Broadway
Theatre News: A Doll’s House, Titanique and Life Of Pi
Today, The Jamie Lloyd Company, the successful partnership between Ambassador Theatre Group and Artistic Director Jamie Lloyd, announced that due to popular demand, A Doll’s House, starring Academy Award® winner Jessica Chastain as ‘Nora Helmer’ in Lloyd’s radical new production of Henrik Ibsen’s landmark drama in a new version by Amy Herzog, will extend ahead of the show’s opening tomorrow at Hudson Theatre (141 West 44th Street). The limited engagement will now play through Saturday evening, June 10 with tickets for the extension on sale now at www.adollshousebroadway.com.
Chastain is joined by Arian Moayed, a Tony Award® and Emmy Award® nominee, as ‘Torvald Helmer,’ Jesmille Darbouze as ‘Kristine Linde,’ Tasha Lawrence as ‘Anne-Marie,’ Michael Patrick Thornton as ‘Dr. Rank,’ and Grammy Award® winner Okieriete Onaodowan as ‘Nils Krogstad.’ The production’s understudies are Franklin Bongjio, Carey Rebecca Brown, Melisa Soledad Pereyra, and José Joaquín Pérez.
The design team includes two-time Tony Award nominee Soutra Gilmour (scenic design and costume co-design), Enver Chakartash (costume co-design), Tony Award winner Jon Clark (lighting design), Drama Desk Award winners Ben & Max Ringham (sound design), with music from Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto, Jennifer Rias (dance choreographer), Jim Carnahan Casting, CSA and Alexandre Bleau, CSA (casting directors), Frank Lombardi (production stage manager), Brandon Allmon-Jackson (stage manager), and 101 Productions (general management). The creative team also includes Jonathan Glew (associate director), Michael Carnahan & Wilson Chin (associate scenic design), Ricky Lurie (associate costume design), Domino Mannheim (associate lighting design), and Chris Cronin (associate sound design).
A Doll’s House thrust drama firmly into the modern age when it premiered in 1879. Now, nearly a century-and-a-half later, Tony Award nominee Jamie Lloyd and acclaimed playwright Amy Herzog will make freshly relevant a story that shocked audiences and brought forth a new era of theater. One of the most acclaimed actors of her generation, Jessica Chastain will inhabit one of the theater’s most iconic roles, re-energizing the play for a whole new generation.
This spring, The Jamie Lloyd Company is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The company has created some of the most thrilling theater of the last decade including 2013’s Olivier Award-winning revival of Macbeth starring James McAvoy and Claire Foy and the landmark 2018 “Pinter at the Pinter” season, a celebration of the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s work, which culminated in the critically lauded production of Betrayal starring Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton, and Charlie Cox. The production transferred to Broadway and received four Tony Award nominations including Best Revival of a Play and Best Director of a Play for Lloyd. Most recently, the company created their Olivier Award-winning production of Cyrano de Bergerac, which had a sold-out run last year at BAM, and last summer’s acclaimed production of The Seagull starring Emilia Clarke, which played the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End.
Preview performances of Lolita Chakrabarti’s dazzling stage adaption of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel Life Of Pi begin Thursday, March 9, at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street). See B-roll of Life Of Pi here.
You can enter the Life Of Pi digital lottery the day before the performance at rush.telecharge.com. The digital lottery opens at 12am (ET) at rush.telecharge.com one day before the performance with winners announced that same morning at 10am (ET), with a second announcement of additional winners that afternoon at 3pm (ET). Winners may buy up to two tickets at $45 each (inclusive of $5 service fee), subject to availability.
A limited number of in-person Life Of Pi rush tickets will be available on the day of each performance for $40 per ticket when the Schoenfeld Theatre box office opens. Maximum of two tickets per person, subject to availability. The box office opens Tuesday through Saturday at 10am (ET) and Sunday at 12pm (ET).
Tickets for Life Of Pi on Broadway are available at Telecharge.com (212.239.6200) and at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre box office and range from $49 – $199 (including $2 facility fee). The playing schedule for Life Of Pi is as follows: Tuesday through Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Please note there will be no 2pm performance on Wednesday, March 15, and March 22. Beginning Tuesday, April 4, 2023, the Life Of Pi performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30pm, and Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm.
