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Bakula will play Brian Shepherd, an FBI agent who exposes an international price-fixing scheme with the help of biochemist Mark Whitacre (Damon). Project is based on a true story; Scott Burns adapted the book by Kurt Eichenwald.
Participant Media and Groundswell are co-producing with WIP. Jennifer Fox and Gregory Jacobs are producing.
Bakula recently appeared on "Boston Legal," reuniting with his "Murphy Brown" co-star Candice Bergen. He is starring in "Dancing in the Dark" at San Diego's Old Globe Theater.
jubilantbut Scott Bakula is not the first man off on "Dancing with the Stars" either! Good grief!
I have to tell you the initial reviews of "Dancing in the Dark" depressed me. I guess that's why sane and self-assured thespians don't read reviews. I, of course, am not totally sane or completely self-assured either. I am also not a thespian, I only blog about one on the internet.
The reviews have been getting better. I will post them all on this blog. Maybe the good ones first. After all, I don't have to be fair and balanced. I'm a Scott Bakula fan, and it's my blog. So there!
The ultimate review has come from the fans. Dancing in the Dark has been extended one week through Sunday, April 20. That is the best review a world premiere show can hope for.
jubilantI'd like to thank Marc Wade from Roddenberry.com for devoting part of his Friday column to Scott and the opening of "Dancing in the Park". He kindly mentioned this blog in his article! Thanks for the kind words, Marc!
Marc highlighted the Bakula Fans' Husbands' Handbook in his article. Just wanted to let you know I'll be posting more of the Husbands' Handbook as time permits - including "How to Tastefully Accommodate Your Wife's Shrine to Scott in Your Home" and "How to Incorporate Your Wife so that Her Trips to See Scott can be Written Off as a Business Expense."
geekyBy Kenneth Jones
13 Mar 2008
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/115
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| Patrick Page, Mara Davi and Scott Bakula | |
| photo by Craig Schwartz |
Dancing in the Dark, another bright-eyed musical comedy that seeks to prove there's no people like show people, opens March 13 at The Old Globe in San Diego, following previews from March 4.
Scott Bakula, Mara Davi and the other troupers of the new musical based on the M-G-M movie classic, "The Band Wagon," are under the direction of acclaimed director Gary Griffin, whose work has been seen in Chicago, London and on Broadway. He staged Broadway's The Color Purple, which is now on tour. Warren Carlyle, a veteran of Encores!, choreographs the '50s-set backstage musical.
Griffin and Carlyle have been shaping a book by Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane (who draws on the 1953 screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green) and a score by masters of the Broadway musical comedy revue form, lyricist Howard Dietz and composer Arthur Schwartz.
(There are so many levels of showbiz context here that you need a folding chart. The Band Wagon was a 1931 Broadway revue by Dietz, Schwartz and George S. Kaufman that starred Fred and Adele Astaire and featured the song "Dancing in the Dark." The film "The Band Wagon" starred a fiftysomething Fred Astaire as a former Broadway star and washed-up movie-musical actor — patterned after Astaire himself — who returns to Broadway in a show called The Band Wagon. The movie's songs were drawn from Dietz & Schwartz's '20s and '30s revue catalog, and included songs from The Band Wagon, Three's a Crowd, The Little Show, Flying Colors, Revenge With Music, Between the Devil and more. Meanwhile, the new stage version of the property charts the creation of a Broadway-bound musical called The Band Wagon.)
The movie's central anthem, "That's Entertainment," was written specifically for the picture — and remains in Dancing in the Dark.
Tony Award nominee Scott Bakula, star of TV's "Quantum Leap" and Broadway's Romance/Romance, plays the Astaire role of Tony Hunter, who has been reinvented by Beane (Xanadu, The Little Dog Laughed, As Bees in Honey Drown) for this new stage version. He's now much more of a Bing Crosby-style performer.
