Frank Wildhorn Penning New Cyrano Musical for Pimpernel Star
Ever-busy composer Frank Wildhorn is currently working on a new musical version of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac.

McDonald, White, Luker, Testa and Sills Headline Upcoming PBS Broadcast

26-APR-2002

Several of Broadway's leading performers will take part in an upcoming Boston Pops tribute to Richard Rodgers, which will be taped for a July PBS broadcast.

Audra McDonald, Lillias White, Rebecca Luker, Mary Testa, Douglas Sills and Ron Raines will all perform at the May 13 Boston Pops Gala, which will be taped for airing during the upcoming "Evening at Pops" PBS series. Keith Lockhart will lead the Boston Pops Orchestra at Boston's Symphony Hall in an evening that will also include a performance of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" by the Mark Morris Dance Company.

The star-studded, black-tie-optional event will salute the music of Richard Rodgers, who would be celebrating his 100th birthday this year. During his lifetime, Rodgers penned over 900 songs. His partnerships with Lorenz Hart and later with Oscar Hammerstein II produced some of the most successful musicals in Broadway history. His works with Hart included On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, I Married an Angel, The Boys from Syracuse, Pal Joey and By Jupiter, and the Rodgers Hammerstein collaboration spawned Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music. A hit revival of Oklahoma! just opened to glowing notices at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre.

Audra McDonald scored Tonys for three of her four Broadway outings: Carousel, Master Class and Ragtime. She was last on Broadway in the title role of Marie Christine and will return to the intimate stage of Joe's Pub next month. Lillias White, who starred in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, nabbed her Tony for her work in Cy Coleman's The Life. She also starred on Broadway in Barnum and Once on This Island and just completed a critically hailed stint at Feinstein's at the Regency.

Rebecca Luker, the Clara of the upcoming Kennedy Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, was last on Broadway in the revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man, earning a Tony nomination for her work. She has also appeared on Broadway in Show Boat (Tony nomination), The Sound of Music and The Phantom of the Opera.

Mary Testa is now starring on Broadway in the acclaimed 42nd Street revival, and her other Broadway credits include Marie Christine, On the Town and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Douglas Sills earned a Theatre World Award and was nominated for a Tony for his leading role in The Scarlet Pimpernel. His other theatrical credits include the national tours of The Secret Garden and Into the Woods and the Los Angeles premiere of Chess. Ron Raines, who joined the Broadway production of Chicago last month, also appears on the CBS daytime drama "Guiding Light." His many stage roles include the Broadway and national tours of Teddy & Alice, Show Boat, The Unsinkable Molly Brown and Can-Can.

Symphony Hall is located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, MA. Tickets are available by calling SymphonyCharge at (617) 266-1200 or (888) 266-1200.

—By Andrew Gans for http://www.playbill.com

Sills, Pendleton, Horses Take Home L.A. Drama Critics Awards

Actors Douglas Sills and Austin Pendleton were among the honored thespians at the L.A. Drama Critics Awards, but the big winner was the Greenway Court Theatre's adaptation of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which took home seven awards for their eight nominations. Sills won for his turn as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing at South Coast Repertory Theatre, while Pendleton was honored for his play, Orson's Shadow, which shared Best Production kudos with Horses and the Deaf West Theater's Big River.

Special kudos were to South Coast Repertory for Sustained Excellence in Theatre; to Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon for World Premiere of an Oustanding New Play; to Beth Kennedy for Emerging Comic Actress; and to Pacific Resident Theater for Excellent Season in a Small to-Midsize Theater. The Bob Z Award for Lifetime Achievement in Set Design goes to Dwight Richard Odle and the Angstrom Award for Lifetime Achievement in Stage Lighting to Kim Killingsworth.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards were held April 1 at the Colony Theatre in Burbank.
— By Christine Ehren

Entire article Copyright © 1995-2002 Playbill Online. All Rights Reserved.

Sills OCPAC Shows Cancelled

Mr. Sills has regretably been forced to cancel his April 2002 engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, CA due to a family emergency. Tom Wopat will be replacing him.CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.
Mr. Sills has also cancelled his April 19 show at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.

Assassins Cancelles Broadway Debut

13-SEP-2001

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In a released statement, Composer Stephen Sondheim and book writer John Weidman said "Assassins is a show which asks audiences to think critically about various aspects of the American experience. In light of Tuesday’s murderous assault on our nation and on the most fundamental things in which we all believe, we, the Roundabout, and director Joe Mantello believe this is not an appropriate time to present a show which makes such a demand.” Assassins was to have begun rehearsal next week for Nov. 1 previews and a Nov. 29 opening at the Music Box Theatre. Tony nominee Douglas Sills, TV's Neil Patrick Harris, Roundabout regular Denis O'Hare and up-and-comer Raul Esparza were the top names in the Roundabout revival of John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.

Sills was Tony-nominated for The Scarlet Pimpernel after assaying touring roles in The Secret Garden and Into the Woods. In recent years, Harris has moved from TV ("Doogie Howser, MD") to Rent's Mark and, now, into the realm of Sondheim. Recently, he has sung Tobias Rag in several concert readings of Sweeney Todd, including one at Avery Fisher Hall and again in San Francisco. O'Hare, currently playing Major Barbara's fiance Adolphus Cusins for the Roundabout Theatre, also appeared in the Roundabout's Cabaret. Esparza recently received rave notices as Jonathan in the autobiographical Jonathan Larson musical, tick, tick...BOOM! and as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show.

Joining them in the cast were Alexander Gemignani as John Hinckley, Mary Catherine Garrinson (Williamstown's Street Scene and Second Stage's Crimes of the Heart) as Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, comedian Mario Cantone (The Crumple Zone, Love! Valor! Compassion!) as Samuel Byck, Becky Ann Baker (Titanic) as Sara Jane Moore and John Dossett (Ragtime) as Leon Czolgosz. Matthew Bennett (Titanic), James Clow (Company) and Brandon Wardell round out the ensemble.

The 1991 musical, seen in a sold-out Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons, traces the stories of people who killed or tried to kill American presidents throughout history. Darkly comic, Assassins visits forgotten murderers like the wannabe anarchist Leon Czolgosz who killed William McKinley, to the infamous assassins Booth, who shot Abraham Lincoln and Oswald, who killed John F. Kennedy.

Actors Bring Down The Curtain On Incessant Ringing

in USA Today, July 28, 1999.

When a cellphone continually rang in the audience, Doug apparently stopped the show, and asked the offending patron: "Don't you think it's probably for you? "Score one for The Scarlet Pimpernel!