Paulus to stage 'Amaluna'

PaulusDiane Paulus will direct the next touring show from Cirque du Soleil, "Amaluna," bowing in Montreal on April 19.Paulus, a.d. of Boston-area nonprofit A.R.T., helmed the Tony-winning 2009 revival of "Hair" as well as the current Broadway revival of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," which opened last week.Similar to Julie Taymor's gender-switched film version of the same story, "Amaluna" puts a feminist spin on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" by positioning it as the story of a sorceress named Prospera and the power she holds over an abandoned island and her daughter's coming of age.Paulus has added nontraditional twists to Bard tales before, with her raunchy dance-club version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Donkey Show," which ran six years Off Broadway. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com