Weekend Agenda: Before Brunch Edition

I’m about to go spend my afternoon solidly indoors–where everything is air-conditioned, so that I don’t die of the heat. First up, is brunch. Then, a pub crawl with ShakesBEER, wherein I tell myself about how cultured and theater obsessed I am while I drink my face off and watch some very smart, very cute boys act. You should join me. Before that, though, here’s a brief update on this week’s theater happenings.

• We’re so excited we’d go see Matilda in a dirty parking lot at the height of summer, but sources inside the Shubert Organization tell us that won’t be necessary. Matilda will make its slightly supernatural home in the Shubert Theater this coming spring.

• Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and… controversy bubble. The creative team behind Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s new musical The Nightingale, set in China, has assembled a cast of mostly non-Asian actors. As you can imagine, controversy is a-brewing. We’re keeping an eye on this one.

• Check out these pics of Benjamin Walker and Dominic Cooper on vacation together in Italy. Because temperatures aren’t hot enough in your apartment already.

• Diane Lane is set to staropposite Finn Wittrock in Sweet Bird of Youthat The Goodman in Chicago. We’d watch Finn sit still and breathe, so the chance to see him play a gigolo… well… we’ve already booked our flights.

• Because apparently our performances in the Side Showrevival we stage in Lucky’s living room once every three weeks weren’t strong enough for director Bill Condon, book writer/lyricistBill Russell talked a bit about the challenges of castingthe La Jolla/Kennedy Center production.

• Robert Cuccioli will showcase his range when he returns to Broadway this summer as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Green Goblin.

• Our hearts are forever broken that Gavin Creel won’t play Pippin in Diane Paulus’ new production, but hearing that Patina Miller will take the role of Leading Player in a developmental workshop is helping us heal.

• In case you’ve been closely following the plight of Broadway’s Kristin Chenoweth this week—she got knocked over by some flying ‘lighting silk’ and hit her noggin on the set of The Good Wife Wednesday—she’s out of the hospital, yo!