The principal cast of Dancing in the Dark also includes Sebastian LaCause (The Rocky Horror Show, Once Upon a Mattress and Chicago) as Paul Byrd, a modern-dance choreographer; Mara Davi (A Chorus Line, The Drowsy Chaperone) as modern dancer Gaby, who is crossing over into musicals and catching the eye of Tony; Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Adam Heller (Make Me a Song) as Lily and Lester Marton, performers and musical comedy writers — think Comden and Green — who are old pals of Tony's; and Patrick Page (The Lion King, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) as Jeffrey Cordova, the artsy legit director who turns a traditional musical into a pretentious mess.
Benjamin Howes plays Hal, the stage manager, a role "built up" in the show; and Jacob Ben Widmar plays a chorus boy named Teddy, based on Ted Hook — the chorus boy turned restaurateur.
The troupe also includes Rachel Coloff, Dylis Croman, Nicolas Dromard, Cara Kjellman, Adam Perry, Eric Santagata, Kiira Schmidt, Branch Woodman and Ashley Yeater.
Music supervisor is Eric Stern, music director is Don York and orchestrator is Larry Hochman. The design team includes scenic designer John Lee Beatty, costume designer David Woolard, lighting designer Ken Billington and sound designer Brian Ronan. Stage manager is Dan Rosokoff.
Dancing in the Dark plays its world-premiere run at The Old Globe through April 13.
*
Beane previously told Playbill.com that other songs from the catalog of the late songwriting team have been interpolated into the show (including "Something You Never Had Before" from the 1961 musical The Gay Life).
Expect the film's famous numbers, including "A Shine on Your Shoes," "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," "Louisiana Hayride," "I Love Louisa," "Triplets" and more.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green's studio contract ended in the middle of the movie musical project, which is the reason why the second half of the 1953 picture seems to turn into a montage-filled revue, Beane said. The playwright told Playbill.com that his goal is to honor "Betty and Adolph" and flesh out stories, deepen characters and marry music to moments. The lengthy "detective ballet" at the end of the film (apparently partly created by Alan Jay Lerner) is not in the new stage version.
According to The Old Globe, "In Dancing in the Dark, Tony Hunter is a Hollywood star with a career on the wane. Jeffrey Cordova is a Shakespearean actor-manager with a taste for high art. Together they team up with a diverse assortment of theatrical personalities to create a new musical that's strictly 'entertainment.' With a score packed with classics like 'A Shine on Your Shoes,' that quintessential ode to show business 'That's Entertainment!,' and the title song, Dancing in the Dark is the musical comedy that will have audiences dancing in the aisles."
Bakula is a 1988 Tony Award nominee as Best Actor in a Musical for Romance/Romance, and a Drama Desk nominee for 3 Guys Naked From the Waist Down. The four-time Emmy Award nominee starred in TV's time-traveling series, "Quantum Leap" (for which he won a Golden Globe Award), "Star Trek: Enterprise" (as Capt. Jonathan Archer) and was Murphy Brown's beau on the sitcom "Murphy Brown."
At Ford's Theatre in 2006, he starred as the patriarch Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah. On Jan. 18 he performed a concert in Washington, DC, to benefit the historic Ford's Theatre. Bakula's other Broadway credits are Marilyn (he played Joe DiMaggio) and Is There Life After High School?
The Old Globe is at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. For more information call (619) 23-GLOBE or visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.
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| Mara Davi and Scott Bakula | |
| photo by Craig Schwartz |
anxiousBy Matthew Blank
11 Mar 2008
Dancing in the Dark, a new stage adaptation of the MGM picture The Band Wagon, kicked off its world-premiere production March 4 at The Old Globe in San Diego.
With an official opening scheduled for March 13, the show features music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz, drawn from their songbook of tunes written for various films and revues in the 1930s. The original screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green has been revamped for the stage by playwright Douglas Carter Beane.
