John Doyle to direct "BARNUM"

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 2:24am

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Globe adds 'Barnum,' 'Bell, Book and Candle' to 2007 summer slate

By Anne Marie Welsh
THEATER CRITIC

November 12, 2006

Tony-winning English director John Doyle, now preparing his minimalist production of Stephen Sondheim's “Company” for a Nov. 29 Broadway opening, will stage his next project – a revival of Cy Coleman's “Barnum” – at the Old Globe Theatre.

Doyle's show is one of two just-announced projects that will complete the Balboa Park theater's 2007 summer season.

“We have been tracking John Doyle since everybody fell in love with his 'Sweeney Todd,' ” said Louis Spisto, executive director of the Globe. “We wanted to do a musical revival and this is a show that has not had a major rethinking. It fits John's vision as he'll be imagining it with the actors also playing musical instruments.”

Doyle won last year's Tony for his pared-down “Sweeney,” which featured Patti LuPone playing tuba as Mrs. Lovett. Ten other actors on various instruments accompanied themselves in the creep-inducing madhouse production of a show that generally has as many as 38 performers.

The other indoor Globe show, running at the same time as three plays in repertory during the outdoor Summer Shakespeare Festival, is a revival of John Van Druten's “Bell, Book and Candle” to be staged by festival director Darko Tresnjak.

“Darko will be coming off staging his first 'Hamlet' for the festival,” said Spisto, “so he wanted to do something that wasn't another Shakespeare, something different.”

Van Druten's play, a popular old chestnut from 1950, concerns a witch, unlucky in love, who casts a spell when she finds that a gentleman caller is going to marry an old enemy of hers. Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer starred in the Broadway original, which ran for eight months and was adapted in 1958 into a successful film with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.

“Bell, Book and Candle” takes its title from the medieval Catholic rite of exorcism, though the London-born Van Druten's play takes a lighthearted approach and shows him a witty and urbane observer of New York society. The show will run at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage Aug. 4 through Sept. 9.

“Barnum,” a family show with music by Coleman, lyrics by Michael Stewart and book by Mark Bramble, was based on the life of showman Phineas Taylor Barnum who rose from humble beginnings to international reknown. Jim Dale played the title role in the original 1980 Broadway production; Joe Layton's staging was high on spectacle because of the circus element in the story.

The show took home three Tony awards and ran 854 performances, and met similar success in London and in a DVD version starring Michael Crawford. “Barnum” opens in the Old Globe July 12 and runs through Aug. 19.

Spisto also announced the directors for the summer Shakespeare productions. Matt August (“Pig Farm”) will stage “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” and Paul Mullins returns, after 2005's “Macbeth” here, to direct the complex “Measure for Measure,” with Tresnjak tackling “Hamlet.” Those shows will run in nightly rotation in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, June 16 through Sept. 30 next year.

Also opening under the Globe's aegis this summer is the West Coast premiere of “Avenue Q” at the Spreckels Theatre downtown, June 30 through Aug. 5.

Information/subscriptions: (619) 23-GLOBE or www.TheOldGlobe.org.





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Anne Marie Welsh: [phone]; [e-mail]


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[TomMonster]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 2:33am

Enough Doyle spoil.

Well, maybe Doyle can make Twyla forget her impulse to run off to the circus...

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 2:51am

Can we say, one trick pony?

Get a new cconcept already! My goodness!

I can't wait to see his reimagining of Wicked, with Glinda playing the trombone and Elphaba hoisted up on the crane along with her string bass!

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 2:56am

Same old crap, nice to see he is a director with vision.How quick this can get boring.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 2:58am

Don't get me wrong, Doyle can and does work on shows without the "concept". And if it works...it works.

I think he's recently done an opera production--full scale. Any news on that?

Still, I love the idea of WICKED being done with Glinda stabbing Elphaba with a trombone...

[alterego]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 6:23am

This man needs to be stopped! What was once interesting is now just getting tiresome. How long before he does away with instruments and to save time has the actors just play combs and tissue paper?

