The New Broadway Season

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Denzel Washington will star on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh

 

Based on how many times this has been done in Chicago and NYC over the last ten years, clearly The Iceman Cometh... And Cometh... And Cometh Again.

 

Watching Washington a number of years ago in Julius Caesar was not one of my better theatre-going experiences. It was a busy, loud production and the only time I felt he connected with anything he was saying was during his monologues. Perhaps Iceman's famously long speeches will allow him to shine this time around.

 

My favorite take on Iceman will always be Kevin Spacey. He was electric.

[Cooper]

Off Broadway: Clockwork Orange

 

 

[bostonman]

Seems like the new theme is severe shows about dystopia, with the current 1984 and this upcoming Clockwork Orange. Not inappropriate, I suppose. (On the more comic side of that, I'll be doing a production of Urinetown next spring.)

[Cooper]

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THE CHER SHOW

The pop legend’s life story will head to the stage in a new bio-musical featuring her well-known songs and a book by Rick Elice. Directed by Jason Moore and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, the show is set to feature three performers in the title role, each depicting various eras of her career. Readings and workshops are in the works, and Cher herself says the musical is set for a 2018 Broadway bow.

[Cooper]

METEOR SHOWER

• Theatre: Booth Theatre

• First Preview: November 1, 2017

• Opening: November 29, 2017

• Written by Steve Martin

• Directed by Jerry Zaks

• Cast includes: Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Laura Benanti, Alan Tudyk

• Two couples find themselves in marital freefall—and in a meteor shower—during one hot Ojai night.

[Cooper]

ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE

• Theatre: Marquis

• First Preview: February 16, 2018

• Opening: March 15, 2018

• Music and lyrics by Jimmy Buffet; book by Greg Garcia and Mike O'Malley

• Director: Christopher Ashley

• Cast: TBA

• “Featuring both original songs and your most-loved Jimmy Buffett classics, this new musical is the story of a tropical island resort and its part-time bartender, part-time singer and full time charmer who thinks he’s got life all figured out. Until a beautiful career-minded tourist steals his heart and makes him question everything.”

• The world premiere runs at La Jolla Playhouse May 9–June 25, 2017 and will tour through New Orleans, Houston, and Chicago.

[RyanDean]

I'm going to try to get Springsteen tickets. We shall see.

Alas. I didn't get a spot to try to get a Bruce on Broadway ticket. Not sure I'm up to an arena concert, so may have missed my chance to see the Boss. Ah well.

[Cooper]

TIME AND THE CONWAYS

• Theatre: American Airlines

• First Preview: September 14, 2017

• Opening: October 10, 2017

• Playwright: J.B. Priestley

• Director: Rebecca Taichman

• Cast Includes: Elizabeth McGovern, Anna Camp, Gabriel Ebert, Steven Boyer

• Roundabout Theatre Company revival of this drama showing the status and dreams of British family just after World War I, and then as those dreams play out 19 years later.

• Limited run through November 26, 2017.

[N13]

Seems like the new theme is severe shows about dystopia, with the current 1984 and this upcoming Clockwork Orange. Not inappropriate, I suppose. ....

 

Going to see this (front row center) next week. Will report. Hoping it will be another "American Psycho - the Musical" which I thought was highly underrated and should have had a much longer run.

[Cooper]

Junk

BROADWAY

ORIGINAL

http://static.playbill.com/dims4/default/b8fbd39/2147483647/resize/250x/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.playbill.com%2F98%2F74%2Fc7f159994ef5ac518bf03d903f07%2Fjunk-649x1024.jpeg

• VIVIAN BEAUMONT THEATER
  
• 150 W. 65TH ST.
  

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced) returns to Broadway, bringing his newest work—Junk—to Lincoln Center Theater following its premiere at California's La Jolla Playhouse. Set over thirty years ago, this is a play about how, while most of us weren't watching, money became the only thing of real value. Doug Hughes, a Tony winner for Doubt, directs.

 

SYNOPSIS: It’s 1985. Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart investment firm Sacker Lowell has just landed on the cover of Time Magazine. Hailed as "America's Alchemist," his proclamation that "debt is an asset" has propelled him to dizzying heights. Zealously promoting his belief in the near-sacred infallibility of markets, he is trying to re-shape the world.