The Olivier Award-winning play Life Of Pi will premiere at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street) with three Olivier Award-winning performers making their Broadway debuts. Recreating their critically acclaimed performances for Broadway will be “Best Actor” winner Hiran Abeysekera in the role of “Pi” and “Best Supporting Actor” winners Fred Davis and Scarlet Wilderink join the “Richard Parker” puppeteering team. The Broadway production of the five-time Olivier Award-winning London production of LIFE OF PI also features Brian Thomas Abraham as Cook/Voice of “Richard Parker,” Rajesh Bose as Father, Avery Glymph as Father Martin/Russian Sailor/Admiral Jackson, Mahira Kakkar as Nurse/Amma/Orange Juice, Kirstin Louie as Lulu Chen, Salma Qarnain as Mrs. Biology Kumar/Zaida Khan, Sathya Sridharan as Mamaji/Pandit-Ji, Daisuke Tsuji as Mr. Okamoto/Captain, Sonya Venugopal as Rani, with Nikki Calonge, Fred Davis, Rowan Ian Seamus Magee, Jonathan David Martin, Betsy Rosen, Celia Mei Rubin, Scarlet Wilderink and Andrew Wilson asRoyal Bengal tiger “Richard Parker.” Mahnaz Damania, Jon Hoche, Usman Ali Mughal, Uma Paranjpe and David Shih round out the 24-member cast with Adi Dixit as the “Pi” alternate.
Life Of Pi begins performances Thursday, March 9, 2023, and opens Thursday, March 30, 2023. Prior to the Broadway engagement, Life Of Pi made its North American Premiere at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.
Life Of Pi is directed by Max Webster, with Set and Costume design by Olivier Award winner Tim Hatley, Puppetry and Movement Direction by Olivier Award winner Finn Caldwell, Puppet Design by Olivier Award winners Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, Video Design by Olivier Award winner Andrzej Goulding, Lighting Design by Olivier Award winner Tim Lutkin, Sound Design by Carolyn Downing, Original Music by Andrew T Mackay, Dramaturgy by Jack Bradley, Wig Design by David Brian Brown, and Casting by Stewart/Whitley.zx
Based on one of the best-loved works of fiction – winner of the Man Booker Prize, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide – Life Of Pi is a breath-taking new theatrical adaptation of an epic journey of endurance and hope.
After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy name Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive?
Life Of Pi played Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End where it won five Olivier Awards including Best New Play, Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design. In an historic first for the Olivier Awards, the seven performers who play Royal Bengal tiger “Richard Parker” were collectively awarded “Best Actor in a Supporting Role.” The London production with its cutting-edge visual effects has garnered great critical acclaim and will launch a UK & Ireland tour in the summer of 2023.
Tony Award-winning producer Eva Price (Oklahoma!, &Juliet) announced today that the new hit musical Titanique — the irresistibly funny and irreverent send-up of the blockbuster film Titanic, featuring the songs of pop icon Céline Dion — will further extend its limited Off-Broadway engagement at the Daryl Roth Theatre (101 E. 15th Street) through September 10, 2023.When the music of Céline Dion makes sweet Canadian love with the eleven-time Oscar®-winning film Titanic, you get Titanique, a musical celebration that turns one of the greatest love stories of all time into a hysterical and joyful slay-fest. Want to find out what really happened to Jack and Rose on that fateful night? Just leave it to Céline Dion to casually hijack a Titanic Museum tour and enchant the audience with her totally wild take, recharting the course of Titanic’s beloved moments and characters with her iconic song catalog. A one-of-a-kind musical voyage bursting with nostalgia, hilarity and heart, Titanique features powerhouse voices in show-stopping performances of such hits as “My Heart Will Go On,” “All By Myself”, and “To Love You More,” backed by the unparalleled energy of a full live band.
The musical transferred to The Daryl Roth Theatre on November 20, following two sold-out extensions of its premiere engagement at the Asylum Theater, where it played from June 14 to November 13, 2022. Upon the show’s December 13 reopening at the larger venue, People Magazine declared, “Just when you think it couldn’t get better, Titanique makes you love it more, with a glow-up that makes the show even more impactful and irresistible. Yet, there’s still a scrappy, endearing “let’s put on a show” energy to it, that gives the musical its Titanic-sized charm. You’re guaranteed to laugh your iceberg off.”
The cast currently stars co-authors Marla Mindelle (Sister Act, Netflix’s “Special”) as Céline Dion, and Constantine Rousouli (Cruel Intentions, Hairspray) as Jack, alongside Carrie St. Louis (Wicked, Kinky Boots) as Rose, Rosé (Ross McCorkell) (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) as Victor Garber, Mark Evans (Mrs. Doubtfire, The Play That Goes Wrong) as Cal,Russell Daniels (80’s Prom, That Bachelorette Show) as Ruth, Desireé Rodriguez(“FBI”, “New Amsterdam”) as The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Avionce Hoyles (Bat Out of Hell, Memphis the Musical Nat’l Tour) as The Iceberg. Blu Allen, Courtney Bassett, Brad Greer, Donnie Hammond, and Kristina Walz round out the acting company.
