"Memphis," the La Jolla Playhouse-born musical that won the "Outstanding New Musical" award from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle for 2008, is headed to Broadway.

The fact-based rock/blues musical -- the story of an unconventional 1950s Memphis DJ whose promotion of black singers' music on the airwaves helped launch the birth of rock 'n' roll -- will open on Broadway in late October. Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley, who directed the musical's world premiere in La Jolla last year, will also direct the Broadway production.

Because Ashley will be spending the late summer readying "Memphis" for Broadway, the Playhouse has replaced its season-closing fall musical. Originally, Ashley was planning to direct the world premiere of "Big Time" in La Jolla this fall. Instead, it will be replaced with the world premiere of "Bonnie and Clyde," a new musical by composer Frank Wildhorn ("Jekyll and Hyde," "Scarlet Pimpernel" and the Playhouse's "Dracula"), lyricist Don Black ("Sunset Boulevard") and bookwriter Ivan Menchell ("The Cemetery Club"). The rockabilly/blues/gospel musical tells the doomed romance of 1930s bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Darrow.

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While last Sunday's Tony Awards didn't have a San Diego-born show in contention for an award, there were some winners with local connections.

San Diego-born teenage dancer/actor Kiril Kulish won the Best Actor in a Musical prize for "Billy Elliot," the British musical about a miner's son from rural England who dreams of a ballet career. Kulish shares the demanding role with two other young dancers, David Alvarez and Trent Kowalik. In their shared acceptance speech, Kulish said "We want to say to all the kids out there who might want to dance, 'Never give up.'"

Kulish, 15, was born in San Diego to parents who emigrated to the United States from the Ukraine. He started dancing at age 5 with the San Diego Academy of Ballet and became the youngest dancer ever admitted to the company's junior dance ensemble. At age 12, he won the Grand Prix award at the Youth American Grand Prix Competition and became a U.S. champion in ballroom dance. He was a soloist in California Ballet's "Nutcracker" production at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts from 1999 to 2007 and was a hip-hp soloist with Culture Shock Dance Co. in San Diego. He's also an award-winning classical pianist (his mother, Raisa Kulish, is a piano teacher). Since landing the role in "Billy Elliot," Kulish has been living in New York with his family.

Derek McLane's haunting scenic design for "33 Variations," which had its West Coast premiere last year at La Jolla Playhouse, won for best Scenic Design of a Play. McLane's same-set design, featuring walls of gently fluttering sheet music, won the Outstanding Set Design award in January from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle.

And the Broadway revival of "Hair," which won for Best Revival of a Musical, has a local actor in its Broadway cast -- Josh Lamon, a 1999 graduate of Poway High School.

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If you didn't think Comic-Con was crowded enough, just wait.

Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, is scheduled to appear at the annual comics convention in San Diego next month.

Jackson will take part in a panel discussion to promote his production company's new film "District 9," a sci-fi drama about a fast-spreading virus linked to a colony of space aliens who have taken refuge in South Africa. It is scheduled to open in theaters Aug. 14. San Diego Comic-Con International returns to the San Diego Convention Center July 24-26.

In a statement, Jackson said: "I look forward to attending my first-ever Comic-Con and I know that those who visit us on July 24 in Hall H will be in for quite a ride."

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North Coast Repertory Theatre has announced the seventh and final show of its 2009-2010 season, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."

Contractual restrictions prevented North Coast from announcing the booking of "Spelling Bee" when it unveiled the rest of its next season last month. The comedy musical tells the story of the oddball youth contestants in a regional spelling contest. It will run June 30 through July 25 at the Solana Beach theater.

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The Vista Village Business Association has announced the lineup for its fifth annual summer music concert series, which begins June 19 and runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday evenings through July 31 at the Main Street gazebo in downtown Vista. Admission is free.

The schedule includes North Star on June 19; Wild Ghandis on June 26; C'bad 7 on July 10; Fast Lane on July 17; PRI on July 24; and City Limits on July 31. Visit vvba.org for details.

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To raise money for its youth scholarship program, the Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation will host a benefit reception Friday at the opening of New Vision Theater's "Something's Afoot."

From 6:15-7:15 p.m. Friday, the foundation will serve wine and cheese and will offer VIP seating to the 7:30 p.m. performance for patrons who purchase tickets to the benefit (priced at $25). The ticket package also includes a post-show tour of the stage with a cast member.

Ten dollars of each ticket will go toward the foundation's John Steiger Performing Arts Scholarship fund for graduating Oceanside high school seniors. Steiger, who died last fall, was a longtime Oceanside philanthropist, businessman and onetime city councilman.

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Concert ticket sales are in a slump, so promoters have tried some novel approaches this past week to get ticket-buyers motivated. On Wednesday, Live Nation waived its service fees for 24 hours for all of its upcoming shows at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre. It was the second time Live Nation tried a "No Service Fee Wednesday." The last time the company offered the promotion, ticket sales quintupled. There's no word when they'll offer the deal again, but check their Web site at livenation.com for any updates.

And on Saturday, Tom DeLonge (frontman for newly reunited, Poway-born blink-182) made a personal appearance at the House of Blues San Diego box office, when tickets went on sale for their local concert on Sept. 16 at Cricket Wireless.

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"Doing Da Vinci," a new documentary series airing at 10 p.m. Mondays this month on the Discovery Channel, owes much of its footage to the San Diego Air & Space Museum, which is now exhibiting full-scale replicas of the Renaissance-era artist/inventor's inventions in a separate ticket exhibit called "The Da Vinci Experience."

Pam Kragen is the entertainment editor of the North County Times.