Stage Whispers: Chita Goes Down, DeGarmo Goes Up

Must-see of the Week:

ZOMBOID! / Ontological-Hysteric Theater / January 12 - April 9

Richard Foreman's self-imposed retirement didn't last long...less than a year, and he's back with ZOMBOID!, which is a...well, just let him explain it himself. The press release says it "marks the advent of a series of performances dominated by projected tableaux vivants against which live actors (and in the case of ZOMBOID!, multiple transcendental donkeys) appear and disappear." Foreman is something every human being should experience at least once in their lives, and he's as close to a living legend as the theatre has these days.

Other news of the legit:

- Out in San Francisco, Elton John's Lestat has opened its out-of-town tryout...and there's a video preview for ModFabbers to enjoy. (Warning: big loud pop ballads ahead. Scroll all the way down the page and click on "Preview: Highly Anticipated Vampire Musical".) They've also replaced Jack Noseworthy (who was fired two weeks ago) by hiring his understudy, Drew Sarich, full-time.

- And while we're giving video previews away, here are two for The Woman in White and The Color Purple. Me, I've always looked better in Purple.

- Remember last year's Tony winner, Doubt? Well surprise surprise...it was just the first part of a trilogy! (Who knew?) The second part, Defiance, concerns a Marine base in 1970's North Carolina, and performances begins next month with Chris Bauer (HBO's The Wire) and Stephen Lang (Tombstone).

- Prepare to lose your mind: Three Days of Rain, starring Julia Roberts (and Paul Rudd and Wedding Crashers' Bradley Cooper, if anyone cares), begins selling tickets to AmEx cardholders on Friday. If there's anything left for the limited 12-week run, they'll be available to the general public on January 28th.

- You heard it here first: the story of Spring 2006 will be all the amazing new musicals adapted from classic sources. But as opposed to 2005, they won't be on Broadway...look downtown, young man! Start with See What I Wanna See's Michael John LaChiusa, who has brought music to the house of Bernarda Alba, a Lorca adaptation at Lincoln Center starring Phylicia Rashad. Then head over to Grey Gardens, the musical version of the famed documentary (with a book by I Am My Own Wife playwright Doug Wright). Tickets are already starting to disappear for the wonderfully odd piece starring Christine Ebersole, Mary Louise Wilson, hunky Matt Cavenaugh, and Sara Gettlefinger. (The industry rumor of the week is that Gardens has already booked a Broadway theatre for a transfer once it closes at Playwrights Horizons...and it hasn't even begun performances yet! Now THAT's confidence.) I Love You Because was the hit at the industry-only NAMT festival last fall (the same festival that first brought attention to and Avenue Q and Altar Boyz), and it stars Avenue Q Tony nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo. And then there's Duncan Sheik (yes, that Duncan Sheik) and his sprawling adaptation of Wedekind's Spring Awakening.

- Discount of the week: 40% off on the limited Broadway engagement of Sarah Jones' Bridge and Tunnel. Produced by Meryl Streep and having won an Obie last season, it's definitely got the pedigree. (It's also an amazing performer's showcase.)

- Now this is a bit sexy....Broadway stud Brian F. O'Byrne and Oliver Platt will star in the new Conor McPherson play, Shining City. We love Brian. We love Oliver. And we loved The Weir.

- Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the first post-holiday week on Broadway is that Chita Rivera's revue The Dancer's Life is floundering...rumors are everywhere that it will close any day now. Looks like A Touch of the Poet and The Woman in White are also in trouble. At least at Poet, you can drink rum cocktails right along with the characters on stage.

- Trust me, this will be the best play of the spring. I've read the script, and it rocks. If the production is any good at all, it will be impossible to get a ticket.

- It won't be long now, kids, before you can take Sweeney Todd with you everywhere...in your iPod.

- Last year's overrated sensation, Brooklyn: The Musical, is going on tour, America. And...wait a minute...hold on...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! The tour will star American Idol also-ran Diana DeGarmo! Quick, before she grabs you with her enormous tentacles and bone-crunching jaws!

Tags: theatre, theater, Broadway, Richard+Foreman, Julia+Roberts, musicals, Sweeney+Todd