Theater

Friday, November 6, 2009

Big Meeting Today to Contemplate Squashing Spider-Man Musical

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 11:04 AM

Spider-Man Musical
Two of the execs behind the embattled Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Broadway musical spoke to ArtsBeat yesterday, explaining that all the production and artistic big-wigs (including director Julie Taymor and, maybe, composers and lyricists Bono and The Edge) will be meeting in Manhattan today to discuss the production, its planned February 25 debut and the whole big mess of financial problems it's run into since lead producer David Garfinkle dropped out.

They're expected to push that first preview date back some, and Taymor will likely ask that the first rehersals be postponed until the New Year, so that all the technological wizardry of, you know, web-slinging around a theater can be worked out. The weekly operating cost of the show has been projected to hover somewhere between $700,000 and $1 million, which basically means the show would need to run, sold out, for like a year before it made any profit. While we wait on the results of this mysterious meeting, let me just say that I'm all for stage spectacles, but certain things were just not meant to be plays.

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

First Photo of Broadway's Addams Family

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 4:43 PM

The Addams Family on Broadway

Yep, that's the first cast photograph of the upcoming Addams Family Broadway musical, which begins previews on March 4, 2010 at the Lunt-Fontane Theater after a run in Chicago. The shot by Mark Seliger is due to appear in the December issue of Vanity Fair, but showed up on the production's website today and was quickly pounced upon by theater bloggers. The musical adaptation was written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, and stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth (as Gomez and Morticia) along with Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester), Jackie Hoffman (Grandmama), Zachary James (Lurch), Adam Riegler (Pugsley) and Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday). I keep thinking that's Seth Green as Grandma Addams.

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Monday, November 2, 2009

Public Theater Announces 2010 Shakespeare in the Park

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 1:58 PM

Delacorte Theater in Central Park
After splitting its summer of '09 bill at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park between Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Euripides' The Bacchae, the Public Theater announced today that its 2010 outdoor productions will be alternating performances of The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale with the same cast. This is the first time in almost twenty years that the Public's Central Park plays will feature a rotating rep program for all eight weeks, as opposed to the two 4-week runs they've produced lately.

Though the plays haven't been cast yet, Daniel Sullivan will direct Merchant and Michael Greif will helm Winter's Tale. Sullivan directed Twelfth Night last summer and Manhattan Theatre Club's recent Broadway production of Accent on Youth, while Greif's most recent work at Shakespeare in the Park was Romeo & Juliet in 2007 and he directed the current Broadway production of Next to Normal. Previews of the two Shakespeare plays begin previews on alternating nights June 9 2010 and continue through August 1. Casting the part of Shylock should be interesting.

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Broadway Forgets Brighton Beach Memoirs

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 11:49 AM

Brighton Beach Memoirs closes on Broadway
Theater bloggers were all besides themselves over the weekend after the announcement that the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs at the Nederlander Theater would close yesterday, only one week after opening and less than one month after its first performance. By most accounts, the sequel to Simon's Broadway Bound (ha! the irony), was very good, and Garrett Eisler at Playgoer went so far as to call it the "best American play on Broadway" (take that, David Mamet).

After Patrick Healy's piece in the Times two weeks ago explaining that a few star-studded plays were skewing the numbers in an otherwise lukewarm, musical-driven Broadway season, most have concluded that the absence of significant star power is what precipitated Brighton Beach's demise. All of which basically confirms the sad fact that, much like blockbuster movies, Broadway relies more on spectacle and celebrities than critics and public opinion for its (financial) success.

(photo credit: Janna Giacoppo)

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Backlash from Disability Advocacy Group on Broadway Keller Casting

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 3:47 PM

The Miracle Worker
Following very closely on yesterday's announcement that Abigail Breslin will make her Broadway debut as Helen Keller in a revival of The Miracle Worker at Circle in the Square next year, the advocacy group Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts has stated its opposition to the casting decision. The group, rightly but hopelessly, makes a habit of protesting the casting of non-disabled actors as disabled characters. Most recently, the group organized protests when New York Theater Workshop didn't audition any deaf actors for the part of a deaf character in an upcoming production of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

In the case of The Miracle Worker, the production company behind the Broadway show wanted a star from the get-go, and there was never a question of casting a deaf or blind actor in the part of Keller, who cannot hear or see. Lead producer David Richenthal explained the predictable financial reasons to ArtsBeat:

It’s simply naïve to think that in this day and age, you’ll be able to sell tickets to a play revival solely on the potential of the production to be a great show or on the potential for an unknown actress to give a breakthrough performance. I would consider it financially irresponsible to approach a major revival without making a serious effort to get a star.

