Broadway
Five Card Studs: Harvey Fierstein's Poker Game
At 4:40 p.m. last Saturday, after the matinee of Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theatre, Harvey Fierstein was in his dressing room, shedding his role as Edna, the beloved overweight Baltimore mother he plays eight times a week.
He swiveled his chair toward the door. “Oh, there you are,” he purred in his gravel-and-molasses voice. “Now get naked.”
I had come to join his weekly poker game in the basement of the theater.
Hairspray is closing Jan. 4, a fact that moved Mr. Fierstein to reprise his role as Edna for the last two months. On the way down to the basement we bumped into Mr. read more »
Jan From The Office To Play Roxie Hart
Melora Hardin, best known as Steve Carell's boss-cum-love interest Jan on NBC's The Office, will soon hang up her business attire for Roxie Hart's fishnets when she joins the cast of Chicago for a seven-week run beginning December 29. Hardin's musical turn is takes her back to her roots: the actress has recorded two albums and previously played Fantine in the Hollywood Bowl's Les Miserables in Concert last summer. Hardin, who also has a recurring role on TV's Monk, told the AP she was jazzed to be making her Broadway debut: "I have been dancing all my life, since I was 5 . . . In a way, I was made for musicals. But I have been working so much in film and television that I never really had a chance to do them." read more »
Wicked Turns Five, Celebrates With Green Playbills
Wicked, Broadway’s longtime top-grosser, celebrates the fifth anniversary of its opening tonight with a colorful commemoration: departing from their signature yellow, the mastheads of the show’s Playbills will be printed in green, according to Broadwayworld.com. A tribute to the famously verdant skin of Elphaba, Wicked’s witchy heroine, the revamped programs will be the first in history that Playbill has specially tailored for a particular performance.
Tonight’s show caps off a week of high-profile birthday festivities for the show read more »
Once Comes to Broadway
The fact that Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová managed to perform Once’s winning tune “Falling Slowly” at the Oscars earlier this year was a total coup—akin to seeing Elliott Smith finger-pick his way through “Miss Misery” at the same event ten years ago. Still, we've never thought the pair’s music worked quite as well outside the frame of John Carney’s camera. Somehow, all that folksy sap seemed appropriate coming from the Guinness-soaked streets of Dublin, less so coming from our stereos.
It’s fitting then that Hansard and Irglová have found a home for their music where sap can be the coin of the realm. That would be Broadway. Yup, according to the Los Angeles Times (via Stereogum), Tony-award-winning producers Jeff Sine, Fred Zollo, and John Hart Jr., have purchased the theater rights to Once, and the trio has every intention of bringing the musical to Broadway during the 2010-11 season. read more »
Beige Book Blues: Apartment Sales Off, Retail Sales Slow
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday released their seventh and second-to-last Beige Book report of 2008 (PDF), finding depressing economic trends in virtually all of the Fed's 12 districts nationwide. But what about the Second District, which includes all of New York, northern New Jersey and southwestern Connecticut? read more »
Broadway to Honor Newman
Tonight, in honor of Paul Newman, Broadway will dim its lights for one minute at 8pm. While best known for his many Hollywood star turns, Newman was also an accomplished stage actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1953 in the original New York production of William Inge's "Picnic," in which he met and fell in love with his future wife, Joanne Woodward, the Broadway League tells Reuters. In 2003 he was nominated for a Tony award for his role in the Broadway production of "Our Town."
Oh No, Tony! Broadway Attendance, Revenues Drop
Broadway theaters report that both attendance and reveneus dropped more than 10 percent from April 2007 to April 2008, according to the Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book. Attendance and revenues were down 3 percent annually in May, too.
Also, another tourist-dependent industry seems to have taken a mild hit recently. The Fed reports that Manhattan hotel room rates were up 7.5 percent in April from the same month last year and total revenues for hotels were up 6 percent during the same period. But! These are the smallest annual increases in more than two years. read more »
Shrek Comes to Broadway
Shrek is ditching the magic kingdom and coming to Broadway. Although, don't expect Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers to come out of their recording booths to prance around on stage any time soon. Shrek The Musical will premiere in Seattle in August this summer and then transfer to New York (at a theater to be announced) in early November. Spamalot helmer Tim Hatley will direct.
