Shannen Doherty Moves Back to Beverly Hills

Mon, 21 July 2008 02:41:40 ET

Shannen Doherty Moves Back to Beverly Hills
Shannen Doherty will be taking part as Brenda Walsh again in ''Beverly Hills 90210'', The CW announced on Saturday (July 19). She will be taking role as a guest director for a high school's musical at West Beverly Hills High. Executive producer Gabe Sachs announced at the top of the "90210" panel at the TCA press tour sessions for The CW. "There will be a musical within our show," explained Sachs. "She will be the guest director (for the musical)."

"We definitely wanted her a part of the show," said executive producer Jeff Judah. "Gabe actually had dinner with Doherty for a couple hours, They got along great. She was phenomenal. We had a lot of ideas and we brought them to her, and she warmed to them. She picked one. We had an idea and knew what she would like because with this show, there's no shortage of people who are obsessed with it."

According to a statement released by The CW, in the intervening time between her last appearance and the present, Doherty's character went on to become a successful theater actress in London and New York, later becoming a director. Now, West Beverly Hills High School has asked her to be guest director for the school's musical production.

"We're doing 'Spring Awakening," revealed Judah. "It's a great play, a great musical. We thought it would be a really cool thing to do a contemporary musical instead of doing 'Annie Get Your Gun' or something that a lot of high schools do. So if we could do a contemporary musical and put that in the show, it's sort of also talking about how the show has changed in the last 20 years."

Sacs was worried about the the past stories about animosity on the set being revived. "Honestly, I don't even know if any of [the stories] are true," said Sachs. "Everyone's grown up now. I can't imagine any of these kids not getting along. So you're like, 'Was it really that bad?'

The characters Kelly and Donna have returned since Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling agreed to play older version of their characters. But will they be joined by any of their male counterparts? "Those are the [only] three," confirmed Judah. "We haven't spoken to [the others] yet."

The drama will premiere Sept. 2 this year.