With Clay Aiken having wrapped up his run as Sir Robin in Spamalot, the Idol quotient on Broadway was down. Fortunately for theatergoers, it's Taylor Hicks to the rescue. Kind of. He's a bit of a step down from Clay Aiken, isn't he? I mean, Clay's new album debuted at number four, and Taylor was dropped from his label.
Whichever way you see it, Hicks will be joining the cast of Grease to take on the role of Teen Angel. Should you be in the area, you can head over to the Brooks Atkinson Theater and hear his version of "Beauty School Dropout." An interesting TV side-note, this production of Grease stars Laura Osnes and Max Crumm. You may remember them as being the winners of the ill-fated NBC show, You're The One That I Want.
Terry Jones, one-sixth of the Monty Python troupe, has recently been diagnosed with bowel cancer. However, his doctors believe that they caught it at an early enough stage to treat it. Jones will be having an operation soon but he's in high spirits, according to his agent.
I'm not gonna lie, I definitely got chills when I initially read the headline. I don't think I'm ready to lose my first Python (Graham Chapman died from cancer back in the late 80s, but I was too young to know what was going on). Here's to hoping Mr. Jones has a speedy recovery.
See, I'm the kind of theater-lover that skips Phantom of the Opera for Spamalot, so I was quite excited when I heard this news... Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, the composers of the hilarious Broadway hit Avenue Q, have signed on to write songs for an upcoming musical episode of Scrubs. The plot will revolve around a patient who claims to constantly hear music (even though all her tests look okay), and Lopez and Marx will write music for the opener, the act break, and the finale. There will also be a fourth song about a stool sample. Yeah. I still haven't figured out if the guys are kidding or not because, well, Avenue Q isn't exactly known for its sophistication.