News Updates: LaBeouf on Twitter, Lynch to Annie, etc.

All kinds of news flashes: Late yesterday, I got the press release that Shia LaBeouf was exiting from the Broadway revival of Orphans. Then all of the twitterverse went ballistic when the 26-year-old star unleashed a flood of emails on his feed detailing conflicts between himself and co-star Alec Baldwin. From what I can piece together, it sounds like LaBeouf, who was making his Broadway debut, wasn't getting along with the more experienced Baldwin. This isn't the first time Baldwin has not played well with others. When he was in Entertaining Mister Sloan at Roundabout, there were all kinds of stories about his excessive demands and combative behavior with co-star Jan Maxwell.


BTW, it was also announced that Maxwell and John Lloyd Young would read the nominees for the Drama Desk Awards on April 26 at 54 Below. The awards themselves will be presented on May 19. These are always fun because the DDs cover both Bway and Off-Bway in every category. I sat on the nominating committee for a few years and it was difficult getting to all the eligible shows, but definitely worth it.

Around the same time as the LaBeouf revelation yesterday, it was announced Christopher Evan Welch is leaving The Madrid from Manhattan Theatre Club just two days after it opens due to a "professional commitment." Huh? When you book a major Off-Broadway show starring Edie Falco and written by Liz Flahive, the head writer of Nurse Jackie, you kinda clear your schedule for the run.

At the other end of the coming and goings spectrum, Jane Lynch of Glee will be taking over the Miss Hannigan role in Annie this summer (May 16-July 14). Now that's perfect casting.

Almost ignored in the avalanche of news was the definite postponement of two previously announced Broadway shows: the revival of The Miss Firecracker Contest and The Velocity of Autumn. Both were having trouble finding a suitable theater in time for the Tony cut-off date. That pretty much solidifies the roster for the 2013-14 Broadway season:

NEW PLAYS
Ann
The Anarchist
The Assembled Parties
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Dead Accounts
Grace
I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers
Lucky Guy
The Nance
The Other Place (previously produced Off-Broadway)
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (transfer from Off-Broadway)

NEW MUSICALS
Bring It On
Chaplin
A Christmas Story
Hands on a Hard Body
Kinky Boots
Matilda
Motown the Musical
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella
Scandalous: The Life and Times of Aimee Semple MacPherson

PLAY REVIVALS
The Big Knife
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cyrano de Bergerac
An Enemy of the People
Glengarry Glen Ross
Golden Boy
Harvey
The Heiress
Macbeth
Orphans
The Trip to Bountiful
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

MUSICAL REVIVALS
Annie
Fela!
Elf the Musical
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Pippin

SPECIALTIES
Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons on Broadway
Lewis Black: Running on Empty
Manilow on Broadway
Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth