"Love Never Dies" a brilliant sequel to "Phantom" (Reuters)
Reuters - Unlike lightning, Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom" does strike twice.more
Deeply moving "Next Fall" deserves Broadway shot (Reuters)
Reuters - In these recessionary times, it might take more than the imprimatur of celebrity presenters Elton John and David Furnish to make "Next Fall" viable for a Broadway run.more
Steven Sater Working on 'Chitty' Remake, Musical With Bacharach, 'Spring Awakening' Film and More (Playbill)
Playbill - Tony Award-winning lyricist-librettist Steven Sater told Playbill.com that the film version of Spring Awakening, his Tony-honored musical with composer Duncan Sheik, could begin production in Europe as early as this fall. The picture is one of many projects on Sater's plate at the moment.more
Katrina-Inspired 'Hell and High Water' Will Get World Premiere in NYC (Playbill)
Playbill - Jamuna Yvette Sirker's Hell and High Water, or Lessons for When the Sky Falls, directed and produced Lorca Peress, will get its world premiere in Manhattan April 1-18.more
Grisham's 'A Time to Kill' Will Premiere at Arena Stage Before NYC; Letts, Morton Join Season (Playbill)
Playbill - Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes is writing a Broadway-bound stage adaptation of John Grisham's novel "A Time to Kill," and Arena Stage in Washington, DC, will present the world premiere in May 2011.more
Goodman Musical 'Rooms' Will Get Philly Premiere in April (Playbill)
Playbill - 11th Hour Theatre Company will present the Philadelphia premiere of Paul Scott Goodman and Miriam Gordon's Rooms: a rock romance, the musical, April 9-May 2 at the Independence Black Box at the Prince Music Theater. Opening night is April 15.LaBute Pens New Prologue for Chicago 'Taming of the Shrew' (Playbill)
Playbill - Chicago Shakespeare Theater's new production of The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Josie Rourke for an April 7-June 6 run, will include the addition of a new prologue written by award-winning playwright Neil LaBute.more
Shakespeare, Ruhl, Ayckbourn and Rebeck Will Find Home at Philly's Wilma in 2010-11 (Playbill)
Playbill - The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia announced three Philly premieres and a season-opener of Macbeth for its 2010-11 season.more
'Unchain My Heart, the Ray Charles Musical' to Open on Broadway in November (Playbill)
Playbill - Sheldon Epps, artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse, will direct Unchain My Heart, the Ray Charles Musical, on Broadway. It will begin previews Oct. 8 at a Shubert theatre to be announced with an official opening scheduled for Nov. 7.more
Vargas Llosa's real "Aunt Julia" dies in Bolivia (Reuters)
Reuters - The Bolivian woman who inspired Mario Vargas Llosa's 1977 novel "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," and married Peru's best-known writer when he was 19, has died at age 84.
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Da Vinci -- painter, inventor and now action hero (Reuters)
Reuters - Warner Bros. is turning Leonardo into an action-adventure hero. No, not DiCaprio, but Da Vinci.more
Art dealer Edelman sued over loans (Reuters)
Reuters - Asher Edelman, a former corporate raider who became an art dealer, has been sued by Emigrant Bank for more than $3.1 million after allegedly defaulting on some loans, including one to buy a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti.more
Jonathan Pryce triumphs in classic Pinter revival (Reuters)
Reuters - Harold Pinter's masterpiece "The Caretaker" mirrors life in that it's not entirely clear what's going on. But the joy, pain and despair are real.more
Congo hopes new museum can heal nation's scars (Reuters)
Reuters - In a macabre echo of the punishments Belgian colonials once meted out to their Congolese laborers, a faded bronze statue of the explorer who carved out the country is missing two of his limbs.more
Australian authors protest China visa refusal (Reuters)
Reuters - More than 90 Australian authors signed a letter on Thursday decrying China's refusal to grant a visa to one of the country's most celebrated writers because he was HIV-positive, a move that Beijing defended.more
Bailiwick Chicago Will Produce 'Aida', Plus Works by Foley, Heimer, Siegel, Mayes and DiPietro (Playbill)
Playbill - Bailiwick Chicago has announced its 2010 spring-summer season programming. The slate is set to include a reading of a new musical, the Chicago premiere of Joe DiPietro's new play and Chicago's first homegrown production of the Tony-winning musical Aida.Senator Brown snags deal for memoirs (Reuters)
Reuters - Scott Brown, the Republican whose surprise victory in the Senate race in Massachusetts rocked the political landscape, has signed a deal to write his memoirs, the publisher HarperCollins said on Wednesday.
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Sullivan, Twyford, Genebach Will Slay NJ in Washburn's 'Orestes a Tragic Romp' (Playbill)
Playbill - The Two River Theater Company in Red Bank, NJ will present the world premiere of Orestes a Tragic Romp, a modern adaptation of Euripides' tragedy by Anne Washburn, March 23-April 11.more
Phantom sequel a "shadow of the original" (Reuters)
Reuters - Comparisons with the original were inevitable when Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to write a sequel to his record-breaking musical "Phantom of the Opera."more
Peakes Will Direct 'Travels With My Aunt' for Walnut Street; Cast Announced (Playbill)
Playbill - Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia continues its Independence Studio on 3 season March 30-April 18 with Travels with My Aunt, Giles Havergal's Olivier Award-winning adaptation of the Graham Greene novel.more