Hot Topics:

Simon puts 'Dinner' on in London

Scribe could join Miller, Mamet, Albee with foreign bow

Edwards' new Broadway baby is 'Big Rosemary'

'Rugantino' in tune again with Garinei

Tuners trip, plays perk in slow January

Upstaters land berth at Off B'way Irish center

RCMP goes on with own probe of Livent duo

Anderson working on 'Master'(5545 views)

Sundance unveils competition lineup(5398 views)

Comcast, GE unveil NBC U deal(3325 views)

NBR's best: 'Up in the Air'(3253 views)

Sundance unveils complete lineup(2946 views)

Johnny Depp eyes Pancho Villa role(1900 views)

LONDON -- Neil Simon's new play -- the prolific writer's 31st -- is on course for a world preem in London, where the 71-year-old dramatist looks set to be a near-ubiquitous presence this year.

Following a reading Jan. 27 of the six-character play at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, "The Dinner Party" will have a followup reading Feb. 10 in London. If that goes well, a West End bow should soon follow, marking the first time Simon has opened a show outside the United States.

That would place Simon in a lineup that includes David Mamet ("The Cryptogram"), Arthur Miller ("The Ride Down Mt. Morgan") and Edward Albee ("The Play About the Baby"), all of whom have premiered plays in London this decade.

"I love London. I lived in London for a while with my first wife. I love the theater in London," Simon said by telephone Jan. 20 from Los Angeles, of a decision that may come as a surprise from one of the most quintessentially New York Jewish of American writers.

Explained Simon: "London is just as important as a place to open (a play). The theater has changed so much in New York, anyway. There are so few plays on Broadway, which is moving mostly towards musicals."