Which is both exactly what you'd expect from a Broadway producer and very naïve in its condescension to Broadway audiences.

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Little Miss Helen Keller: Abigail Breslin Starring in Miracle Worker on Broadway

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 10:03 AM

Abigail Breslin
In what seems like less of a stretch than Scarlett Johansson playing a 17-year-old, Culture Monster reports that 13-year-old Abigail Breslin will play young Helen Keller in an upcoming Broadway revival of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker at the Circle in the Square Theater.

The production, which opens on March 3, 2010, marks the 50th anniversary of the play's Broadway debut, for which it won a Tony. This production may also boast the youngest pair of stars of any Broadway show ever, with Breslin sharing the bill with Allison Pill, who'll be 24 when the show opens. Pill appeared most recently in the original production of Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty at MTC in 2008 and was nominated for a Tony for her performance in The Lieutenant of Inishmore back in 2006.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Theatre 80 St. Marks Lives On!

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 3:43 PM

theatre 80 St. Marks
Many feared that with the departure of the Pearl Theatre Company for bigger, swankier digs at Midtown's City Center, Theatre 80 on St. Marks near First Avenue—one of the largest and most celebrated downtown theaters—would never reopen, at least not as a performance space. Then, last spring, owner Lorcan Otway promised that the theater would continue to host performances and, harkening back to its original incarnation, movies.

Today, Playgoer posted a letter from Otway with an update on the space's situation. Theatre 80 will continue to serve as a performance space on a temporary rental basis, and they

are installing high definition projection with a 12 by 28 foot retractable screen, set far back on the stage, so that the sight lines and image will be a great improvement from my father’s day. We will have film on occasion, though our primary focus will be live theater.

The upcoming schedule hasn't been revealed yet, but will include musicals, dance and opera.

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Scarlett Johansson To Play 17-Year-Old Brooklynite on Broadway

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 3:10 PM

A View from the Bridge poster
Yesterday ArtsBeat reported that Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber had been cast as the leads in a Broadway revival of Arhur Miller's A View from the Bridge, to begin previews on December 28 at the Cort Theater. The play is about an Italian American longshoreman (Schreiber) who lives in Red Hook with his wife and orphaned 17-year-old niece (Johansson)—no word yet on who will play the wife, though an abandoned film adaptation a few years back was rumored to have Johansson and Frances McDormand cast as the female leads.

Johansson, who'll be 25 when the show opens, will be making her Broadway debut, while Schreiber earned a Tony for his last stage role in the 2005 revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. The only film version of Bridge is Sidney Lumet's elusive and inexplicably French-language Vu du pont (1962).

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Sex and the City Becomes Stage Serial Cedar City Falls

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 4:30 PM

Cedar City Falls
The Times interviewed four of the ladies behind Sex and the City over the weekend about their new stage serial Cedar City Falls, whose fourth episode runs tomorrow night at the Cell Theater (at 7pm and 9:30pm) before moving to Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo for the next four episodes every Tuesday in November. The soap-y comedy about the residents of a small Midwestern town marks Liz Tuccillo, Cindy Chupack, Elisa Zuritsky and Julie Rottenberg's first collaboration since the end of SATC in 2005, and features a rather impressive cast of TV and theater vets, as well as a strong set of guest stars (just like a real TV show!).

The relatively bare-bones staging of the serial—for which all the actors are donating their time and the $18 admission is very affordable given the talent assembled—makes you wonder what the writers want to do with this series. Could this be a way of audience testing a new show, the beginnings of a years-long live soap, or just some friends trying out a new format for the fun and challenge of it?

