‘Spider-Man’ Rehearsals to Start (Finally)

‘From ArtsBeat Blog at NYT:

"‘Spider-Man’ Rehearsals to Start (Finally)

By PATRICK HEALY

Julie Taymor’s musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” looks increasingly like a go for Broadway. After a year of uncertainty about the fate of the $50-million extravaganza, a spokesman for the show said on Wednesday that Ms. Taymor and the full cast were scheduled to begin rehearsals on Aug. 16.

Choreography rehearsals, including aerial flying lessons, began on Monday for some cast members, including the actor-musician Reeve Carney, who will play Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter-ego Spider-Man.

“Wow, man, I can’t wait for the world to see this thing… It’s finally happening!!” Mr. Carney said by Twitter on Tuesday. Fifteen minutes later, he added: “I honestly can’t believe I’m getting paid to do things my mom would have killed me for when I was a kid! Ha!”

An announcement is likely to be made soon about performance dates for the show, which has music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and the Edge — their first Broadway outing — and a book by Ms. Taymor and Glen Berger (“Max and Ruby”). Previews are expected to start in November at the Hilton Theater."

Ah, I forgot Ms. Taymor was directing this production, a boondoggle from beginning to end, with all the cast changes, delays, cost overruns. The run hasn't even started and investors have already lost a great deal of money. I was starting to doubt it would ever make it to Broadway. As a self-professed webhead, I'm glad to hear something has been pulled together. I am especially interested in hearing the music--whatever one thinks of U2 (though a guilty pleasure, I recognize they are probably the lamest band ever), I think it might be a good fit. I hope the musical surprises us all.

New Kushner Play at the Public Next Spring

From NYT:

"Tony Kushner’s latest play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures,” his first epic-size work about American life since his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angels in America” in the early 1990s, will have its New York premiere next spring in a co-production by the Public Theater and the Signature Theater Company, the two theaters announced Monday.

The play, which explores politics, marriage, sex, radicalism and the labor movement under the roof of a retired longshoreman’s Brooklyn brownstone, was first produced under a commission from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis as part of a festival of Kushner plays last year. Michael Greif (“Rent,” “Next to Normal”) directed the Guthrie production, as he will the new one, which will run in the Public’s 299-seat Newman Theater from March 22 to June 12, 2011. The production is expected to cost slightly less than $1 million, with the Public and the Signature, both not-for-profit companies, sharing the cost."

Weird, I never heard this reviewed. I'll have to track one down...

Henry Miller's Theatre Will Become The Stephen Sondheim

From Arts Journal via NYT:

"'At a gala performance on Monday night of the new Broadway musical 'Sondheim on Sondheim,' the director James Lapine and the musical book writer John Weidman were to announce that Henry Miller's Theater, which re-opened on Broadway last fall after a nearly complete overhaul, will be renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theater.'"

What can rightly be called artistic progress.

Ragtime's Closing

From The Boston Globe:

The Broadway revival of “Ragtime,’’ which opened Nov. 15 at New York City’s Neil Simon Theatre, will close this weekend because of slow ticket sales. That’s sad news for Boston, because the show was the first big break for Boston Conservatory grad Stephanie Umoh, who has played the role of Sarah. Umoh also played Sarah in a New Repertory Theatre production of “Ragtime’’ in 2006. She had told the Globe, of stepping up for the Broadway gig, “I walk down the street and think, ‘This is what it feels like to be happy.’ And I’m not ashamed to admit it.’’"