Read on for full press release. read more »
Rent Closing on June 1
After a year of dismal ticket sales, Rent is due to close on June 1. (We'll have to settle for Spring Awakening.) The show has been staged for 12 years at the Nederlander theater, the seventh-longest running show in Rialto history. read more »
Will Ferrell Coming to Broadway for One-Man Show?
Will Ferrell might come to Broadway with a one-man show. According to Michael Riedel of the New York Post, Mr. Farrell was inspired by... Billy Crystal? "The show's bouncing around at this point," a source told Mr. Riedel. "He hasn't figured out what it's supposed to be yet." read more »
Cry-Baby Coming to Broadway
Hey, remember Johnny Depp in the '90s, sporting a leather jacket and a greasy pompadour for his first musical, John Waters' Cry-Baby? Well a stage adaptation based on the 1990 cult classic is coming to Broadway starting March 15. The musical has been playing at the La Jolla Playhouse in California since November, but now James Snyder, who plays a blonde version of Mr. Depp, and Tony award-winner Harriet Harris, will reprise their roles on the Marquis Theatre stage, according to Playbill. read more »
Chaka Khan Joins Color Purple Cast
Chaka Khan is, indeed, every woman, including Sofia in the Broadway Theatre's production of The Color Purple. Gospel singer Bebe Winans, who had a small role in The Manchurian Candidate, will also join the cast tonight. Check here for tickets. read more »
Suit Alleges Unpublished Biography Helped Inspire Jersey Boys
Donna Corbello, the widow of biographer Rex Conrad Woodard, filed a suit alleging that an unpublished biography of The Four Seasons singer-guitarist Tommy DeVito written by her late husband aided in the creation of Jersey Boys. She claims that Mr. Woodward's estate is entitled to some cash from the hit Broadway musical. She is suing Mr. DeVito for a piece of the royalty he makes off the smash musical — although he is not an author of the musical, merely a subject in it.
Alan Cumming to Play Dianne Wiest's Lover in Seagull
Tony Award winner Alan Cumming will play Trigorin, the lover to Dianne Wiest's magnetic actress, Arkadina, in Anton Chekhov's 1896 play, The Seagull, at Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). It is to be directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev, artistic director of the Moscow New Drama Theatre. Previews begin on Feb. 20, with opening night set for March 13. read more »
Cyrano to End Record-Breaking Run Jan. 6
On Dec. 8, 2007, a single performance of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Richard Rogers Theater smashed the record for the highest gross of a play or musical in one night, totalling $153,880. Just a month later, on Jan. 6, Edmond Rostand's 1897 timeless romance will close its curtains. The star-studded production, including Kevin Kline, as the big-schnozed Cyrano and Jennifer Garner as hard-to-get Roxane, began previews on Oct. 11 and opened on Nov. 1. read more »
Hairspray Director Set to Helm Lloyd Webber's Phantom 2
Jack O'Brien, the acclaimed director of the stage production of Hairspray and Coast of Utopia, is working with Andrew Lloyd Webber on his sequel to Phantom of the Opera in London. He has met with the composer a few times last week and both are struggling to finish the storyline that was originally penned by novelist Frederick Forsyth and then Lloyd Webber's close collaborator Ben Elton. read more »
Drowsy Chaperone to Take the Long Nap
After five Tony Awards, 674 performances and 32 previews, the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone will close Dec. 30 at the Marquis Theatre. The show played to capacity audiences for a long time and moved into the profit column, but for the past six months the crowds had stopped coming. According to the Toronto Star, gimmick casting like placing Full House dad Bob Saget in the pivotal role of “Man In Chair” failed to catch on and its last week’s attendance was 39.3 percent. read more »
Behind the Scenes of Sweeney Todd
Broadway World's online TV show Broadway Beat is making a three-part series of interviews and historical retrospectives, counting down to the opening of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on Dec. 21. If you can get past BWW.com's Richard Ridge performing a nerdy introduction (and dressed so appropriately in fake-blood-red and black!), the first episode is almost entertaining. read more »
Usher Back on Broadway?