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Serving Broadway a Cocktail Musical

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 10:40 AM

Cocktail Tom Cruise
According to a brief piece in yesterday's Post, the latest hot property from the 80s headed to the Broadway stage as a lavish musical will be Cocktail ('88), with an adaptation by Heywood Gould, who wrote the original screenplay, to be produced by Marty Richards. There's no word yet on who will star, but so long as they serve drinks throughout the performance—which, obviously, they pretty much have to—does it really matter? I hope one of the musical numbers involves people in giant cocktail bottle suits jumping on trampolines. (Vulture)

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Friday, October 23, 2009

The Spider-Man Musical is Definitely Still Happening

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 5:20 PM

Spider Man Musical
Last night ArtsBeat checked in on the embattled, already-over-budget, producer-less Spider-Man musical originally meant to begin previews on Broadway in February. They spoke to an anonymous executive involved with the show who asserts that despite all the difficulties, the curtain will rise on Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark at the Hilton Theater on 43rd Street some time in the spring of 2010.

The executive claims that all the major players—that would be Bono and the Edge, who wrote the music and lyrics, and Julie Taymor, who wrote and will direct—are now looking for producers to help finance what's expected to be one of the most expensive shows in Broadway history. Meanwhile, still no word on the cast, which was to include Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming before they were all released from their contracts due to the departure of principle producer David Garfinkle. If you've got a few extra million lying around and want to give Spidey a hand you should, I dunno, call Bono or something.

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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Salma Hayek and Jessica Biel Coming to Broadway in Musical Almodovar Adaptation?

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 2:05 PM

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
According to Variety, a private reading of an early version of a still-in-the-works musical adaptation of Pedro Almodovar's 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown last weekend at Lincoln Center featured a promising line-up of stars: Salma Hayek, Jessica Biel, Matthew Morrison (of Glee fame), Paulo Szot, Mia Maestro and Joanna Gleason. Though none are attached to appear in the production, which could go into previews on Broadway as early as spring 2010, their involvement at such an early stage could be an indicator of things to come.

Already, the adaptation has plenty of theater-world power behind it, including lyrics and music by David Yazbek, a book by Jeffrey Lane, and Bartlett Sher (of the current South Pacific and upcoming Bruce Lee: Journey to the West) set to direct. Assuming this adaptation is a resounding success—which, clearly, how could it not be?—I wonder what Almodovar movie they'll turn into a musical next. How about Matador? (Culture Monster)

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Willy Wonka Stage Musical Finally Happening

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:09 PM

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
From the "It makes so much sense I can't believe they didn't do it sooner" department: WhatsOnStage.com reports that Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty, and former Artistic Director of London theater company Donmar Warehouse) is hard at work on a stage musical adaptation of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with an opening in London's West End scheduled for mid-2011. All of which means we should be getting a Broadway version of the musical based on the Roald Dahl book sometime in late 2011-early 2012.

Mendes has some powerful theater folk helping out on the project, including music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the duo behind Hairspray, and a book by David Greig, the Scottish playwright. Michael Ball will be playing Willy Wonka, though Charlie, Violet and the Oompa-Loompas have yet to be cast. Obviously, the tickets to this show will have to be golden.

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

It's Like That: Run-D.M.C. Musical Gathering Momentum

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 4:33 PM

Run-DMC
Clearly, today is a big news day for musicals, the latest of which comes from Playblog with word that surviving Run-D.M.C. members Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels are meeting with producer Paula Wagner about creating a musical based on the career of the pioneering rap group. Though it's still unclear what the format of the stage musical would be—biographical, backstage musical, musical reviews—Wagner explained in a statement: "I feel their story is very inspirational and lends itself perfectly to the stage."

Picking the players for this show will surely be the rap world's biggest casting call since Notorious, especially for the part of the late DJ Jam-Master J. Assuming turntable skills aren't mandatory—although they probably should be—I'd like to nominate Wood Harris, who played Avon Barksdale on The Wire.

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Rock of Ages to Rock the Big Screen

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 12:27 PM

Rock of Ages on Broadway
Rock of Ages, the Broadway musical set in late-80s Los Angeles' fast-fizzling punk rock, heavy and hair metal subcultures, is being adapted into a movie.

