NEXT week will be taken up with JFK-mania along with a fleet of Yanks who can't wait for director Larry Fuller's show to reach Broadway. Producers Isobel Robins Konecky, Stewart F. Lane and Max Weitzenhoffer are already in town and hard at work in the Olympia - Isobel accompanied by her husband Ronald S. Konecky, an entertainment attorney for the likes of Cathy Lee, Frank Gifford, Barbara Walters and Walter Cronkite.
Also expected is Ruda Dauphin of the Deauville Film Festival; Philip Kingsland; Susan Smith, agent for Brian Dennehy, Jack Palance, Kathy Bates and Pauline Collins among others; and Seth Gelblum, another theatrical attorney who, as he represents most of the Broadway producers, will no doubt be casting a professional eye over JFK. Even Columbia University's Professor Emeritus of History, Jack Garraty, will be here to put the musical in some sort of academic perspective.
Press agent Keith Sherman will be taking time out from doing the Tony awards while Stewart Graber will be having a break from the stress of his senior executive role in Times Warner in London. Anyone who is here on Sunday will be heading up for brunch at John Scanlon's new place in Moate, Co Westmeath. The American PR guru will be showing off his pride and joy over brunch, prepared by Rachel O'Neill of the Ballymaloe Cookery School.