Broadway's 2009 Season Continues to Beckon

The ridiculousness of my schedule right now has me literally standing in a room, spinning in circles before pointing myself in the direction of the next project that needs my attention. Very frustrating. Because I have a LOT to write about but no time to do it in.

That said, I had to stop in for a minute because I could not let these two litle tidbits pass my ever-faithful readers by:

TIDBIT #1.

First, there has recently been a lot of hoopla about the closing night of Rent. This hoopla is justified because Rent has, in my opinion, valiantly earned its place in musical theatre history for so many reasons. You can pretty much Google "Rent closing night" and read any of the aforementioned hoopla but I was struck by a paragraph with Playbill.com's hoopla that made me quite happy:

[Kevin McCollum] opens West Side Story Dec. 16 in Washington D.C.'s National Theatre, where it was originally launched in 1957, and will open on Broadway "at a theatre we're going to name in about three weeks. When Arthur called and said, 'I think it should also be bilingual,' I said, 'Okay, I'm in.' Even though it's a revival, it's a fresh take. I'm excited about that. We're talking to Lin-Manuel Miranda about translating Sondheim into Spanish. He has met with Arthur. He's going to meet with Stephen. It's just a consult right now. We're just asking him to contribute ideas, and we'll see what happens.

I just saw In The Heights on Saturday night and, while West Side Story was already very much on my radar, it is now an even brighter beeping beacon with the involvement of the infectiously charming and talented Lin-Manuel Miranda.

(SIDENOTE: I really hope that I can spend a few minutes to do a review of In The Heights but if you reference Paragraph #1 you will see that it is not coming any time soon.)

TIDBIT #2.

It has been officially announced that The Public's production of Hair is officially making the move to Broadway in 2009. Given the play's subject matter, I find it quite ironic and telling that this announcement was officially made on September 11th. I've seen this production evolve from its concert version in September 2007 and the Central Park staging in August 2008 and I am very much looking forward to the Broadway revival.

Beads. Flowers. Freedom. Happiness.

Much happiness.

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