Odds & Ends: Alan Cumming's CIA Gig, Idina Menzel on Marching with Mom and Jane Fonda & More
Here's a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today.
Alan Cumming Tapped for CBS Crime Pilot
After wrapping up his turn as a crisis consultant and chief of staff on The Good Wife, Alan Cumming is heading back to CBS for more high-stakes drama. The Tony and Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner will star in and executive produce Killer Instinct, a crime drama just given a pilot order, according to Deadline. Based on an upcoming James Patterson novel, the series would follow a former CIA operative who, after settling into a civilian life as a writer, returns to the agency to help stop a serial killer on the loose.
Idina Menzel's Busy Saturday
Idina Menzel stopped by Late Night to chat with Seth Meyers about her eventful weekend, which included attending the Women’s March in Los Angeles (where she met Jane Fonda) and watching the Beaches remake (which earned 2.21 million viewers on Saturday) with her mom. Check out the clip below to see why you should never badmouth her in the theater. While you’re watching, contemplate why you would ever badmouth Idina Menzel in the theater in the first place.
Benjamin Button Musical Set for Off-Broadway Reading
We’ll meet you in the middle for this one. Off-Broadway’s York Theatre Company will present a developmental reading of a musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Benjamin Button, featuring a score by Natalie Tenenbaum and a book and lyrics by Brett Boles. Matthew Hydzik (Side Show) will star as the titular age reverser, with Janine DiVita (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) as Claire. Joining Hydzik and DiVita will be Cole Burden, Sean McDermott, Zachary Sayle, Julius Thomas III, Mark DiConzo, Karen Elliott, Badia Farha, James LaRosa, Bernard Scahill and Mia Scarpa. The open reading will play three performances from January 30 to 31 at the Midtown venue.
Dana Delany, Elizabeth Ashley & More Join James Earl Jones at ART
Some more stars are lined up for American Repertory Theater’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana. Joining the previously announced James Earl Jones for the Boston production are Emmy winner Dana Delany (China Beach), Tony winners Amanda Plummer (Agnes of God) and Elizabeth Ashley (You Can’t Take It With You), Bill Heck (Cabaret) and ART Resident Acting Company member Remo Airaldi. The Michael Wilson-directed staging will begin performances on February 18; additional casting will be announced later.
Crazy For You Rounds Out Cast
The complete cast is now set for Manhattan Concert Productions’ concert performance of Crazy for You. Among those joining the previously announced roster of stars (including Laura Osnes, Tony Yazbeck, Rachel Bloom and Jerry O’Connell) will be Tony nomine Nancy Opel as Lottie Child, Cats’ Christine Cornish-Smith and Jeremy Davis as Louise and Sam and Mark Linn-Baker as Evrett Baker. Rounding out the cast are Michael Biren, Jim Borstelmann, Jerry Gallagher, Anne Horak, Rashaan James II, Naomi Kakuk, Amanda Kloots, Chris LeBeau, Alicia Lundgren, Brittany Marcin Maschmeyer, Kaylee Olson, Eric Santagata, Angie Schworer and Victor Wisehat. The one-night-only event is set for February 19 at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall.
P.S. If you didn’t catch Mike Birbiglia’s show Thank God For Jokes off-Broadway last year, you can watch it as a Netflix special beginning February 28. If you did catch it, you can still watch it again as a Netflix special beginning February 28.
Alan Cumming(Photo: Emilio Madrid-Kuser)