Dancing in the Dark stars Tony Award nominee Scott Bakula in the Fred Astaire role of Tony Hunter. The principal players also include Sebastian LaCause as modern-dance choreographer Paul Byrd, Mara Davi as modern dancer Gaby and Patrick Page as artsy legit director Jeffrey Cordova. Tony Award winner Beth Leavel and Adam Heller are featured as the musical comedy writing team of Lily and Lester Marton. Gary Griffin directs.
The Old Globe is located at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. For more information visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.
Here is a glimpse at the production, which runs through April 13:
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Patrick Page, Mara Davi and Scott Bakula with the ensemble |
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Beth Leavel and Adam Heller |
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Scott Bakula and Mara Davi (center) with the ensemble |
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Mara Davi and Scott Bakula |
cheerfulIf the stars stay in alignment, it's more than likely "Dancing in the Dark" will have a chance on the Great White Way. Being the superstitious person I am, I'm not going to jinx anything by chatting too much about it before that is confirmed. Seriously, I'm the kind of person who leaves the room if my favorite baseball team (New York Mets!) is winning, or I switch the channel back and forth to change the luck. Don't get me started on Rally Caps!
However, since this MIGHT happen, and since there are many of my fellow female Scott Bakula fans heading to San Diego before April 13, I thought I would devote a little time to your husbands/boyfriends/life partners who will be dragged along, er....accompany you. I know in our parlance we used to call them the "eye-rollers". To save time, I'll just call them "men".
Men, I know most of you may be dreading this evening of theater. Follow what I have to say from our "Husbands' Handbook", and you can relax and enjoy the show!
1) Be prepared for your wife/girlfriend/life partner to be totally beside herself! She may grab or squeeze your arm more than once during the show. She may whistle, clap, jump up and down, or scream "Bravo!" very loudly at the end. This may be a different woman than the one you've seen for who knows how many years.
2) Don't worry about any excess drool getting on your good jacket or shirt. Bakula fans don't drool! We do cry a lot. Bring extra tissues or hankies.
3) More than likely, you will have to wait with her by the stage door after the show. Be of good cheer! Hold her purse for her while she gets Scott's autograph! Take a good picture of her and Scott together! If she still remembers your name by then, have her introduce you to Scott! Have someone take a picture of the three of you together! Be sure either she or Scott are in the middle of the picture, so that you can be easily cropped out for framing or sharing on the internet!
4) Most of all, remember this is a night she'll talk about for the rest of her life. Go along with it. Be happy with her and for her.
hopefulBy Michael Buckley
09 Mar 2008
This month we speak with Debbie Allen (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Scott Bakula (Dancing in the Dark), and Chita Rivera ("Johnny and the Sprites").
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| Mara Davi with Scott Bakula in rehearsal. | ||
| photo by Sandy Huffaker |
excitedGiven how many movies have taken the conveyor belt to Broadway of late, it might be surprising that “The Band Wagon” hasn't been adapted sooner.
One reason, Beane suggests, is that name at the top of the movie's cast. Who could step into Fred Astaire's shoes?
“A number of people thought about doing this and did not, because they could not get past the idea of Fred Astaire,” Beane says.
 NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune Adam Heller, Beth Leavel and Scott Bakula (left to right) run through the number "Triplets," from the Old Globe's new musical "Dancing in the Dark." |
“But I just decided from the beginning: What if he's not a dancer?,” Beane says. “What if he's just a musical-comedy person? It's more about the actor going off to Hollywood and being washed up, and trying to do theater again. That's what was interesting to me.”
Cue Scott Bakula, who was familiar with the movie but is decidedly not trying to be the next Fred. That's one reason he hasn't watched the film since landing the lead role.
“I just thought, you know what, there's no reason for me to look at it for the dancing, because there's only one Fred Astaire,” Bakula says. “There's nothing I'm going to try to do better than him, or imitate, because you just can't.
“They're approaching it in a very fresh way, and I think I can stay with that and just treat it as a new, original musical, which is how we're all kind of pushing it.”
That said, Bakula's musical-theater talent might surprise people. In fact, it happens just about every time he does a stage show.
