It's still a year or two down the road, but a musical version of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is slated to head to Broadway — with a possible stop in San Francisco along the way.

The Tales of the City series, which spanned seven books and three miniseries, began as a serial in The San Francisco Chronicle in the '70s. It told the story of Mary Ann Singleton, a secretary who never returned to Cleveland after a vacation in San Francisco, and the “family” she found in her new digs at 28 Barbary Lane on Russian Hill. Her family members included Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, her gay best friend; Mona Ramsey, Michael's sometimes-lesbian roommate; Brian Hawkins, '70s straight guy on the prowl (and her future husband); and Anna Madrigal, the transgender “mother of them all” who grew pot in her garden and taped joints to apartment doors as gifts for her “children.”

The creative team certainly has the credentials to keep the show gay enough. Tony Award winner Jeff Whitty is slated to write the book. If you're not familiar with his work in Avenue Q, check out the opening number.

(Whitty didn't write the music and lyrics, but he clearly had a lot to do with the campy gay sensibility.) The musical team will consist of John Garden and Jason Sellards (Scissor Sisters), so it's likely that the show will have some era-appropriate disco influences.

The story has so many intricate story lines that some will clearly have to go. Obviously I hope the lesbian plot remains. (Mona's ex-lover, D'or — a white woman who's passing as black for the sake of her modeling career — moves back to the Bay Area to win back Mona.) Perhaps they can do without the story of the closeted gay husband of the socialite (pregnant by the Chinese deliveryman) hooking up with the socialite's gynecologist at the baths. Or maybe they'll downplay Brian's endless quest to get laid. But they have to keep Mary Ann's doomed romance with the vitamin salesman/private investigator/child pornographer. (I won't tell you how that ends.)

I can imagine lots about the show: a set featuring the Barbary Lane steps with the Golden Gate Bridge and Transamerica building in the background, an opening number about Cleveland, perhaps a song and dance number with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. But what I cannot picture is the casting. The original miniseries was so perfectly cast that I cannot fathom seeing others in the roles.

First, there was Laura Linney as Mary Ann. … continue reading

By now you've probably heard about the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. And you probably know that Ellen DeGeneres is catching hell from WGA East. Some of you are thinking, "Well, TV is not looking so good these days; perhaps this is an opportunity to get out of the house and catch some live theater."

Which is a great idea. Unless your plan is to see Broadway theater.

Local One, the Broadway branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, went on strike Saturday morning, effectively shutting down most of Broadway.

… continue reading