Broadway
Theater News: Plaza Suite, Hadestown, Stephen Schwartz, Tootsie, Beetlejuice Gets a Cast Recording, A Soldier’s Play Gets a Cast and The Woman in Black
Tony Award® winner Marc Shaiman will write original music for the recently announced production of Neil Simon’s comedic play about marriage, Plaza Suite, starring two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick and two-time Emmy Award® winner Sarah Jessica Parker, directed by Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey.
Marc Shaiman teased this announcement this morning via his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4uu9cTpMQp/
Director John Benjamin Hickey said, “In terms of beloved New York icons, Marc is right up there with… well… with Neil Simon, Matthew Broderick, and Sarah Jessica Parker. To have Marc, our dear friend, writing music for this play that celebrates love and marriage in New York City is a dream come true.”
As previously announced, Plaza Suite will play a strictly limited 17-week Broadway engagement at Hudson Theatre (141 West 44th Street), with previews beginning March 13, 2020 and an official opening night set for April 13, 2020. Plaza Suite will mark the first time Broderick and Parker will share a Broadway stage since the 1995 revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This event will also mark Broderick’s return to the words of Neil Simon, having won his first Tony Award for creating the role of Eugene Jerome in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, followed by its sequel, Biloxi Blues.
Prior to coming to New York, in a move reminiscent of the golden age of Broadway when stars would take plays out of town, Broderick and Parker will travel with the production to Boston for a strictly limited 22-performance pre-Broadway engagement at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, the same theater where Plaza Suite had its 1968 world premiere and in 1976, Parker made her Boston stage debut as Flora in the pre-Broadway engagement of The Innocents.
Two world-class actors play three hilarious couples in this uproarious and piercing look at love and marriage from legendary playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner Neil Simon. This new production will mark the first revival of a Neil Simon play following his passing August 2018 at the age 91. He is remembered as one of the most celebrated, successful, and beloved writers in Broadway history having written more than 30 plays and musicals.
When Plaza Suite first opened on Broadway in 1968, directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton, it ran for nearly three years and played a total of 1,097 performances. Simon and Stapleton were nominated for Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, respectively, while Nichols won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. In 1971, Simon adapted the play for a big screen adaptation starring Walter Matthau, Stapleton, Barbara Harris, and Lee Grant. In 1982, HBO broadcast a taping of a live stage performance of Plaza Suite starring Lee Grant and Jerry Orbach. In 1987, Carol Burnett opposite Hal Holbrook, Dabney Coleman, and Richard Crenna starred in a television movie adaptation of the play co-directed by Roger Beatty and Kenny Solms.
Hadestown, the Tony Award®-winning Best New Musical has become the first musical of the just concluded 2018-2019 Broadway season to recoup its initial investment of $11.5M.
The musical continues to set box office records at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street). For the week ending Sunday, October 13, the production grossed an all-time best of $1,523,311 and is the highest-grossing musical in the theater’s history and has been playing to standing room only audiences since it started performances on Friday, March 22.
Stephen Schwartz and Kelly Devine will be honored the NYMF 2019 New York Musical Festival Benefit Concert! The gala will be held November 18th. Kelli Barrett (Wicked, Doctor Zhivago, Fosse/Verdon), Charl Brown (Motown), Gregory Diaz IV (Matilda), Lisa Howard (Escape to Margaritaville), Tamika Lawrence (Come From Away), Lesli Margherita (Zorro, Matilda), Constantine Maroulis (Rock of Ages), Gabrielle McClinton (Pippin), John McGinty (Children of a Lesser God, Hunchback of Notre Dame), Joey McIntyre (New Kids On The Block, Wicked), Julia Murney (Wicked), Jack Noseworthy (Come From Away), Gypsy Snider (Pippin), Jarrod Spector (Jersey Boys, The Cher Show, Beautiful) and Sergio Trujillo (Ain’t Too Proud) will perform.
The evening will also feature Jeanna de Waal (Kinky Boots) performing a selection from the upcoming Broadway musical Diana and a special performance by honoree Stephen Schwartz himself.
Sadly the Broadway musical Tootsie will play its final performance on Sunday, January 5, 2020. Upon closing, the musical will have played 293 regular and 25 preview performances at the Marquis Theatre (210 W 46th St).
Tootsie will launch a North American Tour at Shea’s Buffalo Theater in Buffalo, New York, in October 2020. Casting, exact dates and additional cities will be announced at a later date. Sseveral international productions are underway. Exact timing for all will be announced in the coming months.
