Pasadena Playhouse's new season: 'Sleepless in Seattle' will stir

The postponed world premiere of "Sleepless in Seattle" is among the highlights of the Pasadena Playhouse's 2012-13 season, which was announced Friday.

The season also will feature the world premiere of what the theater is calling the Broadway-bound comedy "Under My Skin" on Sept. 11, and a yet-to-be named "surprise production" set to open in March. 

The musical based on the 1993 romantic comedy film "Sleepless in Seattle" was set to open June 12, but officials said the the project needed more time. The show -- which features a book by Jeff Arch, who wrote the original story and co-wrote the screenplay -- will open in June 2013.  

Other works to be offered in the upcoming season are Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage’s "Intimate Apparel" (Nov. 6), the family-friendly "A Snow White Christmas" (Dec. 13) and Noël Coward’s comedy "Fallen Angels" (Jan. 29).

The historic playhouse closed for eight months in 2010 as it went in and out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

Thanks to “Snow White,” in partnership with A Lythgoe Family Production, the new season marks the first expansion in two years. “We are hopeful this partnership … continues in future years with different shows every year," managing director Charles Dillingham said Friday. 

“This is the second full subscription season since the bankruptcy, the first season was mostly pickup shows,” Dillingham said, adding that the Playhouse has increased subscribers by 10% since 2010. “We're in good financial health,” he said. 

Subscriptions for the 2012-2013 season are available for purchase Friday; the five-show series ranges from $99 to $290.

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-- Jamie Wetherbe

Above: Meg Ryan in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle." Credit: Bruce McBroom

Apparently stolen photos part of London digital art exhibit

The term “art thief” has taken on new meaning.

A pair of artists has turned 10,000 private photos they say they stole from 100 hard drives into a public slideshow. The exhibit, on display at London's Carroll/Fletcher gallery, also features intentionally tattered works by Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons.  

Curator Barbara Rodriguez Munoz told the Associated Press that the show is meant to question public versus private, as well as what falls under the "art" umbrella.

Police seize stolen Paul Cezanne masterpiece

Serbian police have recovered a masterpiece by French impressionist Paul Cezanne. 

The Associated Press reports that the painting, "The Boy in the Red Vest," was stolen from a private Swiss museum in 2008, along with three other paintings by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas.

Zurich prosecutors said three men were arrested in Belgrade in connection with the robbery.

Cezanne's painting was worth 100 million Swiss francs (about $107 million), when it was taken from the EG Buhrle Collection.

Monet's "Poppy Field at Vetheuil" and Van Gogh's "Blooming Chestnut Branches" were found undamaged in a car parked at a mental hospital shortly after the heist.

The fourth, Degas’ "Ludovic Lepic and His Daughter,” has not been recovered. The masterpiece is worth 10 million francs ($11 million).

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-- Jamie Wetherbe

Photo: Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic talks to reporters as Serbian policemen stand guard next "The Boy in the Red Vest" by Paul Cezanne in Belgrade.  Credit: Alexa Stanovic/AFP/Getty Images

CBS tours Cedars-Sinai's unexpected collection of modern art

Los Angeles has plenty of artistic fare to choose from, but one of the surprising parts of this metropolis is just where the art might be hanging.

On a Sunday morning CBS broadcast, news correspondent Bill Whitaker takes a tour through the 1,000 pieces of modern art on display at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The hospital is the unexpected home to one of L.A.'s most extensive contemporary art collections featuring work by such notable names as Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

“We’re trying to create an environment conducive to healing,” John T. Lange, curator of the collection, tells Whitaker. “So all of the work that's on the walls is for the patients, for the visitors, for the staff.  The idea is to give them a pleasant distraction, to uplift their spirit.”

The report also features doctors and patients discussing the ways artworks can complement the healing process.  

NBC's 'Smash' could transition from TV to stage

Could a TV show about Broadway actually end up on Broadway? NBC's musical drama "Smash" is at least setting the stage for a potential New York run.

Our sister blog Company Town reports that before the scripted series about cutthroat theater life premiered on prime time, the network secured rights for a Broadway version.

"Smash," a longtime passion project between NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt and Steven Spielberg, boasts a cast of producers and other behind-the-scenes creatives with theater backgrounds, starting with the series creator, playwright Theresa Rebeck.

Tony Award winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were tapped to write the original score for “Bombshell," the fake musical featured in the series. They retain certain rights to the music that could carry over into a Broadway show. 

So far, "Smash,” which NBC recently renewed for a second season, has racked up a 15-song soundtrack. Still, the onstage musical isn't the show's focus.

"Since our creative team has been writing songs and snippets of 'Bombshell' scenes only to tell the stories of our characters in 'Smash,' there is no fully realized 'Bombshell,'" Greenblatt wrote Thursday in an email to The Times. 

Greenblatt has theatrical credits of his own: In 2008, while at Showtime, Greenblatt produced "9 to 5: The Musical," which made its way from Los Angeles to the Great White Way. But for now, Greenblatt says he's focusing on his day job.

"I am working full time at NBC and it wouldn't make sense for me to be a producer," Greenblatt told The Times, adding that, "Maybe I could produce 'Bombshell' when I'm long gone from NBC, which would be about the time that [a Broadway project] would come to fruition."

