are no plays left on Broadway.

® Eve Best, Tony nominee and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award winner for last season’s Moon for the Misbegotten, will join the cast of the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. As previously reported, the cast will incude Raul Esparza, Michael McKean, and Ian McShane. The design team will include Eugene Lee (set), Kenneth Posner (lights) and Jess Goldstein (costumes). Daniel Sullivan will direct the play, beginning previews November 23.

® Garrett Eisler, aka The Playgoer, give us an update on the recent brouhaha over the revision of the Actors’ Equity Association showcase code. When coupled with the article from the New York Times the other day on just how little actors’ yearly salaries can be, you can start to get a picture of just how much actors have to struggle to make a sustainable income..

® Thanks to Steve on Broadway for the shout out. I have been a fan of SOB for many months now, and Steve has given me great support as I begin to find my way into the blogosphere.

® STELLLLLA!!! Indian theatre group has to shut down after being sited for noise pollution.

® Thanks to Broadway Abridged for these hot promo pics of the remixed, newly reimagined Rent opening at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London this fall.

® The Warner Brothers execs got over their squeamishness and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd film will be released December 21. From Theatermania.com: “As previously announced, the film stars Johnny Depp in the title role, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli, Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford, Laura Michelle Kelly as the Beggar Woman, Jamie Campbell Brown as Anthony, Jayne Wisener as Johanna, and Ed Sanders as Toby. All of the actors will do their own singing.”

® It Was Inevitable: Harry Potter Musical in the works.

® No Publicity is Bad Publicity: From Michael Dale’s Broadwayworld.com review of Grease: “…the score is juiced up with four songs from the movie…glued together by a sluggish book that only lightly touches its Boy Meets Girl/Boy Ignores Girl/Girl Dresses Slutty And Gets Boy plot for most of the first act.” The great quotes just keep comin’…

® Follow Harvey Fierstein’s every move during the rehearsal process of his new Broadway-bound musical, A Catered Affair.

® Hey, guess what. Not all theatre happens in New York City. Check out this handy (and well organized) guide to regional theatre courtesy of Broadwayworld.com.

® Bolshoi ballet goes for the spectacle in Le Corsain”: “…A storm bursts forth. The characters on the ship scurry back and forth as the ship itself rocks dangerously. Lightning and thunder rattle around the theatre. A huge rock, ominously, and rather charmingly, suddenly pops out of one of the wings at the front. The villain falls overboard and vanishes into the blue sheeting. Finally the ship gives a final lurch and breaks entirely in half on the rocks.” Oh yeah, there’s dancing too.

® Theatre Geek TV: Check out this sneak preview of the ginormous musical version of Lord of the Rings.

® Neil Bartlett discusses bending gender in Twelfth Night, “If a theatre company announced that Shakespeare’s Antony was going to be played by a woman, everyone would want to know why. ‘It was written for a man,’ they’d say, ‘by one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived.’ But if Cleopatra is played by a woman, nobody thinks to say, ‘But that role was written for a man, by one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived.’ Yet those are the facts. So we shouldn’t ask ‘Why cross cast?’; what we should really be asking is ‘Why not?’”

® Warner Brothers suits objected to “human body parts being fed into a meat grinder to make meat pies” in dailys of the Tim Burton Sweeney Todd film. Did they read the SCRIPT before they gave it the greenlight? Thanks to The Playgoer for the heads up.

® The Sunday comics provided some insight on how adventurous theatre goers take what they get in this, the season where every city in the world is celebrating it’s Fringes. Cosmo (in Jeff Macnelly’s Shoe), ponders frame after frame after frame what to say in his review of the Treetops Mime Festival. Finally in the last frame, he types his succinct review: “It was the best of mimes; it was the worst of mimes.” Long live the Fringe.

® Ibsen’s The Doll’s House has been re-envisioned  by avant-garde company Mabou Mines. “In the final act, the performance metamorphoses into opera, sung by a naked, shaven-headed Nora; and the men in the cast are all played by actors between 3 and 5ft in height, while the female actors are all about 6ft.” 

® Theatre Geek TV: Here are some video highlights from Xanadu featuring Kerry Butler’s lovely voice and Cheyenne Jackson’s beautiful thighs voice also. 

® With the closing of The Year of Magical Thinking, Broadway’s boards are straight-playless until September. 

® With shows like Arsenic and Old Lace in its upcoming season (again), The Houston Chronicle wonders if the Alley Theatre is losing its edge. 

® Candid Q&A with Rent boy, Adam Pascal. 

® Theatre in the Cemetery brings new meaning to “site specific.” 

® Broadway favorites Christiane Noll (B’way Jeckyll & Hyde;Nat’l tours of Urinetown, Grease, Miss Saigon & City of Angels) and Steve Blanchard (Three Musketeers, Camelot, Beauty and the Beast) will join the previously announced Hunter Foster this fall in the new Off-Broadway musical Frankenstein. 

