Cyndi Lauper to help girl film into a musical

Alexander to star in ‘Kid’

NEW YORK, June 7, (Agencies): A 1980s movie that starred Melanie Griffith as a secretary who breaks out of the typing pool is heading to the stage as a musical. Cyndi Lauper will write the songs for the “Working Girl” adaptation.

Producers Fox Stage Productions and Aged In Wood Productions said Tuesday they’ll adapt the Mike Nichols-directed film for Broadway, with “Kinky Boots” composer Lauper teaming up with “New Girl” writer and “Tigers Be Still” playwright Kim Rosenstock on the story. A production timeline will be announced later. Griffith starred in the 1988 film as a shrewd, ambitious secretary who uses tricks worthy of the CIA to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Sigourney Weaver played her boss. Harrison Ford was her love interest.

Others who had roles include Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis and David Duchovny.

Jason Alexander, the “Seinfeld” alum who won a 1989 Tony Award for “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” will return to the New York stage this fall, starring in the world premiere of “The Portuguese Kid,” a new play written and directed by John Patrick Shanley.

Alexander, who appeared in the original production of “Merrily We Roll Along” and was last on Broadway in Larry David’s comedy “Fish in the Dark,” plays a low-rent lawyer whose latest client, a Greek widow, sets off a comic spiral that also includes his Croatian mother and a couple of young lovers. Shanley, who won a Tony for “Doubt” and an Oscar for “Moonstruck,” was last on the New York stage with Off Broadway’s “Prodigal Son.”

Like “Prodigal Son” and several other Shanley plays, “The Portuguese Kid” is produced by New York’s nonprofit Manhattan Theater Club, which will stage “Portuguese Kid” in its Off Broadway space at New York City Center. The play is part of a 2017-18 season at MTC that will also include Harold Prince revue “Prince of Broadway” and Lucy Kirkwood’s “The Children” on Broadway.

“The Portuguese Kid” begins previews Sept. 19 ahead of an Oct. 24 opening. Casting and creative team details remain to be set.

Lauper

The Who’s rock opera “Quadrophenia” will take an orchestral turn as songwriter Pete Townshend on Tuesday announced a four-date tour of mostly classical venues in the United States.

The orchestral “Quadrophenia” will feature vocals by Billy Idol — the rocker behind 1980s hits such as “White Wedding” and “Eyes Without a Face” — as well as tenor Alfie Boe, known for starring in the musical “Les Miserables.”

“Quadrophenia,” which follows the split-personality Jimmy, was a defining work of Britain’s “mod” subculture of slick and stylish young culture consumers.

The 1973 album has been a favorite of hardcore fans of The Who as well as Townshend, who is the band’s principal songwriter and lead guitarist, even though it has often been overshadowed by the band’s earlier rock opera “Tommy.”

The production will come to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the woods of western Massachusetts, on Sept 2.

Performances

It will then have two performances at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York before closing at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

“Quadrophenia” mixes together four musical parts that were recorded separately — representing Jimmy’s four-way split personality, which in turn reflected the different types of Who fans.

“Melding the contrasting sounds of ‘Quadrophenia’ with a symphony has been a really unique and powerful way to reach a wide audience of classical and pop music lovers alike,” Townshend said in a statement.

Townshend debuted the classical version of “Quadrophenia” at Royal Albert Hall in a 2010 charity performance and more recently released a recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The production comes as The Who, led by the 72-year-old Townshend and 73-year-old singer Roger Daltrey, wind up what the band has described as its last major tour.

The Who, however, is not retiring and will start playing a residency in Las Vegas in July 29.

At first blush, the Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen” don’t seem to have a lot in common other than being hits both onstage and on record charts.

One is a pioneering, sweeping story of America’s birth told through the lens of a Founding Father that took the world by storm in 2015. The other is a heartfelt, more traditional show that bowed a year later about a lonely teen’s lie that spirals out of control.

But if you listen very closely, you might hear in the music of each a connective tissue. That would be Alex Lacamoire, the music supervisor and orchestrator for both shows and the man who oversaw their cast albums.

“I’ve very well aware that it’s not supposed to happen like this, back-to-back,” he said recently in a dressing room at the Music Box Theatre, home of “Dear Evan Hansen.” AEI trust my gut when it comes to music that speaks to me.”

Lacamoire, who has two Tony Awards and two Grammy Awards for working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” is a favorite to add to his trophy case Sunday at the Tonys after his work with Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul on “Dear Evan Hansen.”

“If anyone could get inside our heads and take what we had, and translate it and then make it better, and really fully realize it with the orchestra and the way to produce the album of it, he is the singular kind of guy,” said Paul.

Lacamoire, a Berklee College of Music graduate who goes by Lac, wears many hats — orchestrator, music supervisor, conductor and music director. He’s able to ensure the music flows harmoniously, taking what a composer plays on a piano and having it make sense in a big Broadway pit.

“Every job feeds into the other,” he said. “The fact that I can swim through these different pools allows me to really have a total picture of the show.”

Lacamoire grew up in Miami with a passion for figuring out how music is put together. Instead of listening to cast albums, he chose to get deeper into the music by playing the sheet music.