And yet the company has managed to put a season together, to re-emerge as a contender in 2009-2010. But its future remains uncertain. And so, in its struggle for survival, City Opera is trying to strike a careful balance this season between popular repertoire favorites and more distinguishing fare; the company generally separates itself, or tries to, from its higher-profile competitor across the plaza in its embrace of neglected classics, up-and-coming singers, and modern composers—especially Americans. So, while the company will produce Don Giovanni up until around Thanksgiving and Madame Butterfly in the spring, it’s also currently staging a revival (which opened on November 7) of the late Hugo Weisgall’s Esther, which City Opera premiered to critical acclaim in 1993. New York opera enthusiasts have been waiting ever since to see it again. And surely, City Opera is counting on them to come in droves—because they need them now, more than ever. Esther looks like the company’s secret weapon. In case of emergency, break it out.

Today, ArtsBeat reports that not only Jay-Z, but also Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have signed on as lead producers of the show, which is choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones and opens a week from today at the Eugene O'Neil Theater. Not only will that make for an especially star-studded opening night, but this is also the biggest Broadway show I can think of in recent memory to be presented by mostly African American producers, which is rather awesome.

Adapted from The House of the Dead, Dostoyevsky’s Siberian dispatch about pre-Soviet prison camps, the Czech composer’s final opera, sung in his native tongue, is unremittingly bleak in sound, as is every aspect of Chereau’s toast-of-Europe production (which uses a tenor in a role usually sung by a mezzo-soprano) now at the Metropolitan Opera: haggard men in Communist-colored clothing smoke and shuffle blankly, penned in by 30-foot-tall gray walls, usually coming to life only to quarrel and brawl over bits of bread like citypark pigeons. (The production marks the long-awaited Met debut for Chereau, best known for his 70s Ring cycle and avant-garde films like Gabrielle.) These men are desperate to survive, despite their desperate, unsurvivable circumstance; they often move, when they can move at all, like scurrying cockroaches frightened by a switched-on light.

Cirque is still working on getting the Elvis show up and running, but after it opens they'll be sitting down with the Jackson folks to hammer out a deal. HR states the obvious: "The money involved is said to be astronomical." In other "Michael Jackson musical experience" news, AEG Live, the group behind the This Is It concert series, wants to take that show out on the road—you know, the show that essentially killed Jackson and wouldn't really make any sense without its focal point.

39 Steps' lead producer Bob Boyett explained that the idea was sparked by the puppet show's move: “We think what (producer) Kevin (McCollum) did with Avenue Q was brilliant, and we hope to follow.” And with the recent news that Toxic Avenger is closing on January 3, there's a nice big 499-seat theater at New World Stages that should fit The 39 Steps perfectly—it's currently being performed in the 597-seat Helen Hayes Theater.

Now the Boop musical is slated for a late 2010-early 2011 Broadway opening, with Canadian pop composer David Foster writing the music and lyrics, and a book by Oscar Williams and Sally Robinson. Hopefully they're keeping the original scenario, which had Betty running for mayor of New York City (she's got my vote). (Playblog)

The play follows a conversation between two friends who are garbageman, one of whom (Troy) is an ex-baseball player who confronts his boss about a company policy that prohibits black men from driving garbage trucks. Between this news and Abigail Breslin in The Miracle Worker, Broadway producers seem to be doing their best to keep the star power (and therefore, in theory, the revenue) at a maximum. Denzel last appeared on Broadway as Brutus in a critically panned, commercially successful production of Julius Caesar in 2005.

By most accounts a great show, it's also served as something of a testing ground for superhero musicals like the upcoming Spider-Man musical (which, by the way, is definitely happening and has cast its Peter Parker).

The lead producers Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman were also behind another very successful Broadway rock musical (maybe you've heard of it, it's called Spring Awakening), so the move to the big stage doesn't come as much of a surprise. Of course, it's hard to say whether or not Broadway audiences will shell out $75-a-ticket to be mocked in musical form.
(photo credit: mellopix.com)

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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).

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?

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.

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)

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.

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.