Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Tony winner Victoria Clark, most recently on Broadway in a Tony-nominated performance in the revival of Gigi, is taking part in a Toronto workshop of a new musical based on the 1988 film Madame Sousatzka, according to the New York Post.
Clark, who is also making her New York Musical Festival directorial debut with Newton's Cradle, is cast in the title role of the Russian piano player, the part created on film by Shirley MacLaine, who won a Golden Globe for her performance. Clark is joined in the workshop by Memphis Tony nominee Montego Glover and Tony nominee Tsidii Le Loka, who originated the role of Rafiki in The Lion King.
The musical features a score by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, whose Broadway credits include Baby and Big as well as the Off-Broadway revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever.
Garth Drabinsky, the former head of Livent who served three years in a Canadian jail for fraud, is producing the musical, which will likely open this fall in Toronto with a spring opening in New York a possibility. Because of his indictment in the States, Drabinsky will need to find an American producer to shepherd the work to Broadway.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and John Schlesinger penned the screenplay for Madame Sousatzka based on the novel by Bernice Rubens. John Schlesinger directed a cast that included MacLaine, Navin Chowdhry and Peggy Ashcroft.
By Andrew Gans for www.playbill.com.
Photo: Victoria Clark. ©Deborah Feingold.
2016-07-15
Toronto: Garth Drabinsky-produced "Madame Sousatzka" may open in Toronto this fall