Kristin Chenoweth’s Agent Explains Her Two Upcoming Non-Appearances
(Photo: Michael Portantiere)
Her fans must have been disappointed to hear that Kristin Chenoweth will not be bringing her recent American Songbook concert to the Roundabout’s American Airlines Theatre for a limited engagement this month and will not be appearing as Lily Garland in the upcoming L.A. Reprise! production of On the Twentieth Century. But Chenoweth’s New York theatrical agent, Mark Redanty, tells TheaterMania that the star hadn’t committed to either project.
As far as the Reprise! show is concerned, according to Redanty, “[Kristin] said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it if I’m available’ and then they started advertising that she was doing it, but it wasn’t nailed down.” With music by Cy Coleman and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, On the Twentieth Century is to be presented by Reprise! from January 21 through February 2, 2003, co-starring Douglas Sills as Oscar Jaffe and Carolee Carmello in the role for which Chenoweth had been announced.
What of the reported Broadway transfer of the star’s American Songbook concert? “There really wasn’t enough time to get it together,” says Redanty. “It would have been opening this week! There wasn’t time to get the money up for it or to sell it. I don’t know what the Roundabout was thinking.” The staged concert was presented in the John Jay College Theater as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series on October 11 and 12, and unofficial reports that it would play at the American Airlines between the closing of The Boys From Syracuse and the opening of Tartuffe surfaced a week later. (At the time, Roundabout spokespersons would not confirm those reports.)
Even with these two projects removed from her plate, Chenoweth is mighty busy. “She’s involved in a number of workshops and concerts,” says Redanty, “and she’s doing the Encores! Broadway Bash” at City Center in NYC on November 24 and 25. ABC’s TV movie of The Music Man, in which Chenoweth stars with Matthew Broderick, is set to air on February 23. And, of course, she is to co-star in Wicked, the new Stephen Schwartz musical that is scheduled to open in San Francisco in late February/early March and should hit Broadway just about a year from now.