“They say, 'We didn't know you danced. We just saw you on that show 'Quantum Leap,' ” Bakula says.
“(And I say), 'Well, did you see the “La Mancha” episode? Did you see when I sang 'Imagine'?
“I think maybe sometimes people sitting in their living rooms never really know what's real and what's not real. 'Was he really playing the piano, was he really singing, was he really dancing? Was that really him?'
“When they see you doing it live, it kind of lands.”
excitedBy: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer |
Playwright Douglas Carter Beane knows all about low expectations. When he adapted the dreadful 1980 movie musical "Xanadu" for the stage last year, he surprised skeptical critics with a fresh, self-deprecating book that turned "Xanadu" into one of the year's biggest Broadway successes.
But there aren't any low expectations connected with Beane's latest world premiere musical, "Dancing in the Dark," which opened in previews this week at the Old Globe Theatre. Based on the 1953 MGM musical "The Band Wagon," with a new book by Beane, a classic 1930s score by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz and starring veteran television actor Scott Bakula ("Quantum Leap," "Star Trek: Enterprise"), "Dancing" has a good-buzz factor that has been humming ever since it was workshopped in New York last March.
"This is a show we're very, very excited about," said Lou Spisto, the Old Globe's executive producer and CEO. "When you take the music of Dietz and Schwartz and combine that with Douglas Carter Beane, you've got something. After the workshop, we knew he had to jump on the band wagon, so to speak, because it was a show we couldn't afford to pass up."
"The Band Wagon" started in 1931 as a Broadway musical revue starring a young Fred Astaire in his pre-Hollywood days. It was remade into a film musical by director Vincent Minnelli in '53, with Astaire reprising his performance as Tony Hunter, a washed-up movie star returning to Broadway in a troubled new musical that runs aground during an out-of-town tryout. The film's score included "That's Entertainment," "A Shine On Your Shoes" and "Dancing in the Dark," among others.
"The Band Wagon" was a huge box office success in the '50s, but its book ---- penned by "Singin' in the Rain" writing team Betty Comden and Adolph Green ---- was never finished, because MGM canceled Comden and Green's contract midway through the project. In the story, Tony Hunter's musical is sabotaged when the pretentious actor hired to direct the show, Jeffrey Cordova, tries to layer on serious dramatic intentions. Comden and Green even wrote themselves into the film script ---- as the married playwriting team, Lester and Lily Martin ---- who ultimately salvage the show for Broadway with a hasty rewrite.
To finish the film, Minnelli discarded the plot halfway through the shoot and turned the second half of the movie into a series of dazzling musical numbers. While this worked in Hollywood 55 years ago, Beane knew it wouldn't work on the Broadway stage, so a new script ---- and a new show name, to reflect the changes ---- were in order. Beane said he was drawn to the "Band Wagon" project because he knew the late Comden and Green personally and wanted to pay homage to their "love, life and spirit."
"They were the kind of glamorous Upper West Side people who showed up at all the Broadway openings over the years. This was also a chance for me to write about the life that I live in the theater. It's about working on shows with problems and the stories and experiences we all have in the theater," said Beane, whose other Broadway credits include the Tony-nominated play "The Little Dog Laughed" and the off-Broadway hit "As Bees in Honey Drown."
Beane's "Dancing in the Dark" is a mix of old and new. He rescued the smarter, more complicated song lyrics from the '31 stage revue, added two songs cut from the film as well as some other numbers from the Dietz-Schwartz catalog, and developed a time-hopping script that begins in the mid-1950s and flashes back to the '30s, where we learn that Tony and Lily were once in love until he deserted her for Hollywood. Beane said he expanded the Lester/Lily subplot to honor Comden and Green, and he has fattened up some chorus boy and girl parts with real-life details from the young actors appearing in the Old Globe staging.
Since rehearsals began at the Old Globe last month, Beane said he's been doing major rewrites, including scrapping the first two scenes to move the first act along. "I'll change anything that doesn't work ---- that's the whole theme of this show, anyway."
