Stark to star in "Kinky Boots" on Broadway?
A bunch of articles about Stark possibly landing a new musical next season...
‘Leap of Faith’ Hopes to Land on Broadway This Spring
By Patrick Healy
The producers of the new musical “Leap of Faith” are hoping to bring the show to Broadway this spring, instead of in fall 2012 as previously announced, according to one of the producers, Daryl Roth. In a newsletter sent to friends and colleagues and some journalists on Tuesday night about her current projects, Ms. Roth wrote that there should be news shortly on “Leap of Faith” and that “hopefully” it will open in the spring. The musical, which is expected to star four-time Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza as an evangelical con man, has been rumored recently as the next tenant for the St. James Theater, given the possibility that its current musical, “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever,” will close soon. “On A Clear Day,” starring Harry Connick Jr., opened in December to mostly negative reviews and has been selling modestly at the box office.
“Leap of Faith” would be the latest addition to a Broadway season that had a dearth of new original musicals only a few months ago. Two other upcoming original musicals, “Newsies” and “Once,” have been announced for Broadway over the last couple of months, joining “Rebecca,” “Ghost,” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” in the line-up of such shows opening this spring.
Several other Broadway-bound projects were listed in the newsletter from Ms. Roth, who produced the Tony-winning revival of “The Normal Heart” last spring and is one of the busiest commercial producers in New York. “Kinky Boots,” a musical based on the 2005 British film, is aiming for Broadway next season with a cast that includes Stark Sands (“American Idiot”) and Billy Porter (the Off Broadway revival of “Angels in America”). It would be the Broadway debut of the pop musician Cyndi Lauper as a composer and lyricist; the book is by Harvey Fierstein (“La Cage aux Folles,” “Newsies”) and the director and choreographer is Jerry Mitchell (“Legally Blonde”).
Ms. Roth is casting actors for a fall 2012 Broadway production of “A Time to Kill,” a stage adaptation of the John Grisham novel; the play had a run last spring at Arena Stage in Washington. She is also planning a future production of “It Shoulda Been You,” a new musical directed by David Hyde Pierce that ran at the George Street Playhouse last fall.
A development workshop is also expected this spring for “Stars of David,” a musical adaptation of the book by Abigail Pogrebin about stories of Jewish identity from the lives of public figures like Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court and Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes.” Charles Busch (“The Divine Sister”) is writing the book for “Stars of David.”
Ms. Roth confirmed the contents of the newsletter on Wednesday. No official word on the futures of “Leap of Faith” and “On a Clear Day” has been announced.
Source
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Stark Sands and Billy Porter-Led KINKY BOOTS Aiming for Broadway Next Season
According to the New York Times, the musical version of KINKY BOOTS, which had a New York reading back in October, is aiming to open on Broadway next season. Producer Daryl Roth revealed in a newsletter that the production would include the talents of Broadway veterans Stark Sands and Billy Porter. The musical features music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein. Tony-winner Jerry Mitchell will both direct and choreograph the production.
In 2008, it was announced that "Kinky Boots" was being developed as a Broadway-aimed musical by producers Daryl Rothand Hal Luftig. Producer Roth told the Hollywood Reporter that "the story is really about relationships, and I want to find the heart at the center of it."
Lauper achieved success in the mid-1980's with the release of her album She's So Unusual, and became the first female signer to have four top-five singles released from one album. She has released 11 albums and over 40 singles, and as of 2008 has sold more than 25 million records worldwide. She appeared on Broadway in the 2005 revival of The Threepenny Opera as Jenny, and recently appeared as a competitor on The Celebrity Apprentice.
"Kinky Boots" is a 2005 Golden Globe Award-nominated British-American comedy film written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, about a traditional Northampton shoemaker, based in Earls Barton, who turns to producing fetishism footwear in order to save the failing family business and the jobs of his workers. The film is based on the story of Divine, which was featured in an episode of the BBC documentary series Trouble at the Top.
