Grease: The One We Didn't Want?

All the latest on new and ongoing productions 'From Screen to Stage':

- The newest revival of Grease has begun previews on Broadway. This is the production that found its Danny and Sandy on a television reality show and, thanks to America, we now have a brunette Sandy (Laura Osnes) and a dorky Danny (Max Crumm). Thanks, America. For opening night pics of the duo, visit Broadway.com.

- Hoping for another Producers, Mel Brooks brings another of his comedy classics to the stage with Young Frankenstein. In addition to Roger Bart, Megan Mullally and Sutton Foster, the tuner stars Wicked's Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor and Tarzan's Shuler Hensley as the Monster. And yes, the new musical will include the classic "Uttin' ona 'Itz" number.

- Mel's won't be the only stage adaptation of the legendary Mary Shelley story to hit New York in the near future: a "more serious" musical retelling of Frankenstein will be available Off-Broadway.

- Record companies are lining up to record the Xanadu cast album. One hitch: they want Cheyenne.

- And if you thought that Xanadu was the only 1980 movie musical bomb to creep its way onto the stage, think again: Can’t Stop the Music: The Musical?

- Want some camp with your cannabis? Then Reefer Madness: The Musical is just for you.

- For more squeaky-clean teen musical fare, you can't get more clean (or squeaky) then Disney's High School Musical, now on the national tour that almost wasn't.

- As if Ashlee Simpson as Roxie Hart wasn't bad enough: In more Chicago stunt casting gone amuck, 22-year-old Kelly Osbourne is the new Matron Mama Morton in the London production. I guess they are just going to ignore the "matron" and "mama" parts.

- More movie-to-musicals madness in the works: Honeymoon in Vegas, Pride & Prejudice, Of Mice and Men and Knute Rockne, All American.
- The long-rumored Broadway revival of West Side Story has jump-kicked its way closer to reality with the announcement that the show's legendary librettist Arthur Laurents is now onboard to helm it.

- Echo Magazine's Neil Cohen has a chat with former Trading Spaces star and current Sweet Charity tour headliner Paige Davis, who spills all the dirt on Doug and Hildy. (The article can be found under "Just a Stage" in the "Previews & Reviews" section.)

- If you're in Atlanta, you can see the newest production of The Wizard of Oz, directed by The Boy from Oz's Philip William McKinley.

- Although we haven't heard much lately about the upcoming movie version, Naked Boys Singing did recently start their ninth year Off-Broadway. (Be sure to check out that last link so that you can check out current star Timothy John Mandala).

- Jeff Goldblum recently starred in The Music Man in his home town of Pittsburgh and made a documentary all about it.

- Original Rent boys Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp (who also starred in the movie version) are now back in the Broadway production, while the West End prepares for the first restaging of the show.

- The first American tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's Whistle Down the Wind (based on the Hayley Mills movie) is in the works.

- And finally: Who doesn't want to see classic Disney princess songs sung by a bearded adult gay man? Bill McKinley brings his Don’t Tell Walt: An Animated Evening of Adult Music to NYC's Metropolitan Room for two more nights next week. For more information, visit Bill's home page.

Links via Playbill.com, Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld.com, SFBayTimes.com, ChicagoTribune.com, EchoMag.com, NYBlade.com and BillMcKinley.com.