Gossip Guy of the Week: David Greenspan

"I THINK Greenspan is probably all-round the most talented theater artist of my generation."

That was Tony Kushner speaking. ("A Man Plays a Woman, Without Any Disguise") And anyone who sees David Greenspan as Queen Elizabeth I (above) and an Eastern European aristocrat in "Orlando" will see what Kushner means.

CURRENT GIG "Orlando," Sarah Ruhl's take on Virginia Woolf's classic gender-switch novel.

AGE 54

BORN AND RAISED Los Angeles.

ALMA MATER University of California at Irvine.

OFF BROADWAY TRIUMPH An Obie for his Harold, the birthday boy, in "The Boys in the Band" (1996 revival).

BROADWAY DEBUT "The Royal Family," 2009. He played the butler.

THOUGHTS ON PEOPLE WHO CAST "I'm baffled at auditions when asked what I'm going to sing. They can't wait two seconds to find out?" (playbill.com's Cue & A)

HE'S REALLY A PLAYWRIGHT "She Stoops to Comedy," "The Myopia," "The Home Show Pieces," "Dog in a Dancing School," "Dead Mother, or Shirley Not All in Vain," "Five Frozen Embryos," etc. (Of course he's performed in a bunch of these.)

UNEMPLOYMENT IS DOWN, AT HIS HOUSE "I'm open 24 hours a day, 12 months a year. I'll take what anybody offers. It's wonderful to work so much." ("David Greenspan: Drama Queen")


"Orlando," by Virginia Woolf, adapted by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Rebecca Taichman, Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, (212) 352-3101, classicstage.org. Opening night: Sept. 23, 2010.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about Emma Rice, the genius who made "Brief Encounter" what it is. Search to read items about actors from David Duchovny to Douglas Hodge, actresses from Katie Finneran to Liza Minnelli, and shows old and new.

Gossip Girl of the Week: Emma Rice

[Updated Sept. 29, 2010]

SHE'S not your typical theater person. "I find Shakespeare really hard to understand. I find Chekhov really long," she once confessed to The Guardian in London. ("The Best Performance I've Ever Seen.") She intended to be an actress, but she kept restaging things, so someone finally asked, "Do you want to direct?" And thank God they did. Because when it comes right down to it, the joys of "Brief Encounter" (stage actors walking right into black-and-white film scenes, virtual trains whizzing by, a love story that swoops gently from humor to the most fabulous of melodrama), it all comes down to the woman who adapted the 1945 film and the Noel Coward one-act it was based on -- and "adapted" is much too small a word in this case -- and directed it. Meet Emma Rice (above, blonde and brunette).


CURRENT GIG The aforementioned "Brief Encounter," a huge critical hit at St. Ann's in Brooklyn last season, now on Broadway.

WHAT THE TIMES THOUGHT "Exquisite," "richer than ever," "surely the most enchanting work of stagecraft ever inspired by a movie."

AGE 42.

BORN AND RAISED Nottingham, England.

ALMA MATER The Guildhall in London. Gardzienice in Poland.

DAY JOB Artistic director at the Kneehigh theater company in Cornwall.

AVAILABILITY "I've been married . . . and I'm not married now."
("Kneehigh Theater," Time Out New York)

WHERE SHE GETS HER IDEAS "Sometimes you wake up in the night and remember a novel you read years ago, and then the time is right to do it."
("Profile on Emma Rice," bbc.co.uk)

WHY AN OLD-FASHIONED LOVE STORY CAN STILL THRILL THE SOPHISTICATES "Life keeps teaching you lessons, and life doesn't get simpler."
(Interview with Susan Feldman of St. Ann's Warehouse, youtube.com)


"Brief Encounter," by Noel Coward, adapted and directed by Emma Rice, Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org/54/. Opening night: Sept. 28, 2010.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to learn who may (but probably won't) be Nicole Kidman's leading man in "Sweet Bird of Youth." And Elizabeth Ashley in "Me, Myself & I." And who this guy Reeve Carney is, who's playing Spider-Man. And ever so much more.

Which Gorgeous Man Should Nicole Kidman Wake Up in Bed With?

IT'S the big movie-stars-onstage news this week: Nicole Kidman is returning* to Broadway, this time
to do Tennessee Williams. Next fall Kidman, 43, will play Alexandra Del Lago, the aging, substance-abusing, sad and desperate actress who is the center of Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth." But no one knows yet who will play Alexandra's traveling companion, Chance Wayne, the young, hunky would-be actor who is beside her when she wakes up in the Royal Palms Hotel in Act I.

Naturally theatergossip.com has some suggestions.
(In alphabetical order.)

1. NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, 37

Don't say he's too old. When Paul Newman played Chance Wayne to Geraldine Page's Alexandra Del Lago in the original 1959 Broadway production of "Sweet Bird of Youth," he was 34 and she was 35. And don't say he can't play serious roles, despite his sitcom connections. Did you see him as Lee Harvey Oswald in "Assassins"? ("A Demon Gallery of Glory Hounds")

2. CHEYENNE JACKSON, 35

Because he had all too short a run as Woody Mahoney in "Finian's Rainbow " last fall. ("A Pot of Sunny Gold in Those Green Hills") Of course, as Chance Wayne, he probably won't get to sing.

3. JUDE LAW, 37

Playing "Hamlet" on Broadway, he proved he could sell tickets, even if Ben Brantley of The New York Times didn't care for his performance. ("Ready, Set, Emote") And he and Kidman make such a cute couple. (It would be a "Cold Mountain" reunion. But better. We hope.)


4. HAMISH LINKLATER, 34

Maybe David Cromer (who's directing the production) would like to do a comic version of "Sweet Bird." Linklater, who has managed to turn Shakespearean characters into fabulous slackers ("Shakespearean Juggling in the Park") without offending the text, could make Chance Wayne a playful sidekick. Although that castration scene would be hard to play for laughs.


5. MATTHEW MORRISON, 31

He's not just the teacher from "Glee," you know. He was very romantic as Lieutenant Cable in the recent revival of "South Pacific." ("Optimist Awash in the Tropics") And he's said some pretty jerky things in interviews, illustrating one important aspect of Chance's personality.


6. EDDIE REDMAYNE, 28

He was adorable as the assistant of Mark Rothko (Alfred Molina) in "Red" last season. Young, dissatisfied, tormented. (redonbroadway.com) It could work.


7. RYAN REYNOLDS, 33

O.K., he's never done Broadway, but he looks the part. (Seriously. Check out Google Images.) And if he took the role, he'd finally understand why his poor wife, Scarlett Johansson, was so tired last season. (Doing the usual number of performances per week in "A View From the Bridge.")


8. BOBBY STEGGERT, 29

The intensity of his character in "Ragtime." The innocence of his character in "The Grand Manner." The romance of his character in "Yank!" ("Steggert Speaks")_Could it add up to Chance? God knows he's cute enough.


9. BENJAMIN WALKER, 28

If "Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson" turns out to be a hit on Broadway, he could still be tied up. But if he signed a one-year contract, he might be free just in time. And he's Southern.


10. BEN WHISHAW, 29

He was a hot gay man in "The Pride." ("Musings on Gay Identity, Then and Now") He was fabulous in period drag as the poet John Keats in the film "Bright Star" last year. And he was one of the Bob Dylans in "I'm Not There." So we know he's versatile.


Next question: Who'll play Heavenly Finley, Chance's old flame? And does she -- having been played by Diana Hyland on Broadway and Shirley Knight in the movie -- have to be a blonde?


*She starred in "The Blue Room" in 1998, doing a much-talked-about nude scene.


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Then scroll on to read about Elizabeth Ashley and Reeve Carney and why you should even bother to show up for the 2010-11 theater season.

Gossip Guy of the Week: Reeve Carney

WELL, he's not Tobey Maguire. If Broadway watchers expected the next Peter Parker a k a Spider-Man to be a clone or even a recognizable adaptation of the movie version, they learned differently last November when Reeve Carney was cast in the role. Of course, back in November, a lot of people weren't convinced that the mega-budget musical ($60 million at last estimate) was ever going to happen. But now it's actually in rehearsals, tickets are on sale, and Carney even did a number from the show for a national TV audience last week, live from the Hudson Theater, on "Good Morning, America."

CURRENT GIG "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," the handiwork of Julie Taymor, Bono and the Edge.

AGE 27

BORN AND RAISED New York City. Then Los Angeles. (His brother Zane got a sitcom gig. "Dave's World.")

ALMA MATER University of Southern California dropout.

AVAILABILITY Single.

MOST FAMOUS RELATIVE Art Carney, his great-uncle. Better known to older folk and to fans of classic TV as the sewer worker Ed Norton on "The Honeymooners." He also won an Oscar for "Harry and Tonto."

MOVIE WORK He played Ethan Hawke's younger self in "Snow Falling on Cedars" (1999). And he's in Taymor's next, "The Tempest," scheduled to open in December.

BUT HE'S REALLY A MUSICIAN Frontman, rhythm guitarist and songwriter for the band Carney.

CUTEST QUOTE SO FAR "I think it's going to make me grow so much as a performer," he told Melena Ryzik of The New York Times, about his "Spider-Man" experience. "I have abs now."*

*O.K., actually, that last sentence may not have immediately followed the first one. But isn't it pretty to think so?


"Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, Bono and the Edge, directed by Taymor, Foxwoods Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (877) 250-2929, spidermanonbroadway.com. Previews begin: Nov. 14, 2010. Opening night: Dec. 21, 2010.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Then, for heaven's sakes, scroll on. You don't want to miss this week's fine vintage Gossip Girl, Elizabeth Ashley. Or theatergossip.com's top 10 list of things to look forward to in the New York theater season to come.

Gossip Girl of the Week: Elizabeth Ashley

SHE once told The Washington Post that she came "from a long line of Southern psychotics and an environment where madness is currency and conversation is blood sport." There's no need to worry that the era of the grandes dames of the American stage is over. Not as long as Elizabeth Ashley is around.

CURRENT GIG "Me, Myself & I," Edward Albee's newest. She spends much of her onstage time in bed (above), worrying about her 28-year-old twin sons, why she still can't tell them apart and whether it's possible that one of them no longer exists.

WHAT THE TIMES THOUGHT "One of the last of the red-blooded, rip-roaring divas of American theater," Ben Brantley called her, "who looks smashing, by the way, in her flashy, dissolute way." But her performance itself , he said, "begs to be liked, full of audience-courting coquettishness." (He preferred Tyne Daly's interpretation of the role two years ago in Princeton. Oh, well.)

AGE 71.

BORN AND RAISED Ocala, Fla. Then the family moved to Baton Rouge, La.

ALMA MATER She went straight to New York to become an actress after high school.

AVAILABILITY Divorced three times. Husband No. 2 was George Peppard, in his prime.

BROADWAY DEBUT "Take Her, She's Mine" (1961). She won a Tony as best featured actress in a play.

STAR-MAKING STAGE ROLE "Barefoot in the Park" (1963), opposite Robert Redford. Neil Simon wrote the role -- a kooky newlywed trying to loosen up her stuffy husband -- for her.

BEST KNOWN FOR Her sexy-husky voice and her outspokenness. In terms of roles, a mix of things, including a lot of Tennessee Williams. Her Maggie in the 1974 revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" suggested to some that she'd been born to play the role.

OR: IF YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO THE THEATER She was the eccentric Southern aunt on that Burt Reynolds sitcom in the 1990s: "Evening Shade." Never mind that she's three years younger than Reynolds, who played her nephew.

WHY SHE KIND OF RELISHES HER GOLDEN YEARS ''If you're an old woman -- we live in a culture that assumes you're a whipped dog. But an old woman who is not a whipped dog can be right dangerous.''*

(*As told to theatergossip.com's founder in a 2008 interview.)

"Me, Myself & I," by Edward Albee, directed by Emily Mann, Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street. (212) 279-4200, ticketcentral.com. Opening night: Sept. 12, 2010.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about "10 Things to Look Forward to in the New York Theater Season Ahead." Or search to read theater news about the likes of David Duchovny, Bobby Steggert, Sean Hayes, Sarah Ruhl and Lynn Nottage.

NUNS, WHORES, MORMONS & MEGASTARS . . . 10 Things to Look Forward to in the New York Theater Season Ahead

DON'T you just love September? The air is crisp. The temperature in subway stations becomes bearable most of the time. The Arts & Leisure section does its New Season issue. And Broadway comes back from its summer vacation. (Off Broadway never went away.)

Let the columnist Michael Riedel (grumpy, grumpy, grumpy) say what he will in The Post; there are plenty of positive things to look forward to this theater season, not just the fact that "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" may actually open.

1. "Women on the Verge" arrives, with an all-star cast.

Can you think of a better candidate for musicalization than Pedro Almodovar's wacky two-decade-old movie "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," set in 20th-century Madrid? (Here's its IMDB info.) Can you think of a more sparkling cast than Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell and that new darling of Broadway, Sherie Rene Scott (from "Everyday Rapture")? Together on one stage, people. Let's just hope there's a special song about the drug-laced gazpacho. Belasco Theater. Previews: Oct. 5. Opening night: Nov. 4.

2. Cherry Jones is back. As a whore.

We haven't seen the inimitable Cherry Jones on Broadway since 2006. (And frankly, "Faith Healer," that year, wasn't her finest moment.) But now the great Ms. Jones (Tony winner for "Doubt" in 2005 and "The Heiress" in 1995) is returning -- in "Mrs. Warren's Profession," George Bernard Shaw's classic 1890s dark comedy about a destitute 19th-century woman who chose the only lucrative career path open to her: prostitution. Now she has to explain to her prudish daughter (cute Sally Hawkins from the movie "Happy-Go-Lucky") that that's what has paid her private-school tuition all these years. American Airlines Theater. Previews: Already started. Opening night: Oct. 3.

3. Charles Busch is back. As a nun.

Charles Busch is 56, so it's about time he put on a habit. (Kathleen Turner played a nun for the first time this year, too.) Busch, the playwright/actor/drag queen who gave us "Psycho Beach Party" and "Die, Mommie, Die," plays the mother superior, of course, in "The Divine Sister." Julie Halston, his old co-star, is back too. SoHo Playhouse. Previews: Sunday (Sept. 12). Opening night: Sept. 22.

