Quick Takes - July 20, 2012

Katie Holmes will return to Broadway this fall

Katie Holmes will be returning to the Broadway stage in her first major project since announcing her divorce from Tom Cruise.

The actress will star in Theresa Rebeck’s “Dead Accounts,” a five-character comedy that will be directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien.

The play will open on Broadway this fall at the Music Box Theatre. Dates and other casting news will be announced.

The play will mark Holmes’ first return to Broadway since appearing in the 2008 production of “All My Sons.”

The actress, 33, a former star of the TV series “Dawson’s Creek,” filed for divorce June 28 and moved into her own New York residence with the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Suri.

Rebeck, a driving force in the first season of NBC’s “Smash,” has written several plays, including “Seminar” and “Mauritius.”

—Associated Press

L.A. Opera is reaching out

Starting in its new season, Los Angeles Opera will roll out a new program, L.A. Opera Off Grand, that seeks to bring productions to parts of Southern California that are far afield from downtown.

As part of that initiative, the company has scheduled a concert version of Verdi’s “The Two Foscari,” starring Plácido Domingo, on Oct. 1 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.

A fully staged “Foscari” is part of the company’s main-stage season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, scheduled to begin performances Sept. 15. Orange County has been without a full-time opera company since Opera Pacific shut down in 2008.

—David Ng

Angel City Jazz lists 2012 shows

Now entering its fifth year, the Angel City Jazz Festival has announced its full menu of happenings for the fall under the theme “Artists & Legends.”

Once again tabbing multiple venues around the city and co-presented by the Jazz Bakery in association with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, the festival pairs contemporary artists with their influences in an ambitious, seven-night run of shows.

The festival begins Oct. 5 with a concert featuring winners of the festival’s young artist competition with the Phil Ranelin Sextet. The next day features a panel discussion called “Honoring and Breaking With Tradition” followed by a performance from a trio of guitarist Anthony Wilson, organist Larry Goldings and drummer Jim Keltner.

Others scheduled to perform include Peter Erskine, Ambrose Akinmusire, Archie Shepp, Bill Frisell, Steve Coleman, Myra Melford and Marilyn Crispell.

—Chris Barton

Blue Man to play with new colors

A new version of the popular Blue Man Group show is opening on the Las Vegas Strip this fall as another one ends its run at the Venetian.

Blue Man Group co-founder Chris Wink says the new production, set to open Oct. 10 in the Monte Carlo Resort, aims to take risks and “do something different.”

Show officials say a parade of drummers, musicians, robots and puppets will make its way through the casino each day, 45 minutes before the first show.

Other new elements include an assembly-line robot, new instruments and a virtual exploration of the human brain.

Show officials say the last Blue Man Group show at the Venetian resort is set for Sept. 30.

—Associated Press

Springsteen clocks in again

The Boss bit back this week at officials who cut short his performance a few days earlier in London when he and guest Paul McCartney kept playing past the curfew time of 10:30 p.m. on concerts held in Hyde Park.

On Tuesday at his gig with the E Street Band in Dublin, fans were greeted by the sight of a giant prop electrical power switch on stage. Springsteen opened the show by announcing, “Before we were so rudely interrupted …,” flipping the switch to “ON” and launching into the final minute of “Twist and Shout,” the song that had been cut short three nights earlier.

From there he and the band went into their version of the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law.”

At one point Springsteen held up a sign that said, “Only the Boss says when to pull the plug,” according to the BBC.

But Springsteen and the band ended the performance before the 11 p.m. curfew at the Dublin venue. He had been fined about $61,000 after a 2009 performance in the city ran into overtime.

—Randy Lewis