Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Beaches," the Broadway musical, is "very close to being finished," reports Iris Rainer Dart, whose beloved 1985 novel was adapted into the hit 1988 feature starring Bette Midler. She owns the rights to her novel and has been working with composer David Aaron Austin on the stage musical for "about four years. He's half my age. When I work with him, I feel I'm half my age," adds the esteemed writer with a laugh.

Dart recently has been focusing her considerable energies on her "The People in the Picture," which gets its official opening tonight (4/28). The original musical, written by Dart with songs and music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler, has two-time Tony winner Donna Murphy playing a woman both in her prime and as a grandmother — in her 1930s life as a member of a Yiddish film company in Poland and in her 1970s life as a New York-based bubbe. Theatergoing bloggers have been lavish in their praise of Murphy's performance and her transitioning back and forth between youth and old age as her saga comes to life.

Dart says she brought "Beaches" musical material along with her from her Monterey, Calif., home to New York, "naively thinking" she would have time to work on it there. Instead, she's been caught up in a whirl of "People" activities, including a pre-opening night party she and Stoller planned for last night and an opening night party put on by the Roundabout Theatre Company tonight.

Works like "The People in the Picture" are "the reason we have to support" nonprofit theaters, Dart feels. "They've reached out and taken a risk. This is not a movie adaptation, not a cartoon character — but actually an original story. (Nonprofit theaters) are the ones that are able to (take) and should be taking those risks. Our experience with Roundabout has been A-plus."

"People in the Picture" winds its limited run June 19, and Dart is hopeful, of course, that it will do well enough to find its way into a commercial theater. "I'd like to be strong enough to not pay attention to reviews, but I know I'm not," she admits.

She recalls that Stephen Schwartz was her earliest musical collaborator — when she was a 19-year-old theater student at Carnegie Mellon and the multiple Oscar-winning composer of "Wicked" was merely a promising 16-year-old tunesmith. And "'Wicked' is still running five years later after bad reviews. So who knows? We'll hold a good thought and hope they give us good points for originality and all the things Broadway says that it wants."

Dart started "The People in the Picture" when her daughter was 10. Now she is 25, and Dart says she told her, "No matter what the outcome, I wouldn't trade a minute of this experience."

And once the show is launched, she'll turn her attention back to the musical version of "Beaches." She says she stays in touch with Bette Midler, by the way.

THE BIG-SCREEN SCENE: If Reese Witherspoon ever gets tired of acting, it sounds as if she could have a circus career, for real. At least, that's the sense one gets when talking to "Water for Elephants" choreographer Sebastien Stella, who spent weeks training Reese and Christoph Waltz for their circus performances in the feature, which also stars Robert Pattinson. He tells us that both stars were "great, just awesome" to work with — Reese especially so. "She was willing to do anything asked of her, and we made the most of her background in gymnastics and tumbling when creating her act. Pretty quickly I was expecting her to do difficult tricks, pushing her to do more and more," says Stella, whose background ranges from starring stints with Cirque du Soleil to serving as aerial choreographer and co-performer with pop superstars such as Pink. (He also is seen performing in the film.)

In fact, Stella says the only challenging part of working with Reese was trying to find rehearsal times. "She's a very busy lady." Challenges of choreographing the movement in the film included authentically re-creating a 1931 circus experience — complete with old-fashioned rigging — while making sure it had enough wow factor "to connect emotionally for 2011 audiences." He dealt with not only the human performers involved but also all the animals.

"Of course, the story of the movie has to do with violence with the animals, which is terrible" — and the reason veterinarian Jacob Jankowski (Pattinson) enters the picture. But behind the scenes, "everyone took amazing care of the animals," Stella assures. "They were treated like stars, respected as artists."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: "The Suite Life on Deck" may be winding up its voyage once and for all, but actress Debby Ryan won't be off the tube long. She has her own Disney Channel series, "Jessie," heading into production, and casting of subsidiary roles is now under way. "Jessie" has Ryan as a girl fresh out of small-town Texas who moves to New York City determined to be a success — but without much of a game plan, apparently. After her purse is stolen her first day in town, she winds up as a nanny to a famous couple's multicultural brood. Sounds as if someone got inspired by the Spielbergs.

The British are coming to U.S. TV! We're not talking about William and Kate mania; we mean a new reality show about Britons who live and work in Los Angeles or New York. Casting notices have gone out for U.K.-born "attractive people with big personalities and strong opinions" who are in their 20s, 30s or 40s and "excel professionally in dynamic fields — the arts, entertainment, design." Stay tuned.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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