A musical adaptation of Sylvester Stallone‘s the Oscar-winning 1976 film is headed to Broadway next year. This stage interpretation of Rocky brings together Tony Award-winning writer Thomas Meehan (The Producers, Hairspray) with composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens, whose many collaborations include the musical Ragtime.

Directing the production is Alex Timbers, who is currently directing the David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical, Here Lies Love, and the musical-play hybrid Peter and the Starcatcher. Fight choreography is by Steven Hoggett (Once), with dance choreography by Kelly Devine (Rock of Ages) [...]

Oz The Great and Powerful
IMAX 3D
Directed by Sam Raimi
Based on the novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L Frank Baum
Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Tony Cox, Bruce Campbell, Joey King
Walt Disney Pictures
Rated PG | 130 Minutes
Release Date: March 8, 2013

It’s time to once again go back to the land of Oz in Oz The Great and Powerful, but this time there is no Dorothy, and we are going to see how it all got started, how the great Oz came to be. But there is a little concern, after the horrible Spider-man 3 movie, can director Sam Raimi gain our trust once again?

You all know the story of Wizard of Oz, and if you don’t, I feel sorry for you. Anyways, like I said, this is a prequel all about the wizard, known here as Oscar “Oz” Diggs and played by James Franco (Spider-man 1-3). Oscar’s not so great and powerful at first; he’s a con artist/magician who just wants to be special or, dare I say, great and powerful. With his faithful (for some reason) assistant Frank, played by Zach Braff (Scrubs), he goes town to town trying to amaze and get rich off the people visiting the circus. And when things seem to be at the lowest, along comes a storm, and Oscar gets caught in a tornado as he is escaping the circus via a hot air balloon. He ends up in the land of Oz, where he is greeted by the lovely Theodora, played by Mila Kunis (That 70′s Show), and she explains the prophecy which involves a great man who is come to save their world. But Oscar seems more interested in her, as he sees himself quite the ladies man, granted it never turns out well, and the same could be said for this situation [...]

The Walt Disney Company claimed a number of momentous milestones and achievements in 2012, such as boasting the highest-grossing film of the year (Marvel’s The Avengers). But as Disney reached some considerable points, they also faced and developed a handful of issues. This special edition of Disney In Depth looks back at the world of Disney in 2012, with my top 10 best in this edition, and “bottom” 10 worst (with some suggestions on how to remedy those problems) in next week’s edition.

Continue reading for the best of list. [...]

Director Guillermo del Toro‘s haunting and beautiful Pan’s Labyrinth is one of the truly great films of the past decade. Now the movie is on its way to a second life, this time as a stage musical.

Del Toro, as if not already insanely busy with other things, has been working on the adaptation for four years now, interviewing and finding the talent to make it happen. He’s also already written the book—or libretto: the narrative structure that keeps a musical from just being a concert with people doing random things on stage, basically—with Jeremy Ungar. [...]

Ready to be the “King of New York?” Well, for the cast of the Tony-winning musical, Newsies, they have been ruling Broadway for good reason. For anyone visiting the Big Apple, Disney Theatrical Productions’ latest offering represents theater at its best, when you forget you’re watching a performance. You feel like you’re part of the show.

The year, 1899. The place, the center of the industrial world: New York City. The newsboys have been suffering long from low wages. Child labor is as predominant as ever before, with freedom from this tireless toil far from reality. [...]

Mars Attacks, the famous science-fiction trading card set, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. And in doing so, its original creator and licensor Topps, one of the biggest companies of trading cards in the world, is partnering with comic book publishers IDW to take on a massive venture, taking the aliens attacks Earth story that it’s based on to Broadway as a musical.

This big-budget musical, entitled Mars Attacks: 21st Century Slaughter, is to be written and produced by comic book veteran John Layman (Chew, Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness). In a statement released by Topps and IDW, Layman describes the undertaking of this project as an upbeat, sci-fi version of West Side Story. He also went on to say that like any good Broadway show, there will be catchy songs as well in the production [...]

When a classic film franchise’s prospects of returning to the big screen have forever dried up, its creators look for any remaining possibility of milking every last cent from the property’s dormant viability. So it doesn’t surprise me in the least that the 1985 sci-fi comedy blockbuster Back to the Future might be the latest beloved film of my youth to be resurrected as a Broadway musical [...]

Frequent Broadway events? Would you if it involved Captain Kirk? Well, get your suits and dresses ready people. Shatner is coming to Broadway.

The NY Post is reporting that William Shatner will be bringing his one man show, Shatner’s World: We’re Just Living In It, to New York. The show will run for a three week period in February.

The show is based on “years of Q&As he’s done to hawk his books,” and has been quite popular. [...]

The first trailer for Rock of Ages, the latest movie musical based on a Broadway sensation, has been released. You can watch it here below.

