| BAIUL BROADWAY BOUND?
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By David Lefkowitz
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| Oksana Baiul |
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To open its summer 2007 season, Long Island's Gateway Playhouse will premiere a new play with music that has set its sights - and skates - on the Great White Way. Cold as Ice, a Chorus Line-style look at six ice skaters training for Olympic glory, will feature a rink in its playing area, as well as a mixed cast of actors and skaters. Among the latter: 1994 Olympic Gold Medalist, Oksana Baiul. Gateway's publicist told Theaternewsonline that Nancy Kerrigan had originally been attached to the project, and now with Baiul on board, one or two other "name" skaters are being sought in the hopes making the package attractive to Broadway investors. After its May 16-June 17 run at the 57-year-old Gateway in Bellport, NY, a tour is expected before the rink reaches Times Square. Though a stage novice, Ukranian-born Baiul has numerous television credits, albeit (according to the Internet Movie Database) all of them as herself. Cold as Ice playwright and composer Frank D'Agostino won an "Album of the Year" MAC Award for his 1999 "Moments," and his plays have been produced in Boston, New Hope and Theater-Row venues. As a professional figure skater and coach in the U.S. Figure Skating Association, D'Agostino has often performed to his own music. A CD of Cold as Ice's music is for sale on CDBaby.com, where the plot synopsis notes that the six protagonists are played by actors, while "the skating is performed by their alter egos." The tone is generally comic and includes two TV commentators - one dim, the other sugar-sweet on camera while bitchy off. Songs on the CD include "Get Up and Skate," "We Get Lots of Snow in Canada," and "Be Careful What You Wish For."
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