Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Casting Call (Week Ending June 7, 2006)

Casting Call (Week Ending June 7, 2006)

As we near the Sunday finish-line for the 2005-06 Theatrical Season with the 60th Annual Tony Awards, many in the theatrical world no doubt have their sights set on next year’s plethora of award opportunities as more productions have announced casting. While I’ve already described the stellar leading roles for the upcoming revival of Les Misérables, several other exciting casting decisions have been announced both on and Off-Broadway, as well as far away from the Great White Way.

Some previous casting decisions that are now opening include celebrated actress Tovah Feldshuh, who begins her reign tonight as the irrepressible Dolly Levi in New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse production of the Jerry Herman musical Helly Dolly! Feldshuh, of course, delivered a breathtaking, bravura performance as Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony back in the 2003-04 Broadway season. In Los Angeles, Laurence Fishburne opens this Sunday in Alfred Uhry’s new play Without Walls at the Mark Taper Forum. And of course, the very busy Jill Clayburgh began her run last night in Keith Bunin’s The Busy World is Hushed at Playwrights Horizon in New York.

Speaking of Playwrights Horizons, Sigourney Weaver has now been announced for the lead role in its world premiere production of A.R. Gurney’s Crazy Mary….Keith Carradine reportedly will take the place of Jonathan Pryce’s Lawrence Jameson while Brian d'Arcy James will takeover Norbert Leo Butz's Freddy Benson this July in the deliciously decadent Broadway production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial Theatre; Richard Kind will assume the role of Andre from Gregory Jbara….Brothers Adam and Matthew Arkin will team up with Jan Maxwell and Michele Pawk in the Jerry Zaks-helmed comedy Losing Louie at Broadway’s Biltmore Theatre in September….Kathy Bates, Jane Fonda, Marcia Gay Harden, and Marian Seldes are among those participating in a June 12 benefit performance of Necessary Targets by Eve Ensler for Until the Violence Stops: NYC, New York at Studio 54....the brilliant Rebecca Luker will assume the role of Mrs. Banks in the Broadway mounting of Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre….and finally, a Nathan Lane-less Matthew Broderick will team up again with playwright Kenneth Lonergan in the supposedly Broadway-bound The Starry Messenger come January at San Diego’s venerable Old Globe.

I’ll keep you posted on other exciting casting news in the weeks ahead.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for Hello Dolly! tickets.
Click here for Without Walls tickets.
Click here for The Busy World Is Hushed tickets.
Click here for Necessary Targets tickets.
Related Stories:
Casting Call (Week Ending May 21, 2006) (May 21, 2006)

Labels: Broadway, Crazy Mary, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Golda's Balcony, Hello Dolly, Les Miserables, Losing Louie, Mary Poppins, Off-Broadway

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, June 07, 2006