Showbiz411

I told you first, and quite a while ago, that “The King’s Speech” would head to Broadway after its run as a film. Then it won the Oscar. Now I’m told that David Seidler’s Oscar winning movie–he wrote the screenplay after he wrote it as a play–will come to Broadway in the fall of 2012. The producers had wanted it sooner, and I always thought that was too soon. Now the word is that casting has begun and that the play will have an out of town opening in the UK in the beginning of 2012. Guilford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theater will host a three to five week engagement in January. All things being equal, “The King’s Speech” will move to London’s West End in March. The Broadway move comes in the fall. Casting director Gabrielle Dawes has been hired to find actors to play King George VI and Lionel Logue, as well as the rest. Who will step into Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush’s shoes? I’ll bet a lot of name actors will be thrilled to try their hands at this story and make it their own. For the Broadway version, big names will be needed.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.