 

Performances begin October 5

[Cooper]

The Parisian Woman

Hudson Theatre

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/list_landscape_960x541/2017/07/uma_thurman_getty_h_2017.jpg

 

Uma Thurman makes her Broadway debut as a Washington socialite coming to terms with politics, her past, her marriage and her uncertain future. Inspired by French dramatist Henri Becque's 1885 farce La Parisienne, the new play — written by House of Cardscreator Beau Willimon and directed by Pam MacKinnon — unfolds after the 2016 election, when powerful friends have become more important than ever. Thurman's Chloe is an unfaithful wife irresistible to everyone in her circle, who faces a pivotal moment in her life at the same time the country is undergoing momentous change. She stars opposite Josh Lucas.

 

Previews: Nov. 7

Opening: Nov. 30

[edjames]

Lady Crawley comes to Broadway! Roundabout Theater Co presents:

 

http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Roundabout/media/Roundabout/Production%20Photos/Time%20and%20the%20Conways/TATC_1000x387.jpg?width=1000&height=387&ext=.jpg

 

TIME AND THE CONWAYS

In 1919 Britain, Mrs. Conway (Elizabeth McGovern of "Downton Abbey") is full of optimism during her daughter’s lavish twenty-first birthday celebration. The Great War is over, wealth is in the air, and the family’s dreams bubble over like champagne. Nineteen years later, though, the Conways’ lives have transformed unimaginably.

 

This time-jumping play by J.B. Priestley (An Inspector Calls) takes place at the crossroads of today and tomorrow—challenging our notions of choice, chance and destiny. Tony winner Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) directs.

 

Previews begin September 14, 2017.

Opening night: October 10, 2017.

[bostonman]

The full cast for the Carousel revival was just announced. Previews start 2/28/18, opening is 4/12/18.

 

Directed by Jack O'Brien, choreographed by Justin Peck.

 

Jessie Mueller (Beautiful, Waitress) as Julie

Betsy Wolfe (The Last Five Years, Waitress, Falsettos) as Carrie

Renee Fleming (yes, that Renee Fleming) as Nettie

Joshua Henry (The Scottboro Boys, Porgy And Bess, and the tour of Hamilton) as Billy

Alexander Gemignani (Hamilton, Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Les Mis) as Mr. Snow

Amar Ramasar (principal dancer at the NYC Ballet) as Jigger

 

And...I have a Boston friend/colleague in the ensemble, recently moved to NYC after being one of the favorites of the Boston regional scene...I am so thrilled for her!!

[Cooper]

THE CHILDREN

Direct from an acclaimed run in London, the Royal Court Theatre production of Lucy Kirkwood’s new play will make its American debut with Manhattan Theatre Club. In a remote cottage on the lonely British coast, a couple of retired nuclear engineers are living a very quiet life. Outside, the world is in utter chaos following a devastating series of events. When an old friend turns up at their door, they’re shocked to discover the real reason for her visit.

 

Performances begin November 28 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre with the original London cast. The production will open December 14.

[+ WilliamM]

Thanks for all posts about the fall seasons....more information is very helpful.

[edjames]

On TDF...Mr. Shanley is my classmate from Elementary School ( his play/film Doubt was written about the nuns in our school and is set (and partially filmed) at St. Anthony's in the Bronx)...this new show has a great cast!

 

THE PORTUGUESE KID

PREVIEWS BEGIN: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

OPENING NIGHT: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017

 

SYNOPSIS

In Providence, Rhode Island, habitually widowed Atalanta (Sherie Rene Scott) pays a visit to her second-rate lawyer Barry Dragonetti (Jason Alexander). Intending to settle her latest husband’s affairs, this larger-than-life Greek tightwad quickly becomes a nightmare for her cheesy, self-aggrandizing attorney. Add Barry’s impossible Croatian mother (Mary Testa), a dash of current politics and a couple of opportunistic young lovers, and you have in hand a recipe for comic combustion. This feisty romantic comedy could only come from John Patrick Shanley, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the MTC hits Doubt and Outside Mullingar, and the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Moonstruck.

