In a live US radio interview with On Broadway’s Seth Rudetsky, our very own Douglas Hodge revealed that he is in talks to star in a revival of Barnum.

Douglas Hodge is currently wowing New York with his “An Evening with Doug Hodge” cabaret show at Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan (can we have this in London next please Mr Hodge?). He then makes his way back to the West End later this year to star in the Donmar’s revival of John Osbourne’s Inadmissible Evidence (from 13 October 2011), directed by Jamie Lloyd.

Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart’s musical Barnum saw Michael Crawford score a huge hit with the show in London in the early 1980s. Prior to that Jim Dale launched the show on Broadway in 1980.

Over the last few years impresario Cameron Mackintosh has talked of wanting to revive the show, and various names have been attached to the project including John Barrowman, Michael Ball – and on Broadway, Neil Patrick Harris.

Hodge has enjoyed great success with La Cage Aux Folles, winning an Olivier and Tony award for his star turn in the Menier Chocolate Factory production which transferred to Playhouse Theatre in London before heading to Broadway.

LINKS

Book tickets to La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway

Archive news on Douglas Hodge

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: Barnum
• Writers: book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, music by Cy Coleman
• Director: ?
• Starring: Douglas Hodge?
• Theatre: ?
• Date: 2012?

Source: SiriusXM’s On Broadway (16/03/11)

Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer in La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway

Following our report a few weeks ago, it now seems that Universal Pictures has convinced Cameron Mackintosh and Working Title to sign-up The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper to the forthcoming Les Miserables movie.

Apparently intense negotiations are now underway through Hooper’s agent, ICM, to agree the deal terms and get the movie into production by the end of the year.

Shooting somewhere in Europe, the movie musical will be a big-budget film adaptation of the hugely successful stage show. The movie will be produced by the show’s theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh along with Four Weddings and Bridget Jones producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner from Working Title.

The screenwriter of the project is Oscar nominated writer Bill Nicholson,  who wrote the screenplays for Gladiator, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Shadowlands amongst others.

The question now is, who gets to play the leads? There is much internet speculation that Hugh Jackman may be cast in the movie. Other front-runners include Nick Jonas, who briefly starred in the UK production of Les Mis at the Queen’s Theatre last year and at the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert at the O2.

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Movie: Les Miserables
• Director: Tom Hooper
• Distributor: Universal Pictures
• Producer: Working Title, Cameron Mackintosh
• Script: William Nicholson
• Date of release: 2012

Source: Deadline (24/03/11)

Tom Hooper collects his Best Director Oscar for The King's Speech

Thea Sharrock’s award-winning production of Terence Rattigan’s drama After The Dance at the National Theatre may be Broadway-bound.
And its star – Benedict Cumberbatch, who is currently wowing audiences at the National Theatre in Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein, may be heading with it.

The success of Sherlock in the US, which the New York Times dubbed as “highly entertaining” and having “a brio that sets it apart” when it premiered on PBS last year, means that his profile has been raised Stateside, which would be good timing for his Broadway debut. Plus his starring roles in forthcoming Spielberg movie War Horse and in a new version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will aid the move.

It is unclear whether fellow After The Dance performers Nancy Carroll and Adrian Scarborough would join him. Both won Olivier Awards for their performances in the play, although Carroll is heavily pregnant and Adrian Scarborough is in previews for Cameron Mackintosh’s new show Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre – and is rumoured to be putting in an award-worthy performance as Inspector Wormold.

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: After The Dance
• Director: Thea Sharrock
• Broadway Theatre: TBC
• Producer: Stuart Thompson
• Casting: Benedict Cumberbatch
• London Dates: TBC

Source: Daily Mail (25/03/11)

Benedict Cumberbatch

Rumours are buzzing that Daniel Radcliffe may bring his starring role in Broadway’s How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying to London.

The show is currently in previews at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, opening on 27 March, and is attracting lots of attention, not least for Radcliffe’s song and dance star-turn as J. Pierrepont Finch, who climbs the corporate ladder from window cleaner to chairman of the board!

If it’s a Broadway smash then Radcliffe’s reinvention post Harry Potter would be complete before the last Potter movie is even released. London would be an obvious transfer destination for the show, especially given that US producers include British theatre producer heavyweights John Gore, Wicked’s Michael McCabe and the Old Vic’s Joseph Smith.

Radcliffe’s new movie based on The Woman in Black is also set for release later this year.

LINKS

Book tickets to How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York

SEARCH: More news on Daniel Radcliffe

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
• Director: Rob Ashford
• Casting: Daniel Radcliffe, John Larroquette, Rose Hemingway
• London Dates: ?

Source: Various

Daniel Radcliffe, star of Broadway's How To Succeed...

It’s their first Broadway musical and it’s a smash! South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have written an hilarious new musical about a pair of teenage Mormon boys sent on a mission to a dangerous part of Uganda to spread the word. The show is written with Tony Award-winning Avenue Q writer Robert Lopez and is a riot of song and dance numbers mixed with profanity and outrage!

