Broadway Friday

- Elaine Stritch will do a three week run beginning in January at the Carlyle Hotel in a show called Elaine Stritch At The Liberty....At The Carlyle. Tickets are $125 and you must order dinner - which, of course, is not included.

- A revival of Sunday In The Park With George hits Broadway on February 21st. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine show first opened in 1984 and ran for 540 performances. Tickets for the revival go on sale in September.

- Beauty & The Beast ends its 13-year run on Sunday. It is the 6th longest running show in Broadway history.

- The soundtrack for Hairspray climbs to #4 on the Billboard Top 200 this week. The first single from the soundtrack, You Can't Stop The Beat, enters the Hot 100 at #88. Over on Hot Club Play, Wicked's Idina Menzel cracks the top five with Defying Gravity.

- Raul Esparza will star in a revival of The Homecoming, set to open December 4th at the Cort Theatre.

- The Australian production of the Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert: The Musical is headed for Broadway and the West End, squarely aimed at the disco-loving soccer moms that have been packing Mamma Mia for the last six years. The show features 23 tons of scenery and 514 costumes.

- Record companies vying for the Xanadu cast album are insisting that temporary lead Cheyenne Jackson perform on the record, not James Carpinello, who left the show until September after breaking his foot. The cast album deal may fold without Jackson, whose contract contains no stipulations for recording. Jackson's performance has been winning rave reviews.

- Rumors are flying that Hugh Jackman is being considered for lead in a musical version of Brokeback Mountain. James Mardsen (Hairspray, X-Men) is up as the other lead. Which one's the bottom?