Stagefright	by Javier

The fabulous Megan Mullally (pictured above) will be back on Broadway next season in the new Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein, the stage adaptation of his popular 1974 movie. Mullally will play the doctor’s fiancée, the part created by the late Madeline Kahn. Young Frankenstein has been booked for the St. James Theatre, current home of The Producers, which is scheduled to close on April 22 after a successful six-year run. Mullally, whose TV talk show was recently canceled, was last seen on Broadway as Rosemary in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Yet another movie-to-musical is in the works and might be heading for Broadway in 2008: Grumpy Old Men will have staged readings in Los Angeles and New York next May. The Signature Theatre in Virginia will be presenting the US premiere of The Witches of Eastwick in June. The showed played London a couple of seasons ago, and will now have a revised book and score.

Although lyricist Fred Ebb died in 2004, the Kander & Ebb team keeps going strong. The revival of their musical Chicago just turned 10, their new musical Curtains is currently in previews on Broadway and a couple of their last collaborations are headed for regional productions. All About Us, based on Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, will open at the Westport Country Playhouse in April, starring Eartha Kitt. The Visit, starring Chita Rivera, will open at the Signature Theatre in September and will be part of a Kander & Ebb festival that will also include Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Happy Time.

Musicalfare Theatre will open the 2007-2008 season with the off-Broadway hit Altar Boyz, a concert/musical that features a Christian “boy band.” The season will also include two regional premieres, A Brief History of White Music and Beyond The Rainbow: The Life of Judy Garland; and the world premiere of Victory Vaudeville: The Father Baker Story. And, as part of a three-year retrospective of Sondheim musicals, the 2007-08 season will present Sweeney Todd.

Alleyway Theatre concludes the 2006-07 season with the world premiere of Lost in Hollywood by Alex Wexler and Bill Parsley, winner of the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition. Directed by Neal Radice, with musical direction by Michael Hake and choreography by Carlos Jones, the show stars Tom Owen, Casey Denton, Colleen Marcello, Roger Van Dette, Jeffrey Coyle, Christopher Parada and Guy Tomassi. Lost in Hollywood runs April 19-May 5.

Ray Boucher and Robert Rutland star in the fast-paced and over-the-top gothic spoof The Mystery of Irma Vep, which begins previews this week at Studio Arena. Both actors play a variety of roles requiring several quick costume changes that make what goes on back stage a whole show on its own. As a matter of fact, for the 2005 Intiman Theatre production in Seattle, special benefactor tickets were sold, allowing a limited patrons to watch the performance from a roped-off area back stage.

O’Connell & Company will celebrate the eighth anniversary of Diva by Diva with a special edition, Bring Your Daughter to Diva, March 21-25. These special performances are suited for all ages, and will include daughters, mothers, grandmothers and special friends of cast members.

Niagara University alum Denise Payne will appear in a newly revised version of the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which opens this week at Theatre Under the Stars in Houston, and then goes to the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and the North Shore Music Theatre in Massachusetts. Payne was most recently seen in New York’s Encores! production of Follies that also starred Christine Baranski.

Two more upcoming staged readings from Road Less Traveled New Play Workshop: Bonegrinders by Melody von Smith on March 19, and The Three of Us by Frank Canino on March 26. Readings take place at The Karpeles Museum, 453 Porter Avenue and are free of charge.

Don’t miss The Wake, the Irish Classical Theatre fundraiser (“a party to die for”), this Friday, March 16, 6-9pm at Town Ballroom. There’s free Guinness the first hour. A good way to start St. Patrick’s Day weekend!