Broadway is buzzing with news this day…
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY is coming back to “Chicago” from April 18th to May 12th. She’s warming up first in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Christie first played Roxie Hart nine years ago, in 2010, and she was phenomenal. Brinkley is a force of nature who looks like she hasn’t aged at all in the last 20 years. And she hasn’t! She doesn’t need to work, she keeps flipping zillion dollar mansions in the Hamptons. But she loves the role, and the “Chicago” producers love her. I’ll go back to see her, I’ve already circled April 18th.
Famed SCTV movie and TV star ANDREA MARTIN has to drop out of her Nathan Lane comedy “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus.” According to the show’s publicist, Martin broke four ribs during tech rehearsal. This seems a little odd considering she performed amazing high wire stunts on Broadway a few years ago in “Pippin.” It could be she was wrestling with producer Scott Rudin for a better paycheck or opening night seats for her family. We’ll never know.
Anyway, the good news is that Kristine Nielsen has taken her role in the George C. Wolfe directed play. She’s also one of my favorite Broadway performers. Julie White remains with the play, an original one by Taylor Mac, an actor/playwright. This follows Rudin’s “A Doll’s House Pt 2” in a series of sequels to famous plays but with new comedic twists. Look next for “Biff Goes to Hollywood,” the sequel to “Death of a Salesman,” starring Zac Efron. (Just kidding, I hope.)
On another note, everyone is noticing the massive amount of advertising on TV and in print for Rudin’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He’s bought at least a lot of local spots on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes.” Plus there are bus ads, posters, everything. It’s a little weird for a show that’s supposedly sold out all the time. He even sent Jeff Daniels onto Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show recently to promote the show. All this despite a recent scandal reported in the New York Times about Rudin wrecking small local theaters’ plans to stage “Mockingbird” this summer as they have in the past.