Usher might return to Broadway! Um, as his rapper sidekick Lil Jon would say on their hit single, "Yeah! Okay?" Usher is in talks to star in a revival the 1964 musical Golden Boy, based on the Clifford Odets play about Joe Wellington, a pianist who becomes a star boxer. The late Sammy Davis Jr. originated the role.
Remains of the Day: August: Osage County, Google, Silver Jews
Charles Isherwood wrote that August: Osage County is “the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.”
Yessss! VH1’s Pop-Up Video TV series, featuring fun facts to know and tell about the artist or the making of the video, will be available online! read more »
Potter Boy Radcliffe Gets Feisty With Studio Over Equus
So Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe officially signed the contract to bring Equus (and the 10-minute sex scene that goes along with it) to Broadway next year. The New York Post tells us that he had to wrangle with studios over scheduling obligations to the Potter movies to make it happen. read more »
Garner, Kline Get Cyrano Extension
After losing three weeks of performances due to the stagehands strike, stage actors Jennifer Garner and Kevin Kline (and his giant schnoz) will get a two-week extension of their play Cyrano de Bergerac at the Richard Rogers Theatre, according to Playbill.
Originally scheduled to conclude performances at the Rodgers Dec. 23, Cyrano has now announced that Kline, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Garner and the remainder of the cast will play performances through Jan. 6, 2008. Edmond Rostand's 1897 verse classic, featuring an adaptation by the late Anthony Burgess, began previews Oct. 12 and took its opening bow Nov. 1.
More theater news after the jump. read more »
After the Strike, Broadway Ticket Prices Rise
The price of a Broadway ticket will rise in the wake of the stagehands strike - but not necessarily because of the walkout, according to New York Daily News. After the 19-day strike, theaters lured back audiences with discount tickets and even a free show.
But it's only a matter of time before the freebies stop and prices rise, experts said. read more »
Strike is Over! Broadway Lights Up Tonight
Broadway is back! On the 19th day of the the strike a tenative agreement was reached between the League of American Theatres and Producers and the Local One stagehands union. Details of the final agreement have yet to be made public. Producers and the union have been hashing out issues including work assignments, setting of a production's run crew, load-in costs and labor minimums. Increase in wages was the subject of the final day of negotiations which lasted over 10 hours.
Inside the Latenight Broadway Strike Talks
Slate's Michelle Tsai explains why the Broadway stagehands and producers are pulling all-nighters during negotiation talks. Why are they being so nocturnal? And what is taking so damn long? It can't all be coffee and donut breaks... read more »
Broadway Strike Talks Break Down Again
Broadway will remain dark tonight as talks between stagehands and producers have broken off early this morning after a second straight all-night negotiation session. No new talks are planned and the strike is now in its third week. read more »
Late-Night Broadway Talks Take 12-Hour Break
Negotiators working on a settlement of the Broadway strike overnight last night left theMidtown law firm of Proskauer, Rose early this morning without an agreement, but will reconvene this evening to continue negotiations, NY1 reports.
When the two sides met last night it had been the first meeting since talks broke down on Nov. 18, and both sides appeared hopeful a resolution was coming.
At 8:30 p.m., union spokesman Bruce Cohen emerged and told reporters it would be a long night.
Hershel Waxman of the Nederlander Group was more positive. read more »
Local One Raised $5 Million to Prepare for Strike
Juan Gonzalez of the The New York Daily News takes an inside look at the Broadway strike:
James Claffey, Local One's burly young president, carefully prepared for a showdown. Claffey convinced his members the time had come for the union to stand up to the owners. He even convinced a reluctant Thomas Short, president of the local's parent union, that strong action was needed. read more »
Broadway Talks Collapse, Theaters Dark Another Week
Negotiations between Local 1 and the League of American Theatres and Producers broke down Sunday after a weekend of meetings and discussions. 27 plays and musicals will remain dark during what is typically a high-grossing week for Broadway, according to the Associated Press.
"We are profoundly disappointed to have to tell you that talks broke off tonight, and that no further negotiations are scheduled," Charlotte St. Martin, the league's executive director, said in a statement. read more »
Julie Andrews to Direct Broadway Mousical
Julie Andrews is returning to Broadway—as a director, according to Variety (blogger?) Army Archerd.