Co-written by Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, Titanique is directed by Tye Blue (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”, Rumer Willis’ Over the Love Tour), and choreographed by Ellenore Scott (Funny Girl, Little Shop of Horrors). Music Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations are by IRNE Award-Winner Nicholas Connell. Scenic Design for Titanique is by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Lauchbacher for Iron Bloom Creative Production; Costume Design is by Alejo Vietti; Lighting Design is byPaige Seber; Sound Design is by Lawrence Schober; Wig Design is by Tommy Kurzman; Original Prop Design is by Eric Reynolds. Casting is by The Telsey Office/Rachel Hoffman, CSA and Henry Russell Bergstein, CSA and Andrew Fem.
Titanique’s storied history includes a smash hit live-streamed concert – Titanique: The Maiden Voyage Concert – on the premium streaming service Stellar, on May 2, 2021, which followed sold-out pop-up concert engagements in Los Angeles and New York, earning the show a 2019 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award. Upon the show’s Off-Broadway premiere in 2022, The New York Times praised the musical as, “very funny! This ‘Titanique’ Musical Finds Its Sea Legs…. Near, far, wherever you are, Celine Dion will be there, in this camp reimagining of the maritime blockbuster that revs up into increasing absurdity.” Vulture raved, “Titanique is f*cking great. Swim, Don’t Walk, to see this Celine Dion jukebox fantasia!” The New York Post hailed the show as, “Sensational, hilarious and deranged! Titanique is, by a nautical mile, the funniest musical in town!”
Tickets are available from $59-$160, visit www.titaniquemusical.com. A limited number of $54 tickets are offered one day prior to each performance via Titanique’s digital lottery. To enter, or for more information, please visit www.titaniquelottery.com.
Broadway
Broadway’s A Doll’s House Meticulously Stunning Revival Soars Like a Birdie Above That Clumsy Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
For a revival to find its footing, it has to have a point of view or a sense of purpose far beyond an actor’s desire to perform a part, whether it suits them or not. It needs to radiate an idea that will make us want to sit up and pay attention. To feel its need to exist. And on one particular day in March, I was blessed with the opportunity to see not just one grande revival, but two. One was a detailed pulled-apart revolutionary revival of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House that astounded. The other, unfortunately, was a clumsy revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that fell lazily from that high-wired peak – not for a lack of trying, but from a formulation that never found its purpose.
But over at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, a reformulation chirps most wisely and wonderfully, bringing depth and focus to a classic Henrik Ibsen (Hedda Gabler) play that I didn’t realize was in such need of an adaptation. With no extravagance at its core, Amy Herzog (Mary Jane) dynamically takes the detailed structure and beautifully adapted it with due purpose. It hypnotizes, dragging in a number of light wooden chairs, Scandinavian in style, I believe, onto the stage, one by one, by their black-clad counterparts in a determined effort to unpack what will unfold. There is no artifice to hide behind in this rendering, as designed most impeccably by scenic and co-costume designer Soutra Gilmour (NT’s My Brilliant Friend; Broadway’s & Juliet) and co-costume designer Enver Chakartash (Broadway’s Is This A Room), only A Doll’s House’s celebrated star, Jessica Chastain (Broadway’s The Heiress; “The Eyes of Tammy Faye“) rotating the expanse of the bare stage before the others join her slowly and deliberately. She sits, arms crossed, staring, daring us to look away, while knowing full well we won’t. Or can’t. And without a word, it feels like she has us exactly where she wants us. Needs us to be. And all that transpires before the play even begins.
They sit on that bare and stark stage, waiting, in a way, to be played with, like dolls patiently wanting some children to come and give them a voice through their imagination. As Nora, Chastain delivers forward a performance that is unparalleled. To witness what transpires across her face during the course of this extra fine adaptation is to engage in a dance so delicately embroidered that we can’t help but be moved and transported. She barely moves from her chair, as others, like the equally wonderful Arian Moayed (Broadway’s The Humans) as Torvald, are rotated in to sit beside her, conversing and delivering magnified lines, thanks to the brilliant work of sound designers Ben & Max Ringham (West End’s Prima Facie), that dig deep into the underbelly of the complicated interactions. This pair of actors find a pathway through the darkness, never letting us come to any conclusions until they are ready to unleash a moment that will leave you breathless. This is particularly true for Moayed’s Torvald, who seems decent enough at the beginning, but once the shift occurs, when the beautiful thing doesn’t happen as it should, his unveiling is as gut-wrenching to us as it is to Nora. Even though we knew it was coming long before the play even began to spin forward.
