Let's go out on a limb and call
Leigh Silverman, the 31-year-old helmer of
Lisa Kron's "Well," the youngest female director to work on Broadway.
That's the general consensus, anyway, although legiters likely to know -- including the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, as well as a handful of female directors quizzed on the subject -- all hesitate to say for sure.
A measure of the wariness stems from general discomfort about the fact that even in 2006, it's still uncommon to find a young distaff helmer working on the Rialto.
"Part of the challenge is not just launching careers, but elevating them," says
Loretta Greco, a.d. of Off Broadway's Women's Project. Silverman's production of "Jump/Cut,"
Nina Beeber's play about love, ambition and filmmaking, runs there through Feb. 26.
"Many of us flourish but stay at the same level," Greco says. "You can spend your life winning Obie after Obie but not get invited up to Broadway."
Silverman got invited up to Broadway after "Well," Kron's exploration of health, race and family, was a hit at the Public two seasons ago and commercial producer
Elizabeth I. McCann picked it up. The show starts performances at the Longacre March 10.
Silverman, a Carnegie Mellon grad who concentrates on new plays, acknowledges she took an unlikely path to the Great White Way. She and Kron, a founding member of the Five Lesbian Brothers theater troupe, have worked together on "Well" for five years.
"I don't know of anyone in the theater who has a logical trajectory anymore," Silverman says. "It's not like I said, hey, I'm going to hitch my star to this downtown avant-garde lesbian and see how far she takes me!"
"Faith Healer" is already shaping up to be a hit.
The Broadway-bound production sold out its run at the Gate Theater in Dublin before the show even began performances -- a first for the company.
"I don't need to tell you, it helps having a major movie star in the central role," says
Sonia Friedman, the U.K. producer bringing the show to Broadway. The star in question would be
Ralph Fiennes, toplining a cast filled out by
Ian McDiarmid and, in the Gotham engagement,
Cherry Jones.
The likely success of "Faith" on Broadway, where the show begins perfs April 18, must be especially gratifying for Friedman, whose last Gotham venture, "The Woman in White," ended its disappointing New York run Feb. 19.
But she'd rather not discuss that. Instead, she'll talk up her upcoming London projects -- including "Rock 'n' Roll," the latest from
Tom Stoppard, which she's certain New York will see next season, and an upcoming reality show on Blighty's Channel 4 that follows her around as she chooses a new play by an undiscovered playwright to produce on the West End.
"The show will air just before 'Lost.' That's how big it is," she says.
Legit names at the Metropolitan Opera? Consternation!
The newly announced Met/LCT Opera/Theater Commissions, a joint project of the Met and Lincoln Center Theater, is developing new work -- serious new work, they stress -- from showpeople such as
Adam Guettel ("The Light in the Piazza"),
Michael John LaChiusa ("Bernarda Alba"),
Jeanine Tesori and
Tony Kushner ("Caroline, or Change"),
Nicholas Wright ("Vincent in Brixton") and
Craig Lucas (book writer for "Piazza").
As shows are created over the next several years, the Met and LCT will decide which production goes into which venue.
Definitely on the Met's slate in the meantime: tuner vets
Bartlett Sher ("Piazza"),
Jack O'Brien ("Hairspray") and
Julie Taymor ("The Lion King"), helming new productions next season of "The Barber of Seville," "Il Trittico" and a new 90-minute tyke version of "The Magic Flute," respectively.
And Met G.M.-elect
Peter Gelb has reportedly approached
Kristin Chenoweth ("Wicked") to sing a role in an upcoming revival of
John Corigliano's "Ghosts of Versailles."
Contact Gordon Cox at
gordon.cox@variety.com