® From the mad-dash-to-blog-the-most-shows site, Show Showdown, David Bell presents a glowing review of Playwrights Horizons’ 100 Saints You Should Know, with Lois Smith and Janel Moloney. 

® Speaking of David Bell, his Hot Guy Alerts page is always featuring new eye candy from the  New York theatre scene. Latest entry: Michael Zahler (Leaf Coneybear in the Nat’l Tour of Spelling Bee). 

® Randy at Bloggedy Blahg Blagh offers the funniest review of Grease I have seen to date: “After “Summer Lovin’”, a few people in the audience began feverishly text-messaging NBC, trying to change their votes, but by then it was too late.” 

® Asp Me No Questions: Christine Baranski pulls out of Theatre for a New Audience’s Antony and Cleopatra. 

® Chris at Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals ponders, “Who will be the women in Nine: The Movie? 

® Hey, Let’s Put on a Show: Lincoln’s Royal Theatre (UK) is sponsoring a contest, the winners of which will get to use the entire theatre–including box office services, backstage staff, and any revenue—to stage a show of their own creation. 

® In September, over 100 benefit productions of Birth, by Karen Brody, will be seen worldwide as part of Birth On Labor Day (BOLD), a global movement to make maternity care mother-friendly. From pr-gb.com: “Similar to The Vagina Monologues’ success around the world in raising awareness of violence against women, BOLD performances of Brody’s play have more than doubled in number since last year and are being performed in communities around the world as part of a movement to improve birthing options and safety for mothers.” 

® Broadway Abridged Blog points us to yet another instance of theatre advertising pulling review quotes out of context to make a stinker (in this case, Grease) smell better. 

® Fresh Face: a profile of 21-year-old Louisa Krause, of Signature Theatre Company’s production of Charles Mee’s Iphigenia 2.0.   

® And You Thought Coast of Utopia Was Long: Peter Stein mounts a 10-hour long version of Friedrich Schiller’s Wallenstein in Berlin.

® Histriomastix rips Charles Isherwood a new one re: August: Osage County. 

® BBC Radio 2 will air the recent Andrew Lloyd Webber concert at London’s Mermaid Theatre tonight at 7:30 pm London time. If the time zone math is too hard, you can listen on the Friday Night Music sight in the coming week.

® The cast of the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind will include: Eric Kunze (Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Damn Yankees), Andrea Ross, Dann Fink (Les Misérables), Adam Shonkwiler, Austin J. Zambito-Valente, Nadine Jacobson, Carole Denise Jones, Greg Stone, and Kurt Zischke. From TheatreMania.com: “The show, which premiered in London, tells the story of a young Louisiana girl who finds a mysterious stranger hiding in her barn. When she asks his identity, the first words he utters are ‘Jesus Christ;’ and it’s as if all her prayers have been answered. While the townspeople are determined to find the escaped felon, she and her friends vow to protect him from the outside world.” The tour begins in Houston September 9.

® Seattle Weekly (via Playgoer) profiles David Esbjornson, artistic director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Though known for introducing his audiences to challenging works like My Name is Rachel Corrie, he’s currently examining the darker side of Twelfth Night.  

® Social networking sites like MySpace are becoming a standard marketing tool for introducing the younger set to live theatre.  

® Warms the Caukles of My Heart: Teenagers with the The Barnstorm Theatre Company in Kilkenny Ireland have created a show called Stereotypes that focuses on breaking down the preconceived notion that teenagers are lazy, greedy, and troublesome. According to Ronán MacRaois, Outreach Officer, “The play will present eight stereotypical teenagers and, then in a theatrical journey full of twists and encounters, will break these down to reveal unique, distinct and colourful characters.”

® Is Nikki Blonsky headed for Broadway’s Hairspray? 

® Chicago’s 19^th Annual Rhinoceros Festival, A 10-week showcase of theatrical revivals and world premiere plays, with performances by established and emerging companies runs August 24th through October 28 at various venues. Tickets are $15 per show or pay-what-you-can; $20 for trilogy package. 

® Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation (BGTF) and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) join forces to create a theatre festival benefiting the victims of the recent floods. 

® Belarusion police break up theatre performance of banned Free Theatre, taking 50 artists and patrons into custody. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Tom Stoppard, had planned to attend the performance, but changed his plans at the last minute. 

® Theatre Geek TV: Video of Broadway in Bryant Park, hosted by Spring Awakening’s Jonathan Groff. 

® A dwarf performer’s private parts, super glue, a vacuum cleaner hose, and the emergency room. Edinburgh Fringe performance goes horribly wrong…. 

® From Boston.com, Cabaret troupe, “Broadway 25” dedicates itself to bringing modern musicals to Hairspray-deprived, Rent-needy audiences. 

