BREATHING ROOM In-demand stage director Sam Mendes' life is anything but a cabaret. Besides moving Cabaret to Studio 54 in Manhattan on Nov. 12, he's also heading into production on his first feature film, the Annette Bening-Kevin Spacey dark comedy American Beauty, and bringing Nicole Kidman to Broadway in his hit London production of David Hare's The Blue Room on Nov. 27. At press time, he was jetting between L.A. and London, working with Kidman and her costar, Iain Glen, on last-minute changes. The Blue Room's transfer has been made easier by a break in Kidman's schedule and the fact that the play has only two actors who star as five couples linked by carnal knowledge. But there's another headache: Since Kidman's 20 seconds of candlelit nudity has gotten so much ink, Mendes wants Stateside audiences to know the play isn't ''a steamy sex-fest,'' he says. ''It is a play about sex, and what it does to human beings, but it's not Last Tango in Paris.''
SUIT FROM ABROAD Raquel Welch's South American tour of
Victor/Victoria has been indefinitely postponed but may become a
courtroom drama instead. Welch, who replaced Julie Andrews as
the gender-bending title character in the Broadway production
for more than a month before it closed, is suing the Brazilian
promoter Mercury Concerts (among others) for $5 million because
''the deal was made, but the funds didn't appear,'' according to
the star's spokesperson. Big League Theatricals, packagers of
the show who are also named in the suit, cite the volatile South
American economy for the snafu, but are still hoping to cash in
on the star. ''We're hoping to package her in a Russian tour of
the show,'' says Big League's executive producer Dan Sher. Ah,
now there's a stable financial climate.
— Susann Fletcher
FURTHERMORE Despite protests over Corpus Christi, the play about a gay Christ figure, the New York Theatre Workshop still plans to take on the Old Testament starting Nov. 13 with The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, a broad comedy by Paul Rudnick (In & Out) about ''Adam and Steve.''
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