According to Variety, Adam Shankman—who directed the recent Hairspray musical adaptation—has signed on to choreograph and direct the new movie, which will come out in 2011. Hopefully the transition from 60s doo-wop to 80s rock won't be too tough for Shankman. No casting announcements have been made yet, but obviously someone should be giving Jack Black a call at some point. (Culture Monster)

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Carrie Musical in the Works?

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 11:19 AM

Carrie the Musical
Over at his blog Producer's Perspective, Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Ken Davenport spent some time yesterday thinking fondly on the possibility of turning the Stephen King novel-turned Brian De Palma high school horror flop Carrie into a stage musical. And aside from the fact that it's been done once before (with disastrous results), the idea suddenly seems plausible, if not downright likely.

According to Variety, Jeffrey Seller (the Broadway producer behind the new West Side Story and In the Heights) is organizing a reading of the script, and "'composer Michael Gore, lyricist Dean Pitchford and book writer Lawrence D. Cohen' are revisiting and reworking their script." While there are still no details on when and where the reading will be (and whether it will be open to the public), it's never too soon for a round of fantasy casting. I propose Kirsten Dunst in the lead and Carrie Fisher as her mother.

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Friday, October 16, 2009

New God of Carnage Cast Announced

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 9:35 AM

God of Carnage
I mentioned a couple days ago that a new Broadway cast for Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage should be announced any day now, and sure enough, yesterday ArtsBeat delivered the news. They're all familiar faces—though surely, none as familiar as the current cast—and will take over on November 17.

TV vet Jimmy Smits (Dexter, The West Wing, NYPD Blue, L.A. Law) will take the part of Alan currently being portrayed by Jeff Daniels; Annie Potts, whome you may remember as the Ghostbusters' secretary, inherits the role of Annette, currently performed by Hope Davis; Christine Lahti, who you may remember best from Chicago Hope, takes over from Marcia Gay Harden's Tony-winning performance as Veronica; and Scotsman Ken Stott will play Michael, currently being portrayed by James Gandolfini.

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Cast of Full House Rescues Interrupted Bye Bye Birdie Performance

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 3:07 PM

John Stamos and Bob Saget
Last night, as reported by ArtsBeat, Playbill and some others, during its final preview performance before opening tonight, the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie was delayed due to problems with the set. But instead of widespread awkwardness, annoyance and profuse apologies, star John Stamos made magic happen.

After begging comedian Don Rickles for some help to little avail, Stamos spotted Full House co-star Bob Saget in the audience, whom he brought up on stage for some impromptu stand-up, spoken into the microphone mounted on Stamos' forehead. Said Saget: “I’m really glad your crotch isn't miked.” Clearly, they should hire Saget and add this routine to the show, since they'll have to live down this exceptional bit of improv for the rest of the musical's run.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Re-Casting God of Carnage

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 11:49 AM

God of Carnage photo by Joan Marcus
Originally scheduled to close up shop on November 15, God of Carnage, the new Yasmina Reza (of Art fame) play about WASPy parents sparring after their kids get in a fight, will now be re-casting and continuing for an open-ended run. Of course, much of the play's appeal is its absurd cast of Marcia Gay Harden, James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels, so finding comparable replacements that will keep selling out shows night after night and week after week is no small task. ArtsBeat reports that an announcement should be coming through some time this week as to who will be in the new cast, which, at the very least, will not include Gandolfini.

Continue reading »

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Monday, October 12, 2009

Lynn Redgrave Still Set for One-Woman Show Despite Illness

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 12:39 PM

Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave (pictured) plans to begin preview performances of a new one-woman show Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center stage later this week, despite undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness that will require her to read from a script for the entire run of the show. According to Variety, performances of Nightingale will go ahead as planned, with opening night slated for November 3. The new play mixes autobiographic stories about Redgrave's family history and reminiscences about her grandmother's life.

Redgrave has been treated for cancer in the past, though the exact nature of this current illness, for which she's being treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is unknown. True to her reputation as a strong-willed and dedicated performer, though, she apparently insisted that the show go on.

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