Now that Ashlee Simpson has been relieved of her acting duties on Melrose Place, it appears that she’s now got herself a bunch of free time to fill up. Rumor has it that Ashlee will be heading to Broadway now that she is in need of a new job. As you may recall, we learned back in August of 2006 that Ashlee would be appearing on the London West End stage as Roxie Hart in their production of Chicago … word on the street is that Ashlee will be reprising that role in the Broadway production of Chicago sometime soon:

Where does a crazy Melrose Place character go after she dies? Apparently, the Windy City by way of the Great White Way. According to reports, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, 25, isn’t taking a break after getting axed from the prime-time soap. Instead, she’s set to play Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of Chicago, starting in December for six weeks, Gossip Cop reports. It’s not an unfamiliar role. Simpson-Wentz played the role in the London run of the musical. It would, however, be her Broadway debut.

HMMM … altho I remember hearing positive reports from folks who saw Ashlee’s Chicago stint in London back in ‘06-’07, I dunno how I feel about this rumored stint on Broadway. It makes sense that she would want to return to the stage now that she’s been fired from TV. At long last, folks on this side of the pond will be able to see if Ashlee’s got the acting chops to perform on the Broadway stage. Considering the dire economic straits that Broadway productions have been facing in recent months, it’s a risky move to pin one’s hopes on the acting/singing prowess of Ashlee Simpson. Are any of y’all excited to see Ashlee Simpson in Chicago?

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Sienna Miller and her costar Jonny Lee Miller took their bows last night at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s American Airlines Theatre in NYC, NY after their opening night performance of After Miss Julie last night. Sienna stepped out of the theater lookin’ beautiful … and was met with the first reviews of her performance. Critics thought she looked great in the play … but it was her acting that left something to be desired:

Sienna Miller received a guarded welcome to Broadway Thursday night, as critics measured her performance in the drama After Miss Julie, an update – to 1945 – of August Strindberg’s 1888 play about sex and class. “In a theater season that has felt like a boys’ club of male movie idols from abroad (Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in A Steady Rain, Jude Law in Hamlet), wouldn’t it be gratifying if one fearless woman – with fewer stage credentials than the guys but almost as much tabloid exposure – walked away with the laurels?” writes Ben Brantley of The New York Times. Adding to the anticipation of what he thought about her acting, he opines: “She has always struck me as a game, gutsy kind of gal, as intrepid in choosing film roles (Factory Girl, Interview) as in courting (and wrestling with) the fame that now accompanies her like an unwanted bodyguard.” But, ultimately, Brantley’s praise is limited to Miller’s “good diction, good posture and great legs. Commendable as these attributes are, they are of limited use in portraying a tautly wound, death-courting neurotic who is eaten alive by her own demons.” Slightly more approving is Michael Kuchwara, who for the Associated Press also notes that Miller “looks sensational: blonde hair done up in a quintessential 1940s ‘do, her trim figure wrapped in a pert floral print dress that shows off her great legs. The very model of a seducer awaiting to commence seduction … And there is a relentless quality to Sienna Miller’s performance, not terribly subtle or vulnerable, but compelling in its obsessiveness.” The infamously testy John Simon, of Bloomberg News, found much to like in her “persuasive performance,” however – finding Miller, 27, “convincing enough in the title role, managing superciliousness and condescension, lust and humiliation, with unassailable proficiency.” Reaction to Miller’s Broadway debut – she costars in the Roundabout Theatre Company production with Jonny Lee Miller, who was once married to Angelina Jolie – qualified as major news in her native England, where the Daily Mail tracked the reviews, as well as the fact that her former fiancé, Law, and even a former boyfriend, Craig, are also on Broadway right now.

You know what … good legs are a good thing to have in showbiz. Now, I’ve not seen the play myself so I can’t speak to its merits or pitfalls but I really loved Sienna in this Summer’s blockbuster action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and found her performance in that film completely engaging, wholly interesting and yes, her legs looked amazing. In all seriousness, Sienna wasn’t savaged by the NY theater critics and I would take that as a win. I think congratulations are in order … after all, the reviews could’ve been a helluva lot worse.

[Photo credit: Wireimage, Splash News; Source]

Great news for fans of the rock musical Rock of Ages which has proven to be huge hit on Broadway … Variety is reporting that the show is being made into a movie scheduled for release in 2011 and get this — it’ll be helmed (directed and choreographed) by famed choreographer Adam Shankman!

