Val Kilmer wants to make his Mark (Twain)

Few actors own a role the way Hal Holbrook owns Mark Twain. The Tony- and Emmy-winning actor, who recently turned 87, has played the humorist in his one-man stage play “Mark Twain Tonight!” since 1954, logging thousands of performances and many more miles traveling with the show.
 
But longevity doesn't necessarily guarantee that you have an exclusive monopoly on a part. A relative newbie to the Twain game, Val Kilmer recently launched his own one-man play, “Citizen Twain,” running in a workshop production at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever cemetery through Wednesday.
 
Kilmer said in an interview that the play is a warm-up for a movie he wants to make about the contentious relationship between Twain and Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. (Kilmer is a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, Scientist.) In the play, Kilmer plays Twain as a ghostly apparition who returns from the dead. The words he speaks are a mix of Kilmer's own jokey, surreal writing — “Welcome to the Batman Forever Cemetery,” he says by way of introduction — and selections from Twain's essays, articles and novels. The actor also performs a song or two.

GRAPHIC: Twain vs. Twain

“It's not a plot-driven play,” Kilmer explained in a recent interview in Santa Monica. “Twain himself sometimes wrote as if from the great beyond. It's really a character study.”

Jonathan Groff to star in L.A. premiere of 'Red'

Jonathan Groff, the star of Broadway's "Spring Awakening" and more recently a recurring cast member on Fox's "Glee," will appear opposite Alfred Molina in the L.A. premiere of John Logan's two-person play "Red" at the Mark Taper Forum beginning in August.

Groff will play the role of Ken, a young assistant to modernist painter Mark Rothko. The role of Ken was originated in Britain and on Broadway by Eddie Redmayne, who won a Tony Award. Molina played Rothko in the previous productions.

"Red," which is set to open at the Taper on Aug. 12, will be staged by Michael Grandage, who originally directed the play for the Donmar Warehouse. The drama deals with the sometimes contentious relationship between Rothko and his assistant as they work on a commission for the Four Seasons.

Logan won a best-play Tony for "Red" when it debuted in New York in 2010. The stage and screenwriter received an Oscar nomination this year for his screenplay for "Hugo," adapted from the Brian Selznick book. His other recent screenplays include "Rango" and "Coriolanus."

Jerry Lewis to premiere 'Nutty Professor' musical in Nashville

  "The Nutty Professor" has been a lucrative property for Jerry Lewis. The original 1963 movie was a commercial hit, and so was its 1996 remake starring Eddie Murphy. Lewis has been working on a stage musical version of the movie, which will have its world premiere later this year in Nashville, organizers said Wednesday.

The musical is set to open at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, where it is scheduled to run July 24 to Aug. 19. Michael Andrew will play the role of professor Julius Kelp, a nerdy scientist who develops a smooth-talking alter-ego named Buddy Love. Andrew is a singer and performer who has appeared on a number of Lewis' telethons benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.

As previously reported, Marvin Hamlisch, the Oscar and Tony-winning composer, is writing the music for the show. The book and lyrics are by Rupert Holmes. Lewis won't star in the musical but he will direct it.

The show's out-of-town tryout in Nashville is being regarded as a warmup for a planned Broadway run. No announcement has been made about if or when the show would open in New York.

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-- David Ng

Photo: Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens in the 1963 movie "The Nutty Professor." Credit: Paramount

Jason Alexander to receive Actors Fund award

Jason Alexander has received many honors in his career, including a Tony Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and multiple Emmy nominations. This year, the "Seinfeld" actor is to receive yet another prize -- the Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the Actors Fund.

The Actors Fund is a nonprofit charitable group that seeks to provide assistance such as health and social services to entertainment professionals around the country.

The award is named for actress Julie Harris, who has won five Tonys. The prize is scheduled to be handed out during a gala dinner at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on June 10, the night of the Tony Awards ceremony. Previous recipients of the award include Hal Holbrook, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Chita Rivera.

The prize comes at a notable juncture in Alexander's stage career. Since 2007, he has served as artistic director of the Reprise Theatre Company in L.A, but the company announced in February that it is shutting down its main-stage productions for the foreseeable future due to financial difficulties.

Alexander said at the time that the company has failed to increase its audiences in the last several years. The company canceled its planned productions of "The Baker's Wife" and "The Apple Tree" that were scheduled for this season.

Alexander won a Tony for his performance in the Broadway production of "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" in 1989. His L.A. stage credits include "The Producers" at the Pantages in 2003 and, more recently, a Reprise revival of "They're Playing Our Song."

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-- David Ng

Photo: Jason Alexander. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Amy Adams to star in 'Into the Woods' in New York's Central Park

Amy Adams has featured her vocal chops in the movies "Enchanted" and last year's "The Muppets." Now the three-time Oscar nominee will have a chance to sing for live audiences on a daily basis in the Public Theater's revival of "Into the Woods" in New York's Central Park.

The musical, featuring songs by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, takes characters from several Brothers Grimm fairy tales to create an original story. "Into the Woods" debuted in 1986 at the Old Globe in San Diego and premiered on Broadway the following year, winning multiple Tony Awards.