The Portuguese Kid is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

 

THE PORTUGUESE KID

[N13]

Off Broadway: Clockwork Orange

 

Going to see this (front row center) next week. Will report. Hoping it will be another "American Psycho - the Musical" which I thought was highly underrated and should have had a much longer run.

 

Here is a fast short review (maybe I will write a longer one later).

 

Save your money

 

See the movie

 

Read the book

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Here is a fast short review (maybe I will write a longer one later).

 

Save your money

 

See the movie

 

Read the book

 

 

I saw this back in Feb in London. The cast was easy on the eyes, but that was the saving grace. Not worth the time spent for just eye candy.

 

I will say that based on the casting for NYC, London had a much better looking group of guys (if that matters to anyone).

[N13]

I saw this back in Feb in London. The cast was easy on the eyes, but that was the saving grace. Not worth the time spent for just eye candy.

 

I will say that based on the casting for NYC, London had a much better looking group of guys (if that matters to anyone).

 

The only attractive cast member was the lead. The rest were not 'eye candy.' In fact, they were rather repellant - which in some way should have worked to the show's advantage - but didn't. The direction was way over the top. There is a huge difference between stylized and buffoonery! The music was not well done and the only halfway interesting choreography was in the "jail" number. As much as I wanted it to, the play never caught fire. Flat throughout. I figured the reason there was no scenery was because the cast ate it all!

Since the movie is in my Top Ten it was a real disappointment.

[Cooper]

Official Broadway Opening Date for Tina Fey's Mean Girls Musical Announced

The production will have its world premiere in Washington, D.C., next month.

 

Details have been announced for the Broadway run of a musical adaptation of Mean Girls, created by Tina Fey.

The upcoming Broadway production of Tina Fey's new musical adaptation of her hit film Mean Girls will begin previews March 12 in advance of an opening April 8 at the August Wilson Theatre. In advance of the Broadway run, Mean Girls will have its world premiere October 31-December 3 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C.

 

The musical features a book by nine-time Emmy winner Fey, a score by three-time Emmy winner Jeff Richmond and Tony nominee Nell Benjamin, and direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw. It's D.C. cast will be led by Erika Henningsen as Cady Heron, Taylor Louderman as Regina George, Ashley Park as Gretchen Wieners, Kate Rockwell as Karen Smith, Barrett Wilbert Weed as Janis Sarkisian, Grey Henson as Damian Hubbard, Kerry Butler as Ms. Norbury, Kyle Selig as Aaron Samuels, Cheech Manohar as Kevin Gnapoor, and Rick Younger as Mr. Duvall.

 

The creative team for Mean Girls includes Scott Pask (set design), Gregg Barnes (costume design), Kenneth Posner (lighting design), Brian Ronan (sound design), Finn Ross and Adam Young (video design), Josh Marquette (hair design), Milagros Medina-Cerdeira (makeup design), Mary-Mitchell Campbell (music director), John Clancy (orchestrations), Glen Kelly (dance and incidental music arrangements), Jeff Richmond & Glen Kelly (additional music arrangements), and Howard Joines (music coordinator).

 

After years of living with her zoologist parents in Africa, Cady Heron moves to Illinois and must find where she fits in the social hierarchy. A sweet, naive newbie, Cady quickly attracts the attention of The Plastics, a trio of popular frenemies led by the vicious and calculating Regina George. When Cady devises a plan to end Regina's reign, she learns that you can't cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

[Cooper]

KPOP (Begins September 5)

If you loved The Great Comet and Here Lies Love, this is a show you're going to want to see. A giant cast takes us on an immersive trip through a Korean pop music factory in what promises to be the wildest new musical of the season. It features a score by Helen Park and Max Vernon (the composer of last season's The View UpStairs). KPOP is a production of Ars Nova (the original home of The Great Comet) in association with Ma-Yi Theater and Woodshed Collective. Welcome to the golden age of the immersive musical.

[+ WilliamM]

 

Clockwork Orange

[N13]

 

Clockwork Orange

 

He was the only good looking one in the American production. Enjoy this and save your money!