While you were buying your favorite Broadway memorabilia at the 28th Annual Broadway Flea, here’s what was happening last week In the Wings.
Josh Kaufman, the season 6 winner of NBC’s “The Voice,” will join “Pippin” in the title role. The Team Usher player will make his Broadway debut in a limited engagement run from Nov. 4. to Jan. 4, 2015. Kyle Dean Massey, Broadway’s current Pippin, will remain in the role through Nov. 2. [More info]
The revival of “Pageant” has extended its Off-Broadway run through Jan. 4, 2015. Producers of the musical comedy beauty contest also recently announced that, with the help of crowdfunding, they will release the show's first ever cast album. "Pageant" first premiered Off-Broadway in 1991. [More info]
Still haven’t seen Tony-winning Jessie Mueller in “Beautiful — The Carole King Musical?" Well good news! Mueller has extended her contract and will remain with the show, which recently recouped, until March 6, 2015. Also sticking around are her Tony-nominated co-stars Anika Larsen and Jarrod Spector. A national tour of “Beautiful”: will launch in Sept. 2015, and a West End production will begin in Feb. 2015. [More info]
Angela Lansbury will reprise her Tony-winning role in Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” for a new North American tour. The tour launches this December at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, and will continue on to theaters in San Francisco, Toronto and Washington, D.C. Michael Blakemore, who directed the 2009 Broadway production and 2014 London production, will once again direct. [More info]
Many were disappointed when the Second Stage Theatre announced they will no longer be producing the new musical “American Psycho” this season. But will “Psycho” see the light of day on Broadway? That’s the rumor according to The New York Times, who reports that the Duncan Sheik musical, based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel, will head directly to the Great White Way. No word whether Benjamin Walker will still remain in the lead role. [More info]
Speaking of murderous musicals, get your first look at Emma Thompson in PBS’s “Live from Lincoln Center’s telecast of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Thompson plays Mrs. Lovitt in the classic Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical. The clip below shows her performing the Act II opener “God, That’s Good!” “Sweeney Todd” airs on PBS on Sept. 26.
