| Stage stars' real roles: Husband and wife
Two big Broadway stars will join more than a thousand amateur theater artists for AACTFest '07 this week in Charlotte. The American Association of Community Theatres will toast Terrence Mann and Charlotte d'Amboise, married veterans of such megahits as "Cats" and "Les Misérables" (Mann) and the current revival of "A Chorus Line" (d'Amboise), at a fundraising dinner and reception Friday, amid a packed schedule of award-winning shows, workshops and other events. Mann, a graduate of N.C. School of the Arts, made his Broadway debut in 1982 in "Barnum," then made his name as the original Rum Tum Tugger in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats." Starring roles in "Les Mis" (Javert) and "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" (Beast) earned Mann two Tony nominations; later, he created the role of Chauvelin in "The Scarlet Pimpernel." He played assistant choreographer Larry in the film version of "A Chorus Line," among other movie and TV appearances.
Tonys/Sopranos
Since the final Sopranos and the Tony Awards were on the same night and both were so similar in theme and presentation, I thought I'd review them together. As usual, the Tonys were the only awards show where no one thanked their wives. You knew David Chase would do an ending nobody expected. But I thought it was going to be Bob Newhart springing up in bed telling Emily he had this really weird dream and Emily telling him to lay off the Lincoln log sandwiches before bed. I was happy Spring Awakening won. I saw it a year ago when it played in a dingy church in the village. Call me psychic but even then I knew simulated sex and nudity would find an audience. Things don't look good for The Sopranos. But I choose to believe Tony noticed the guy going into the bathroom, shot him coming out.
TARZAN A LOSER ON BROADWAY
Disney's strategy of turning hit animated features into Broadway musicals has encountered its first setback. Thomas Schumacher, Disney's head of theatrical productions announced Friday that the company's ambitious stage version of its 1999 film Tarzan will shut down on July 8 -- "earlier than any of us had hoped" -- as a result of falling ticket sales. In an interview with the Associated Press, Schumacher said that after examining the show's advances, he concluded, "I am going to have a summer where I am going to be losing a substantial amount of money. ... And I don't artificially keep shows going." However, he noted that the show's Dutch production has been a big hit. "I would have loved for [the Broadway production] to have been as successful in New York as it now is in Holland," where it is playing in The Hague, Schumacher said.
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