Broadway

SAN DIEGO - Musicals are supposed to raise your spirits and warm your heart, right? Not necessarily. And certainly not in the case of "The Scottsboro Boys," the fearlessly inventive show about one of the most notorious episodes of racial injustice in America. It disturbs audiences as much as it entertains them. Who else but Kander & Ebb could pull off such a daring combination? Best known for "Cabaret" and "Chicago," John Kander and Fred Ebb were masters of "the concept musical," and "The Scottsboro Boys," created with book writer David Thompson and completed after the death of Ebb in 2004, is arguably the duo's most audacious crack at the form.

NEW YORK - James Corden is in the throes of a New York moment. He's in a hit Broadway show, the London import "One Man, Two Guvnors," and though he's been down this road before with "The History Boys," a more high-minded British comedy that became a smash on the Great White Way, this time he's the star and all eyes are on this generously proportioned funnyman - a cherub posing as Puck, or is it the other way around? Part of the secret of Corden's comic gift is that he combines innocence so naturally with mischief.

Jake Gyllenhaal is set to star in an off-Broadway play from the Roundabout Theatre Company. The Oscar-nominated actor will appear in the ensemble comedy-drama "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet" by British playwright Nick Payne. Gyllenhaal has acted on stage in London, but this would be his U.S. stage debut. Organizers said Thursday that the play is scheduled to open Sept. 20 at the Laura Pels Theatre in New York. A summary of the play provided by the Roundabout states that the story revolves around a 15-year-old girl with a weight problem.

Joyce Redman, a two-time Oscar-nominated Irish-born actress whose erotically charged dinner-eating scene opposite Albert Finney was a highlight of the bawdy 1963 British film comedy "Tom Jones," has died. She was 96. Redman died Thursday in Kent, England after a short battle with pneumonia, said her son, actor Crispin Redman. A veteran of the London and Broadway stage, Redman received her first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for "Tom Jones," which starred Finney as the incorrigible 18th century English title character who has a series of amorous adventures.

After its highly anticipated run at the Mark Taper Forum set to start Jan. 25, "Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, will open on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theater on April 12, according to a spokesperson for the show. It has been a circuitous path to New York's famed theater district, but at least it has carried many of the original crew along for the ride. Pam MacKinnon will direct at both the Taper and the Walter Kerr; she directed the show's original incarnation at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in February 2010.

“Ghost,” the hit movie starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, has been resculpted for Broadway. The movie-turned-musical opened Monday night at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in a special effects-heavy production that takes audiences from the streets of New York to an unsettling afterlife. The staged story doesn't stray far from the 1990 film: Molly is a love-struck artist while her boyfriend, Sam, a banker, is less inclined to return her sentiments, at least verbally. Sam is shot and killed in a robbery, but with the help of a psychic, the couple can continue their affair while Sam waits in spiritual limbo.

Usher is making an onstage cameo -- this time off-Broadway. The Grammy winner will join the cast of "Fuerza Bruta: Look Up" for two performances on April 28 at New York's Daryl Roth Theatre. Usher will portray the lead role, "Running Man.” "Fuerza Bruta," which means "brute force" in Spanish, is a nonverbal show high on visual effects, acrobatics and dance with women in suspended pools and men running on giant treadmills. Interactive staging has the audience standing and participating in the production.

Re "L.A. plans Broadway face-lift," Jan. 28, and "L.A.'s 'Blade Runner' plans," Opinion, Jan. 30 The Times characterizes the "Bringing Back Broadway" initiative as a plan to "obliterate Broadway's essentially Latino character." That conveniently omits the numerous benefits this widely supported initiative will bring about. The revitalization of the Broadway district will encourage economic development and an appreciation for Los Angeles' vibrant history, be an attraction for tourists and enhance the unique culture of our city.

Watching the Tony Awards was like sitting with an old woman who is showing you pictures of herself when she was beautiful. You look at the photos ("West Side Story," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Our Town") and compare them with what time and her life have done to her ("Starmites," "The Heidi Chronicles"), and you understand why the past is so important to her, and it breaks your heart--or it should. If producers have managed to elbow their way onto Broadway ahead of artists now, is it any wonder the only thing we'll be able to remember about today's grotesque spectacles is how much they cost?

