Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

'Wishful Drinking' Moving to Broadway

Carrie Fisher's one-woman show Wishful Drinking will make its Broadway debut this fall, when it will be presented by the Roundabout Theater Company at Studio 54. Wishful Drinking is a dark yet funny play written and performed by Fisher, and is based on the actress' 2008 memoir of the same title.

The producers state, "In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher recounts the true and intoxicating tale of her life as a Hollywood legend, told with the same wry wit she poured into bestsellers like Postcards from the Edge... Fisher is the life of the party in this uproarious and sobering look at her Hollywood hangover."

Casting News -- April 30, 2009

Bruce Willis is currently in negotiations to star in three upcoming action movies. First, the 54-year-old star is in talks to play a detective on the trail of a murderer in the thriller Inventory. Next, in the CIA film Red (based on a Wildstorm/DC comic book), Willis would star as a former black-ops agent who has gone into retirement but is forced back into action when a high-tech assassin threatens him and his girlfriend. And finally, the actor has also been offered the title role in the mob biopic Scarpa, about FBI informant Greg Scarpa, who worked deep undercover in New York’s Columbo family.

R&B artist Ashanti will star as Dorothy in the Encores! Summer Stars production of The Wiz. This is the singer's stage debut, but the Grammy winner previously appeared as Dorothy in the 2005 ABC TV special The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. The musical runs June 12-July 5 (with an official opening June 18) at New York City Center.

MTV Report from NYC 'Spider-Man' Musical Auditions

Open calls for the upcoming Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark are still underway, and MTV was on the scene last week at the New York City auditions April 24.

Tried-and-True Season Fare

In our current recession-cautious environment, conservatism appears to be the watchword among much of the fare announced for the upcoming season in the L.A. area. Take Jason Alexander's Reprise Theatre Company, for example, which in its pre-Alexander days, focused on seldom-revived musicals.

The group's most recent production was Man of La Mancha and the upcoming The Fantasticks is a replacement for the cancelled Chess, so the trend toward the tried-and-true is evident.

Now consider the recently revealed 2010 slate: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (January), the classic Sondheim farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (March), and the vintage Frank Loesser favorite, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (May).

Best Actress in a Play: Fonda vs. Feldshuh vs. a Pair of Queens

The Outer Critics and the Drama Desk have announced their nominations and we are fast approaching the Tony noms which will be given out less than a week from now on Tues. May 5. I don't count the Drama League because all you have to do is show up at the luncheon to get one of their noms. There are some interesting differences between the DD and the OCC. In the Best Actress in a Play race, the OCC snubbed two of the front-runners, Tovah Feldshuh in Irena's Vow and Jane Fonda in 33 Variations, while the DD included Fonda, but not Feldshuh--which is weird because the DD has long been a supporter of Feldshuh, honoring her with several nominations and two awards (Featured Actress for Lend Me a Tenor and Solo Performance for Golda's Balcony).

And ... Action! CalArts Showcase Starts Thursday

 

California Institute of the Arts will hold its year-end showcase of student work beginning tomorrow, April 30, and running through May 15. For further information about specific programs, please call the CalArts School of Film/Video at (661) 253-7825 or visit www.film.calarts.edu. The schedule follows.

The B in Your Bonnet? It Stands for 'Bucks'

The 23rd annual Easter Bonnet Competition for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids raised $3.4 million this year from 58 participating companies from Broadway, Off-Broadway, and national tours. The No. 1 champ was the touring company of Rent, which pulled in more than a tenth of the total: $352,060. The top Broadway company was 33 Variations ($183,546), while Distracted led Off-Broadway ($31,819).

Pa. Film Tax Credits Getting a Black Eye?

New York, it seems, isn't the only state struggling to hold on to government tax breaks for TV and film producers. In Pennsylvania, there are three bills pending in the legislature that seek to limit or eliminate the commonwealth's $75 million program, and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office is doing something about it.

Casting News -- April 29, 2009

Shia LaBeouf is in talks to co-star as a young Wall Street trader in Wall Street 2, the long-rumored upcoming sequel to Oliver Stone's Wall Street. Michael Douglas will return as Gordon Gekko, the role for which he won a Best Actor Oscar in 1987; Oliver Stone will also return as director. The film is set 20 years after the original, and the plot will revolve around Gekko's life after he gets out of jail during the current economic climate.

Fantasia Barrino will return to the role of Celie in the national tour of The Color Purple once again when the production plays at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago Sept. 2-13. The American Idol winner was already scheduled to reprise her role for the tour's summer engagement at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, June 30-Aug. 2; she joined the Broadway company of The Color Purple in April 2007.

The Rod Blagojevich Fan Club

Actors can learn something from the disgraced ex-governor of Illinois.

There’s a purity there that few can match. And talk about fearless. Rod Blagojevich is unabashedly who he is. He has no shame at being shamed. On the contrary, he revels in it.