lincolncenter:

Actors Russ Tamblyn and George Chakiris, two original cast members of the 1961 musical film West Side Story, stopped by Lincoln Center to do an interview for The Today Show. They talked about getting shinsplints after vigorous rehearsals, the thrill of getting nominated for an Oscar and the important legacy of the film that ultimately won 10 Academy Awards that year.

    

Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage sequel to the long-running Phantom of the Opera, might have been dealt a fatal blow, thanks in part to devastating reviews on the West End and a director and choreographer jumping ship, all before a promised Broadway run.

Michael Ridel reports in the New York Post:

In the theater, “indefinitely” has a way of becoming “absolutely not gonna happen” — and that, London theater sources say, is what’s happened to [Love Never Dies]

The $15 million London production, which was directed by Broadway vets Jack O’Brien and Jerry Mitchell, will not be seen in New York.

Ever.

Riedel goes on to say that Lloyd Webber will be taking his Love Never Dies score and “salvage” things with new creative teams, in two different productions, both Australia and Toronto.

Meanwhile, the other trusty New York paper, The New York Times, has a slightly less doomsday scenario report on Love Never Dies, with Patick Healy avoiding any mention of rebooted productions, but confirming that both director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell have ditched the dying production.

While a spokesman for the production said on Tuesday that “Love Never Dies” was still set for the Neil Simon Theater in the spring, the director and choreographer of the show in London, Jack O’Brien and Jerry Mitchell, who were expected to work on the Broadway version, have left the production to focus on their new musical “Catch Me If You Can,” according to two Broadway producers who are not involved with either show, but have spoken with the men.

Broadway’s The Addams Family couldn’t keep up the numbers once star Nathan Lane split for vacation. The New York Times reports that grosses fell below $1 million:

Indeed, the vacation of one of them — the actor Nathan Lane — contributed to a $361,518 nosedive in the grosses of his musical, “The Addams Family,” in which he plays the patriarch Gomez. The show, usually one of the highest-earning on Broadway, fell to $764,231 from $1.1 million the previous week, by far the most sizable drop in week-to-week grosses that are released by producers every Monday.

The National Theatre’s Twitter account apparently gets hacked, as someone responds to a negative news article by calling the naysayer a four letter word. (www.ayoungertheatre.com)

The Hollywood Reporter’s Mary Murphy joined the set of “Glee” for a feature article, and observed as Broadway actress and the show’s star Lea Michele gets hung up texting on her phone between takes:

Later, taking a break from work — though not from her phone, which she uses to text back and forth endlessly — Michele seems uncertain. 

“It’s kind of tough getting back into the groove,” she admits.

The groove is so different from anything she’s known before. Michele was a Broadway actress who’d never had any long-running role on television, and was constantly being rejected either because she wasn’t a classic Hollywood beauty or because she was too ethnic — or for myriad other reasons. Now she’s a mega-star. 

She goes over and over her scene, worrying about whether to play it this way or that. Falchuk says he wants Rachel to seem humbled, but Michele would like to try it a few different ways. She pecks out a few more text messages. Then heads back to shoot.

Take note Broadway actors, don’t get your sights set on those upcoming Hollywood star-filled productions headed to Times Square.

New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood tackled the subject of replacement cast members on Broadway, analyzing how there has been a smattering of follow-up actors that trump the originators of a role, or at least make the show into something worth seeing, again.

But the issue of celebrity stunt casting comes up as Ishwerwood notes that when an actor like Denzel Washington is in a role, there is no way a replacement could draw audiences, no matter the acting talent.

“…it’s too bad the first Broadway revival of August Wilson’s important play had to limit its scope to accommodate the commitments of a superstar’s schedule.” (nytimes.com)