News

Andrew Lloyd Webber has beaten prostate cancer and is back at work. That work includes, of course, the upcoming Phantom of the Opera sequel, Love Never Dies, set to open in London with Toronto's Ramin Karimloo in the starring role in March.

But the composer has another project on the burner as well. He's revamping The Wizard of Oz for a new West End production and will cast its Dorothy via a reality TV show to be called either Over the Rainbow or, I think this is a joke, The Oz Factor.

How does he envision the winning Dorothy? Well, his ideal, he told the Scottish Sun, would be a certain rocker girl from Napanee.

"I want a Dorothy with attitude! She'll be more Avril Lavigne than Judy Garland," Lloyd Webber told the paper. "Of course, Judy Garland made the role famous but I'm looking for a 21st Century Dorothy. ... Anyone like Avril Lavigne or a bit like Amy Winehouse or something along those lines would be great."

In other news, Mirvish Productions has a snappy new website, and on that website is some information that hasn't been officially announced or, at least, publicized yet. Jake Ehrenreich's autobiographical off-Broadway show A Jew Grows in Brooklyn is coming to Toronto. It's currently booked into the Panasonic from April 14 to May 2.

The evolution of the Panasonic under Mirvish management is one of the more interesting stories in Toronto theatre of late. Opening there next week is Alisa Palmer's starry production of Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 - a show I can't imagine would have been put on in one of the bigger Mirvish theatres - then My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding is back in February 26. That little Fringe hit that could is currently booking to March 21, but we've been wondering if it could run even longer than that. A Jew Grows in Brooklyn's starting date leaves room for a couple more weeks extension of MMLJWW, but I guess now we know it'll have to get out of there in early April - unless it just goes on hiatus again. We'll see.