The plot centers on Charlie Price, who is trying to save the family business and travels to London to get ideas. In a chance encounter he meets sassy drag queen performer Lola, the alter ego of Simon, and sees the possible market of shoes for male transvestites. With the styling eye of Lola, Charlie leads the traditional shoe factory to design and produce numerous shoes for the catwalk in Milan, Italy.
Source
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Stark Sands and Billy Porter Will Try On Broadway-Bound Kinky Boots, With Songs by Cyndi Lauper
By Kenneth Jones
The continuing development of the new Broadway musical Kinky Boots, based on the 2005 film about a failing British shoe company that becomes a fetish-footwear manufacturer, includes a planned winter workshop to feature Stark Sands and Billy Porter, producer Daryl Roth reported in an email to followers of her projects.
"Kinky Boots will be workshopped later this month with a cast that includes Stark Sands (American Idiot, Journey's End) and Billy Porter (Off-Broadway's Angels in America, Broadway's Smokey Joe's Café, Miss Saigon) for a Broadway production in the 2012-13 season," Roth wrote in a newsletter dated January 2012.
As previously reported on Playbill.com, Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can and the 2004 La Cage aux Folles, among other shows) will direct and choreograph the musical, co-produced by Roth (The Normal Heart) and Hal Luftig (Legally Blonde).
Kinky Boots the Musical has new music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and libretto by Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles). Musical supervision is by 2011 Tony Award winner Stephen Oremus (Wicked, 9 to 5, The Book of Mormon). Mitchell will direct and choreograph. Casting is by Telsey + Company.
Singer-songwriter Lauper is best known for her offbeat '80s style and such tunes as "True Colors," "Time After Time" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Her show will have a pop-rock sound. The 2005 source film comedy is about a drag-queen cabaret performer who helps revitalize a failing British shoe company by creating a line of fetish wear.
Broadway producer Roth is known for Wit, Proof, August: Osage County and many other Brodway and Off-Broadway shows, and won a 2011 Tony for producing The Normal Heart. Luftig produced Movin' Out and Legally Blonde, among others.
Geoff Deane & Tim Firth penned the screenplay of "Kinky Boots." The film was directed by Julian Jarrold. Chiwetel Ejiofor (who played vivacious drag queen Lola) was nominated for a 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The U.K. release was in 2005; the U.S. release was in 2006. In the movie, a son inherits his dead father's dying shoe company, which produces functional footwear for which there is no market. An encounter with a drag performer changes the lives of those in the shoe business. "The story is really about relationships," Roth previously told the Hollywood Reporter, "and I want to find the heart at the center of it."
Source
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Stark Sands and Billy Porter Set For Workshop of Kinky Boots; Broadway Run Planned for 2012-13 Season
Tony nominee Stark Sands and Billy Porter will participate in a workshop of the previously announced new musical Kinky Boots in January. Featuring a score by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein, the musical adaptation of the cult film is planning a Broadway run during the 2012-13 season. Jerry Mitchell is set to direct and choreograph.
A 2005 indie hit, Kinky Boots starred Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, American Gangster) as a drag queen who teams up with the head of a struggling shoe company to try and save the business by designing a line of fetish shoes. The flick itself is not a musical, though it did include a few appropriately placed cabaret numbers.
Sands earned a Tony nomination for Journey's End. He has also appeared on Broadway in American Idiot and off-Broadway in Twelfth Night and The Tempest. Porter's Broadway credits include Smokey Joe's Cafe, Grease, Five Guys Named Moe and Miss Saigon. He has appeared off-Broadway in Angels in America, Birdie Blue, Ghetto Superstar, Radiant Baby, Songs for a New World and The Merchant of Venice.
Source
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I wonder what this means for The 2-2? As much as I enjoy the prospect of Stark on our TV, I do like when he's on the stage. Anyway, it's only a workshop, which are dimes a dozen, and it's not a guarantee he'd be in the show if/when it hit Broadway. Time will tell...