“Hairspray” helmer Adam Shankman is signing on to direct and choreograph the screen version of the Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” for New Line Cinema. The film will begin production by next summer and be released by Warner Bros. in 2011. The musical’s creator, Chris D’Arienzo, scripted the movie adaptation. Carl Levin, Matt Weaver, Scott Prisand, Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Gibgot will produce. Janet Billig and Hillary Weaver are executive producers. “I had the best time of my life making ‘Hairspray’ and badly wanted another musical, and when I watched ‘Rock of Ages,’ I was struck by the fact that not only had much of the audience seen it more than once, every guy in the audience knew the words to the songs,” Shankman told Daily Variety. “What an extraordinary opportunity to open the genre to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t go see a musical.” The tuner tells of two people who meet at the Sunset Strip club Rock of Ages, fall in love and try to stay together amid’80s rock anthems made popular by Journey, Twisted Sister, Joan Jett, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar and other groups. New Line is clearing music rights to the tunes. Since its move to Broadway, “Rock of Ages” fills most of its 1,000 seats at Brooks Atkinson Theater, helped by five Tony nominations. The show will begin a worldwide rollout over the next several years. Shankman said he hopes to shoot the picture in its proper setting, which means lensing in Los Angeles. Shankman said, “I’m thinking big, and absolutely am going to attempt to cast with movie stars. Now that musicals are working again, actors are much more open to it.”

Yay!! This is very exciting news! Rock of Ages is my new fave musical and I can’t wait to see it make the transition to the big screen. While I wish the Broadway actors currently cast in the show would be allowed to reprise their roles in the film (particularly Kerry Butler and Tom Lenk), I’m pretty certain that bigger name actors will be sought out instead (much like when Hairspray the Musical made the transition from the stage to the screen). Nonetheless, I have no doubt that Adam Shankman will make a fantastic film out of this amazing show … I can’t wait!!

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Great news for fans of Daniel Radcliffe … the young British actor who took both the West End stage and the Broadway stage by storm with his powerful performance in Equus has just signed on for a new Broadway production. This time, DanRad will be performing in musical theater in a revival of the classic show How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Here is a great look back at Dan’s performance in Equus and some deets about his new B’way gig:

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is heading to Broadway for his first musical. The 20-year-old actor has been announced as the lead for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Radcliffe is already used to the pressures of nightly Broadway and West End appearances, having wowed critics in Equus last year. He will play the plum part of J. Pierrepont Finch, a window cleaner who rises to the top of a huge company while, of course, wooing and winning a girl along the way. Robert Morse created the role on Broadway and in the 1967 screen adaptation. The original production, running for a healthy 1,417 performances, won the top Tony for best musical in 1962 as well as six more, including awards for lead Morse and supporting player Charles Nelson Reilly. And the 1995 saw Matthew Broderick win the lead actor Tony. Radcliffe is currently filming the final instalments of the Harry Potter movies, Deathly Hallows, which will be released in two parts.

This is FANTASTIC news!! I suspect that this is but the beginning of a long and storied carrer on the stage. I was lucky enough to see Radcliffe in Equus and was stunned by his performance. I have no doubt that he will be just as superb in this new role in How to Succeed. I have been nothing but impressed with every acting performance I’ve seen from the lad and I have been wondering what his future career in acting holds for him. I suspect he will make a great name for himself on the musical theater stage. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he gave up films altogether and stuck with plays and musicals. Time will tell what other projects DanRad will take on but I, for one, am very excited about the prospect of seeing Daniel Radcliffe on the Broadway stage again.

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The Broadway production of Hamlet, which stars Jude Law and first ran in London’s West End earlier this year and which I got to see in previews last month, officially opened on the Great White Way last night. While there are a couple of very favorable reviews of the show HERE and HERE, there are other reviews that are decidedly … less favorable. Here is a sampling of what some of the theater critics are saying about the show and Jude Law in particular:

To be, or not to be … a hit on Broadway? That is the question Wednesday morning as the reviews come in for Jude Law’s turn as Hamlet in the much-anticipated Broadway turn for the production, which originated in London to acclaim and opened at New York’s Broadhurst Theatre Tuesday night. Reaction is decidedly mixed. “If Hamlet talks about his mind, you can bet that Mr. Law will point to his forehead; when he mentions the heavens, his arm shoots straight up; and when the guy says his gorge rises, rest assured that he clutches at his stomach. If every actor were like Mr. Law, signed performances for the hard of hearing would be unnecessary,” snipes Ben Brantley of The New York Times. “If anything, Law starts out too overwrought, moaning and gnawing through the great soliloquies as if they were causing him intestinal distress,” Time Out New York’s David Cote notes. Others put in much kinder terms. “His Hamlet is no brooding philosopher/prince; he’s an angry young man, a bundle of nerves forever threatening to explode,” raves USA Today’s Elysa Gardner , who considers Law’s soliloquies “both muscular and exquisitely lyrical.” The traditionally acerbic John Simon of Bloomberg News, however, found nothing poetic about Law’s “flashy, frequently jocular and unsubtle” performance in a play “aimed at neophyte audiences lured to the play not only by the star but with the added promise of a thriller liberally sprinkled with yocks.” Time Out New York, which generally lauded Law, was one of many that had a bone to pick with the supporting cast, finding Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ophelia ho-hum, and Geraldine James and Ian Drysdale’s Gertrude and Claudius an example of actors taking the phrase “the banality of evil” too literally. Then thank God Jude’s pretty, all critics agreed. Noted The New York Times: “Mr. Law’s undeniable charisma and gender-crossing sex appeal may captivate Broadway theatergoers who wouldn’t normally attend productions of Shakespeare.”