Tootsie will launch a North American Tour at Shea’s Buffalo Theater in Buffalo, New York, in October 2020. Casting, exact dates and additional cities will be announced at a later date.
Additionally, plans for several international productions of Tootsie are underway. Exact timing for all will be announced in the coming months.
Ghostlight and Warner records have announced that the Beetlejuice – Original Broadway Cast Recording will be released on vinyl as a two-LP picture disc seton Friday, November 22. The same day, Urban Outfitters will release an exclusive color vinyl edition. Both versions include full-color packaging with complete lyrics and synopsis, in addition to liner notes by Jerry Portwood, Digital Editorial Director of Rolling Stone. The album is currently available on CD and through all streaming partners. Beetlejuice –the new hit Broadway musical comedy presented by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures (Mark Kaufman) and Langley Park Productions (Kevin McCormick) – is now in performance at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway). The show was nominated for eight 2019 Tony Awards, including “Best Musical,” “Best Original Score,” and “Best Book of a Musical.” The album is produced by Matt Stine, Alex Timbers, Eddie Perfect, and Kurt Deutsch. To download or stream the album, or order the CD or LP set, please visit ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/beetlejuice
Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) announces complete casting for the first Broadway production of Charles Fuller’s award-winning drama A Soldier’s Play, directed by Kenny Leon.
Joining the previously announced David Alan Grier as “Sergeant Vernon C. Waters” and Blair Underwood as “Captain Richard Davenport” are Nnamdi Asomugha as “Private First Class Melvin Peterson,” Jerry O’Connell as “Captain Charles Taylor,” McKinley Belcher III as “Private Louis Henson,” Rob Demery as “Corporal Bernard Cobb,” Jared Grimes as “Private Tony Smalls,” Billy Eugene Jones as “Private James Wilkie,” Nate Mann as “Lieutenant Byrd,” Warner Miller as “Corporal Ellis,” J. Alphonse Nicholson as “Private C. J. Memphis” and Lee Aaron Rosen as “Captain Wilcox.”
A Soldier’s Play will begin preview performances on December 27, 2019, and open officially on January 21, 2020. This is a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street).
The McKittrick Hotel (530 West 27th Street, NYC), home of Sleep No More, announces the original production of long-running West End play The Woman in Black is coming to New York for the first time. Previews will begin in the hotel’s hidden pub The Club Car on January 8, with an official opening on January 23, 2020.
First presented for a three-week run in the theatre bar at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, The Woman in Black moved to the West End two years later, where it has been enthralling audiences ever since.
Numerous national and international tours have followed, but this site-specific reimagining for The McKittrick marks the first chance audiences have to experience it as originally staged, in a pub, more than 30 years ago.
Broadway
Theatre News: Doubt: A Parable, Here Lies Love, Prayer for the French Republic, Eisenhower and Hell’s Kitchen
Tyne Daly and Liev Schreiber will star in a revival of Doubt: A Parable on Broadway. The production is to begin performances next February at the American Airlines Theater.
The new production is produced by the Roundabout Theater Company, and will be directed by Scott Ellis, who has been serving as the nonprofit’s interim artistic director since the death of artistic director Todd Haimes in April.
The play, by John Patrick Shanley, is about a nun who suspects a priest has sexually abused a student at a Catholic school. In 2005, the year it first opened on Broadway, it won both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play; it was later adapted into a film and an opera.
Daly, who will play the nun who serves as the school principal, and Schreiber, who will play the parish priest, are both Tony winners. Daly, is known for her role in “Cagney & Lacey”. She won the 1990 Tony Award for her portrayal as Mama Rose in the revival of Gypsy. Schreiber, is the star of Showtime’s “Ray Donovan.” He won a Tony Award in 2005 for a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.
Doubt is one of three plays to be staged by Roundabout this coming season. The others are I Need That, a new play by Theresa Rebek starring Danny DeVito alongside his daughter, Lucy, and Home, a 1979 revival, directed by Kenny Leon, by Samm-Art Williams.
David Byrne, Fatboy Slim and Here Lies Love are causing controversy with their July Broadway debut. The show’s extensive use of prerecorded music has the American Federation of Musicians’ Local 802, up in arms. The Local’s Broadway musical contract stipulate that productions employ 19 live musicians.