Set in Los Angeles circa 1987, the story centers on a romance between two fame-hungry lovers (Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough) looking to break into the music industry in the decade where hair metal dominated the charts. Among the characters they encounter on their journey through the highs and lows of stardom are Alec Baldwin as a club owner, Mary J. Blige as another club owner, Bryan Cranston as the mayor of L.A., Catherine Zeta-Jones as the mayor’s wife and an anti-rock crusader, Tom Cruise (pictured above) as rock star Stacee Jaxx, and Paul Giamatti as Jaxx’s manager. The cast also features Russell Brand, Malin Akerman, and Will Forte [...]

The Book of Mormon, the comedic Broadway musical created by South Park masterminds (and BASEketball stars) Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with Robert Lopez, has become the toast of the Great White Way since opening on March 24.

Recently the critically-acclaimed show, which has won nine Tony awards and five Drama Desk awards, finally recouped its production costs and is now turning a profit for its investors [...]

The Spider-Man Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, has received a lot of attention lately…though most of it has been on the negative side of things. With delays, production problems, and a slew of cast injuries over the last few months, many see the pricey show heading down a path toward certain doom.

However fate sees fit to treat ol’ Spidey’s Broadway run, what other odd properties could be transformed into potentially successful musicals? Brothers Jon and Al Kaplan have some suggestions, and they’ve even made videos to prove how well they would work.

Their latest venture is dubbed Predator: The Musical, and it adds a catchy musical number to scenes from the movie. Judging by the video, this could definitely work as a big Broadway production — click on over now to see for yourself!

If you enjoy this video, the brothers have made many others as well. Their works include musical versions of Rambo, Conan the Barbarian, Fatal Attraction, Silence of the Lambs, Commando, Terminator 2, Total Recall, RoboCop, and Schindler’s List. You can see them all at their YouTube page. [...]

The cover of the current issue of The New Yorker magazine has an illustration by Barry Blitt poking some fun at the situation with the Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark musical, which hasn’t been too kind physically to the actors portraying the famous webslinger.

Julie Taymor’s Broadway musical has been plagued with problems from the start, namely the numerous injuries to cast members, thanks to the show’s daring stunts and aerial work [...]

Highly recognized and respected British actor Pete Postlethwaite passed away yesterday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Postlethwaite wasn’t necessarily the best-known actor and many likely wouldn’t even recognize him by name, but when anyone who’s seen a few movies lays eyes on him, they know who they’re looking at.

The actor’s career began in the ’70s with performances on both the stage and screen. He continued to perform in movies and in stage productions throughout his career, but it was in the 1990s that he truly made his mark on Hollywood and made his talents known to the entire planet.

Just in that decade alone, Postlethwaite appeared in movies like Alien 3, The Last of the Mohicans, In the Name of the Father (which gave him his first and only Academy Award nomination), The Usual Suspects (as the infamous Kobayashi), James and the Giant Peach, Dragonheart, Romeo + Juliet, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Amistad. These performances solidified him as one of the best character actors in the business and proved that he could be great on many different levels. [...]

It’s been a messy and often dangerous ride for those involved in the $65 million Spider-Man Broadway adaptation, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. With many of the action sequences calling for significant stunt work, multiple actors involved in the show have been injured during production and rehearsals.

Now another injury has been added to the list at a performance that took place just a few hours ago. According to various reports, the accident occurred during a sequence toward the end of the production where Spider-Man is trying to save Mary Jane as she hangs from a bridge. Either the actor playing the web-slinging superhero or his stunt double for the show fell about eight to ten feet from a platform into a pit, and equipment being used in the show fell into the audience as a result.

Many in attendance seemed to think that this was all part of the show, but it was soon realized that something was actually wrong when it was announced that the show was delayed and ultimately ended. [...]

Beloved author Charles Dickens‘ classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol, is perhaps the greatest Christmas story ever to be crafted. It has been adapted countless times in a myriad of different fashions and styles, and one would find it very difficult to find any single soul who’s not familiar with at least one of them.

Favorite adaptations include the 1951 film of the same name starring Alastair Sim, Scrooged starring Bill Murray, and my own personal favorite, Mickey’s Christmas Carol! Just recently, director Robert Zemeckis kept things going with a performance capture animated take on the tale starring Jim Carrey in the lead role of Ebenezer Scrooge.

But adaptations of Dickens’ work aren’t restricted to just movies and specials. No, no — it goes far beyond that. Plenty of TV shows and theater productions have formed their own takes as well, and one that is catching much attention and many curious eyes (especially of festive fanboys everywhere) is called A Klingon Christmas Carol.

Click on over to the other side to learn more about this Klingon holiday production and to see a video showcase of the event complete with clips from the show. [...]