® The boys from Ugly Betty (Michael “Mark” Urie, and Mark “Justin” Indelicato) talk about working with LuPone, training at Julliard, and dream roles.   

® Thanks to the nytheatre i for the most comprehensive coverage of the New York Fringe Festival I’ve seen to date. 

® If the reviews for the Broadway “people’s choice” Grease were frigid, then the reviews for the West End’s version might be called tepid. What’s really telling about the demographics for this prom-queen-casting trend is this drivel about spandex and personal trainers. 

® Julie Taymor’s fantastical theatrical movie, Across the Universe will have a pre-release screening on September 3 at the Sony Building Screening Room to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Tickets for the benefit range from $100 to $250. I’ve seen the trailer, and it looks like another innovative bit of story telling from this very creative artist. Even if you can’t attend (or afford) the benefit, see it when it’s released on September 14. 

® Not everyone (re: the cast) is gung-ho about August: Osage County transferring to Broadway. 

® Many Broadway luminaries, including Marion Seldes and Three Mo’ Tenors, gather at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on September 10 at 7 pm, to offer Broadway Blessings on the new theatre season through song, spoken word and dance. The evening is free and open to the public. 

® Back to Our Roots: An interesting article from GuideLive.com about theatres and churches that share space, and sometimes theologies. 

® The Hangar Theatre in Ithica has named a new interim Artistic Director. Read more about this great regional theatre on the shores of Cayuga Lake.  

® And finally, from AllAfrica.com, comes a story about a comedy returning to the theatre that originally commissioned it. What made me laugh was its lead line:
“The Idiot’s return to Bat Valley from the National Theatre was met with a lot of excitement over the weekend.”

® If you missed Show Business: The Road to Broadway on the big screen, there’s still hope. The DVD of this documentary chronicling the 2003-2004 Broadway season, will be released Oct 16. The film features Wicked, Taboo, Avenue Q and Caroline or Change from casting to curtain call, allowing viewers access to rare behind-the-scenes views of the creative (and commercial) process. In case you can’t wait, here’s the trailer. 

® Playgoer offers a brilliant and provocative Oedipal Pieta in his series on favorite theatre posters. 

® From pinknews.co.uk, Stonewall, a play focusing on the riots in the summer of 1969 which many consider to be the beginning of the Gay Rights movement, has been nominated for Best Ensemble at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. According to The Stage Edinburgh’s review of the production, “Rikki Beadle-Blair’s play celebrates the myth of Stonewall in a way that is true in spirit if fictional in plot, and that provides one of the most thoroughly entertaining dirty pleasures of the festival.”

® Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Avenue Q) and Amanda Watkins (Urinetown, Cabaret) will be featured in Austentatious and Angle of the Sun respectively at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. 

® Kevin Kline, Daniel Sunjata and Jennifer Garner confirmed for Cyrano de Bergerac opening November 1 on Broadway. 

® Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be: Joe Dziemianowicz riffs on distractions at the theatre after sitting next to a tiny tot at the Delacorte’s Midsummer. “Some people act as if Broadway palaces and other theaters are extensions of their dens and do as they please: chat, rattle wrappers, comment on the action or kibitz electronically on gizmos sending text messages. Cell phones? Do we even have to go there?” 

® There’s Only Us: Pascal and Rapp put butts in the seats and extend their Rent run.  

® From Backstage.com: How you can see your favorite Off-Broadway shows for twenty bucks.

® Broadway Abridged has a radical solution for keeping Young Frankenstein critic-proof. 

® Avenue Q’s Scottish cousin? The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre is a hit at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  

® Australian dance community mourns the loss of a young rising star. 

® Misha Berson of the Seattle Times gives us the skinny on why the press isn’t allowed at Young Frankenstein previews: “It stands to reason that when producers bring a monster-sized Young Frankenstein to town, they want a lot of time to tinker with it. Or that they want to do the tweaking as far from Broadway theater wags as possible. Early criticism counts: Stephen Sondheim’s most recent musical, Bounce,’has never reached Broadway, thanks to harsh buzz about its Washington, D.C., and Chicago tryouts.” 

® NYMF isn’t the only festival of new musicals out there. Seattle’s seventh annual Festival of New Musicals presents six new musicals this weekend. 

® Speaking of NYMF, Larry Pressgrove, who arranged the music and tickled the ivories for [title of show] has a new musical offering called The Angle of the Sun, which runs Sept. 17–29 at The Sage Theater. 

® Now THAT’s customer service: London theatre patron suffering from back pain told she should have bought a more expensive seat!! 

® Unconventional production of Faust by Prague’s homeless community. Says Jakub Balaban, director, “One of our fundamental ideas is combining different worlds, and different circles of people. For example, we have homeless people working with both professional artists and amateur artists in an auditorium with an underground rock band. And together it works.” 

® Highlights of some theatre happenings this weekend on the left coast. 

® Minneapolis’ famed Children’s Theatre Company names a new managing director.