Tony winner to direct Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Two-time Tony Award winner Julie Taymor is bound for New York to direct the production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". It will be the debut production of the off-Broadway company Theatre for a New Audience in their new permanent residence in Brooklyn. It also marks Taymor's first directing gig since being booted out of the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark", AceShowbiz said.

Oscar-winning contemporary classical music composer Elliot Goldenthal, who is also Taymor's longtime partner, will handle original music writing chores for the production. Preview shows will start October 19, with the opening night scheduled on November 2.

Taymor became the first woman in history to win the Tony award for Best Direction of a Musical for her work on the stage musical adaptation of "The Lion King". She also directed the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" until March 2011 when she was fired following artistic differences with producers and has since been facing the lawsuits they filed against her.

Taymor and Goldenthal have previously collaborated on "The Tempest", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Titus Adronicus" and "The Green Bird", all productions of Theatre for a New Audience. It was Goldenthal who also scored Taymor's film versions of "The Tempest" and "Titus". For scoring her film "Frida", the composer won an Academy Award in 2002. She reciprocated his impressive work on her films by directing his original two-act opera "Grendel" which premiered at the Los Angeles Opera in 2006.