When are the producers of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert going to come out and announce their Toronto/Broadway cast, already? News has been leaking out for weeks now, but there's not yet been an official announcement about the casting for the Australian musical's North American premiere, which is set to open at the Princess of Wales on October 12 as part of the Mirvish season and then - so they say - head to New York next spring.
According to Deadline.com, discussions are underway for Matt Cavenaugh, Tony in the current West Side Story revival on Broadway, to play Adam/Felicia (the Guy Pearce role in the original film), Hair's Will Swenson to play Tick/Mitzy (Hugo Weaving's role) and Tony Sheldon to come over from the British production to play Bernadette (the Terence Stamp role).
So, no Canadians among the leads, it seems. (At one time, Priscilla's Toronto engagement was supposed to be an all-Canadian production with an open-ended run.)
But there will be some CanCon in the show. Thom Allison will be in the ensemble, he revealed on his blog earlier this month after weeks of hinting about it. Allison also will understudy Bernadette, Miss Understanding (a role not in the movie) and Jimmy, who Allison says is "the aboriginal guy they meet in the desert - really fun part in the musical - even though he has to appear in a loincloth - Jesus".
The Toronto Star has also reported that Canucks David Lopez and Susan Dunstan have also been cast in the ensemble and as one of the musical's singing divas, respectively, though no official papers have been signed.
Broadway World, meanwhile, has a couple more cast members to report: Jessica Philips and Joshua Buscher.
Quick Des-watch update: Have you heard? Both Des McAnuff, artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and film director and one-time Python Terry Gilliam have both made pacts to direct Fausts at the English National Opera next year.
McAnuff will helm Gounod's Faust to open the ENO's 2010-2011 season, while Gilliam will be making his opera debut with Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust the following May. Both will be conducted by ENO music director Edward Gardner, the ENO revealed yesterday.
What else do McAnuff and Gilliam have in common? Well, they both have recently directed Christopher Plummer: McAnuff in the 2008 production of Caesar and Cleopatra and the upcoming production of The Tempest at Stratford; Gilliam in his 2009 fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.