‘Leap of Faith’ Hopes to Land on Broadway This Spring
By Patrick Healy
The producers of the new musical “Leap of Faith” are hoping to bring the show to Broadway this spring, instead of in fall 2012 as previously announced, according to one of the producers, Daryl Roth. In a newsletter sent to friends and colleagues and some journalists on Tuesday night about her current projects, Ms. Roth wrote that there should be news shortly on “Leap of Faith” and that “hopefully” it will open in the spring. The musical, which is expected to star four-time Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza as an evangelical con man, has been rumored recently as the next tenant for the St. James Theater, given the possibility that its current musical, “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever,” will close soon. “On A Clear Day,” starring Harry Connick Jr., opened in December to mostly negative reviews and has been selling modestly at the box office.
“Leap of Faith” would be the latest addition to a Broadway season that had a dearth of new original musicals only a few months ago. Two other upcoming original musicals, “Newsies” and “Once,” have been announced for Broadway over the last couple of months, joining “Rebecca,” “Ghost,” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” in the line-up of such shows opening this spring.
Several other Broadway-bound projects were listed in the newsletter from Ms. Roth, who produced the Tony-winning revival of “The Normal Heart” last spring and is one of the busiest commercial producers in New York. “Kinky Boots,” a musical based on the 2005 British film, is aiming for Broadway next season with a cast that includes Stark Sands (“American Idiot”) and Billy Porter (the Off Broadway revival of “Angels in America”). It would be the Broadway debut of the pop musician Cyndi Lauper as a composer and lyricist; the book is by Harvey Fierstein (“La Cage aux Folles,” “Newsies”) and the director and choreographer is Jerry Mitchell (“Legally Blonde”).
Ms. Roth is casting actors for a fall 2012 Broadway production of “A Time to Kill,” a stage adaptation of the John Grisham novel; the play had a run last spring at Arena Stage in Washington. She is also planning a future production of “It Shoulda Been You,” a new musical directed by David Hyde Pierce that ran at the George Street Playhouse last fall.
A development workshop is also expected this spring for “Stars of David,” a musical adaptation of the book by Abigail Pogrebin about stories of Jewish identity from the lives of public figures like Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court and Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes.” Charles Busch (“The Divine Sister”) is writing the book for “Stars of David.”
Ms. Roth confirmed the contents of the newsletter on Wednesday. No official word on the futures of “Leap of Faith” and “On a Clear Day” has been announced.
Source
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Stark Sands and Billy Porter-Led KINKY BOOTS Aiming for Broadway Next Season
According to the New York Times, the musical version of KINKY BOOTS, which had a New York reading back in October, is aiming to open on Broadway next season. Producer Daryl Roth revealed in a newsletter that the production would include the talents of Broadway veterans Stark Sands and Billy Porter. The musical features music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein. Tony-winner Jerry Mitchell will both direct and choreograph the production.
In 2008, it was announced that "Kinky Boots" was being developed as a Broadway-aimed musical by producers Daryl Rothand Hal Luftig. Producer Roth told the Hollywood Reporter that "the story is really about relationships, and I want to find the heart at the center of it."
Lauper achieved success in the mid-1980's with the release of her album She's So Unusual, and became the first female signer to have four top-five singles released from one album. She has released 11 albums and over 40 singles, and as of 2008 has sold more than 25 million records worldwide. She appeared on Broadway in the 2005 revival of The Threepenny Opera as Jenny, and recently appeared as a competitor on The Celebrity Apprentice.
"Kinky Boots" is a 2005 Golden Globe Award-nominated British-American comedy film written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, about a traditional Northampton shoemaker, based in Earls Barton, who turns to producing fetishism footwear in order to save the failing family business and the jobs of his workers. The film is based on the story of Divine, which was featured in an episode of the BBC documentary series Trouble at the Top.
