This week Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC reopened at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway after the departure of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury with the new leads Bernadette Peters as Desiree and Elaine Stritch as Mme Armfeldt.Now I would give my eye-teeth to see them in it but, I don't know, they just look odd on stage...

In other Broadway news, Halle Berry and Samuel L. Jackson have been signed to appear in THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall which was the surprise winner of the Olivier Award last year for Best New Play.

Mindful that Denzil Washington has just had such a Tony award-winning smash hit with FENCES on the Great White (ahem) Way, there appears to be a scramble to get black film actors on stage.

The latest gossip is that the same producer who blacked up Tennessee Williams' CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF has approached Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith to co-star in a production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE! The thought of those two pissing all over one of the greatest plays of the 20th Century is really a step too far.

Oh and on the subject of black actors and productions I would give eye-teeth to see....

The box-office opens tonight!