Petula Clark will star, yes, downtown in Willy Russell’s musical “Blood Brothers” next season as part of the Shubert Theatre’s subscription offerings.
Clark, who has been playing in the musical on Broadway with Shaun and David Cassidy, will tour with the British story of twins separated at birth and play here Sept. 27-Oct. 9. David Cassidy is in negotiation to accompany Clark, but hasn’t signed on so far.
Completing the lineup are Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig” Oct. 11-Nov. 6, Sherry Glaser’s one-woman “Family Secrets” June 20-July 2 and “She Loves Me,” the classic Sheldon Harnick-Jerry Bock musical inspired by “The Shop Around the Corner” and revived to great acclaim last season in New York.
A fifth musical, along with dates for “She Loves Me,” will be announced later. Call 312-977-1717 for ticket information.
– Regina Taylor, best known as the sensitive star of “I’ll Fly Away,” and veteran Chicago actor Harry J. Lennix (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “The Meeting”) join the Goodman Theatre as artistic associates.
They join artistic director Robert Falls, associate directors Frank Galati and Michael Maggio, resident director David Petrarca and fellow artistic associates Mary Zimmerman and Chuck Smith.
Taylor and Lennix are likely to appear in productions at the Goodman this coming season. Taylor, whose two one-acts, “The Ties That Bind,” played to acclaim last season, also has been commissioned to write a new play. Lennix will work on a project to direct.
Their addition is funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“A Little Night Music,” by the way, has been extended through Aug. 21 at the Goodman. Call 312-443-3800 for tickets.
– Actor Steve Pickering has picked his first season of shows as artistic director of the Next Theatre in Evanston.
An unusual adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” is on tap to open the lineup Sept. 19-Oct. 15. Pickering will adapt, and actress Ann Boyd will play the old man. She will also choreograph.
“A Family Man,” a new play by Tom Szentgyorgyi follows Oct. 31-Nov. 27, to be directed by Sarah Tucker, who worked with Pickering at the Organic Theater Company. Pickering and Charley Sherman next will adapt another Clive Barker work, “Son of Celluloid,” Feb. 13-March 11. Both were involved in Organic’s hit version of Barker’s “In the Flesh” earlier.
William Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” directed by Pickering, completes the lineup March 27-April 23. Call 708-475-1875 for tickets.
– Karen Malpede, who grew up in the north suburbs and attended New Trier High School, has been awarded a $10,000 playwrighting grant from the McKnight Foundation. Now a New York resident, she’s the author of 10 plays.