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-- Jamie Wetherbe

Image: A poster for "Smash." Credit: NBC

Ricky Martin and 'Evita' on Broadway: What did the critics think?

Broadway's eyes were on pop star Ricky Martin Thursday night as a revival of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita" opened at New York's Marquis Theatre.

The musical based on the life of Eva Perón, the Argentinian actress turned major political player, has created its fair share of fame. The 1979 Broadway debut launched Patti LuPone's career, and the 1996 movie version helped to reinvent another pop singer, Madonna.

This time around, "Evita" boasts the star quality of the '90s pop heartthrob (and his hip-swiveling moves) as the show's truth-telling narrator, Che Guevara. Argentine actress Elena Roger plays the title role.

The first reviews from New York were mixed: Some critics felt the heat in this retelling of the fiery first lady's life and death (or at least in some of the performances), while others were lukewarm toward the show and its actors. 

Mexico's guns-as-art exhibition is heading to the U.S.

An exhibition of guns as art now in Mexico is making its way from Mexico to the United States, where many of the weapons presumably originated.

The show "A Farewell to Arms. Contraband on the Border" uses photos and artwork to illustrate how the illegal arms trade has affected Mexico, where as many as 50,000 people have been killed in gun-related violence since 2006.

The south-of-the-border exhibition, currently at the Memory and Tolerance Museum in Mexico City, closes April 15. The Washington Office on Latin America plans to bring it to the U.S. capital later this year.

The exhibit mixes imagery of danger and innocence -- one photo depicts children using a rifle to break a piñata -- to show how ubiquitous firearms have become. Another piece has U.S.A. spelled out in a mosaic of pistols.

Mexico's deadliest city reportedly is Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas. Many homicides involve drug traffickers, but the violence has spilled over to claim civilians by the score, as well as journalists and human rights activists.

Injured stuntman takes legal action against Broadway's 'Spider-Man'

The web of legal woes grows for "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark." 

A "Spidey" stuntman has filed court papers seeking information about the death-defying stunts performed in the Broadway mega-musical -- a legal move that could mark the prelude to a lawsuit.

Richard Kobak claims he was injured while performing the show's many aerial acrobatics, and the production was slow to take action to fix safety equipment.

In an affidavit filed with the New York Supreme Court, Kobak claims in one such incident he was left with whiplash, a concussion and herniated discs in his back after an airborne stunt gone wrong slammed him face-first into a wall.

The accident-prone production, which opened in June, has seen plenty of crash landings. About a half dozen performers were injured during the rehearsals and previews.

This is not the only legal action for the production. Julie Taymor, the show’s original director and co-creator, is suing producers for copyright issues. Producers have countersued the ousted director for breach of contract. 

Despite the troubled backstory, the production, which was $70 million in the making, has done well at the box office -- often ranking among Broadway’s top-selling shows. And the Tonys could boost the show’s onstage presence now that it’s eligible for awards.

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--Jamie Wetherbe

Photo: Reeve Carney as Spider-Man in the Broadway musical. Credit: Jacob Cohl

Ai Weiwei says Chinese authorities reject public appeal in tax case

Ai Weiwei will not be given a public hearing to reconsider a $2.4-million tax evasion penalty. The dissident artist told CNN by phone that he received a notice Tuesday from Chinese authorities that said he would have a written hearing instead of a public trial, which he had requested.

Ai collected $1.3 million from 30,000 supporters to contest the charge. Ai said if he had not paid the sum, his wife would have been jailed.

The artist spent 81 days in jail last year, mainly in solitary confinement, prompting an international outcry. Supporters called the tax case a means to silence China's most famous social critic.

The iconoclastic artist and his secret detention are the subject of a new film, "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," set to open July 27 in New York and head west this summer. Freelance journalist Alison Klayman directs the documentary that follows Ai before he was thrown in jail in April and completed the film after his conditional release in June. 

The film premiered early this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize and sparked activist fervor among moviegoers.

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--Jamie Wetherbe

Photo: "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry." Credit: Sundance Film Festival.

'Newsies' on Broadway: What did the critics think?

Stories about boys as of late have been less than uplifting -- just consider the feuding vampires of "Twilight" and the teen dystopia of "The Hunger Games." So a tale of scruffy lads who take on the villains of big business might be a welcome change.

The Disney movie-turned-musical "Newsies" opened on Broadway at the Nederlander Theater on Thursday night. The story was inspired by the 1899 New York City newsboy strike, although the fictional account has far more backflips, high kicks and pirouettes than your typical tale of unionizing.

The musical is based on the 1992 film flop starring a pre-stubble Christian Bale as the leader of the upbeat street urchins alongside Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret. The flick later found a following on VHS and made its way to more homes and modern formats over the last two decades.

For the stage version, Alan Menken, who was responsible for the film's score, teamed with a new  story writer, Harvey Fierstein. The musical keeps the movie's memorable songs including "Santa Fe," "Seize the Day" and “King of New York,” but this time around the XX chromosome is represented with a female reporter (and puppy love story) added to the lineup.

The reviews from New Yawk (er, York) are rolling in, and so far, the scrappy musical seems to be far too sugary for most critics' tastes.