Blonde Ambitions

For the first item in this week's From Screen to Stage, I'll channel big screen - to stage - to small screen star Elle Woods:

- "Ohmygod, you guys! It's only, like, one week until Legally Blonde - The Musical makes its TV debut on, like, MTV! The totally fab Broadway Blog thinks it's, like, an awesome idea, and check out all the pics and chat, like, live from the pink carpet!"

(Whew, that was exhausting ... how does Laura Bell Bundy do it every night?)

UPDATE: Ohmygod, they've postponed it! According to QueerSighted.com, Legally Blonde - The Musical won't air on MTV until Saturday October 13! A quick check of the MTV website confirms this -- so unfair! So, like, here's a montage of clips from the show to tide you over until then.

- New York movie musical fans take note: the "lost" Porgy and Bess movie (starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge) will be screened next week at the Ziegfeld Theatre. And this will be the rare original road show print, with overture, intermission music and exit music ... could a long-in-demand DVD be far behind?

- Speaking of older film favorites not on DVD, the movie version of The Ritz (starring original Broadway cast members Rita Moreno, Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller and F. Murray Abraham) will finally be released in January. This comes on the heels of the current revival starring Kevin Chamberlin and Rosie Perez. Meanwhile, Playbill.com's own Seth Rudetsky recounts his opening night trials and tribulations in his latest column.

- As Chicago celebrates its tenth year in London, could Tori Spelling and hubby Dean McDermott be Broadway's next Roxie and Billy?

- There are worse things Rizzo herself, Jenny Powers, could do then give fans a video backstage tour of Grease. In related news, Playbill News wonders "where are the You're the One That I Want stars now?", including Derek Keeling (smoldering up A Tale of Two Cities), Ashley Spencer (Hairspray's current Amber) and Kate Rockwell (Phantom's latest Christine).

- On the gay icons front: Rosie love Billy, Harvey has his Catered Affair and Ian rakes it in as King Lear. Plus: a "lost" Noel Coward play is found.

- Happy Days are here again - live and onstage. By the cast breakdown, it appears as if the new tuner is based on that episode where Fonzie and his newly reunited love Pinky Tuscadero take on the Malachi Brothers. Hey, at least it isn't the shark one.

- As I mentioned last week, West Side Story is turning 50 this year, and yet another album of its legendary score will be released to commemorate the occasion. But, unlike the previously mentioned (and already panned) compilation album, this will be a new recording, featuring opera singers in the lead roles. Uh, didn't they already try thatonce?

You can pre-order the West Side Story: 50th Anniversary Recordingfrom Amazon.com, available September 25, by clicking here.

- Are you itching to see the Cry-Baby musical? Well, here's our first look at the cast. Hey look, Harriet Harris!

- Those Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are going back on tour.

- Speaking of tours, Broadway World TV interviews The Color Purple tour star Jeannette Bayardelle.

- First, he was the King of Siam, now he's the Prince of Darkness. Ladies and gentlemen: Lorenzo Lamas is Dracula.

- "Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?" Donnie Darko hits the stage.

- Sally Ann Howes, who you'll recall was Truly Scrumptious in every way in the classic movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, is now Mrs. Higgins in the acclaimed My Fair Lady tour.

- It will be a White Christmas in Toronto this holiday season.

- Über-producer Cameron Mackintosh will bring several musical theater classics to Chinese audiences, including the French Les Miserables, the Swedish Mamma Mia! and the British Mary Poppins.

- And finally: Mark your calendars for next year's Tony Awards.

Links via BroadwayMouth.blogspot.com, Broadway.com, Playbill.com, QueerSighted.com, YouTube.com, BroadwayWorld.com, MSNBC.msn.com and IHT.com.

Still Waiting for That Close-Up

This week's column takes a look at the latest projects to travel From Screen to Stage and back again.

- A movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard musical was promised to us some time back, and now the project has resurfaced. Names attached to play Norma Desmond are the usual suspects: Glenn Close, Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand (thankfully, Liza appears to be out of the running). Close, who won the Tony for her performance in the role on Broadway, has her hopes up that it will eventually be made ... with her in the lead.

- The Seattle pre-Broadway run of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein has opened. Playbill.com has interviews with co-star Sutton Foster and co-librettist Thomas Meehan.

- Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! – The Musical will return to the New York stage just in time for (naturally) the holiday season.

- Mary Poppins herself, Ashley Brown, answers all your questions at Broadway.com.

- Good news for all you fans of "children's theater for 40-year-old gay men": Xanadu will tour, and may even head to London.

- In related news, The Wedding Singer is gearing up for their own tour, while Christian Slater prepares for the West End debut of Swimming With Sharks.

- Chazz Palminteri is readying his one-man show A Bronx Tale (which he directed and starred in as a film) for a limited Broadway run.

- Can you believe it? Soon there will be two musicals on the Great White Way based on John Waters movies: Hairspray and the upcoming Cry-Baby.

- Former Hairsprayer Harvey Fierstein will star in A Catered Affair, based on the Paddy Chayevsky teleplay that was turned into a movie starring Bette Davis (though not in the same role as Harvey).

- And rounding up the Hairspray-related news, that movie's producers, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, are returning to television with a new version of Peter Pan. And yes, the little boy who never grew up will again be played by a woman (no, not Harvey ... although he would make a great Captain Hook).

- In the works, as in workshops: musicals based on To Die For, Shrek and Saved!

- If your the kind to get your kicks from those old "women in prison" B-movies, then Slammer! is the musical for you.

- And finally: Grease is not only the word in New York, but also in London. If all that T-bird/Pink Lady action is too much for you though, then maybe what you need is a little Lube.

Links via Playbill.com, MoviesBlog.MTV.com, Broadway.com, Advocate.com and QueerSighted.com.