Colin Meloy, Spring Awakening team in musical talks

Last week, we told you about the Decemberists' new album Hazards of Love and its past life as a would-be musical. We also mentioned that frontman Colin Meloy was "still working with" some producers on "another project” for the stage, and while we didn't expect to hear much else about it for a while, well, we have.  ...  read more

Stage adaptation of Dirty Dancing not quite the time of your life

With every passing year, Dirty Dancing grows beyond a mere nostalgic footnote of the 1980s as it continues to capture the heart of younger and younger generations with constant reruns on television, a special anniversary DVD releases and soundtrack songs still on the radio. And as the famous flick makes its American stage debut at the Cadillac Palace Theatre during Broadway In Chicago’s fall series, it very well could be 1987 all over again....  read more

Decatur native leads Les Miserables cast at the Fox through Sunday

When I heard that, after 23 years, uber-producer Cameron Mackintosh had retooled his great Les Miserables (and was premiering the changes at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre), I was simultaneously excited and horrified. Of all the musicals of our generation, Les Mis is not only easily the greatest and most enduring, but also the most unlikely-- a three-hour-plus show of all original music, based on a French novel over a hundred years old and over fourteen hundred pages long, entitled (loosely translated) “The Wretched,” and which, when not concerning itself with the plight of the urban poor, dwells largely on the fundamental...  read more