In response to the union’s concerns, Byrne and the show’s PR team released a statement on Instagram to lay out the production’s revolutionary format and genre-bending originality. Here Lies Love is not a traditional Broadway musical. The music is drawn outside of the traditional music genre. The performance of the live vocals to pre-recorded, artificial tracks is paramount to its artistic concept. Production has ripped out the seats in the theater and built a dance floor. There is no longer a proscenium stage. The Broadway Theater has been transformed into a nightclub, with every theatergoer immersed in the experience.
Here Lies Love is on Broadway because Broadway must support boundary-pushing creative work. Broadway is also the venue for a well conceived, high-quality show that highlights the valued traditions of specific cultures whose stories have never been on its stages. Here Lies Love does not believe in artistic gatekeepers. Here Lies Love believes in a Broadway for everyone, where new creative forms push the medium and create new traditions and audiences.
I saw Here Lies Love at The Public and not sure what kind of fast talking this is, but this statement rings false and full of how can we cut the costs while sticking it to the audience.
Photo by Murphymade
Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon is coming to Broadway this season.This award-winning Off Broadway production played to rave reviews at The Manhattan Theatre Club. The production was the winner of the 2022 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. Broadway performances will begin previews on Tuesday, December 19, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, with an official opening night on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. David Cromer directs.
Off Broadway: Tony winner John Rubinstein starts previews June 13 at St. Clement’s in one-man show Eisenhower.
Alicia Keys’ musical Hell’s Kitchen will run at The Public Theater from October 24 – December 10, starring Shoshana Bean. Inspired by Keys’ own life, the new musical features an original score by the 15-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, with a book by Kristoffer Diaz. Hell’s Kitchen will be directed by Michael Greif and choreographed by Camille A. Brown.
Leading the cast will be Maleah Joi Moon as Ali, opposite Bean as Ali’s mother Jersey, with Brandon Victor Dixon as Ali’s father Davis, Chad Carstarphen as Ray, Vanessa Ferguson as Tiny, Crystal Monee Hall as Crystal, Chris Lee as Knuck, Jackie Leon as Jessica, Kecia Lewis as Ali’s piano teacher Miss Liza Jane, Mariand Torres as Maria, and Lamont Walker II as Riq.
Completing the cast are Reid Clarke, Chloe Davis, Nico DeJesus, Timothy L. Edwards, Raechelle Manalo, Sarah Parker, and Niki Saludez, with understudies Badia Farha, Gianna Harris, Onyxx Noel, William Roberson, and Donna Vivino.
The musical is described as a coming-of-age story set in a cramped apartment in the neighborhood of the title near Times Square, where 17-year-old Ali is desperate to get her piece of the New York dream. Ali’s mother is just as determined to protect her daughter from the same mistakes she made. When Ali falls for a talented young drummer, both mother and daughter must face hard truths about race, defiance, and growing up.
The production has set design by Robert Brill, costumes by Dede Ayite, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound by Gareth Owens, and projection design by Peter Nigrini.
The countdown is on and the winners of the 2022/2023 season will be announced in a live televised ceremony on Sunday, June 11.
Here is who we think will win and who should.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
The Nominees
Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods
Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo
Lorna Courtney, & Juliet
Micaela Diamond, Parade
This to us is a no brainer … Victoria Clark performance has stood out since she brought Kimberly Akimbo to life off-Broadway in 2021. Though Annaleigh is a terrific performer this is Victoria’s year.
Will Win: Victoria Clark
Should Win: Victoria Clark
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
The Nominees
Christian Borle, Some Like It Hot
J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Brian d’Arcy James, Into the Woods
Ben Platt, Parade
Colton Ryan, New York, New York
This is another no brainer J. Harrison Ghee gives a textured layered performance. Ben Platt and Josh Groban cancel each other out, though both are riveting performances.
Will win: J. Harrison Ghee
Should win: J. Harrison Ghee
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
The Nominees
Julia Lester, Into the Woods
Ruthie Ann Miles, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo
NaTasha Yvette Williams, Some Like It Hot
Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet
Bonnie Milligan took the theatre community by storm in Head Over Heels, but it was not her time. This year Milligan commands the stage and you definitely remember her performance.
Will win: Bonnie Milligan
Should win: Bonnie Milligan
Alex Newell photo by Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
The Nominees
Kevin Cahoon, Shucked
Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo
Kevin Del Aguila, Some Like It Hot
Jordan Donica, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
Alex Newell, Shucked
Many think Alex Newell was snubbed in 2018 for his performance in Once on This Island. Newell gets standing ovations over at Shucked for “Independently Owned” and they are well deserved. Kevin Del Aguila to me was a breath of fresh air and made me love his performance not once, but twice.
