Broadway Play

The Metropolitan Opera has gotten its feet wet in television's pay-per-view waters, and now Broadway is going to dive in. "Jelly's Last Jam," a Gregory Hines musical that opens on Broadway April 26, will be transmitted live from the Virginia Theater into cable subscribers' homes across the nation on May 29.

In the program for "Lucky Guy," the play Nora Ephron raced to complete before her death last year, there's a note by the author titled "Journalism: A Love Story. " That's a pretty good description of the drama, Ephron's valentine to New York City's smoke-filled, hangover-zonked newsrooms during the fierce tabloid wars of the 1980s and '90s. This was the period when racial tensions were soaring, the crack epidemic was in full swing and the streets were so tough it wasn't always easy to tell the good guys from the bad. Chronicling this tumult were three pugnacious newspapers -- the New York Post, the New York Daily News and the newcomer, New York Newsday -- which fought for readers' attention subway car by subway car, their covers singling out heroes and villains in the town's cast of corkers.

David Mamet's hit Broadway play "Speed-the-Plow" has opened in London to mixed reviews for the play itself and for the actress in the role created by Madonna. The London production stars Colin Stinton and Alfred Molina as fellow movie producers and longtime friends, and Rebecca Pidgeon as the temporary secretary who momentarily throws their friendship into question. On Broadway, Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver starred with Madonna. The acerbic comedy ended its Broadway run on New Year's Eve.

Shia LaBeouf won't be making his Broadway debut this season after all. The 26-year-old actor has quit the upcoming revival production of the play "Orphans" in New York over "creative differences," according to a news release sent Wednesday.  LaBeouf has left the show a month before preview performances are set to begin. "Orphans" is still scheduled to open at the Schoenfeld Theater on April 7, with previews commencing on March 19. The production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, also features Alec Baldwin, in the role of a powerful man kidnapped by two brothers.

Los Angeles audiences had a good time at Ron Milner's "Checkmates" last season, first at the Inner City Cultural Center, then at the Westwood Playhouse. Ah, but was Milner's comedy good enough for Broadway? It arrived there Thursday night, at the 46th St. Theater. The New York Times' Frank Rich thought that it wasn't good enough.

When the Philadelphia 76ers went 9-73 in 1972-73 for the worst record in NBA history, Roy Rubin was fired as the coach in midseason when the club was 4-47. Ray Didinger of the Philadelphia Daily News, in a story on the team, recalled that Rubin later invested in a Broadway play that folded after two performances. The title of the play was "Tough to Get Help." The leading man was killed in a fire. The playwright died of a heart attack in his early 40s.

Joe Farkas would not miss a Seder dinner at his parents' home for anything in the world. When Pesach--the Hebrew word for Passover--is mentioned to Lala Levy, she does not know what the word means. The 22-year-old went to a Seder dinner once in fifth grade and didn't like it.

In the program for "Lucky Guy," the play Nora Ephron raced to complete before her death last year, there's a note by the author titled "Journalism: A Love Story. " That's a pretty good description of the drama, Ephron's valentine to New York City's smoke-filled, hangover-zonked newsrooms during the fierce tabloid wars of the 1980s and '90s. This was the period when racial tensions were soaring, the crack epidemic was in full swing and the streets were so tough it wasn't always easy to tell the good guys from the bad. Chronicling this tumult were three pugnacious newspapers -- the New York Post, the New York Daily News and the newcomer, New York Newsday -- which fought for readers' attention subway car by subway car, their covers singling out heroes and villains in the town's cast of corkers.

Director David Schweizer sits on a saggy couch, just a couple of feet away from a round wooden table and chairs, in the lobby of the Actors' Gang Theater in Hollywood. The sofa is the kind of serviceable number you'd expect to find in the front room of a nonprofit company. But the table and chairs seem even older, and slightly out of place. In fact, the grouping looks suspiciously like the theatrical set that looms in the background, just over the director's shoulder. As well it should.

Fred Gwynne, a dour but lovable stage, film and television actor for four decades who was best remembered for his leading roles in the 1960s cult television series "The Munsters" and "Car 54 Where Are You?" died Friday. He was 66. Gwynne died in his home near Baltimore of pancreatic cancer, his New York legal representatives at Kraditor, Haber & Bienstock announced.

"If the whole universe had no meaning," C.S. Lewis once wrote, "we should never have found out that it had no meaning. " Pithy observations like that - rooted in logical argument - have made the writer one Christian whom many agnostics and atheists accept and enjoy. "Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis," Sigmund Freud once wrote. "Mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis. " A pithy observation like that is one reason many people are stimulated by Freud's writing, even if they regard his psychology as dated, oversexualized nonsense.

NEW YORK - The paparazzi lying in wait for Katie Holmes, tabloid bait after her getaway divorce from Tom Cruise, may be the ideal group to review her performance in Theresa Rebeck's "Dead Accounts" at the Music Box on Broadway. Let's just say she looks fabulous in that just-bumming-around-but-still-gorgeous way that helps TMZ make its payroll. This isn't to suggest that Holmes' acting is only skin deep. She's charming, natural and, yes, about as fresh-faced as a moisturizer model.

Katie Holmes will have to wait two more days before she begins preview performances of the new Teresa Rebeck play "Dead Accounts. " The Broadway production has pushed back the start of preview performances to Monday due to the effects of the storm Sandy. Producers are offering a somewhat unusual recompense to ticket holders of the canceled Saturday preview performance -- a free pint of Graeter's ice cream (which is mentioned in the play itself, according to a release). Organizers said that patrons of the canceled performance may present their tickets at the Music Box Theatre box office to claim their coupons. The freebies are available only at D'Agostino's supermarkets in New York through Nov. 30. The ticketholders then can reschedule to another performance.

Roman Polanski is headed back to the Broadway well. The controversial Polish-born director, who last adapted the stage hit “God of Carnage” for the screen, will tackle “Venus in Fur,” David Ives' Tony Award-winning comedy- drama that opened on Broadway last year. Polanski, who lives in Paris, will shoot the movie in French, with his wife Emmanuelle Seigner (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “Frantic”) taking on the role that Nina Arianda made popular. Polanski and Ives are writing the screenplay--the latter also worked several years ago on the stage adaptation of Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers"--and Lionsgate is producing the film, with the company's Summit International division peddling foreign rights that will help finance the picture.

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 non-verbal 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.

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.

Could "Smash" be headed for Broadway? When NBC developed the prime-time TV musical drama about cutthroat competition in the theater world, the network buttoned up the rights for a Broadway version of the show. The series about the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, which NBC recently renewed for a second season, may be a long way from getting to the real Broadway. Still, the show has long been a passion project for NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, who has experience producing a stage musical and has assembled an elite group of executive producers with credentials in the theater world.

Ed Harris, known for movies such as "The Right Stuff" and "A Beautiful Mind," will make his debut as a Broadway director next year with a production of Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love." "Fool for Love" is the story of two lovers holed up in a seedy Mojave Desert motel. Harris won an Obie Award for his portrayal of Eddie in the 1983 off-Broadway premiere of the drama. That same year, he and Shepard played astronauts in "The Right Stuff." The production will open Feb.

Could "Smash" be headed for Broadway? When NBC developed the prime-time TV musical drama about cutthroat competition in the theater world, the network buttoned up the rights for a Broadway version of the show. The series about the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, which NBC recently renewed for a second season, may be a long way from getting to the real Broadway. Still, the show has long been a passion project for NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, who has experience producing a stage musical and has assembled an elite group of executive producers with credentials in the theater world.