Weekend Agenda: Dog Days Edition

For West End theatre nerds, this week marked the very emotional closing of an old haunt and haven: Dress Circle, a London shop specializing in musical theatre-related stuffs. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it and for those of you who never had the chance to shop there, it was a very special place. But for everybody else it was just another week of wondering whether a musical could influence American politics…

• A CNN show asked if the newly launched Book of Mormon tour could possibly influence the American presidential race. All we were asking, after we hauled our jaws up off the floor, was why the show used file photos of Andrew Rannells and not Gavin Creel.
• Deep breath, guys: Jeremy Jordan is leaving Newsies for good on September 4th. Time to hold hands, cry a lot, and listen to “Santa Fe” until it becomes a dirge of sadness and despair. You know, the way it sounds in Christian Bale’s mind all the time.
• Rock of Ages briefly became an actual fucking rock concert in London on Tuesday when Alice Cooper crashed the stage. He performed “School’s Out” with the cast to celebrate the 40th anniversary of it hitting No. 1 in the UK charts.
• Bradley Cooper wants to bring The Elephant Man to Broadway next fall for a limited run. It’s really lovely to see how passionate he is about this play, but maybe he skipped that whole part of theater reality where most film actors consistently and epically bomb when they’re asked to do acting live and in real-time? Good luck to his handsome self, though. We’ll cut a bitch to get a ticket.
• In other (possible?) Broadway transfer news: Into The Woods might be hitting the Great White Way late winter or next spring. It’s a big “might,” not helped by some scathing reviews and up-in-the-air funding. But here’s hoping. If you’re not Michael Riedel, that is.
• Rumors — we love those — that Aladdin could be headed to Broadway have been circulating since Alan Menken made an announcement at a concert at Disneyland. Because anything uttered off-the-cuff at Disneyland simply must be true. Disney hasn’t commented yet.
• Smash casting update: Sean Hayes will be starring in a recurring role as a TV and movie star making his Broadway debut. Oh hey, it’s a reunion of our favorite TV show — Jack & Grace.
• The New York Philharmonic’s production of Company is getting a DVD release on November 13th. No, of course I didn’t yell “Finally!” at my computer when I saw this.
• Speculation has begun on who will replace Ricky Martin in Evita after he leaves next year. Not having a reality show to watch Antonio Banderas, Marc Anthony and Enrique Iglesias battle it out seems like a waste, no?
• Something for the SuFo fans, because they’re the only ones who aren’t cutting their wrists yet over the helter-skelter narrative monstrosity that is Bunheads: The show is getting more episodes in December.
• The musical Kinky Boots is hitting the Al Hirschfeld in Spring 2013, opening on April 4th. Clearly there must be at least one musical with a drag queen on Broadway at all times.

Sophie is The Craptacular’s UK-based intern. Follow her on Twitter at @SophG6.