The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Nottage writing musical about Michael Jackson
NEW YORK — A musical about the King of Pop is moonwalking its way to Broadway.
The Michael Jackson Estate and Columbia Live Stage on Tuesday unveiled plans for a stage musical inspired by the life of Michael Jackson. They hope it will be ready for Broadway by 2020.
The story for the still-untitled musical will be written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, using Jackson’s vast catalog of songs. Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph. It was too early to reveal any casting.
Thirteen-time Grammy winner Jackson sold millions of records and in 1983 became an international icon with the release of “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time with such hits as “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.” He died in 2009.
Nottage is the writer of “Sweat,” “Intimate Apparel,” “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark” and “Ruined.”
Singer jailed in murder plot back with band
LOS ANGELES — A heavy metal singer convicted in a murder-for-hire plot to kill his estranged wife has reunited with his Grammy-nominated band and performed with the group in San Diego over the weekend.
Tim Lambesis and his Christian-inspired band As I Lay Dying performed together Saturday for the first time since May 2013. That’s when Lambesis was arrested after an undercover agent recorded him saying he wanted his wife killed.
Prosecutors said Lambesis gave the agent $1,000 in cash and instructions on how to kill Meggan Lambesis, including her photo, address and security gate code.
Lambesis pleaded guilty in the case and served two years of a six-year sentence.
In a Facebook post in December, Lambesis apologized to his ex-wife and children for his “appalling actions.”
Birthplace of singer, activist Nina Simone to be preserved
TRYON, N.C. — The dilapidated wooden cottage in North Carolina that was the birthplace of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone now has the protection of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The trust said in a news release Tuesday that it will develop and find a new use for the house in Tryon where Simone was born in 1933. Last year, four African-American artists purchased the home.
National Trust President and Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Meeks says the trust will work with the home’s new owners and the community to honor Simone’s contributions to society and to “inspire new generations of artists and activists.”
The three-room, 660-square-foot home went on the market in 2016.
Simone’s original name was Eunice Waymon. She died in 2003 at the age of 70.