Priscilla: London Calling

This week's From Screen to Stage stars drag queens, greasers and Patti LuPone, oh my!:

- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert will have to get used to a damper climate when the hit Aussie show (based on the classic drag/road movie) makes the journey to its newest home, the London West End. Also in London, the upcoming revival of La Cage aux Folles gets its cast. In related news, costume shops in the area are stocking up on bugle beads, marabou and flip-flops.

- Happy Days will be here again at Goodspeed next season when it returns for an encore (pictures and review now up at Broadway World). Speaking of high school musicals, High School Musical is now on ice and Broadway's Grease gets a visit from a familiar face, movie Sandy Olivia Newton John. Also, the new Grease cast album is now on sale (Click hereto purchase from Amazon.com.)

- In other cast album news, the latest Forbidden Broadway will cut a new disc. The long-running spoof, which opened their latest incarnation this week (opening night video here), tackles such ripe suspects as Grey Gardens and The Little Mermaid, which hasn't even opened yet. Mermaid's Sierra Boggess, sans fins, can be seen here as Christine in Vegas' Phantom of the Opera spectacular. As for Grey, the original film's director, Albert Maysles, returns to the material yet again with another film, this time documenting the Beales' transition to Broadway. Also, Grey Tony winner Christine Ebersole and gay favorite John Barrowman are both releasing new solo albums.

- As if Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters (not to mention Rosalind Russell and Bette Midler on film) wasn't enough mama for you, now comes word that Patti LuPone may bring Gypsy back to the Great White Way yet again.

- Broadway World's Broadway Beat is back. The first webisode takes a look at Xanadu and Seussical, while the second covers Grease and The Ritz.

- From Boston to Baltimore: Cheers' George Wendt will be the new Edna in Hairspray. The first stage Edna, Harvey Fierstein, can be seen in the Broadway-bound A Catered Affair. The recent opening provided a chance for a mini-Hairspray reunion when Marissa Jaret Winokur and Matthew Morrison, the original Tracy and Link, stopped by to see the show.

- Bob Saget will take over as "Man in Chair" in The Drowsy Chaperone. Playbill has interviews with the show's TV faves Georgia Engel and JoAnne Worley.

- How do you say The Lion King in French? Le Roi Lion.

- Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale is now in previews, and Playbill takes the opportunity to chat with Chazz. Other leading men hitting the boards: Patrick Stewart in Macbeth and Hunter Foster in Frankenstein, and Die Mommie Die!'s resident diva Charles Busch dishes on his favorite Big Apple haunts.

- Movies turned into stage musicals are a dime a dozen, but movies into stage plays are becoming increasingly more popular. Playbill takes a look at this new trend, which includes the recent staging of To Kill a Mockingbird, reviewed here.

- And finally: Spider-Man ain't the only superhero getting the show tune treatment: ladies and gentlemen, introducing Captain Smartypants!

Links via Playbill.com, BroadwayWorld.com, EdgeBoston.com, Broadway.com, InsideSoCal.com, SGN.org and LA.com.