The art of the unfolding is steeped within the whole, refocused inside the brilliant shading, shadowing, and starkness of the cast. As Krogstad, the powerful Okieriete Onaodowan (Broadway’s Hamilton), alongside the deliciously tight Jesmille Darbouze (Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kate) as Kristine, find an engagement that sits perfectly in the structuring. They push the reforming to the edge, approaching and receding away from Chastain’s brilliant centering helping move the piece towards the required conclusion.
The same can be said of the wonderful Tasha Lawrence (LCT’s Pipeline) as Anne-Marie, and the exquisitely emotional turning of Michael Patrick Thornton (Broadway’s Macbeth) as Dr. Rank. Thornton, in particular, finds a telling and emotional space to connect, unearthing an engagement that breaks the circle apart, leaving Chastain’s Nora and all of us observers shattered and broken in its black X’d finality.
As directed with the same magnificently detailed energy and flat-walled framework as the previously seen Betrayal on Broadway and the West End, Jamie Lloyd gives us A Doll’s House that will never be forgotten. The focus is so deliberate, and the formulations are just so strong, pushed forward in black and white by the exacting lighting design of Jon Clark (West End/Broadway’s The Lehman Trilogy). Forced while remaining ever so intimate, the cascading of the statement delivered registers in a precise way, more exacting than I ever remembered, and I’ve seen numerous renditions of this epic play. And even though, from what I hear, many on the left couldn’t see the epic exit of Nora, a moment that typically registers throughout theatre history, the symbol of a woman, steadfast and true, leaving the safe and simple artifice of A Doll’s House for engagement in the hard cruel reality of the world outside is as clear as can be. The delicacies of this birdie trapped inside a cage, poisoned with lies and excuses, and beautifully brought forth by Chastain, registers the reasonings for this revival to exist. It has found a new and deliberate place to sing, and for that, I am truly grateful.
I wish I could say the same about Ruth Stage‘s modern take on the Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire) classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, currently being re-delivered at the Theatre at St. Clements. As directed by Joe Rosario (Hemingway and Me; Ruth Stages’ The Exhibition), the play doesn’t find its rationale for existing in the modern day beyond the simplistic sexualization of its boxing-ring corners. Matt de Rogatis (Austin Pendleton’s Wars of the Roses) as the tense athletic Brick stays broken and damaged in his corner, riding out the moment, waiting for the click, while in the other corner is the tense Maggie, played without hesitation by Courtney Henggeler (Netflix’s “Cobra Kai“) poised and ready for the bell to ring.
The battle is only heightened by the presence of two other fighters in the opposing corners, Big Daddy, played with determination by Frederick Weller (Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird) in the third, and Big Mama, played with a strong intent by Alison Fraser (Gingold Theatrical’s Heartbreak House), in the fourth. And watching and cheering for their own personal perspective wins are the obnoxious Mae, typically portrayed by Christine Copley (although I believe I saw an understudy), the weasely Gooper, played by Adam Dodway (Theatre Row’s Small Craft Warnings), Rev. Tooker portrayed by Milton Elliott (Ruth Stage’s Hamlet), and Doc Baugh, typically played by Jim Kempner (“The Girlfriend Experience“) (although, once again, I believe I saw an understudy).
Generally, this is a battle that rages deceptively strong and subtle for the length of the play, swimming cruelly in the hazy heat of its Southern charm. But somewhere in this modernization, the reasonings never get fully realized, leaving the cast to wander in their stereotypical delivery without a sharp focal point in the horizon to zero in on. Hidden behind the bar and the drink, de Rogatis finds a Brick to be engaged with. He’s definitely handsome and desirable, especially in the eyes of the far-too-straightforward Henggeler’s Maggie the Cat, and his occupation of drinking rings more true than most. I’m not sure if the modernization has been created to fit his chest-baring delivery of a broken Brick, but I will say that his artful approach to the part is one of the stronger components of this otherwise clunky reimagining.
