Franco and Foster Join 2014 Bway Roster

James Fracno will star in Of Mice and Men 
on Broadway

Add James Franco and Sutton Foster to the growing list of hot stars coming to Broadway in 2014. Franco will be making his Broadway debut along with Chris O'Dowd of Bridesmaids in a revival of Of Mice and Men to be directed by Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County). Foster stars in a revival of the musical Violet which was such a hit at the Encores! Off Center series earlier this year. Violet fills the spring slot in Roundabout Theatre Company's schedule which was left vacant when The Real Thing with Ewan McGregor was pushed ahead to 2014-15. That Franco is a busy guy, while filming The Interview, he had time to make a shot-for-shot parody of a Kanye West video with his co-star Seth Rogen. Plus he's working on several movies including a film version of The Sound and the Fury and a bio of avant-garde author Charles Bukowski.

Other big names coming to Broadway include Denzel Washington, Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Michelle Williams, Alan Cumming, and Bryan Cranston. The Breaking Bad star will headline All the Way, Robert Schenkkan's play about President Lyndon Johnson and the civil right movement which was a hit at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. March and April are getting pretty crowded now, see the updated schedule below:

James Gandolfini: An Actor Who Challenged Himself

Like most of you, I became aware of the late James Gandolfini through The Sopranos. But the moment when he most impressed me was in a crappy movie called Terminal Velocity. I can't even remember the plot, but I saw it on a bus. That's right, not even on an airplane, a bus. Charlie Sheen was the star which shows you how long ago this thing was made. Sheen plays some kind of daredevil and Gandolfini was a lawyer or agent or some kind of desk jockey who is supposed to seem bland and ordinary next to the dashing Sheen. The only thing I remember about the movie was one moment when Gandolfini says to Sheen, "Flashy guys like you don't think very much of regular guys like me and that's okay." He was so honest, simple, and direct that he totally stole that scene and the movie from the handsome, but shallow Sheen who has since descended into a sitcom version of himself. (Winning!)

Gandolfini's tragic early death robs us of more detailed, truthful performances. On The Sopranos he created a complex man who was a sensitive seeker after his inner self as well as a brutal killer. I'll never forget the episode where he says to his Uncle Junior, "Don't you love me?" and Dominic Chianese just looks at him. Every hurt and slight in the twisted Soprano family history is written on both their silent faces.

Recent Visits to Oz

Ozma of Oz, one of the 20th century's
earliest transgendered characters. Isn't she fabulous?

I finally did get around to seeing the current film Oz The Great and Powerful in IMAX and 3-D. The prequel to classic MGM film The Wizard of Oz purports to tell the story of how the Wiz got to the enchanted land long before Dorothy. The production design was beautiful and I'm glad I saw it in 3-D, but you don't need to spend the extra $10 for IMAX, at least not in the theater I went to on 34th Street in Manhattan.

The mythology put forth conflicts with that of L. Frank Baum's Oz books and Gregory Maguire's Wicked series. Yes, for those who don't know there are about 40 Oz books altogether. Baum wrote 14 of them and Ruth Plumly Thompson carried on after his death. She stopped in 1939 and others carried on periodically after that. In the new movie, James Franco as the Wizard has affairs (or stays up all night "dancing") with both the Wicked Witches of the East and West and does some serious canoodling with Glinda the Good Witch of the South. The good witch of the North is missing. In the Baum books, the Wiz unseats the rightful ruler, a fairy baby named Ozma, who is turned by enchantment into a boy. Outside of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Ozma is probably literature's most famous transgendered character. In The Land of Oz, the first book after the Wizard of Oz, the transformed Ozma, now named Trot, goes on an adventure with Jack Pumpkinhead, and is eventually re-assigned by Glinda to his/her original form. "I'm the same as I was before," she explained to the astonished Ozites,"only now I'm a girl." And a fairy to boot. This was in 1904, long before LGBTQ issues were on anyone's mind.

News Flashes: James Franco and Bartlett Sher for Bway Revivals?

Mila Kunis and James Franco in Oz the Great and Powerful

It's probably because of the smash release of Oz the Great and Powerful which I haven't seen yet, but the adorable James Franco is all over the news lately. The Guardian UK reports the multitalented Franco will be starring a Broadway revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men as George, the drifting ranchhand who is best friends with the baby-like giant Lenny. Here's a link to my review in Backstage of the Acting Company's recent touring revival. If this pans out, it will mark Franco's Broadway debut. He was to have starred opposite Nicole Kidman in a new production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, but that bird never hatched. In the New York Post, the star-artist-writer-director's California neighbors have complained Franco's home is really a production company with so many people coming and going, their peace of mind has been shattered.

Oz received a decidedly mixed press, but was number one at the box office, raking in $180 million. A lot of my Facebook friends have given it negative reviews, but I'm still curious, mainly because it's in 3D and IMAX. I've only seen one picture in this double-format (Prometheus) and the experience was exciting, so I'm willing to risk some story shortcomings for visual thrills.

In other news, Tony winner Bartlett Sher is reportedly in talks with Clive Davis to direct the record mogul's projected revival of My Fair Lady. Davis says he wants Anne Hathaway and Colin Firth for the leads. I predicted Hathaway as a prime choice for Eliza before that news broke. But I said Sting for Higgins. This lead to speculation as to the rest of the cast--What would be your ideal MFL company? In addition to Hathaway and Firth, I would say Paxton Whitehead as Col. Pickering; Debra Monk as Mrs. Higgins; Jeremy Jordan as Freddy Enysford-Hill or if you want to get really crazy, Justin Timberlake; Jim Norton as Alfred P. Doolittle; Mary Testa as Mrs. Pearce; and me as Zoltan Karpathy, the role I played in two different high-school productions. What are your picks?