LOL! As much as I loved the show myself, I have to agree with the NY Times critic … I had forgotten that, indeed, Jude mimics physically the words that come out of his mouth … I mean, I’m sure he’s going for emphasis but he does do it for most of the show. In all honesty, I do feel that many of the reviewers who have negative things to say might be speaking from a place where they would be hard pressed to bestow positivity no matter how good an actor like Jude Law is. While I agree that there is some merit to some of the negative reviews, I don’t feel that all of the criticism is very fair. After the jump, check out a few photos of Jude taking his curtain call bows last night at the completion of his official Broadway debut performance and see which celebs made their way to the Broadhurst Theater for opening night …

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Big news (tho not sure if it’s good or bad) coming out of Broadway today … there is a new report that another teen comedy film is being adapted for the Great White Way. Bring It On, the 2000 film which stars Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union and Jesse Bradford as cheerleaders out for global domination, is being made into a Broadway musical which is scheduled to open in 2011. Um … are y’all ready for a show like this?

An all-star, Tony Award winning creative team has been assembled to create Bring It On: The Musical, an original musical set in the world of competitive cheerleading. The award-winning creative team for Bring It On: The Musical includes an array of talented and innovative individuals drawn from the top ranks of the Broadway Theatre World. Andy Blankenbuehler (Tony Award-winning choreographer for In The Heights) will direct and choreograph. Jeff Whitty (Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Avenue Q) will write the book. Bring It On: The Musical will feature music by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Tony Award winner for In the Heights) and Tom Kitt (Tony Award winner for Next to Normal), and lyrics by Amanda Green (High Fidelity). Tony Award winner Alex Lacamoire (In The Heights, Wicked) will serve as orchestrator, arranger and music supervisor. “The explosive world of cheerleading heightens so naturally to the stage. I can’t imagine a more perfect team to bring this musical to life on stage,” says Andy Blankenbuehler. “Jeff Whitty has come up with an enticing, original book, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tom Kitt, two of Broadway’s most talented composers, are joining their amazing creative forces to write the score. With Amanda Green collaborating on lyrics and musical supervision by Alex Lacamoire, this team is a director and choreographer’s dream.” The writers of Bring It On: The Musical have conceived an original new musical that will feature all new and original characters. Bring It On: The Musical will be produced by Universal Pictures Stage Productions along with Charlie Lyons and Armyan Bernstein of Beacon Communications. Day-to-day production will be overseen by Kristin Caskey and Mike Isaacson. General Management will be under the direction of Nina Essman and Nancy Nagel Gibbs of 321 Theatrical Management. “For all of us at Universal, being a part of the Bring It On world has given us great personal and professional satisfaction, and now to work with these great artists on creating this new musical is an even more exciting challenge,” says Glenn Ross of Universal Pictures Stage Productions. The Producers of Bring It On: The Musical anticipate a developmental regional production in early 2011, with a national tour to follow.

HMMM … on the one hand, I can see how this show might be as awesome as Legally Blonde: The Musical … on the other hand, I can see how it might turn out to be a complete disaster. Funny enough, I *just* watched Bring It On yesterday afternoon on cable and was reminded how fun the movie really is:

The possibilities are ENDLESS for making a great show based on competitive cheerleading … I mean, the marketing alone would be a dream. If done well, with great songs and great choreography, this could be a really fun show. The movie is just as frivolously fun as Legally Blonde is, I can see how it might work. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. OH and for those of you who have not seen the movie, you should check it out … it’s really a cute movie (tho, I’d advise you stay away from the straight-to-DVD sequels that have been released since the original film was in theaters). Goooo Toros!!

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Last night David and I were able to attend the Friday night performance of Rock of Ages on Broadway, which was our second time seeing the show …. to see the Broadway debut of my good friend Tom Lenk! Broadway veteran Kerry Butler (who I LOVED in Xanadu: the Musical) also joined the show last night in the lead role of Sherrie! I can’t even express how much more amazing Rock of Ages is now that Tom and Kerry have joined the cast:

It was so cool seeing Tom’s name in the Playbill … seeing him on stage was just fantastic. He kills as Franz and I cannot recommend enough that all y’all should see this show NOW! The show was fantastic the last time I saw it, it’s even better now. After the jump, check out some of the photos that I was able to take with some of the castmembers on the show stage after the show was finished last night …

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