The Public's revival is set to run at the Delacorte Theatre from July 23 to Aug. 25.

Can Neil Patrick Harris boost Tony Awards ratings?

Neil Patrick Harris will host Broadway's biggest night for the third time, organizers of the Tony Awards announced on Tuesday. The award show is scheduled to take place June 10 at the Beacon Theatre in New York and will be broadcast live on CBS, with a delay for the West Coast.

Harris has proved a popular choice for the Tonys, but will the "How I Met Your Mother" actor, who hosted last year's Tonys as well as the 2009 ceremony, be able to reverse the show's declining TV viewership of the last three years?

Usually the least-watched of the major entertainment awards shows, the Tonys have struggled with falling TV ratings in recent years. Last year's show drew 6.9 million viewers, down from 7 million in 2010. That figure was down from 7.4 million viewers in 2009.

Tim Tebow visits 'Wicked' on Broadway

Tim Tebow, the former Denver Broncos quarterback who was recently traded to the New York Jets, paid a visit to Broadway this weekend, attending a performance of the hit musical "Wicked" at the George Gershwin Theatre.

The football player attended Saturday night's performance of the show, according to a report in the New York Daily News. He slipped into the theater about five minutes before curtain and was escorted out of the theater's back door.

(Did Tebow pay for his own ticket? Or was the athlete comped by the show's producers? The fact that photographers were in place ready to snap the athlete's picture at the theater suggests the latter.)

"Wicked," a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz," opened in 2003 and has played more than 3,400 performances on Broadway. The show has also toured the U.S. and internationally.

'Hunger Games' ' Stanley Tucci to go to bat for arts funding

Does star power matter on Capitol Hill?

Well, here’s something to ponder: Last April 5,  Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey were scheduled to address a House appropriations hearing as part of the annual Arts Advocacy Day organized by Americans for the Arts, which spearheads the arts-lobbying effort in Washington.

Their appearance got canceled, and congressional ears missed the two actors’ pitches for averting the 12.6% budget cut that President Obama was then proposing for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Three days later, congressional leaders struck a temporary budget deal that reduced NEA funding by 7.5%. Then, when Congress got around to passing the 2011-12 federal budget, it deepened the cut to 12.7%. The NEA was left with $146.2 million to spend, down from the $167.5 it had commanded when the year began.

It’s debatable whether star-powered oratory really would have helped --  2011, you’ll recall, was a year in which Washington was consumed by a near-impasse over how much to cut the federal deficit, prompting fears that the government might shut down entirely.

Now it’s time to deliberate on a budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, and Americans for the Arts is again bringing star power to bear, in hopes of securing a modest recovery for the nation's arts grantmaking agency. On Thursday, actor Stanley Tucci (pictured in "Hunger Games" with its star, Jennifer Lawrence) and Americans for the Arts President Robert Lynch are scheduled to address the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior. The goal, says Americans for the Arts, is to raise the NEA’s budget to $155 million -- a 6% increase that would be slightly more than the $154.3 million that Obama recently proposed.

Kevin Costner in legal dispute with artist over sculptures

Kevin Costner's latest epic journey isn't taking place on a movie screen near you, but in a courtroom. The actor-director is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with an artist over a series of sculptures, and the case has reached the South Dakota Supreme Court.

Costner is battling Peggy Detmers, an artist who was commissioned by the Hollywood star to create 17 bronze sculptures depicting buffalo and Native Americans. The sculptures were originally intended to be displayed at Costner's planned South Dakota resort called the Dunbar, named after his character in the Oscar-winning 1990 movie "Dances With Wolves."

Plans for the resort eventually fell through and the completed sculptures ended up on display at another Costner destination spot, Tatanka: Story of the Bison, an educational center in South Dakota about the history of bison in America. ("Tatanka" is the Lakota word for "bull buffalo.")

According to reports, Detmers claims that the sculptures were not placed in a mutually agreed upon location and that they therefore should be sold, with the artist entitled to 50% of the proceeds.

Mike Tyson wants to take Vegas show to Broadway

 

Mike Tyson on Broadway? New York theater critics had better keep their ears protected if they're thinking of panning the athlete who once took a bite out of Evander Holyfield's right ear.

The former boxing champion wants to take his one-man Las Vegas show to New York, according to a report from TMZ. The solo show, which is set to run April 13-18  at the MGM Grand, is titled "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth -- Live on Stage."

Tyson reportedly wants to take the show on tour after the Vegas run, culminating with a New York engagement. The show is an autobiographical account of the athlete's life in and out of the boxing ring. Tyson is being directed by Randy Johnson, creator of "Elvis the Concert" and "One Night With Janis Joplin." The play is co-written by Johnson and Tyson's wife, Kiki.

Since retiring from boxing in 2006, Tyson has had ample practice playing himself. He appeared in the highly successful comedy "The Hangover" and its sequel, and was the subject of James Toback's documentary "Tyson." (He also played himself in Toback's hip-hop drama "Black and White.")

Most recently, Tyson practiced his live-performance skills during the recent Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen.

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-- David Ng

Photo: Mike Tyson. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times