But far from offending, The Book of Mormon is being embraced by all – including Mormons, and Trey reveals to the Times today that he hopes to bring the show to London as well as tour the US.

Heavily praised last week by the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, who said that the show is “so good it makes me f**king angry”, it manages to be mocking, outrageous and satirical but is also well researched, humane and surprisingly moral.

LINKS

The Book of Mormon website

Book tickets to The Book of Mormon on Broadway

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: The Book of Mormon
• Written by: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
• First premiered: Eugene O’Neill Theatre, New York
• Director: Trevy Parker, Casey Nicholaw
• London Theatre: TBC
• Date: TBC

Source: The Times (16/03/11)

Harry Shearer, who co-created and starred in cult movie This Is Spinal Tap and is the voice of 21 Simpsons characters, is in discussions with various London theatres and producers to bring his 1994 show J. Edgar! The Musical to the West End.

Written by Shearer and Tom Leopold, the show received its premiere in 2003 at the US Comedy Arts Festival starring Kelsey Grammer and John Goodman.

The musical is a dark comedy spoof about FBI chief J Edgar Hoover and his love life and obsessions, particularly his protégé Clyde Tolson.

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: J. Edgar! The Musical
• Written by: Harry Shearer and Tom Leopold
• First premiered: US Comedy Arts Festival
• London Theatre: TBC
• Date: TBC

Source: Telegraph (15/03/11)

The producers of the current Broadway production of Driving Miss Daisy, based on the hit 1989 film, plan to bring the show to London this Autumn.

The West End transfer will include the New York cast of Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones.

The show started on Broadway in October last year and became an immediate hit thanks to the star names and love for the Oscar-winning movie.

Redgrave was last in the West End in 2008 in one-woman play The Year of Magical Thinking. Earl Jones starred in last year’s Debbie Allen revival of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre.

The show closes at the Golden Theatre on Broadway on 9 April 2011.

LINKS

Book tickets to Driving Miss Daisy at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: Driving Miss Daisy
• Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones
• Writer: Alfred Uhry
• Director: David Esbjornson
• Theatre: TBC
• Date: Autumn 2011

Source: Variety (09/03/11)

Tom Hooper, who won the best director Oscar last night for The King’s Speech, is also tipped to take on another potential award-winner. The Los Angeles Times reports that a big-budget movie remake of the hit stage musical Les Miserables is all systems go, and that he is to helm the project.

Hooper, who picked up the directing Oscar last night along with The King’s Speech star Colin Firth as Best Actor, was also offered Iron Man 3 as a new directing project…. but we think Les Mis fits much better!

He told 24 Frames that he wouldn’t mind directing another historical or period piece after The King’s Speech, “I’m certainly on the lookout” he said.

Tom Hooper collects his Best Director Oscar for The King's Speech

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Movie: Les Miserables
• Director: Tom Hooper
• Casting: ???
• Producer: Working Title, Cameron Mackintosh
• Date of release: 2012?

Source: LA Times (23/02/11)

Movies are a fickle business.

Hugh Grant was the man most recently tipped to play Henry Higgins in the big screen remake of My Fair Lady, alongside Cary Mulligan as Eliza, despite producer Cameron Mackintosh pushing for Colin Firth.

One small movie and a few awards later, and The King’s Speech star Firth is now all lined up to take over where Rex Harrison left off.

Movies of hit plays and musicals are the thing of the moment, with Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black, Spielberg filming War Horse, Will Smith working on a new film of Annie and Wicked set for a movie version.

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Movie: My Fair Lady
• Casting: Cary Mulligan, Colin Firth
• Producer: Sony, Cameron Mackintosh, Duncan Kenworthy
• Date of release: 2012?
• Screenplay: Emma Thompson
• Director: TBC

Source: Daily Mail (18/02/11)

Following the news that Sierra Boggess, currently playing Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre, will leave the role on 5 March to head to Broadway, more rumours are circulating over the cast changes for the show.

Celia Graham is widely tipped to replace Boggess on 7 March, following roles including Christine in Phantom and Sierra’s current understudy in Love Never Dies.

Also, David Thaxton is rumoured to be replacing Joseph Millson as Raoul. Thaxton was a hit in Passion at the Donmar Warehouse last year alongside Elena Roger, earning an Olivier Award nod for best actor in a new musical in the recent nominations.

Summer Strallen, who plays Meg in the show, will also be leaving to take on a stage adaptation of classic movie musical Top Hat, joining Tom Chambers to recreate the on-screen roles made famous by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

RUMOUR CHECK-LIST

• Show: Love Never Dies
• Theatre: Adelphi Theatre
• Casting: Celia Graham, David Thaxton
• Producer: Really Useful Group
• Date of new cast: 7 March?
• Director: Jack O’Brien

Source: New York Times (14/02/11), BroadwayWorld (16/02/11)