The cast of “Finding Neverland,” Harvey Weinstein’s lavish new musical that’s trying out in Leicester, England, looked out into the audience during the first preview and saw a man hunched over his iPad.
When the iPad lit up, they recognized him right away: It was Bono.
He was sitting next to the show’s songwriters, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, giving them notes.
Bono, you’ll recall, couldn’t be bothered to attend the first disastrous preview of his own musical, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” because he was too busy making millions from a concert tour in New Zealand.
But when Weinstein calls, he high-tails it to Leicester, acting like George Abbott, the legendary director and show doctor.
“Doc” Bono isn’t the only heavy hitter Weinstein’s corralled into taking a look at “Finding Neverland,” his maiden voyage as a big-time theater producer.
Director Michael Grandage (“Frost/Nixon,” “Evita”) attended two performances and gave notes. And I’m told James Corden, the Tony-winning star of “One Man, Two Guvnors,” came up with a couple of gags for the show.
Corden attended this week’s opening. He’s also about to begin shooting “One Chance,” a movie about “Britain’s Got Talent” winner Paul Potts that Weinstein’s producing. Corden has also co-written the screenplay.
Weinstein asked the dean of British musical theater — Andrew Lloyd Webber — to see “Finding Neverland” as well, but Lloyd Webber has yet to make it to Leicester.
The musical is about J.M. Barrie and the family that inspired him to write “Peter Pan.” The show has undergone extensive retooling in previews, with Weinstein calling the shots.
I hear the director of record, Rob Ashford, can’t make a move without the go-ahead from the big boss.
“Harvey is all over this thing,” says a source. “He’s shouting commands at everybody. Rob has no control. He’s a functionary.”
Weinstein threw a fancy, Oscar-style opening night party on Wednesday night. He thanked the cast (some of whose names he couldn’t get quite right) and explained why “Neverland” means so much to him.
“I’m the producer of big movies,” he announced. (Who knew?)
“I produced ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill.’ But I’ve got four daughters, and I want to do something softer.”
So how did our novice producer fare? Well, the reviews were mixed.
“Industriously staged, if slightly anemic” — The Guardian
“Rarely soars above the realm of the so-so” — The Daily Telegraph
My spies say the cast is strong, though leading man Julian Ovenden’s once-soaring voice is starting to show signs of wear and tear. Overden withdrew from the off-Broadway musical “Death Takes a Holiday” last year due to vocal problems.
“Finding Neverland” is beautifully designed, one of my spies says, but suffers from a “fundamental blandness.”
Weinstein’s determined to bring it to the West End in the spring, and is said to be eyeing the gorgeously restored, art deco Savoy Theatre.
He wants to go head-to-head against his archrival, Scott Rudin, who’s opening his smash musical “The Book of Mormon” in London in April.
But in this match-up, my money’s on the Mormons.
They seem to do well in debates and at the box office.
Dorothy Loudon, the original Miss Hannigan in “Annie,” would have been 87 last month. To commemorate her birthday, Lionel Larner, her agent, donated a bench in her honor in Central Park across the street from the American Museum of Natural History.
The plaque reads: “In memory of Dorothy Loudon . . . she preferred the bus to the limo.”
The back story: Leaving a party at the Russian Tea Room to celebrate her film debut in “Garbo Talks,” Loudon ran for the bus.
Larner thought she should have had a limo — or at least a cab.
“Dorothy, you will never be a star doing things like that!” he yelled.
She called back from the steps of the bus: “But I’ll know all the bus routes!”