News Roundup - Musicals Around the Country

A bunch of articles about musicals have caught my eye in the past 12 hours or so, so I figured let me distill them all into one handy blog entry.

First off, in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press have both weighed in on the Minneapolis Musical Theatre's production of Summer of '42. Somehow, I've managed to miss this one in production, but have always been charmed by the recording of it (from Jay Records). Sounds like the production in the Twin Cities is a real delight.

Secondly in California, there's a production of "Olympus on My Mind" - Barry Harman and Grant Sturiale's 1986 off-Broadway musical that's based on Kleist's 1807 retelling of the Amphityron myth. This is a bit of an odd-ball rarity and might be worth looking into.

So that's a couple of productions, now for some news about shows in development/workshop. In the Miami Herald, Christine Dolen's reporting on a largish workshop of a new musical called Fool's Paradise. It's a show written by Jim Camacho, a fixture apparently in South Florida's rock indie scene. Alongside the article there are a couple of audio clips to listen to.

Over in Texas, there's word in the Houston Chronicle, that Larry Dierker, former Houston Astros pitcher and manager, has penned a musical with composer Paul English, and their show, Old Stories, is getting a couple of workshop performances at Stages Rep in Houston.

Finally, yesterday in Playbill, there were reports of two shows that have set their sights on Broadway - Angels, which is casting for a August – September run in Louisiana, and Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls...," which has posted a casting notice for a production scheduled to open on Broadway in early August.


QUICK LINKS:

Minneapolis Musical Theatre: http://www.aboutmmt.org/
Onstage Theatre: http://www.onstagetheatre.org/
Stages Repertory Theatre: http://www.stagestheatre.com/