Show Announcements: a lot new show announcements have happened over the last two weeks: "Flying Over Sunset", an original new musical by James Lapine, Tom Kitt, and Michael Korrie, will premiere at the Vivian Beaumont this spring; "The Lightning Thief: the Percy Jackson Musical" will cap its North American tour with a limited run at the Longacre Theatre starting in September; Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse will reprise their original performances for the Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel's Pulizer Prize winning play "How I Learned to Drive" at Manhattan Theatre Club; Roundabout Theatre Company will produce the Broadway premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner "A Soldier's Play" and the acclaimed British revival of "Caroline, or Change"(read my review of the London production) this winter/spring; "Slava's Snowshow" and the Old Vic's "A Christmas Carol" (read my review) will play holiday engagements on Broadway; "Diana", a new musical about Princess Diana, will play the Longacre Theatre starting this spring; Barry Manilow's "Harmony", decades in the making, will play the Museum of Jewish Heritage this winter; and after a 5 year hiatus, "Forbidden Broadway" will return Off-Broadway next month
News: "To Kill a Mockingbird" star and fellow "Spring Awakening" alum Gideon Glick will step in for Jonathan Groff in "Little Shop of Horrors" for two weeks Off-Broadway this fall; the film adaptation of London's smash hit musical "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" (read my review) will be released in October 2020; and critic's pick "What the Constitution Means to Me" (read my review) has been filmed for future release
Casting: Andrew Burnap, John Benjamin Hickey, Paul Hilton, Samuel H. Levine and Kyle Soller will reprise their West End performances in "The Inheritance" on Broadway, joined by Lois Smith; "American Idol" alumna Jordin Sparks is the next Jenna in "Waitress" starting September 16th; principal casting for this season's edition of Encores! includes Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in "Mack and Mabel", Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell in "Love Life", and Ashley Park in "Thoroughly Modern Millie"; and Jocelyn Bioh will head the cast of the Public Theater's revival of "For Colored Girls ..."
Development: a new stage adaption of "The Shining" is in the works with Belgian director Ivo van Hove at the helm; a new musical about Rudolph Valentino will receive a reading with Tony Yazbek in the title role; "The Impossible Man", a new musical about Harry Houdini, has workshops and a Detroit premiere planned; a "Soul Train" musical is in development for Broadway; and John Gallagher Jr. and Stark Sands will lead the cast of "Swept Away" at Berkeley Rep, a new musical by The Avett Brothers and playwright John Logan
Rumors: lots of Broadway rumors abound, including a West End transfer for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", MCC's upcoming production of "The Wrong Man" making the leap, Eric Ulloa and Brett Ryback's "Passing Through" (a hit at Goodspeed this summer) coming in, and Keenan Scott II's "Thoughts of a Colored Man" eyeing Times Square
Cast Albums: critic's pick "A Strange Loop" (read my review) will release a cast album in September, and critic's pick "Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish" (read my review) has released the first musically-complete recording ever of the classic show
Read: this New York Times profile of Broadway's female producers, this piece about actors rebounding from infamous flops, and this feature on the woman behind the famous "Mamma Mia!" logo
Listen: to "The Sparkling Diamond", the first track from the forthcoming "Moulin Rouge!" (read my review) cast album
RIP: veteran Broadway press agent Bob Ullman is dead at 97
