Weekend Agenda: Extra-Long Edition

Wow, a lot happened this week, you guys! Here’s the rundown…

• The musical Rebecca? So not happening, says all the people who refused to pay for it. Incoming instead? A revival of A Streetcar Named Desire that will star Daphne Rubin-Vega and Blair Underwood. We know your inner Tennessee Williams nerdgirl is kvelling, but you have to be a little sad to lose a show that was undoubtedly going to be an epic three hours of larynx-shredding Europop, foofy period costumes, and lots of live fire. As Stephen Sondheim once lamented, maybe next year.
• Wee Nick Jonas began performances as Finch in How to Succeed… this week. We love his minty green bowtie and general seriousness about all of life. Frankly, we kind of can’t wait to see him.
• The cast of Encores’ Merrily We Roll Along took some chummy photos this week ahead of their February 8 opening. We’re loving the throwback styling. And everything Colin Donnell chooses to be.
• Newsies “presale” tickets went on sale. Starting price? A hundred bucks. For that much dough, Jeremy Jordan should make out with you at intermission.
• Speaking of Jeremy Jordan, and we always are, he re-teamed with his former costar of complete awesomeness Laura Osnes to record a demo of a new musical called Faustus. Give a listen to this sample song. Then go scrounge all your favorite illegal trading sites to find the rest of it.
• The Book of Mormon’s original principal cast extended through 2013, while its touring company sold out its entire 3-week Denver engagement in less than 5 hours. So basically, you won’t be able to get tickets to see Mormon anytime soon. In any city on earth.
• Matt Bomer is set to play Darren Criss’ older brother on Glee. To summarize our feelings: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• The creators of the Les Miserables film are reportedly mining the show’s original and current stage casts for bit players. The perpetually bearded Colm Wilkinson will play the bishop, while Frances Ruffelle will play a “fabulous” whore. Because it would super demeaning, clearly, to just play a regular whore. Meanwhile, London’s current Valjean, Ramin Karimloo, has been cryptically mentioning a top-secret movie project he’ll be filming in Budapest in March. Our wager? He’s Grantaire, Bamatabois, Feuilly, or one of the other Les Unpronounceables.
• Also, Ramin’s solo album is coming out soon. It’s creatively entitled… Ramin. We haven’t heard it yet, but we definitely dig these photos from the launch event.
• The Public Theater officially announced their 50th Anniversary season of Shakespeare in the Park — As You Like It and and Sondheim’s Into The Woods. We already knew about Into the Woods, but we were thrilled to learn the resplendent Lily Rabe is set to play Rosalind in As You Like It. We’ve also begun a campaign to get Nick Westrate all the other roles. All of them. Get into it.
• Craptacular true love Tom Riley will star as Leonardo da Vinci in the new Starz/BBC series da Vinci’s Demons. We’re simultaneously thrilled to know Riley’s going to be fucking famous and terrified we’ll never see his celebrity mug on Broadway again.
• Giant, the new musical by Sybille Pearson and Michael John LaChiusa, opened last night at the Dallas Theater Center. HELLO, AARON LAZAR. That is all.
• The BBC announced that the Olivier Awards will be live-broadcast to NYC… for a private VIP audience only. Dear England: Really?! Sincerely, America.