4. "Angels in America" is back. Period.
The great work has returned. Maybe it's too early for a revival of Tony Kushner's 1993 two-part masterpiece about the meaning of life in the age of AIDS. We'll see. But if it's only half as good as the original, it'll still be stunning. The new cast includes Christian Borle (better known to theatergossip.com readers as Sutton Foster's ex) as Prior Walter, Zoe Kazan (better known to theatergossip.com readers as our very first Gossip Girl of the Week) as Harper Pitt, Frank Wood as Roy Cohn and Robin Weigert as the Angel. If only the Signature Theater Company hadn't relocated to a theater that makes the Javits Center seem convenient. But we went that far west for "The Orphan's Home Cycle," so I guess we can do it again. Peter Norton Space. Previews: Sept. 14. Opening night: Oct. 28.

5. There's a new Albee!
We're treated to revival after revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "A Delicate Balance," but it's been a long eight years since the great Edward Albee had a new play on Broadway. It was "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" in 2002. Now comes "Me, Myself & I," which isn't quite on Broadway but to a lot of people, Playwrights Horizons productions are in a class by themselves. Elizabeth Ashley is the star, and it's about an evil twin who decides to become Chinese and deny his identical brother. Playwrights Horizons. Previews: Now. Opening night: Sept. 30.

6. There's a new Gurney!

We must have been very, very good to get two new works by A. R. Gurney in one year. First there was "The Grand Manner," in which a young playwright-to-be met the great Katharine Cornell and her coyly seductive husband. Now the author of "The Dining Room," "The Cocktail Hour," "Sylvia" and so much more is bringing us "Office Hours," set at an American college in 1974 when we first noticed that "education" consisted of studying the works of dead white males and nobody else. Flea Theater. Previews: Sept. 18. Opening night: Sept. 30.

7. Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are back. Together.

How can a production like this, two mega-stars with mega-talent in a beloved play, go wrong? Well, if it does, at least the failure will be fascinating. In "Driving Miss Daisy," Vanessa Redgrave plays the title character, an elderly Southern widow who shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel any more, and James Earl Jones is the chauffeur hired to take her wherever she wants to go. It's the story of an unlikely friendship, which opened Off Broadway in 1987 with Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman in the lead roles. Golden Theater. Previews: Oct. 7. Opening night: Oct. 25.

8. Elaine and Bernadette aren't going anywhere.

Elaine Stritch and Bernadette Peters gave new life to the current revival of "A Little Night Music" when they stepped into the lead roles two months ago. (Replacing the splendid Angela Lansbury and the extremely good-looking Catherine Zeta-Jones.) The Daily News critic re-reviewed the production last month, nothing that Peters "simply soars" and Stritch is "saltier and more rueful and very funny," not to mention "endlessly fascinating." The ticket would be worth it for Peters's "Send In the Clowns" alone. Some people are just meant to do Sondheim. (And some aren't.)

9. We'll see whether Lily Rabe can act indoors.

The Shakespeare in the Park production of "The Merchant of Venice," which knocked 'em dead at the Delacorte this summer, moves to Broadway next month. Al Pacino is the star, of course, as Shylock, and a lot of people considered his performance a tour de force. But Lily Rabe, as Portia, was the happy surprise of the production, despite great genes. Her parents are David Rabe and Jill Clayburgh. And Hamish Linklater is so funny as Bassanio that you sometimes can't believe his humor is working in a period piece. (Wow. Did you know there was a production of "Merchant of Venice" in New York, down on John Street, in 1768? It's amazing the stuff you can learn on IBDB.) The new one will be at the Broadhurst Theater. Previews: Oct. 19. Opening night: Nov. 7.

10. The " South Park" guys are coming to Broadway.

This could be the best news of all. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who created "South Park," the irreverent, sometimes vulgar, always hysterical, admirably subversive animated Comedy Central series, are writing a Broadway musical! And if you saw their 1999 movie, "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut," you'll understand why that's such a brilliant idea. The film introduced musical numbers like "Blame Canada," "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" and "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch." Now they're turning to religion, as the series often has, taking no prisoners. The show is "The Book of Mormon," about a couple of misguided missionaries who want to fix the world and decide to start by going to Uganda. Opening: March 2011.


NOTE: An earlier version of this post bore the headline "Back-to-School Report: 10 Things to Look Forward to in the Theater Season Ahead." But theatergossip.com decided that was boring. An earlier version also listed the opening date of "Angels in America" as Sept. 23.


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about that award winner extraordinaire Lynn Nottage. Or search to read about topics as diverse as Kelsey Grammer and "Circle Mirror Transformation," Tony winners and home shopping channels, Edward Albee and "Glee."