Given so much to unpack, Henggeler runs a little too fast and furious, not weaving a pause into her thoughts and actions. It’s all forward flowing, ignoring the laws of silence and deliberation. Big Mama and Big Daddy, ignoring the fact that they don’t seem to fit in with their surroundings or the set-up, find their way into the same cage as the two central figure fighters, giving us something else to contemplate in their constructs, beyond their tight fitting jeans and dress. There’s not much of a father/son connection, nor does their familial energy register, even as it moves and twitches within the pauses well. The details of attachment are lost, as they talk around things, with everyone else playing at high volume, courtesy of a sound design by Tomás Correa (Hudson Street’s Adam & Eve), delivering the Southern drawl with the intensity of an SNL skit. That’s a problem to the whole and one that doesn’t work for this rendering.
Most of the cast is all hock and no spit, moving around the room with a strange case of physicalized mendacity while never really finding a reason for their existence. The artifice gets in the way of the movement, especially in Matthew Imhoff’s (off-Broadway’s soot and spit) busy and overly clumsy set, with some distracting fading in and out by lighting designer Christian Specht’s (SSTI’s Cabaret). The storm approaching is as false as the formula and the reasoning for this retelling. It showcases some basically good actors embracing the chance to play iconic Big roles that I’m sure they have always wanted to dig their Southern-accented chomps into, possibly because one or two of them might never otherwise get the chance as they don’t exactly fit the literal sashaying of the “fat old” bodies out and around the staging of this play. The idea breeds curiosity, but one that doesn’t save this Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from falling quick and hard from its perch, I’m sad to say. While the birdie in A Doll’s House flies strong out into the cool Broadway air, with solid reasoning on its stark wings, reminding us all what makes for a worthy reimagining of a classic.
You are seriously asking for it, when you make the title for your musical Bad Cinderella, however the show is not bad, it’s just seriously lacking. For an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which is normally rich in melody, the only song that has any kind of hold is “Only You, Lonely You” sung by Prince Sebastian (Jordan Dobson or in my performance the wonderful Julio Ray). The lyrics by David Zippel and book by Emerald Fennell, adapted by Alexis Scheer are inane. It doesn’t help that the cast for the most part speaks and sings with mouths full of cotton. The orchestrations sound tinny and computerized, The lead Linedy Genao has no charisma or vocals that soar musically, instead she is rather nasal, like Bernadette Peters with a cold. Why this show is two and a half hours long is beyond me.
Grace McLean and the hunks Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
The show is based in a town called Belleville (beautiful town en Francais), that is based solely on looks and prides itself on its superficiality. The opening number starts with “Beauty Is Our Duty,” the Queen (a fabulous Grace McLean) is into her hunks including her missing son Charming (Cameron Loyal).
Christina Acosta Robinson Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
And the fairy godmother (Christina Acosta Robinson) is a plastic surgeon who sings “Beauty Has a Price”. In a day and age, where we are suppose to see past all that, this show is politically incorrect.
Linedy Genao Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Cinderella a Gothic, and a graffiti artist, naturally does not fit into the town’s mold of beauty, which is how she earns her nickname. Her rebel move happens when she defaces a memorial statue of Sebastian’s older brother, Prince Charming. Sebastian is more of a geek, and he and Cinderella are in the “friend zone,” since both lack communication skills in admitting their love.
Carolee Carmello Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Sebastian is being forced by his mother, the Queen to find a wife at a ball and invites Cinderella. Cinderella’s stepmother (the always remarkable Carolee Carmello) blackmails the Queen to get one of her daughters Adele (Sami Gayle) or Marie (Morgan Higgins) the gig.
Grace McLean, Carolee Carmello Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
McLean and Carmello are the bright spots in the show and if the show had been about these two, maybe we would actually have a show that could work. These two steal the show.
Linedy Genao, Jordan Dobson, Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Cinderella has not one, but two what should have been show stopping numbers “I Know I Have A Heart (Because You Broke It)” and “Far Too Late,” but she does not have the vocals, the character development or the star power to carry them off.
The set and the revenge porn costumes by Gabriela Tylesova, are just over the top, with the storybook set faring much better than the over complicated flowered pastels that waltzed across the stage.
The direction by Laurence Connor is just dull and lacks oomph.
If you like buff men and Chippendale type choreography this is the show for you.
Bad Cinderella, Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street.
On Friday, March 24th, the 96-year-old John Kander was given a Mayoral Proclamation from Mayor Eric Adams in celebration of the first performance of his new Broadway musical New York, New York. Following the proclamation, Lin-Manuel Miranda unveiled the sign renaming 44th Steet ‘Kander & Ebb Way. On hand was the Manhattan School of Music to performed the iconic Kander & Ebb song “New York, New York.”
New York, New York opens Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at Broadway’s St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street).
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