While most of the major musicals at the Old Globe in recent years have been pre-Broadway tryouts, Spisto said this version of "Dancing in the Dark" is still a work in progress.
"It's not a show with a specific date on Broadway," Spisto said. "We're building an extravagant production for the Globe, but this is not the finished project. The producers want to see the material developed as much as we can at this stage."
When it came to casting, Beane and director Gary Griffin ("The Color Purple") decided to follow the art-imitates-life theme by finding an actor (like Tony Hunter) who started on Broadway, went on to success in Hollywood, and was returning to his musical theater roots.
While Bakula is best known as a television actor, he got his start in theater, moving to New York from his St. Louis home in 1976. He earned a Tony nomination in 1988 for "Romance/Romance" and returned to the musical stage two years ago with an acclaimed run in "Shenandoah" at Washington, D.C.'s Ford Theatre and a run last spring in "No Strings" at L.A.'s Freud Playhouse.
At a dance rehearsal two weeks ago, the gregarious Bakula, 53, easily ran through cascades of quick tap steps and high kicks and said he's worked hard to get back into "show shape" for "Dancing in the Dark." The L.A.-based father of four said he was enthusiastic when asked to join the project last fall.
"This is the ultimate experience for an actor," he said. "In film and television you get some rehearsal time, but in the theater you get the chance to really meet new people in a very exposed and intimate environment, then hand it over to an audience. You invest all that time in the show, and if it works and the audience is with you, there is nothing like it on earth."
Bakula said he's enjoyed the development process at the Old Globe.
"In old-fashioned musicals, the characters are often caricatures, and the challenge has been to make them real people with real problems," said Bakula, who's known for playing likable average Joes with issues on TV. "Tony is a guy who has a history and problems, and as we've gone through the rehearsal process, we've tried to build in more and more depth to the character based on the experiences we're having every day."
Yet while fine-tuning the script has been a primary focus of the Globe staging, Bakula said the music is what audiences will remember. "These songs really hold up. The ballads have very sophisticated lyrics and phrasing. It's amazing to me that even after 77 years, these songs feel so fresh and new."
Bakula's favorite number is the gentle duet "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," which he performs with Patrick Page (who starred as the Grinch on Broadway for the past two years), who plays director Cordova ("It's about the relationship we have and it's got an easy, great feeling to it"). The musical also stars Tony-winning actress Beth Leavel ("The Drowsy Chaperone") as Lily; Adam Heller as Lester; and Mara Davi as Tony's love interest, Gabrielle.
Beane describes "Dancing in the Dark" as an old-fashioned, "jazz-hands" style musical with big dance numbers and a peppy, funny script that tells the stories of real people. Spisto said he thinks Globe audiences will be thrilled with the result, and the now-blazing ticket sales are a reflection of that.
"Audiences in San Diego love being in on the ground floor for a new musical," Spisto said. "They get to see a Broadway-caliber show for a third of the price they'd pay in New York, and they get to see the birth of new material. Our audiences love stories with heart, and this one has not only a great script with heart but exceptional music as well. We know this production will work."
"Dancing in the Dark"
When: Previews performances through March 12; opens March 13 and runs through April 13; show times, 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $52-$79
Info: (619) 234-5623
Web: www.theoldglobe.org
ecstaticBy Kenneth Jones
04 Mar 2008
| |
| Mara Davi and Scott Bakula in rehearsal. | |
| Sandy Huffaker |
The troupers of the new musical Dancing in the Dark — based on the M-G-M picture "The Band Wagon" — begin "waltzing in the wonder of why we're here," as the song goes, March 4 at The Old Globe in San Diego.
Tony Award nominee Scott Bakula, star of TV's "Quantum Leap" and Broadway's Romance/Romance, plays song-and-dance man Tony Hunter, a role created by Fred Astaire in 1953 but reinvented by librettist Douglas Carter Beane (Xanadu, The Little Dog Laughed, As Bees in Honey Drown) for this new stage version, officially opening March 13 in California.
