Morning Report - News from Aug. 17, 2002

THEATER

‘Hairspray’ Takes Hold in Broadway Debut

So, after all the buzz, is “Hairspray,” the musical based on John Waters’ 1988 cult film, going to be the next “Producers”? With a $5-million advance and raves during its Seattle run, hopes are riding high for the production, which opened Thursday night at the Neil Simon Theatre.

The show drew upbeat reviews, if not the raves accorded the Mel Brooks comedy. But critics--praising Harvey Fierstein’s star turn as a frumpy hausfrau and Marc Shaiman’s score--almost uniformly predicted that “Hairspray” had the makings of a hit.

“Staged with an energy and zest that doesn’t let down,” Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara said of the piece, a story of a pleasingly plump, dance-obsessed teen in 1960s Baltimore. USA Today’s Elysa Gardner advised those with no tolerance for racial humor, fat jokes or sexual innuendo to head elsewhere. But she called it “kitsch at its purest and least apologetic” and gave it 3 1/2 stars out of a possible four.

The New York Times’ Ben Brantley wasn’t alone in calling the show a bit preachy. But it “succeeds in re-creating the pleasures of the old-fashioned musical comedy without seeming old-fashioned,” he wrote.

One holdout was the Boston Globe’s Ed Siegel: “ ‘Hairspray,’ for all its cleverness, can be as annoying as it is entertaining,” he observed. Still, he conceded, that shouldn’t prevent it from becoming “a huge success.”

*

MOVIES

Book Tracks Women’s Progress in Hollywood

Three women now run Hollywood studios--a pipe dream to those who entered the business when Hollywood was exclusively a men’s club.

The strides made in the last three decades are the focus of “Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood,” due out from St. Martin’s Press on Sept. 6. Written by former documentarian Mollie Gregory, it presents first-person accounts from 125 women, including two of the studio chiefs (Paramount’s Sherry Lansing, Columbia’s Amy Pascal), former National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Alexander, producer Marcia Nasatir and stars, such as Liv Ullmann and Barbra Streisand, who’ve doubled in back of the camera.

The turning point? The 1970s, when the women’s movement coincided with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, Gregory maintains.

“Though most men in the industry had never worked with women except for secretaries and publicists, some of them were terrific,” she said Friday.

“Steven Bochco gave Randa Haines [“Children of a Lesser God”] a chance to direct ‘Hill Street Blues’--though she’d only done a couple of PBS pieces. Norman Lear asked Joan Darling to direct ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ when she’d only tackled plays.

“The celluloid ceiling is still there, of course--but not to the degree it was. Women aren’t running everything, but at least we are contenders.”

*

THE ARTS

La Jolla Playhouse to Get Third Stage

La Jolla Playhouse on Friday unveiled the design for an $11.5-million expansion that will provide the nonprofit regional theater company with its third stage--a black box that can seat up to 450 playgoers and be reconfigured for each production.

The 45,000-square-foot addition will be called the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, in honor of the Qualcomm founder and his wife, who donated $5 million in 1999.

Complementing the existing Mandell Weiss Theatre and the Mandell Weiss Forum, it will also contain rehearsal and educational spaces, administrative offices and a new restaurant-cabaret. Construction is scheduled to begin this winter, with a projected opening in spring 2004.

The Playhouse has raised $32 million of its $36-million goal for a five-year campaign kicked off in 1999.

*

QUICK TAKES

Because of a scheduling conflict, former Beatle Paul McCartney has postponed receiving his Kennedy Center Honor from this year to 2003. Another honoree for 2002 will be selected.... Despite allegations that the domestic diva engaged in insider trading on Wall Street, King World Productions has renewed “Martha Stewart Living” for a 10th season.... Jason Priestley continues to make progress after surgery this week on his back and feet following a racing accident Sunday. “He has mobility and feeling now in all of his extremities,” said a spokesman for Indianapolis’ Methodist Hospital.... People magazine reports that Jaclyn Smith (“Charlie’s Angels”) is getting radiation treatment for a small malignant growth discovered a few weeks ago.