The plot centers on Charlie Price, who is trying to save the family business and travels to London to get ideas. In a chance encounter he meets sassy drag queen performer Lola, the alter ego of Simon, and sees the possible market of shoes for male transvestites. With the styling eye of Lola, Charlie leads the traditional shoe factory to design and produce numerous shoes for the catwalk in Milan, Italy.
Source
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Stark Sands and Billy Porter Will Try On Broadway-Bound Kinky Boots, With Songs by Cyndi Lauper
By Kenneth Jones
The continuing development of the new Broadway musical Kinky Boots, based on the 2005 film about a failing British shoe company that becomes a fetish-footwear manufacturer, includes a planned winter workshop to feature Stark Sands and Billy Porter, producer Daryl Roth reported in an email to followers of her projects.
"Kinky Boots will be workshopped later this month with a cast that includes Stark Sands (American Idiot, Journey's End) and Billy Porter (Off-Broadway's Angels in America, Broadway's Smokey Joe's Café, Miss Saigon) for a Broadway production in the 2012-13 season," Roth wrote in a newsletter dated January 2012.
As previously reported on Playbill.com, Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can and the 2004 La Cage aux Folles, among other shows) will direct and choreograph the musical, co-produced by Roth (The Normal Heart) and Hal Luftig (Legally Blonde).
Kinky Boots the Musical has new music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and libretto by Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles). Musical supervision is by 2011 Tony Award winner Stephen Oremus (Wicked, 9 to 5, The Book of Mormon). Mitchell will direct and choreograph. Casting is by Telsey + Company.
Singer-songwriter Lauper is best known for her offbeat '80s style and such tunes as "True Colors," "Time After Time" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Her show will have a pop-rock sound. The 2005 source film comedy is about a drag-queen cabaret performer who helps revitalize a failing British shoe company by creating a line of fetish wear.
Broadway producer Roth is known for Wit, Proof, August: Osage County and many other Brodway and Off-Broadway shows, and won a 2011 Tony for producing The Normal Heart. Luftig produced Movin' Out and Legally Blonde, among others.
Geoff Deane & Tim Firth penned the screenplay of "Kinky Boots." The film was directed by Julian Jarrold. Chiwetel Ejiofor (who played vivacious drag queen Lola) was nominated for a 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The U.K. release was in 2005; the U.S. release was in 2006. In the movie, a son inherits his dead father's dying shoe company, which produces functional footwear for which there is no market. An encounter with a drag performer changes the lives of those in the shoe business. "The story is really about relationships," Roth previously told the Hollywood Reporter, "and I want to find the heart at the center of it."
Source
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Stark Sands and Billy Porter Set For Workshop of Kinky Boots; Broadway Run Planned for 2012-13 Season
Tony nominee Stark Sands and Billy Porter will participate in a workshop of the previously announced new musical Kinky Boots in January. Featuring a score by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein, the musical adaptation of the cult film is planning a Broadway run during the 2012-13 season. Jerry Mitchell is set to direct and choreograph.
A 2005 indie hit, Kinky Boots starred Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, American Gangster) as a drag queen who teams up with the head of a struggling shoe company to try and save the business by designing a line of fetish shoes. The flick itself is not a musical, though it did include a few appropriately placed cabaret numbers.
Sands earned a Tony nomination for Journey's End. He has also appeared on Broadway in American Idiot and off-Broadway in Twelfth Night and The Tempest. Porter's Broadway credits include Smokey Joe's Cafe, Grease, Five Guys Named Moe and Miss Saigon. He has appeared off-Broadway in Angels in America, Birdie Blue, Ghetto Superstar, Radiant Baby, Songs for a New World and The Merchant of Venice.
Source
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I wonder what this means for The 2-2? As much as I enjoy the prospect of Stark on our TV, I do like when he's on the stage. Anyway, it's only a workshop, which are dimes a dozen, and it's not a guarantee he'd be in the show if/when it hit Broadway. Time will tell...