Always eager to explore strange new worlds, David Cronenberg is revisiting his 1986 classic of love gone very bad, The Fly, but stretching it to fir a new canvas. Cronenberg will direct an opera based on the movie for the L.A. Opera. It marks the first time working in opera for both Cronenberg and his set designer Dante Ferretti. Also on board: librettist David Henry Hwang (the playwright whose M. Butterfly was filmed by Cronenberg in 1993) and composer Howard Shore, a longtime Cronenberg collaborator who also did the music for the movie. Conducting will be Placido Domingo, who no doubt has been having a great time sitting in front of the DVD player, familiarizing himself with the work of his new friends. ("Is that a. . . did she just. . . ROOWWWWFFF!!") The role of Seth Brundle, teleporting gene-spliced scientist and gentle stud muffin, will be taken over by Daniel Okulitch, a Canadian bass-baritone who is no stranger to opera-movie mash-ups: he starred in Baz Luhrmann's Broadway production of La Boheme and the opera based on the Death Row lament Dead Man Walking. The Fly will open this September.
In news that's
sort of related, it's been announced that a live musical
based on Shrek will open at the Broadway Theatre on December 14, with Sutton Foster (
Thoroughly Modern Millie,
The Drowsy Chaperone,
Young Frankenstein) as Princess Fiona and Christopher Sieber as the villain, Lord Farquaad — you remember, right? The little midgety guy voiced by John Lithgow who was supposed to be Michael Eisner? We
are talking three movies and a Christmas special ago. The roles of the title character and his donkey sidekick have not yet been cast. Assuming the show only covers the action of the first movie, one problem it may face is getting people to come see it instead of waiting for the sequel, which is when Puss in Boots shows up. That cat
rocks!