Bette Midler now has some new people to say “Hello” to her Dolly.
Additional cast members were announced this week for the forthcoming Broadway revival of the 1964 musical Hello, Dolly! that will star Midler as matchmaker Dolly Levi.
Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin will play Irene Molloy, with two-time Tony nominee Gavin Creel as Cornelius Hackl and Jennifer Simard as Ernestina. Some 20 years after she first attracted attention for her turn in the revue I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Simard’s career seems to have finally shifted into a higher gear, thanks to a 2016 Tony nomination for last season’s Disaster!
They will be joined by the previously announced David Hyde Pierce as Horace Vandergelder in the revival that will begin Broadway previews March 15, 2017, and open April 20 at the Shubert Theatre.
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News about a new musical based on the life of show business icon Judy Garland makes you wonder why such a thing hasn’t been attempted before now.
The show in question, Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz, began previews September 16 at Goodspeed Musicals and is hoping for a Broadway transfer. One Ruby Rakos plays the tragic screen and concert legend.
The show, which has a book by Marc Acito and a score consisting of classic period songs, focuses on the Frances Gumm years—that is, Garland's childhood up to the time she is cast as Dorothy in the film classic film The Wizard of Oz.
Chasing Rainbows is scheduled to run through November 27 at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT. Opening night will be October 5.
Rakos starred in last fall's developmental world premiere, which was way off at Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina, just south of Asheville.
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Stephem Karam’s family drama The Humans will play its final Broadway performance at the Schoenfeld Theatre January 15, 2017, it was announced this week. It moved to its current home in July from the tiny Helen Hayes Theatre, where it began its Tony-winning run earlier this year.
The play, which was universally praised and won the Tony Award for Best Play, will have run a year on Broadway.
The news follows an announcement that the new musical Come From Away will begin previews at the Schoenfeld February 18.
In other show-shifting news, the musical comedy Something Rotten!, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw, will end its Broadway run January 1, 2017, at the St. James Theatre.
Something Rotten! began performances March 23, 2015, and officially opened April 22. Upon closing, the production will have played 742 performances. A national tour will officially launch January 17, 2017, at The Boston Opera House.
Meanwhile, Jersey Boys’ coming exit from Broadway has provided an opening for the ballyhooed London musical Groundhog Day. The show is booked Broadway's August Wilson Theatre, and will begin previews in March 2017 and open April 17, 2017, in time to be eligible for the 2017 Tony Awards.
Given the rhapsodic reviews that greeted the show in London, this news now appears to make Groundhog Day the show to beat in the 2016-2017 Tony race.
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The David Bowie musical Lazarus, which became a sales and media phenomenon Off-Broadway following the death of the singer-songwriter, will begin performances October 25 for its debut in Bowie’s native England. And the production will look very much like the New York one.
Headlining the cast will be Michael C Hall, Michael Esper and Sophia Anne Caruso, who were all seen at New York Theater Workshop. They will be joined by Gabrielle Brooks, Sydnie Christmas, Richard Hansell, Amy Lennox, Maimuna Memon, Jamie Muscato, Tom Parsons and Julie Yammanee in the London premiere.
The musical offers a sequel of sorts to Bowie’s film The Man Who Fell to Earth, with a score consisting of songs from throughout his career, plus three new ones.
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When powerhouse producer Cameron Mackintosh tells you to stop tweeting, you stop tweeting.
The showman this week issued a memo asking understudy and standby performers in all his U.K. and touring shows to stop posting their upcoming schedules on social media.
Speaking for Mackintosh, Managing Director Nicholas Allott told the London news site The Stage, “We don't feel it's right that an understudy should let the rest of the world know when a principal is going to be off. Once we [the producers] have announced it, they are completely at liberty to use that as much as they like, but it needs to come from us first.”