Her most charming book, The Great American Mousical, which she wrote with daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, is being musicked by Anthony Drewe and George Stiles, the team who tuned the musical Mary Poppins. The ultra charming, humorous and yes, exciting Mousical also takes on some of the recognizable Broadway stars who appear on stage above the cellar-dwellng mice. The book was illustrated by Tony Walton who will likely design the sets and costumes, making this Broadway production a family affair.
Why Broadway Shows Still Putting on The Ritz During Strike
This dispute is over the contract between Local One (the stagehands union), and the League of American Theatres and Producers (the organization that represents most of the Broadway theatres and producers). That contract sets out rules for how much the stagehands get paid, how many stagehands the theatres are required to hire, and other issues. read more »
Regional Theater Company 101
Terry Teachout of About Last Night gives theater-goers, and arts reviewers, a few guidelines on what to see off Broadway and in the regional theaters now that the Local One strike is still on. read more »
Seafarer, Farnsworth May Reschedule Openings
With the stagehands strike now in its third day and the opening nights of Conor McPherson's spooky romp The Seafarer and Aaron Sorkin's buzzed-about The Farnsworth Invention quickly approaching, producers of those shows are contemplating rescheduling the official opening nights, according to Playbill. read more »
27 Broadway Shows Remain Dark Due to Stagehands Strike
It's the third day in the Theatrical Stage Employees Union/Local One strike, and nearly all of Broadway is shut down. read more »
Maggie the Cat is Alive--On Broadway!
After 12 years of negotiations and organization, the all-African-American revival of Tennessee Williams' “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" will finally be staged on the Broadhurst Theater, starting in mid-February with an opening night set for March 6. Tony-nominated actor, choreographer and TV director Debbie Allen will direct.
Full release after the jump. read more »
Broadway Stangehands Close to Strike
Thomas C. Short, the president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Broadway stangehands' parent union, granted strike authorization to Local One last night. Mr. Short will advise James J. Claffey, the president of Local One, “as to the time and date when the strike will begin.”
Jessica Alba Does a Madonna on Mamet
According to the New York Post's Michael Riedel, Jessica Alba may star in a Broadway revival of David Mamet's 1988 satire of Hollywood "Speed-the-Plow" in the spring. Has she seen Claire Danes reviews? Yikes. But that didn't stop Madonna, as Mr. Riedel points out.
Madonna got some fairly harsh reviews in the role of the secretary who's so naive she has no idea how to make coffee. But it didn't hurt her career any - off the boards, at least.
No word yet on who will play the two male leads, but there's talk that "The Sopranos" stars James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli are on the producers' wish list, with Gandolfini playing the brutal studio boss and Imperioli playing the desperate producer.
Equus (and Radcliffe!) Arrive on Broadway in 2008
Daniel Radcliffe is gonna get naked in New York! The successful London revivial of Equus is coming to Broadway, along with Mr. Radcliffe. He plays the disturbed adolescent Alan Strang, an English stable boy who blinded six horses with a spike. Richard Griffiths, the Tony-award winning stage actor who played his bumbling, meanie uncle in the Harry Potter movies, takes on the role of psychiatrist Martin Dysart, who attempts to discover the source of Strang's psychosis.
According to the Daily Mail, the revival of Peter Shaffer's play will open at a Shubert theater in September 2008:
[I]t took months of negotiations to secure a deal with the theatre-owning Shubert Organisation and for the producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers to sort out all the paperwork for the play's two leading men to perform in New York.
Director Thea Sharrock will begin rehearsals next August.
"We're delighted that New York is now going to witness Richard and Daniel's extraordinary performances," Mr Pugh told me.
Both have special status with the American actors union Equity because of their international reputations, Griffiths through stage work including the Tony award he won for The History Boys and Daniel due to his performances as JK Rowling's adolescent hero Harry Potter.
Although there will be a rush to buy tickets to see Daniel and Griffiths act, there will be those who will just want to see him with his kit off.