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 6:32am

I think two was enough.
Let's not go over the top, Mr. Doyle.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 7:04am

It ought to bea lot of fun seeing the guy on a high wire playing a tuba or the party on the flying trapeze strumming his guitar

I wanted to see a revival of Company & Barnum but not the Doyle versions. As someone on the board said recently, give me back my orchestra. I will keep my memories of the original of both shows

I can not wait for Doyle's version of Follies

Updated On: 11/13/06 at 07:04 AM

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 8:32am

What's with all the negativity? It seems to me that Doyle was commisioned to direct both company AND barnum and asked to do it in his signature style. People seem to want to see him do it. I really don't think it's because he's incapable of doing anything else.

[SweMozArt]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 8:43am

There is a one trick pony born every minute. Few can live on that one trick but if it's good enough it can amount to a career. In this case i guess the directors one trick is to get rid of the (often brilliant) one trick ponys in the orchestra pit and instead have two trick ponys on the stage.

[jasobres]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 8:54am

Doesn't BARNUM already use onstage musicians?

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 8:57am

i actually think that Barnum lends itself nicely to his concept. not to mention it's one of my favorite shows!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 10:15am

Doyle's been directing all kinds of theater in the UK for years, so the people who call him a one-trick pony and think this is all he can do are simply wrong.

That said, though, as much as I think the man is a f'ing genius, he is going to burn this out, especially if yet another one ends up making it to Broadway (which I hesitate to think it will). Barnum likely lends itself well to the concept, so I hesitate to say the show itself will be burnt-out, but no matter how brilliant the product, people are going to get tired of it. They already are. I think you do have to take into account the fact that this is being done regionally, so maybe people who aren't in New York or don't spend time on chat boards or whatever aren't approaching the burn-out point yet; they sought him out and want him to do this.

Updated On: 11/13/06 at 10:15 AM

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 10:20am

This is already pretty boring. Glad to see his concept - but can he do anything else?

And am I alone in thinking this just won't work with BARNUM?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 10:24am

Of course he can. I wish he'd do some "regular" direction here in the States; he's done a ton of it, as I said, and it's probably genius.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:01am

You guys do know that Doyle was directing these types of productions before Sweeney, right?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:05am

Some people on this board make me want to throw myself off my balcony.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:17am

This concept is wearing thin on me.

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:21am

Clowns with drums....elephants with tubas...count me in!

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:21am

Alexander Gemignani makes my point for me in this month's Playbill where he says it's a relief to be in a show where he doesn't have to play an instrument - something about being able to focus on the acting.

Uhh, yeah.

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:28am

The only revival of Barnum I want to see come to broadway is a straight forward one based on the circus concept staring Hugh Jackman or Raul Esparza.

[virgil blessing2]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:48am

The Times They are A'Closin' should sell their set and props now to the Barnum production. WA ha ha! D'OH!

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 11:51am

I think Doyle is amazing and I loved the way his concept worked with Sweeney Todd -- although I was skeptical at first. After seeing it live I found it to be brilliant and definitely a unique reimagining of the show. With that said, I agree that if Doyle begins remounting productions of older shows with this concept it is going to get old fast, become a running joke, and lose what made it edgy. I wish he could direct a new show that is written specifically for his concept rather than just reviving older ones. Barnum is a show a lot of people, including myself, would love to see revived on Broadway, but not in the Doyle style.

...of course, he could prove me wrong again.

Updated On: 11/13/06 at 11:51 AM

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 12:37pm

I wish he would change direction and direct a musical for once where people are not playing instruments. I know he's directing Weill's Mahoganny for LA Opera in 07 (with Patti and Audra) and I can only hope that he leaves the instrument playing to a real orchestra. I don't have a problem with the concept per se, but he's quickly reaching over-kill.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 12:39pm

I loved the idea that John had at first but it's getting old now. Is this gong to broadway?

I think Barnum needs to be revived but not as a John Doyle project...maybe Tommy Tune?