THE THING WITH THE ESCAPE FROM THE PLACE THAT TIME: The long-gestating Broadway musical
Houdini (which has been through several book writers, including Kurt Andersen, and several score writers, including Danny Elfman)
allegedly is finally moving forward with Hugh Jackman (who's been attached for quite some time) as Houdini, a new score from Stephen Schwartz (his first since
Wicked, and somewhat surprisingly, he doesn't have a Tony--
Wicked lost to
Avenue Q, Pippin lost to
A Little Night Music, and
Godspell lost to
Annie), and a book from Aaron Sorkin (looking to leave himself with only a Grammy to go EGOT).
Fun fact: Harry Houdini was the first person to fly a powered airplane in Australia.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be rad.
ReplyDeleteJackman + Sorkin + Broadway? I'm in! (All it needs is a sprinkling of NPH.)
ReplyDelete+ a magician? I'm out.
ReplyDeleteI'm just sad we're not getting an Elfman theater score anymore. I like Schwartz fine, but was very excited at Elfman doing Broadway.
ReplyDelete(Godspell lost to Annie? Oy.)
ReplyDeleteIt's worse than you think. Driven by insomnia and a nagging recollection that Godspell was several years earlier than Annie, I've been puttering around wikipedia and the ibdb. I learned that the reason Godspell and Annie were competing against each other was that Godspell had a five-year run off-broadway before transferring and becoming eligible for the Tonys. More pertinently, I also discovered that among the other losers to Annie that year were Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil for the first broadway production of the Threepenny Opera. I like Annie, but that's just wrong. WC Fields is supposed to have said never act with children or animals and now we can add never compete against them for Tonys.
ReplyDeleteUnder current rules, arguably, Godspell wouldn't be eligible for those awards, since if a piece is deemed to be a "classic" with a long run elsewhere or has "entered the repertoire" despite never being performed on Broadway before, it competes as a revival. The impetus for that was when the 1848 play "Fortune's Fool" was performed on Broadway for the first time in 2002, it got a Best Play nod. For musicals, "Little Shop of Horrors" had an extended Broadway run in the 80s, but didn't make it to Broadway until 2003, and was deemed not eligible for the "new musical" categories.
ReplyDelete(That said, if a wholly new or heavily revised book/score is created, I believe it can be eligible. For instance, the "On A Clear Day..." revival may be eligible for Best Book this year because the book has been so completely reworked, even though it doesn't stand a prayer.)