Last updated: 9:12 am
September 5, 2008
Posted: 2:19 am
September 5, 2008
CURTAIN up!
The new theater season is here, so let's shine the spotlight on a few of the big names trying to conquer the Great White Way.
* HELLO, DOLLY!
Country music hasn't fared very well on Broadway, but if anybody can break the hick ceiling, it's going to be Dolly Parton.
The fabled country star has written an original score for the stage adaptation of "9 to 5: The Musical," now rehearsing in Los Angeles.
Dolly, sources say, isn't the least diva-ish about her songs. If director Joe Mantello doesn't think a number is right, Dolly heads to the piano to bang out a new one.
She's got stiff competition: Elton John's score to "Billy Elliot," still the show to beat, is the best he's written for the theater.
But if the songs in "9 to 5" are as catchy as the title number, Broadway could start to look like Dollywood.
* CRUISIN' FOR A BRUISIN'?
Poor Katie Holmes got off to a rough start when The Post reported that she's not exactly setting the box office on fire for the revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons."
Compared to the numbers the previous Mrs. Cruise - Nicole Kidman - posted for "The Blue Room," Katie's got the drawing power of a kid off the bus from Allentown.
People involved in the production are starting to call it the "John Lithgow show" (Lithgow's got the starring role) in an effort to take the pressure off Katie. But, alas, those tabloid reporters and photographers lurking around the stage door all day aren't there to find out what John Lithgow's wearing.
If "All My Sons" doesn't make any money, Holmes will take the blame.
As for her performance (that minor detail), I hear she's coming along nicely in the role, and has some lovely moments with co-star Patrick Wilson.
"She's not bad at all," says a production source, who adds, in a panic: "Don't use my name!"
Like everybody else in the show, he's afraid that if he speaks about Holmes without authorization, the Scientologists will ship him off to Mars.
