Landing the upcoming regional premiere of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Assassins” already was the biggest coup in the short history of the Next Stage Theatre Company. Now, Next Stage also can rightly claim that its production opening Sept. 2 at the Phoenix Theatre will be the first anywhere to include a newly updated book by John Weidman.
Next Stage can claim that because choreographer Lindsey Hanahan is responsible for it.
“Assassins,” which retells the stories of the nine individuals who have taken aim at eight different U.S. presidents, took a decade to go from its off-Broadway debut in 1994 to Broadway, where in 2004 it won five Tony Awards, including best revival.
Hanahan went to the Lincoln Center this month to screen tapes of both the 1994 and 2004 productions. But the script she was holding didn’t match either tape. Turns out the script Next Stage was provided by licenser Music Theatre International was from a 2004 London pre-Broadway production. Why? Because that was the last published version.
Hanahan noticed discrepancies in lines, characters, even a key Sondheim lyric. Turns out Sondheim and Weidman never updated the script with changes made for Broadway. So if you order the script, as Next Stage did, you get an old one.
“I asked a friend of mine if I would be crazy to call up John Weidman and ask him straight out if I could have his changes,” said Hanahan. Last Wednesday, she did. “And he couldn’t have been nicer. He said, ‘I always meant to update that, and I should have.”‘
Hanahan even asked about one scene that she loved from the 1994 tape that wasn’t quite the same 10 years later. Turns out Weidman wasn’t crazy about the change, either, and so he’s reverting to the 1994 original.
Now anyone who orders “Assassins” will get the improved book. And it’s all because of Hanahan (720-209-4105).
“Heaven” California-sent
The Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Almost Heaven: Songs and Stories of John Denver,” has landed a September tryout near San Francisco before its planned off-Broadway run in October. The powerhouse cast will include Jim Newman, currently starring in the Arvada Center’s “The Full Monty,” and Lee Morgan, who starred in “Brooklyn” in its 2003 pre-Broadway run at the New Denver Civic Theatre.
The production, retitled “Almost Heaven: John Denver’s America,” opens Sept. 8 at Center REP in Walnut Creek, Calif., about 25 miles east of San Francisco. It again will be directed by the DCTC’s Randal Myler.
“Almost Heaven” premiered at the DCTC in March 2002, and was brought back for five months in 2003-04. Newman, a ringer for John Denver (well, with a haircut) is the only member of the DCTC cast to return. The new cast also includes Broadway veterans Teresa Burrell (Lorrell in “Dreamgirls”) and Jennifer Allen (Adalaide in “Guys and Dolls”), with Valisia Little and Nicholas Rodriguez.
“Music” wedding back
A day after The Denver Post’s review of “The Sound of Music” was published June 29, Pinnacle Dinner Theatre producing artistic director David Pritchard heard from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization in New York, demanding that the eliminated wedding scene be restored.
“I think everyone is happy to have that scene back in,” said Pritchard, who also was asked by director of licensing Charles Scatamacchia for a copy of the program. No word yet on whether he will order the opening trio of nun chorals, now cut, to be restored, as well.
Meanwhile, Pinnacle’s first chef, Daniel Albert, has moved on, replaced by Thomas Blunt. The menu has not changed. Pinnacle is now presenting five shows a week with a goal of 600 customers per week. “It’s been a challenge, but we’re found a lot of ways to cut costs, and we’re moving forward,” Pritchard said.
Briefly …
Bug Theatre alum Ed McBride has landed the role of Officer Lockstock in a new production of “Urinetown” opening Aug. 26 at the Costa Mesa (Calif.) Civic Playhouse … Gary Culig, a new New Yorker who starred in the Bug’s “SantaLand Diaries” for five years, will star in “This Isn’t Working” at the New York Fringe Festival in August. It’s a series of short comedies written by Francesco Marciuliano, the cartoonist behind “Sally Forth.” …
David Yazbek, who wrote the score to the Arvada Center’s current hit “The Full Monty,” was once a beleaguered alternative rocker in the vein of Stephen Merritt. His new release, “Tape Recorder (Collected Works)” on What Are Records is a best-of album, including a previously unreleased recording of the “Monty” ballad, “Breeze Off the River” … Nathan Bell loved theater, having just starred as Prince Dauntless in Rangeview High’s “Once Upon a Mattress.” The Aurora teen, who was headed for Colorado State in the fall, died July 4 after collapsing suddenly on the final day of a church-sponsored backpacking trip. Donations in his memory can be made to Aurora Education Foundation, 15701 E. First Ave., No. 102, Aurora, CO 80011.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