Will win: Alex Newell
Should win:Kevin Del Aguila
Broadway
National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Summer Soirée With Barry Manilow, Julie Benko, Adam B. Shapiro, Michael Zegen and More
On June 19 the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Summer Soirée at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers is set to impress. Adam B. Shapiro (from the cast of the award winning Fiddler on The Roof in Yiddish), will be the Master of Ceremonies The celebrity address will be by Michael Zegen, co-star of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” with a special performance by Julie Benko, the sensational breakout star of Broadway’s Funny Girl. Benko has joined the cast of Harmony coming to Broadway this fall.
Musical Moments from NYTF’s Upcoming Season including a performance by Danny Kornfeld from Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Broadway Bound New Musical ‘Harmony’
The evening will also feature performances from artists who have been part of NYTF’s stellar productions, including a special appearance by The Mameles, whose singing trio – Maya Jacobson, Raquel Nobile and Jodi Snyder – met while starring in Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.
Throughout the night, attendees also will be treated to performances by: Dani Apple, Joanne H. Borts, Aaron Diskin, Brian Glassman, Sophie Knapp, Annette Ezekiel Kogan, Yosef Kogan, Frank London, Avram Mlotek, Jenny Romaine, Rachel Yucht, Avi Fox-Rosen, Ilya Shneyveys, Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch, and Matt Temkin and the Schechter Bergen Children’s Chorus
Indulge in a delightful cocktail reception followed by an exquisite dinner as you prepare to be dazzled with exclusive previews of musical moments from NYTF’s upcoming 2023-2024 Season.
Levi Holloway’s Grey House is a mental mind bend. It tries to come off as a haunted thriller with blackouts galore, moments left hanging, loud noises and flashes in the dark of dead things, but deep down it is a lot more than that. The script lacking in text, takes awhile to figure out the ins and outs.
Colby Kipnes, Laurie Metcalf, Sophia Anne Caruso, Millicent Simmonds, Alyssa Emily Marvin, Tatiana Maslany, Eamon Patrick O’Connell Photo by MurphyMade
We starts off as a blizzard rages outside, four feral teenage girls, a young boy (Eamon Patrick O’Connell) and their mother Raleigh (Laurie Metcalf), who is asleep on the couch or is she passed out, entertain themselves. There is Bernie (Millicent Simmonds) who is deaf, a cynical Marlow (Sophia Anne Caruso), the unpredictable Squirrel (Colby Kipnes), and the sweet A1656 (Alyssa Emily Marvin). The girls do what looks like a spell, as a car crashes bringing in Max (Clare Karpen, standing in for Tatiana Maslany) and Henry (Paul Sparks). From the beginning you know nothing good is going to happen.
Paul Sparks, Cyndi Coyne Photo by MurphyMade
Henry called Hank by the girls has broken his ankle and is given “moonshine” for the pain. The refrigerator mysteriously offers this liquid when it feels like it. Henry becomes addicted to the liquid as he encounters first Squirrel, then The Ancient (Cyndi Coyne).
Millicent Simmonds, Laurie Metcalf Photo by MurphyMade
In the meantime Max is manipulated into playing games with these strange children, as Raleigh throws caustic asides and distain to her.
As Henry gets more and more into his “moonshine” addiction he becomes the men who have abused all the inhabitants of this purgatory. The house it turns out is a cross over between heaven and hell or is it way station where karma is played out? It is a surprisingly that this play is written by a man, because at the crux of this play is men will always hurt, disappoint and destroy the female gender.
Director Joe Mantello (Wicked) has used set designer Scott Pask, sound designer Tom Gibbons and lighting designer Natasha Katz to make Grey House a living breathing entity that haunts from within. His cast is uniformly excellent with Sophia Anne Caruso bringing yet another haunting performance to life with a scalding clarity. Metcalf brings to mind every Stephen King novel and gives a masterclass in acting. Karpen gives us a women who is lost in mourning due to her father just passing and a long-dead sister whom she loved. We see the weight put upon her that ultimately binds her to this place. Sparks is the epitome of a week man who fight is within himself.
This play leaves more questions than answers that are left to the audience to figure out. At the heart of this story is grief and how we are trapped and make our own prisons instead of moving to the light.
Grey House: Lyceum Theatre, 149 W 45th Street, through September 23rd.
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Theatre News: Doubt: A Parable, Here Lies Love, Prayer for the French Republic, Eisenhower and Hell’s Kitchen
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