JESSICA Alba may be following in Madonna‘s footsteps.
The sexy star of “The Fantastic Four” is being courted to star in a Broadway revival of David Mamet‘s “Speed-the-Plow” in the spring.
Alba has no stage experience – but that didn’t stop Madonna from tackling the role of Karen in Mamet’s savage 1988 satire of Hollywood.
Madonna got some fairly harsh reviews in the role of the secretary who’s so naive she has no idea how to make coffee. But it didn’t hurt her career any – off the boards, at least.
No word yet on who will play the two male leads, but there’s talk that “The Sopranos” stars James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli are on the producers’ wish list, with Gandolfini playing the brutal studio boss and Imperioli playing the desperate producer.
THOUGH he was the quintessential musical leading man, Robert Goulet, who died last week at 73, appeared in only three musicals on Broadway – “Camelot,” “The Happy Time” and “La Cage aux Folles.”
Where he made his mark (and his millions) was on the road – in “Man of La Mancha,” “South Pacific” and, of course, countless tours of “Camelot.”
Goulet was, in fact, the last of the touring stars, an elite circle that once included Mary Martin, Yul Brynner and Carol Channing.
These musical theater brand names guaranteed sold-out houses from Buffalo to Seattle, San Diego to Baltimore.
Those days pretty much ended in the ’90s, when the shows themselves became the stars. “Les Miserables” and “Miss Saigon” didn’t need Robert Goulet to sell tickets.
But as the road business was beginning to take off in the ’80s, Goulet was one of its cornerstones.
“He made a very significant contribution to the touring industry,” says theater publicist Anne Rippey, who worked on several Goulet tours.
“He sold a lot of tickets.”
In a classic profile of Goulet and his 1993 tour of “Camelot,” Alex Witchel noted that the production grossed more than $1 million a week in Boston alone; Goulet’s cut, she wrote, was $80,000 a week.
And the Goulets – his wife, Vera, managed his career – lived like monarchs.
White limousines whisked them around town. Their hotel suites, as specified in his contracts, had to be stocked with the finest wines, expensive linens and platters of fresh fruit and vegetables. The fridge in his dressing room was always full of white Meursault and Robert Mondavi reserve chardonnay.
The Goulets sent Christmas cards from the road to their wide circle of showbiz friends.
The cards typically featured a photo of Robert and Vera in formal wear on the front and, on the inside, a picture of them wearing costumes from whatever show he was in at the time.
They insisted that their holiday picture be taken during photo shoots with the cast, which meant it was paid for by the production. Vera would “borrow” the leading lady’s costume and have it temporarily taken in for the Christmas shoot.
Goulet’s last tour was “South Pacific” in 2000. By then, his memory for lyrics was pretty shaky. When he blanked, he would substitute whatever word or phrase came to mind. So he would sing: “Some enchanted . . . intermission/You will see me . . . out there.”
In his final Broadway turn – as Georges in the 2005 revival of “La Cage aux Folles” – Goulet butchered so many lines that one cast member kept a log.
In one scene, betrayed by his son, Georges yells: “You Judas!”
One night, Goulet yelled: “You . . . Buddhist!”
The cast cracked up.
But though his memory sometimes flagged, that glorious baritone never did.
Says Harvey Fierstein, who wrote “La Cage”: “The voice was there. He held that stage. He opened his mouth, and it was magic.”