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Old News ... ... Old News ... ... Old News
'Cats'
tickets go on sale in Shanghai, China
8th
January 2003
Tickets for the local production of the hit musical 'Cats' went on sale in the city yesterday, attracting thou-sands of buyers.
The world-famous show, which Andrew Lloyd Webber first staged in 1981 based on a series of poems by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), has played to more than 8 million people around the globe, including record-setting runs on Broadway and London's West End.
The curtain rises on the local performance on March 28, with producers expecting 90,000 people to take in the 53-show run at the Shanghai Grand Theater. Yesterday's sales were a good start toward meeting that goal.
"More than 2,400 tickets were sold before 4 p.m.," said Wang Ying, marketing director of Shanghai Grand Theater, noting that one local company bought all 1,700 tickets for one of the shows.
"In addition, about 2,500 tickets have been reserved by phone."
Tickets can be purchased at the Shanghai Grand Theater, or any of the city's 100-plus Kodak stores, with prices ranging from 80 yuan (US$9.6) to 600 yuan.
"I have heard of 'Cats' for a long time, but never got the chance to see it when it was staged on Broadway or in the West End," said 30-something banker Jason Yu, who scooped up three 240-yuan tickets yesterday.
Yu said there is no reason to pay for the more- expensive tickets.
"I don't mind if I can clearly see every movement of the actors, it only matters that I can know what the famous musical is like."
Ann Zhu holds a different view. She spent 1,800 yuan on three top tickets.
"My 3-year-old daughter is fond of dancing and singing," said Zhu. "We have a DVD of 'Cats' at home, and she has watched it many times. I think she would like to see a live staging. We saw the musical a couple of years ago on Broadway, and it is necessary to sit in a seat with a nice angle."
"Unlike 'Les Miz,' a plot-centered musical, 'Cats' is composed mainly of fantastic dances, so we decided to buy the best seats," said Zhu. "The musical deserves it."
The show will be performed in English. Following the inter-national norms, the London-based Really Useful Company, producer of "Cats," will take away 5 percent of each show's box-office collection, according to Qian Shijin, vice president of the theater.
"Since box office take-ins will be shared by two sides, no complimentary tickets will be offered, unlike what Chinese theaters usually do," the theater official said.
Article from Shanghai Daily News
ALSO: Cats will also be performed in Seoul, for the first time in nine years, at the Seoul Arts Center from 29th January to 1st March. Australian and South African actors and staff will be performing the musical this year.
tick,
tick...BOOM! Tour Launches Jan. 7 in Dallas
7th
January 2003
Now that Rent has criss-crossed the country, theatregoers across the U.S. will see its cousin show, Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...BOOM!, starting Jan. 7, when a national tour launches at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas.The intimate autobiographical musical by the late author of Rent stars Christian Campbell as 30-year-old songwriter Jon; Nicole Snelson as his girlfriend, Susan (and others); and Wilson Cruz as best pal Michael (and others).
Campbell appeared in Off-Broadway's Reefer Madness, Snelson originated the role of Winnie Tate in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun, and Cruz may be best for TV's "My So Called Life" and the Los Angeles company of Rent.
The production is directed by Scott Schwartz, who helmed the 2001 Off-Broadway staging, which had script consultation by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (Proof), who helped shape various drafts the material by the late composer-lyricist-librettist Larson. Randy Cohen is musical director on the road; Stephen Oremus is musical supervisor and orchestrator arranger (and conducted Off-Broadway).
Cities on the tour include Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, East Lansing, MI, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Hershey, PA, Nashville, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Boston.
VOTE FOR THE 2003 WHAT'S ON STAGE THEATREGOERS' CHOICE AWARDS!
Yeston
Is Librettist-Arranger of New Hans Christian Andersen
6th January 2003
Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist Maury Yeston will put on a new hat — as librettist and musical arranger — for a new summer 2003 stage version of songwriter Frank Loesser's "Hans Christian Andersen," beloved as a 1952 film that starred Danny Kaye.Although there have been stage productions of the fictional biographical movie musical in the past (Tommy Steele in London, a 2001 dark version in San Francisco starring John Glover and licensed stock and amateur versions), Yeston told Playbill On-Line "it's really sort of surprising that we have never seen a wonderful translation to the stage." Yeston, who has known Loesser's widow, Jo Sullivan Loesser, for years, calls his work on the project "a labor of love" and the entire score will be Loesser's, including interpolations from the late composer-lyricist's catalog. Yeston is billed as librettist and musical arranger adapter. (Unlike his work on Grand Hotel, for which his songs were added to a score by George Forrest and Robert Wright, Yeston promises he is not adding his own music or lyrics to the Loesser show.)
