It's been quite the week for musicals – both in New York and beyond. Here in the city, a gorgeous new chamber musical version of Elmer Rice's Adding Machine has opened off-Broadway (click here for a review digest) and last night the rock musical Passing Strange opened on Broadway (review digest) and a revival of the 1959 musical Take Me Along opened off-Broadway at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Chelsea (review digest). I've weighed in on the first two, and plan on getting my review of the third onto ATW later today.
Elsewhere, new musicals are being announced with almost frightening rapidity. The biggest news has come out of Atlanta and the Alliance Theatre Company, which has announced the lineup for its 40th anniversary season. Among the shows on their docket a new musical bowing April 2009 - Ghost Brothers of Darkland County - has been written by novelist Stephen King and rocker John Mellencamp. "Ghosts," according to The New York Times, focuses on "the reverberations of a tragedy in small-town."
Also in the Alliance's season, a new gospel version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, which according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will feature a 40-person choir and 16 principals. This production, Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL, is scheduled to open next January.
Out in California, "Rivets," a new musical based on the women war workers who were called Rosie the Riveters and also based on life at Richmond's Kaiser Shipyards is having its premiere this weekend and next at the John and Jean Knox Performing Arts Center on the campus of Contra Costa College in San Pablo. In October the musical will be seen in Richmond, where it will be performed aboard the Kaiser Shipyards-built Liberty ship SS Red Oak Victory.
Again, looking out into the 2008-2009 season, the Ordway Center in St. Paul, MN has announced that, in addition to presenting national tours of shows like Legally Blonde and The Color Purple, it will be presenting a locally produced staging of the musical Grey Gardens and a new musical biography of George M. Cohan, Yankee Doodle.
Finally some news about CD releases. This week Walt Disney Records released the original cast recording of Little Mermaid and Ghostlight Records released "Evil Monkey Man," a new album from David Yazbeck (the man who's given us The Full Monty and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). Next week, DRG records will be reissuing two recordings on CD for the first time: a 1963 recording of Annie Get Your Gun featuring Doris Day and Robert Goulet, and the original cast recording of Say, Darling, a show from 1958 with songs penned by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne and which starred David Wayne, Vivian Blaine and Johnny Desmond. Also from DRG a 50th anniversary release of Judy Garland's first live album: "Judy Garland at the Grove." This disc contains the entire concert (unedited for the first time), meaning that you'll find 3 previously omitted songs here.
QUICK LINKS:
Adding Machine: http://addingmachineamusical.com/
Passing Strange: http://passingstrangeonbroadway.com/
Irish Rep: http://www.irishrepertorytheatre.com/
Alliance Theatre Company: http://www.alliancetheatre.org/
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts: http://www.ordway.org/
Walt Disney Records: http://disneyrecords.com/
DRG Records: http://www.drgrecords.com/
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