In the 1980’s, soap stars Joan Collins and Linda Evans sent ratings soaring as Dynasty's glamorous enemies, Alexis and Krystle. Now they reunited for a new version of troubled stage show, Legends.

Casting got finally complete for the approaching Joan Collins-Linda Evans tour of Legends, the ill-fated James Kirkwood comedy that had spawned the infamous backstage tome "Diary of a Mad Playwright."

As previously announced, the "Dynasty" co-stars took on the roles originally played on the road by Carol Channing and Mary Martin. Collins played Sylvia Glenn, the acerbic star, originally played by Channing. Evans played Martin's part, the seemingly sweet Leatrice Monsee.

Joan Collins appeared on Broadway in the revival of Private Lives in 1992, a role she also played in the West End. She had got her stage start at the very early age of nine, in a production of Ibsen's A Doll's House. Other major stage credits include The Skin of Our Teeth, The Seventh Veil, Claudia & David and The Praying Mantis, and The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. This marked Linda Evans' Broadway debut.

Legends originally played a 23-city tour in the mid-eighties with plans to bring the comedy about two former, feuding movie stars to Broadway. Martin, however, pulled out of the production when her second-act speech about breast cancer was cut. Plagued by negative press (including mostly harsh reviews), by the time it folded in Palm Beach in January of the following year, the tour was better known for the backstage drama between Channing and Martin than anything that happened onstage. Kirkwood later wrote Diary of a Mad Playwright about his harrowing experience on the road with the show.

Collins and Evans were joined onstage by Joe Farrell as Martin Klemmer, Tonye Patano as Aretha, Will Holman as Boom-Boom and Ethan Matthews as the Cop. Matthews also understudied the role of Martin Klemmer; Chaundra Cameron was the understudy for the part of Aretha.

John Bowab directed Legends, which wass billed as "a comedy about big stars and bigger egos." The creative team also featured Jesse Poleshuck (set design), Phil Monat (lighting design), Nolan Miller (costume design) and Robin L. McGee (associate costume design). Producers were Ben Sprecher, William P. Miller, Percy Gibson, Wendy Federman, Spring Sirkin, Max Cooper, David Mirvish and Ed Mirvish.

Legends began its tour at the Royal Alexandra Theatre Sept. 12, 2006 playing the Toronto venue through Oct. 22. The production also visited the theatres in San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago and Cleveland, among other cities. The tour itinerary follows.

Sept. 12-Oct. 22, 2006 in Toronto at the Royal Alexandra Theatre
Oct. 24-Nov. 5, 2006 in Philadelphia at The Forrest Theatre
Nov. 7-12, 2006 in Hartford at the Bushnell
Nov. 14-19, 2006 in East Lansing at the Wharton Center
Nov. 21-Dec. 3, 2006 in Washington, D.C. at the National Theatre
Dec. 5-10, 2006 in Kansas City at the Lyric Theatre
Jan. 9-14, 2007 in San Diego at the Civic Center
Jan. 16-28, 2007 in Beverly Hills at the Wilshire Theatre
Jan. 30-Feb. 4, 2007 in Phoenix at the Orpheum Theatre
Feb. 20-March 4, 2007 in Chicago at The LaSalle
March 6-11, 2007 in Boston at the Shubert Theatre
March 20-April 1, 2007 in Cleveland at the Palace Theatre
April 3-8, 2007 in Fort Worth at the Bass Performance Hall
April 10-15, 2007 in Fayetteville at the Walton Arts Center
April 17-22, 2007 in Memphis at the Orpheum Theatre
April 24-29, 2007 in Ft. Myers at the Barbara Mann PAC
May 1-6, 2007 in Raleigh at the BTI Center
May 8-13, 2007 in New Haven at the Shubert Theatre

Legends, according to press notes, “centers on two somewhat desperate and waning movie stars named Sylvia (Collins) and Leatrice (Evans)”. Both actresses were courted by an unscrupulous young producer to star together in a Broadway show, despite the fact that they had hated each other for decades. He convinced both ladies to go along by misleading them into believing that they would be starring in the show with Paul Newman. This hilarious set-up provided the background for the full-blown comic confrontation between these two divas and the surprising and hilarious resolution.

Collins and Evans did not get along during the production, according to Collins, who wrote about their experience on the road in her column in the U.K. Daily Mail. Collins wrote that Evans never reciprocated party invites during Dynasty, kept her distance from Collins during the series' run, revealed that she agreed for the producers to approach Evans for Legends against her better judgment (as Evans had never acted on stage before) and further said that Evans was too physical during their on-stage stunts during Legends.

Miss Collins was, allegedly, roughed up by Miss Evans on stage during their tour across the U.S. with the play Legends. A spokesman for the star told the New York Post that Joan had ended the tour with a sprained knee, a scar on her hand and that she almost had choked to death. In response, a spokesman for Miss Evans, said that Joan Collins was the single most unprofessional actress working in Hollywood. He found it unbelievable that Linda Evans could hurt somebody. Ben Sprecher, who produced Legends, also said that it was absolutely untrue that Miss Collins had been pushed off the stage by Miss Evans.

Unfortunately, the Legends stage show had a quite unlegendary ending. The show reviews were mostly negative, and the Dynasty fans, who could hardly wait for the reunion of the two divas on the stage, remained disappointed with the conflict of the actresses off-stage.