“Gypsy,” currently in a revival production starring Audra McDonald as Mama Rose, will close Aug. 17 at the Majestic Theatre. The windup will have played 28 previews ad 269 performances.
The show originally was to be on Broadway through Oct. 5.
While McDonald has been wowing audiences, she didn’t win a Tony earlier this summer and grosses have not been as strong as anticipated. Consequently, “Gypsy” has not earned a Top 10 slo regularly in the weekly tallies.
I would have loved seeing her, but I missed traveling to New York this year and won’t plan to during the rest of the year.
Ethel Merman originated the role in 1959, but I’ve not seen her. However, I’ve taken in the other revivals, starring Angela Lansbury in 1974, Tyne Daly in 1989, Bernadette Peters in 2003, and Patti LuPone in 2008…
Bright Kids staging ‘Gypsy” Aug. 8 to 24
A Hawaii revival of “Gypsy” will be produced by the I’m a Bright Kid Foundation for three weekends beginning Aug. 8 and continuing through Aug. 24 at Paliku Theatre at Windward Community College. Jacquelyn Holland-Wright, an alumnus of Castle High School, will enacting Mama Rose. Curtain times are at 7:30 p..m Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets are $22 to $44, available at www.iabk.org …
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The return of the masked Phantom?
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legacy show, “The Phantom of the Opera,” shut down in 2023, after a history-making 35-year residency. It’s Broadway’s longest-running musical of all time.
But that masked hero, who sought the favors of Christine, apparently will make a comeback, specific timetable unknown.
Lloyd Webber, however, has been teasing a sequel from the opera house ghost. While the show’s working title is “Masquerade,” the Phantom likely will be haunting show-goers again, perhaps next season…
‘A Chorus Line’ marks 50th anniversary
A one-night special, celebrating the 50th anniversary of “A Chorus Line,” was staged Juiy 27 by and for the original cast members of the Tony-award winning show.
The Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund, staged the production at the Shubert Theatre, for 15 years – from 1975 to 1990 – the home of “A Chorus Line.”
Original cast member Baayork Lee remounted the original Michael Bennett backstage musical with Bob Avian choreography.
Special guests included members of the original 1975 singers-dancers, including Kelly Bishop, Wayne Cilento, Baayork Lee, Priscilla Lopez, and Donna McKechnie, joined by special guest performers Charlotte d’Amboise, Jessican Lee Goldyn, Robyn Hurder, Francis Jue, Krysta Rodriguea, Jessica Vosk, Anthony Wayne, Tony Yazbeck and Leigh Zimmerman.
The production is known for its icoic finale formation number, “One Singular Sensation,” known for its synchronized formation of the single row of pomp and circumstance dancing, complete with top hats…
TV notables to co-star in murder mystery
They are former Army buddies, and legendary television figures, who have a penchant to take on stage roles, doing dramas, comedies and mysteries.
It’s all for charity, for Fox/KHON lsland news anchor Joe Moore and his former military pal Pat Sajak, the celebrated “Wheel of Fortune” host of the syndicated game show
Moore, still in the news anchor seat, and Sajak, who’s retired but still occasionally appears as a guest host, started co-starring in plays at the Hawaii Theatre. It started 24 years ago, when they starred in Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” and they’re still going strong.
This year, the pair is taking on “Prescription Murder,” the original Columbo mystery thriller by William Link and Richard Levinson, whose work became the inspiration for the “Columbo” mysteries on TV. Performances will be from July 31 to Aug. 10.
Moore will take on the part of Lt. Columbo, the somewhat disheveled, bumbling detective who made Peter Falk a star, and Sajak will be Dr. Roy Flemming, a brilliant psychiatrist, intent on murdering his wife. The show is a give-and-take, back-and-fourth and cat-and-mouse escapade of thrills, wits and chuckles.
Moore says, this “will likely be our final time on stage together.”
Rob Duval is directing, and the supporting players include Bryce Moore, Therese Olival, Amy K. Sullivan and Aiko Chinen.
Tickets range in price from $42.50 to $87.50, available at www.hawaiitheatre.com/prescriptionmurder or (808) 528-0506…
A steadfast trio dominates the $2 million club
Summertime means longstanding Broadway favorites – the kingpin trio of “Wicked,” “The Lion King” and “Hamilton”—are the lone members of the elite $2 million club. The recent closing of a hot ticket, “Sunset Blvd.,” opened a slot in the Top 5, and surprise, surprise, “Aladdin’s” magic earned the show the No. 4 position.
The Top 10:
1–“Wicked,” $2.386 million
2—”The Lion King,” $2.324 million
3—”Hamilton,” $2.736 million
4—”Aladdin,” $1.610 million
5—”MJ, the Musical,” $1.394 million
6–“Maybe Happy Ending,” $1.382 million
7—“Just In Time,” $1.316 million
8—“Death Becomes Her,” $1.251 million
9—“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” $1.246 million
10—”The Outsiders,” $1.237 million
The complete list, for the week ending July 27, courtesy the Broadway Guild:
And that’s Show Biz…