Yeston, whose Nine gets a Broadway revival in spring 2003, will see Hans Christian Andersen debut far from New York City — at Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick, ME, June 4-21, for a three-week run that kicks off the season up there. MSMT artistic director Charles Abbott, who staged the world premiere of Yeston and Arthur Kopit's Phantom at Theatre Under the Stars in Texas, will helm the world premiere of Hans Christian Andersen, with a cast to be announced and a star name.
CHICAGO
GOES NATIONAL IN THE UK 17TH JANUARY 2003!
Beauty
Helmer Roth Working On "The Opposite of Sex" Musical for Broadway
6th January 2003
Christina Ricci and Lisa Kudrow starred in the movie version of Don Roos' "The Opposite of Sex" which is now being made into a musical. Playwright-director Robert Jess Roth (Beauty and the Beast) is working with composer Douglas J. Cohen (No Way to Treat a Lady) to bring the film to the stage according to the director's agent.The currently unfinished work will feature a book co-written by Roth and the film's writer-director Roos with music and lyrics by Cohen. The team — including the film's producer Michael Besman — are currently seeking New York stage producers with hopes to bring the musical to fruition on Broadway in spring of 2004. Roth will direct.
"The Opposite of Sex" followed the conniving 16-year-old Dedee Truitt (Ricci) as she moves in with her now-wealthy gay half-brother Bill and ends up pregnant by his new partner Matt. Only Bill's best friend and sister of his rich late lover, Lucia (Kudrow), sees through Dedee's scheme.
Roth, helmer of Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, also directed the world premiere of Elton John and Tim Rice's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. (He would be dismissed and replaced by Robert Falls before the show reached Broadway.) Cohen has also composed Glimmerglass and The Gig.
Roos has also penned films like "Single White Female," "Boys on the Side" and helmed his "Bounce."
Kander
and Ebb's Musical The Visit in Talks for Public Theater
6th January 2003
The Visit, the John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally musical which premiered in Chicago in 2001, may find a New York home Off-Broadway.The producers are currently discussing the possibility of a 2004 staging with officials at Off-Broadway Public Theater, a spokesperson for the nonprofit confirmed. Talks are in the early stages and nothing has been decided.
The Visit's fate has been in limbo since the show debuted at The Goodman Theater in Chicago on Oct. 1, 2001. The show's longtime goal was Broadway, but more recent reports have had it looking at other regional houses and "various options" in Manhattan, according to a spokesperson for the show.
Frank Galati directed Chita Rivera and John McMartin as the two central figures in the Friedrich Dürrenmatt-inspired musical, about Claire Zachanassian, the world's richest woman, and the price she asks for saving her economically-depressed hometown. Ann Reinking fashioned the choreography and the supporting cast included Guy Adkins, Steven Sutcliffe and Mark Jacoby.
Hairspray's
Rockwell to Design Sets for Fiddler Revival
6th January 2003
David Rockwell, who designed the sets for this season's mammoth hit Hairspray, has signed on to the upcoming Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.Variety reports that Rockwell, who made his Broadway design debut with the recent Rocky Horror Show revival, will create the sets for next season's Fiddler production starring Alfred Molina. Rockwell told the industry paper, "Fiddler is the first show I ever saw. It was instrumental in my becoming interested in the theatre. And I've always been a fan of Boris Aronson's work." Aronson created the Tony-nominated sets for the original production of Fiddler.
"To reimagine Aronson's work for 'Fiddler' is incredibly challenging," Rockwell added, although his designs have not yet been formulated. "When you go into the design process and you know the answer ahead of time, it is not interesting."
Rockwell heads the 90-person architecture and design firm, Rockwell Group, whose projects have included the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, W New York and W Union Square hotels in Manhattan and the Cirque du Soleil Theater in Orlando.
Sound of
war
1st January 2003
Andrew Lloyd-Webber has halted his multimillion-pound production of the Sound of Music amid fears that conflict in the Middle East could hit West End box office takings.
Actors and actresses auditioning for the play said they had been told the musical was being postponed because of the effect unrest in the region could have.
One cast hopeful said: "Rehearsals were supposed to begin in March but then we were told that Andrew Lloyd-Webber was going to postpone it because of worries he had that a war might affect sales."
A spokesman for Lord Lloyd-Webber confirmed the revival had been put on ice - but said it was due to the quest for a bigger theatre venue.
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