Quick Takes: Susan Stroman joins ‘Producers’

Susan Stroman, the Broadway powerhouse who has won five Tony Awards, will direct and choreograph “The Producers” at the Hollywood Bowl in July, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will announce Thursday.

The musical is familiar territory for Stroman, who staged the original show on Broadway at the St. James Theatre in 2001 and directed the movie version in 2005.

“The Producers” is scheduled to run July 27-29 at the Bowl. No cast has been announced.

Based on the 1968 Mel Brooks movie, “The Producers” tells the story of a theatrical impresario and an accountant who try to get rich by securing investments for a guaranteed Broadway flop, “Springtime for Hitler.” The musical features songs by Brooks and a book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan.

The L.A. Phil also is announcing that the Hollywood Bowl season will feature an opening-night celebration on June 22 hosted by Julie Andrews. Country singer Reba McEntire will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.

—David Ng

‘Bully’ can’t shake R rating

A teenage activist has collected more than 200,000 signatures in an effort to change the R rating of the teen-focused documentary “Bully,” but the Motion Picture Assn. of America is sticking to its decision.

Katy Butler, a 17-year-old high-school junior from Ann Arbor, Mich., who says she was subjected to bullying in the seventh grade, and her mother met Wednesday with MPAA officials in L.A. and delivered four boxes of papers containing the signatures she collected online. She urged the organization to change the film’s rating from R to PG-13 so more young people can see it.

“Bully,” due out March 30, follows five young bullying victims and their experiences during the school year. It was given an R for profane language.

“Even though we think this is a wonderful film and very worthwhile film for people to see, our main purpose is to give parents information on the level of content,” Joan Graves, chairman of the MPAA’s classification and rating administration, said in an interview. “She wants us to ignore the level of content because this is a good film, and we can’t do that. We have to be consistent.”

—Associated Press

Blume classics become e-books

A big batch of Judy Blume books is coming to the digital market.

Random House Children’s Books said Wednesday that 13 stories by the million-selling author will be coming out as e-books this year, starting with 10 on March 21. “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”; “Deenie”; and “Blubber” are among the favorites that will be available for downloads.

In a statement released by Random House, Blume said she’s happy her fans can “choose which format works best for them to enjoy their favorite books.”

—Associated Press

Tim Burton art goes up in Paris

Tim Burton has landed in Paris — specifically, at the famed Cinémathèque française. The art exhibition devoted to the eccentric American filmmaker has been a popular success in New York, Melbourne, Toronto and, most recently, Southern California, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The exhibition is composed of hundreds of drawings, designs, costumes and movie artifacts created by Burton and his collaborators. It opened in Paris on Wednesday and is scheduled to run through Aug. 5.

The show, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, debuted in New York in 2009 and became the third-most-attended exhibition in the museum’s history. In L.A., where the show ran for 135 days in 2011, the exhibition was LACMA’s fifth-best-attended show in the last three decades.

—David Ng

Building returns to SimCity

Move over, CityVille. SimCity is coming back to town.

The video game franchise that first defined the city-building genre in 1989 will be re-released next year as a multiplayer online computer game, developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts Inc.

This time, SimCity has an environmental theme, a la “An Inconvenient Truth.” A fetish for coal burning plants in one city can spread smog and sickness in adjacent cities run by other players, for example.

This could prompt players to ask, “What would Al Gore do?” But because it’s a game, Maxis developers know players often prefer to be mischievous. Every toddler who builds towers of wooden blocks knows it’s more fun to knock them down, Godzilla-style. And so it is with SimCity.

“For the first time in SimCity, players’ decisions will have consequences that will extend beyond their city limits,” said Lucy Bradshaw, senior vice president of Maxis. “It’s up to the players to decide whether to compete or collaborate to shape the world of tomorrow – for better or for worse.”

—Alex Pham