You'd think that playing Timon the meerkat on Broadway in "The Lion King" eight performances a week would be enough. But Drama Desk-nominee Max Casella, who has won Theatre World and Drama League awards for the '97-'98 theatrical season, is spreading his glory. He's grabbed a role in the Warner Bros. film "Analyze This," starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. He'll also star in another film he adapted from John Fante's Depression-era novel "1933 Was a Bad Year."
And on another "Lion King" note, director Julie Taymor is also lookingtoward film. Academy Award-winner Anthony Hopkins has just been cast in the title role of "Titus," an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus." Taymor will helm the production.
Actress as Editor
She's moved from a role as a ditsy teen in the film "Clueless" to a Broadway performance which has been called heart-wrenching. And "A View From the Bridge" star Brittany Murphy has taken the occasion to provide her own kudos for theatre. She recently told The Daily News she considered the boards more gratifying than TV or film: "The editing can be crappy and you don't have control," she said of film and tape. "The wonderful thing about doing theatre is you're your own editor."
For Ireland, His Home
With Ireland set to vote May 22 on a peace accord referendum, The Times of London reports that local celebrities from rock bands to rugby stars are leading public calls for a "yes" vote. But perhaps no one is attempting a more direct approach than Kenneth Branagh, the Belfast-born actor-director. Now internationally famous for his Shakespearian theatrical films, he's being featured by the independent "yes" campaign in a video sent to 13,000 first-time voters.
London (Musical) Bridge
Meanwhile, across the channel, legendary composer Cy Coleman prepares in London for the May 19 opening of "Sweet Charity" at the Victoria Palace. A contributor to musical theatre's golden age from the mid-'40s to early '60s, Coleman observed to London's The Stage newspaper, "The trouble with today is that the negotiations take so long. I don't know how you are supposed to get time to write music."
He also offered a suggestion that should make the musical's dancers wary: "There comes a time," he told The Stage, "when people need to hear lines that are funny and see dancers breaking their necks."
A Close Hallmark
Tony Award-winner Glenn Close is flowing from the role as a washed-up silent film star in Broadway's "Sunset Boulevard" to a hair-washing Nellie Forbush. She'll co-exec produce and star in an ABC airing of a Hallmark Entertainment remake of "South Pacific," according to The Associated Press.
The film will be shot on location in the South Pacific, then aired in 1999, the golden anniversary of the Rodgers & Hammerstein show's Broadway opening.
Wait Until Dark
It's not a season that will win any awards for lighting direction; and there's no connection with bad playwrights who leave their audiences in the dark. But a British theatre is currently challenging attendees to rely on every sense but sight, because it's running nine weeks of performances with no lights anywhere.
"For me, the only reason people would bother to go to theatre is that they become imaginatively involved in a way that is totally different from film or TV," Tom Morris, director of Battersea Arts Centre, told The Times of London. "It is much closer to what happens with a book." The schedule includes Shakespeare's "Macbeth," which in total darkness, could easily unravel an audience's sleeve of care.
The Woman's Touch
While women have held center stage in Greek drama for 2,500 years, not many of the theatre classics have received a woman's translation, reports Reuters News Service. But the University of Pennsylvania Press has included 12 women among 40 translators for its new 12-volume Penn Greek Drama Series--the first English retranslation of Greek drama since 1938. The publishers have made the key qualification for translators, not knowledge of Greek, but recognition as accomplished poets. Penn hopes this will provide a new power to the words of characters ranging from Medea to Hecuba.
Actor Search
The New Jersey Theatre Group, the alliance of professional, not-for-profit theatres in the Garden State, is accepting headshots and resumes for inclusion in Actor Search, a year-round casting referral service. Their catalog is coded by range, skills and type and is made available to New Jersey's professional theatres. Membership is $10 per year, with free updates for headshot and resume during the year. Send one copy of each, along with contact information, to Actor Search, c/o New Jersey Theatre Group, 17 Cook Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940. For questions call George Ryan at (973) 593-0189.
Comden and Green Feted
A two-week festival of the classic movie musicals by the legendary team, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, will run at the Film Forum in New York from Fri., June 12 though Thur., June 25. The Festival will feature such classics as "Singin' in the Rain," "The Band Wagon," and "On the Town".
--Roger Armbrust
Murdoch McBrid