Tony Award nominee Beane previously told Playbill.com that Tony Hunter has been revised for Dancing in the Dark (as have other elements of the source material): Now, Tony is more Bing Crosby showman than Astaire athlete, Beane said.
The backstage musical, directed by Gary Griffin (The Color Purple) and choreographed by Warren Carlyle (an Encores! veteran), plays a world premiere run at The Old Globe through April 13.
Like the beloved movie musical before it, Dancing in the Dark has music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz, drawing on their songbook of musical numbers they wrote for Broadway revues in the 1930s. "That's Entertainment" was written for the movie, and remains a major anthem in Dancing in the Dark. Beane said that other songs from the catalog of the late songwriting team have been interpolated into the show (including "Something You Never Had Before" from the 1961 musical The Gay Life).
Expect the film's famous numbers, including "A Shine on Your Shoes," "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," "Louisiana Hayride," "I Love Louisa," "Triplets" and more.
*
The musical draws on the picture's original screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The writers' studio contract ended in the middle of the project, which is the reason why the second half of the picture seems to turn into a montage-filled revue, Beane said. The playwright told Playbill.com that his goal is to honor "Betty and Adolph" and flesh out stories, deepen characters and marry music to moments. The lengthy "detective ballet" at the end of the film (apparently partly created by Alan Jay Lerner) is not in the new stage version.
As previously reported, the principal cast also includes Sebastian LaCause (The Rocky Horror Show, Once Upon a Mattress and Chicago) as Paul Byrd, a modern-dance choreographer; Mara Davi (A Chorus Line, The Drowsy Chaperone) as modern dancer Gaby, who is crossing over into musicals and catching the eye of Tony; Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Adam Heller (Make Me a Song) as Lily and Lester Marton, performers and musical comedy writers — think Comden and Green — who are old pals of Tony's; and Patrick Page (The Lion King, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) as Jeffrey Cordova, the artsy legit director who turns a traditional musical into a pretentious mess.
Benjamin Howes will play Hal, the stage manager, a role "built up" in the show; and Jacob Ben Widmar will play a chorus boy named Teddy, based on Ted Hook — the chorus boy turned restaurateur.
The troupe also includes Rachel Coloff, Dylis Croman, Nicolas Dromard, Cara Kjellman, Adam Perry, Eric Santagata, Kiira Schmidt, Branch Woodman and Ashley Yeater.
According to The Old Globe, "In Dancing in the Dark, Tony Hunter is a Hollywood star with a career on the wane. Jeffrey Cordova is a Shakespearean actor-manager with a taste for high art. Together they team up with a diverse assortment of theatrical personalities to create a new musical that's strictly 'entertainment.' With a score packed with classics like 'A Shine on Your Shoes,' that quintessential ode to show business 'That's Entertainment!,' and the title song, Dancing in the Dark is the musical comedy that will have audiences dancing in the aisles."
Music supervisor is Eric Stern, music director is Don York and orchestrator is Larry Hochman. The design team includes scenic designer John Lee Beatty, costume designer David Woolard, lighting designer Ken Billington, sound designer Brian Ronan. Stage manager is Dan Rosokoff.
Bakula is a 1988 Tony Award nominee as Best Actor in a Musical for Romance/Romance, and a Drama Desk nominee for 3 Guys Naked From the Waist Down. The four-time Emmy Award nominee starred in TV's time-traveling series, "Quantum Leap" (for which he won a Golden Globe Award), "Star Trek: Enterprise" (as Capt. Jonathan Archer) and was Murphy Brown's beau on the sitcom "Murphy Brown."
At Ford's Theatre in 2006, he starred as the patriarch Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah. On Jan. 18 he performed a concert in Washington, DC, to benefit the historic Ford's Theatre. Bakula's other Broadway credits are Marilyn (he played Joe DiMaggio) and Is There Life After High School?
The Old Globe is at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. For more information call (619) 23-GLOBE or visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.
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