Peter Howard, 80, who arranged the dance music for many of Broadway's greatest hits over the last half-century, died April 18 of pneumonia at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home in Englewood, N.J. From 1949 to 2000, Howard was involved in 38 Broadway shows. Sometimes he composed the incidental music or conducted the orchestra. But Howard made his greatest mark in the 23 shows for which he arranged dance music. Those shows included such hits as "1776," "Chicago," "Annie," "The Roar of the Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd," "The Tap Dance Kid," "Carnival" and "Hello, Dolly!"

Supermodel Christie Brinkley makes her L.A. stage debut, reprising her Broadway turn as Roxie Hart in "Chicago: The Musical," at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood from Tuesday through May 27. You made your stage debut on Broadway as Roxie Hart a year ago. How did that come about? I was going over job offers with my agent and he sort of breezed over - "and then there's 'Chicago' wondering if you want to be Roxie or Velma, and there's da-da-da…. " And I said, "Are you sure that was for me?"

SAN DIEGO - Musicals are supposed to raise your spirits and warm your heart, right? Not necessarily. And certainly not in the case of "The Scottsboro Boys," the fearlessly inventive show about one of the most notorious episodes of racial injustice in America. It disturbs audiences as much as it entertains them. Who else but Kander & Ebb could pull off such a daring combination? Best known for "Cabaret" and "Chicago," John Kander and Fred Ebb were masters of "the concept musical," and "The Scottsboro Boys," created with book writer David Thompson and completed after the death of Ebb in 2004, is arguably the duo's most audacious crack at the form.

A 1928 Tudor once owned by Broadway star Mary Martin is on the market in Bel-Air at $10.5 million. Nicknamed the Peter Pan House for the role that the former resident is often associated, the two-story plus basement house sits on about an acre with a guesthouse and swimming pool. Features include leaded-glass windows, half-timbered details and a gabled roof. There is a library/study, a breakfast room, seven bedrooms and five bathrooms. Martin, who died in 1990 at 76, also was known for stage roles in "South Pacific" and "The Sound of Music.

Not many coaches were friends with Phil Jackson , but George Karl formed an amiable bond with him when Karl's son, Coby , played with the Lakers for a year. So maybe it's not surprising that Karl has jumped into the role of chief psychologist in the first-round series between the Lakers and Denver Nuggets. He doesn't have the same skill as Jackson, who would tweak referees, David Stern , Mark Cuban and then more referees without thinking twice about writing a check if Stern fined him. But Karl is up to something in the second year of Jackson's absence in the NBA playoffs since 1990.

Numerous streets in downtown Los Angeles and beyond will be closed Tuesday for May Day marches. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the following streets downtown will be affected, beginning as early as 7 a.m. and continuing until 7:30 p.m: •Broadway between 11th and Temple streets •Olympic Boulevard between Hill and Main streets •9th between Hill and Broadway •8th between Spring and Broadway ...

NEW YORK - Who was Joseph Alsop? This question, this mystery drives "The Columnist," a new drama by David Auburn,Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Proof," about a star journalist who was as clear cut in his political views as he was opaque in his private life. The play, which opened Wednesday at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in a production expertly directed by Daniel Sullivan, is more engrossing as creative biography than drama. (Factual events are fictionally processed and supplemented.)

“Ghost,” the hit movie starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, has been resculpted for Broadway. The movie-turned-musical opened Monday night at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in a special effects-heavy production that takes audiences from the streets of New York to an unsettling afterlife. The staged story doesn't stray far from the 1990 film: Molly is a love-struck artist while her boyfriend, Sam, a banker, is less inclined to return her sentiments, at least verbally. Sam is shot and killed in a robbery, but with the help of a psychic, the couple can continue their affair while Sam waits in spiritual limbo.

The new Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams'"A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Broadhurst Theatre has one thing that distinguishes it from its predecessor productions -- it's performed by a cast of mostly African American actors. Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker portray Stanley (first name only) and Blanche Du Bois in Williams' hot-house drama set in the French Quarter of New Orleans.Daphne Rubin-Vega plays the long-suffering Stella and Wood Harris plays Mitch. Emily Mann, who is the artistic director the McCarter Theatre Company in New Jersey, directed the production.