Laurence Fishburne Returns to Broadway
Whoah. Laurence Fishburne, a Tony winner best known for his role as leather-cloaked Morpheus in The Matrix, will return to Broadway this spring in Thurgood, a one-man show about the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, according to Variety.
Written by screen producer, director and scribe George Stevens Jr., "Thurgood" offers a biographical account of Marshall, including his Baltimore upbringing and his stint as chief counsel of the NAACP, during which time he argued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case in 1954. Marshall, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967, died in 1993.
Ostar Prods. will produce the limited engagement of "Thurgood" in association with Westport Country Playhouse.
Show is set to begin previews at the Booth Theater on March 30 for an April 20 opening.
Cheers' Norm to Star in Hairspray
NORM! George Wendt, the character actor who slugged beers and recited countless "Normisms" on the TV show "Cheers," will trade his sportscoat for Edna Turnblad's housecoat in Broadway's Tony Award-winning Hairspray, starting Oct. 23, according to Playbill. "I'll drink to that!"
Wendt is a six-time Emmy Award nominee for playing grumpy but popular Norm Peterson on "Cheers." He recently played Juror #1 in the national tour of Twelve Angry Men. The Chicago Second City veteran has appeared onstage in Art (on Broadway and in London) and in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He was also seen in the ABC television musical "Bye Bye Birdie."
Streep's Daughter Coming to Broadway?
Like mother, like daughter, according to Page Six:
Meryl Streep's daughter Mamie Gummer, is headed to The Great White Way. She was overheard at The Plumm telling a pal that her play "The Autumn Garden," which she starred in over the summer in Williamstown, is coming to Broadway and she'll be in it. Gummer was at the club with her boyfriend of three months, Eric Murdoch, who was also in the play and will join her on Broadway. The two were drinking, dancing and cuddling all night.
Stagehands Authorize Broadway Strike
Members of Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees assembled Oct. 21 to vote on whether they would authorize their union's leaders to call a strike against the League of American Theatres and Producers should that be necessary.
According to a press statement released by Local One, the 1,000 members of the stagehands union unanimously agreed to allow the leaders of the union to call a strike should the leaders feel that a necessary action.
Currently, there has been no strike called.
'Strange' to Open on Broadway
Passing Strange, which played an extended, acclaimed engagement at the Public Theater this past summer, will arrive at Broadway's Belasco Theatre Feb. 8, 2008, with an official opening scheduled for Feb. 28.
The new musical — which features book and lyrics by singer-songwriter Stew and music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald — played the Public's Anspacher Theater May 14-July 1.
Clay Aiken to Make Broadway Debut in Spamalot
Clay Aiken, the biggest superstar to come out of American Idol who didn't actually win the contest, will join Monty Python's Spamalot production as Sir Robin, starting Jan. 18.
"Clay Aiken is amazing beyond that glorious voice. Turns out he is an excellent comic actor and a master of character," said director Mike Nichols in a release. "People will be surprised by his wide ranging talent, since the first impression is of great country charm and a singer to remember. This guy is not only a star, he is a lot more. We are lucky to get him for Spamalot."
Screen Version of Broadway's Nine Could Get Zeta-Jones, Cruz, Loren
The Weinstein Bros. are in talks with a slate of Hollywood song-and-dance types to star in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Nine.
According to Variety, The Weinstein Company is negotiating with Penelope Cruz, Catherine Zeta Jones, Sophia Loren, Javier Bardem and newcomer Marion Cotillard (who recently played Edith Piaf in the highly-praised biopic, La Vie En Rose) to appear in the adaptation.
Bardem follows Raul Julia in the role--Julia played director Guido Contini, who, in the musical inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2, must juggle his many lovers and his career; Antonio Banderas played the role in the revival.
Loren would play Contini's mother, who appears in the musical as a ghost.
Michael Tolkin is writing the screenplay; Rob Marshall will choreograph; and Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston, who did the original book and music and lyrics respectively, are executive producers.
Tony Award Nominations: The Chenoweth Files
Spring Awakenings was this morning's big winner when the nominees for 2007 Tony Awards were announced.
Click "read more" to see the full official list, including the number of nominations each nominee actually received from the League of American Theaters and Producers.
And here's a handy round-up of early observations:
