09/03/04
______________________________________
Reckless
Biltmore Theatre
Starts September 23, Opens October 14
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: The Broadway debut of Craig Lucas' dark comedy, a favorite of regional theaters, which premiered at off-Broadway's then-hot Circle Rep back in 1988. Mary-Louise Parker, who made her own Circle Rep splash the following season with Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, headlines this staging, a co-production between Second Stage Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club. In the show, a housewife learns her husband has a contract out on her life on Christmas Eve, causing her to climb out of her window and set off on an adventure.
The Main Attraction: The leading ladies. Parker's right at home with Lucas' quirky territory, always-solid Debra Monk makes a welcome return to comedy after last playing the Jazz jezebel-turned-stroke victim in Thou Shalt Not and Perez can do no wrong after her divine turn in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
The Forecast: By lowering the bar and getting a proven star to play a lighthearted script will MTC find the hit that alluded their first season at the Biltmore? Things are looking up.
______________________________________
Brooklyn, The Musical
Plymouth Theatre
Starts September 23, Opens October 21
BUY TICKETS!
The Pitch: A group of street singers called “city weeds” converge to tell the story of a young girl named after the proud borough. Brooklyn (former Wicked standby Eden Espinosa), who grows up in a French orphanage after Vietnam and post-war break up her parents, is an aspiring singer who finds celebrity when she comes to America looking for Daddy (Kevin Anderson), facing-off with a vain R&B diva named Paradice (Ramona Keller, who wowed critics out of town). Brooklyn has a high-belting score by newcomers (to Broadway at least) Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson, who first met in a recording studio in the ‘80s and later reunited in (you guessed it) Brooklyn, when McPherson found then-homeless Schoenfeld singing on a street corner.
The Main Attraction: Former chorus boy Jeff Calhoun really steps up to bat as a director with Brooklyn, his first non-revival musical staging on Broadway. After last season's stellar Big River, I'm excited to see his work here.
The Forecast: A new musical without any recognizable names attached is always a tough sell. But the Brooklyn stars should be able to turn out some memorable TV appearances with the show's radio-friendly tunes.
______________________________________
Laugh Whore
Cort Theatre
Starts October 12, Opens October 24
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: Openly gay comedian Mario Cantone (who's also now respected as a real actor thanks to well-received turns in Assassins and TV's Sex and the City) brings the solo song-and-joke show that he premiered at the American Airlines Theatre in 2002 back, with a catchy new title. On board with Cantone for the venture are director Joe Mantello, who was wise enough to bring the former children's TV host to Broadway in the first place (as Nathan Lane's replacement in Love! Valour! Compassion!), and boyfriend Jerry Dixon (Once On This Island, Five Guys Named Moe), co-writing original songs.
The Main Attraction: The laugh whore himself, of course! Arriving in the weeks before Election 2004, the outspoken Cantone should have a lot on his mind about all things political (and hopefully he'll throw in his Liza impersonation as well!)
The Forecast: No doubt Cantone is ready for the big leagues, but it will still be a challenge finding an audience with proven heavy-hitters like Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Dame Edna on the boards.
___________________________________________________________
Twelve Angry Men
American Airlines Theatre
Starts October 1, Opens October 28
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: The Broadway debut of the sharp screen script about 12 court-summoned jurors from various urban backgrounds who converge in a deliberation room to discuss the murder trial of a young man. Twelve Angry Men was originally written as a teleplay by Reginald Rose for CBS, which first aired the drama on their Studio One series in 1954. Most audiences are more familiar with the all-star Oscar-nominated Sidney Lumet film that came three years later or perhaps even the 1997 Showtime redo, which proved that the story is good enough to stand the passage of time.
The Main Attraction: The script features a terrific array of New York types and the Roundabout has gathered a standout group of stars to bring them to life, including Tom Aldredge, Mark Blum, Philip Bosco, Larry Bryggman, Boyd Gaines, Kevin Geer, Dan Hedaya, Michael Mastro, John Pankow and James Rebhorn. It's easy to imagine a handful of acting Tony noms here--Bosco, Hedaya and Gaines have especially juicy parts.
The Forecast: After recent stinkers like The Look of Love and The Boys from Syracuse, the phrase “directed by Scott Ellis” is enough to give anyone pause, but I can't imagine this cast and this script won't light off some theatrical fireworks.
___________________________________________________________
Whoopi
Lyceum Theatre
Starts November 6, Opens November 17
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: It's 1984 all over again, as Whoopi Goldberg returns to the same stage where she had her first major success—her hilarious one-woman, no props experiment produced and directed by Mike Nichols (who's plotting his own Broadway return these days as director of Monty Python's Spamalot). The acclaimed show, which became an HBO special and a Grammy-winning comedy album, is boldly coming back with little or no revisions or updates by its author/star. Originally called The Spook Show when Goldberg premiered it on the road and at Dance Theater Workshop in New York in the early '80s, Whoopi features five monologues of underdog characters including a little black girl with blonde hair, a Jamaican nursemaid (and her “old raisin” of a man), a surfer chick, a junkie and a disabled person.
The Main Attraction: After flexing her muscles as a producer (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Harlem Song) and dramatic chops as a legit stage star (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Goldberg's back to her roots in this must-see performance.
The Forecast: Nothing spooky about it--Whoopi should be just fine.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Gem of the Ocean
Walter Kerr Theatre
Starts October 22, Opens November 11
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: In the ninth play in August Wilson's 10-play cycle about the African-American experience in the 20th century, we finally meet Aunt Ester, a character mentioned in other Wilson epics, including Two Trains Running and King Hedley II, which included a penultimate scene announcing Ester's death. In Gem of the Ocean, spiritual healer and former slave Ester (played by Phylicia Rashad) is alive and well (at 286 years of age!) and dealing with the sudden arrival on her doorstep of Citizen Barlow (newcomer John Earl Jelks), a criminal in need of salvation. The show is set in 1904 in Wilson's own hometown of Pittsburgh and includes an apparently stunning séance sequence in which Ester and Citizen Barlow visit the City of Bones, an unmarked graveyard in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for the slaves who didn't make the journey from Africa.
The Main Attraction: Phylicia Rashad, who broke hearts (and won a Tony) for her work in A Raisin in the Sun last season is set to do the same here (Especially now that Raisin director Kenny Leon--who ironically played Citizen Barlow in the show's Chicago premiere last year--has taken the reins).
The Forecast: Gem sounds more potent then King Hedley II, Wilson's last new New York outing, which should help. And hey--maybe some of the kids who went to Raisin for P. Diddy and walked out a fan of its trio of leading ladies will return to catch Rashad's newest venture.
___________________________________________________________
'night, Mother
Royale Theatre
Starts October 22, Opens November 14
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: The heart-wrenching play by Marsha Norman makes a return, thanks mostly to Sopranos star Edie Falco, who hand chose it as her next vehicle. Falco plays Jessie, a middle-aged epileptic unable to hold a job or a man who tells her mother Thelma (film star Brenda Blethyn, making her Broadway debut) that she's going to kill herself by morning at the start of the show. The potent will-she-or-won't-she dialogue won Norman the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and helped the show run almost a year on Broadway originally, with Kathy Bates (launching her Hollywood career) and Anne Pitoniak (Uncle Vanya, Imaginary Friends) in the leads. Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft starred in the expanded 1986 film version.
The Main Attraction: Blethyn, well-liked for films like Secrets & Lies and Little Voice, should prove to be a draw, but the main attraction is the fabulous Miss Falco, who recently overcame a private battle with breast cancer. Interestingly, she seems intent on following in the footsteps of Bates, first bringing Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune to Broadway and now taking on the showy lead in 'night, Mother. What's next? The stage adaptation of Misery?!
The Forecast: A true stage star, Falco brought in the crowds (helped a bit by her nudity with then-boyfriend Stanley Tucci) in Frankie and Johnny. Something tells me that the Carmela Soprano supporters will turn up again for this darker work.
___________________________________________________________
The Good Body
Booth Theatre
Starts October 22, Opens November 15
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: Eve Ensler, who interviewed hundreds of women about their privates for her blockbuster The Vagina Monologues turns her attention to issues of body image in contemporary society. Although The Good Body is similar in that Ensler inhabits different interview subjects in the one-woman show, she also tells about her own personal journey towards body acceptance. Ensler is only scheduled to perform the show on Broadway for 12 weeks, but one can't help but wonder if The Good Body will continue beyond the initial run with the same sort of rotating stars that kept that vaginal victory going strong for all those years. That probably all depends on whether or not the show, which received encouraging yet mixed reviews during its out-of-town runs in San Francisco and Seattle, will need such a boost. If you'd rather enjoy The Good Body in the comfort of your home, a book version of the show hits shelves in November.
The Main Attraction: The hot topic. Ensler could become a hero among female audiences in a society that obsesses on the two-digit weight of B-list celebs like Mary-Kate Olsen.
The Forecast: With a far-bigger house to fill and a lack of an eye-catching title, The Good Body may need those famous ladies more than The Vagina Monologues ever did.
___________________________________________________________
Democracy
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Starts November 2, Opens November 18
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: The last time acclaimed playwright Michael Frayn teamed up with director Michael Blakemore to dissect a moment of recent European history, the result was the 2001 Tony-winning Best Play Copenhagen. Now, after hit runs at London's Royal National Theatre and in the West End, Democracy arrives on Broadway with an American cast. The story concerns short-lived liberal German leader Willy Brandt (James Naughton) and his devoted personal assistant Günter Guillaume (Richard Thomas), who was spying on Brandt for East Germany's Ministry of State Security.
The Main Attraction: According to the raves across the pond, who likened Frayn's script to a well-plotted spy thriller, the play's the thing.
The Forecast: The National's transfer of Jumpers failed to find a New York audience, but this more accessible, less esoteric show should have an easier time. And, of course, the critics will probably get behind one of the few new plays on tap.
___________________________________________________________
Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance!
Music Box Theatre
Starts November 5, Opens November 21
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: Dame Edna: The Royal Tour was a surprise smash at the Booth Theatre back in 1999, running for nine months before hitting the road. Dame Edna Everage (and alter ego Barry Humphries) have been on the road on and off ever since, delighting “possums” from coast to coast. Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance! is currently on view for the boys in San Francisco prior to its Broadway run at the Music Box. Since the last engagement was such a hit, Humphries is producing the show himself this time. Smart man!
The Main Attraction: A Dame Edna show is an experience unlike any other. It's one of the few shows at which I don't mind being called out from the audience. Viva La Edna!
The Forecast: As Edna herself says in the show's press release, “I don't do shows, I make history. In a spooky way, I am theater in the making. My shows are not shows at all, they are events.” Indeed. Let's put it in the “hit” column.
___________________________________________________________
Pacific Overtures
Studio 54
Starts November 12, Opens December 2
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: After snatching up another Tony Award for the Broadway bow of Assassins last year, Roundabout revives another Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman flop--their first collaboration, 1976's Pacific Overtures, which closed quickly on Broadway after losing most of its 10 Tony nominations (A Chorus Line was the show to beat that season). This new production is a reworking of the New National Theater of Tokyo production, which briefly played the States in 2002 at both the Lincoln Center Festival and the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration. But fear not--although the Roundabout production is retaining director Amon Miyamoto, the show will now been presented in English as it was written. In case you haven't heard, Pacific Overtures is a musical that takes place in 1853, when American Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry landed in the then-isolated country of Japan to attempt to establish trade deals.
The Main Attraction: The Sondheim score, of course. There are plenty of of musical theater fans that are unfamiliar with the master's work here, which includes gorgeous songs like "Pretty Lady," "Poems" and "Someone in a Tree."
The Forecast: Critics will no doubt embrace Miyamoto's vision, but it's hard to imagine Roundabout squeezing an extended life out of a show about the history of Japan.
___________________________________________________________
700 Sundays
Broadhurst Theatre
Starts November 12, Opens December 5
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: Beloved comic (and recurring Oscar host) Billy Crystal turns his attention to Broadway with this new one-man show, written in part with Hollywood comedy legend Alan Zweibel (who penned the adorable off-Broadway show Bunny, Bunny about his relationship with Gilda Radner). In the heart-tugger, Crystal looks back on his jazz-fueled childhood and, specifically, his relationship with his father, who died when he was 15. In case you're wondering about the title, it refers to the one day that Crystal and his dad would bond every week—in all, he estimates they had about 700 holy days together. The spark for the show came when Crystal was interviewed onstage at an event in Seattle a few years back, which led to several further presentations under the direction of Des McAnuff.
The Main Attraction: Tickets for 700 Sundays run up to $275—a substantial price that Crystal will probably have no problem fetching thanks to his cross-generational fan base. Now when do we start asking him to host the 2005 Tony Awards? (Think of the song medleys!)
The Forecast: To quote one of my favorite Stephen Sondheim songs, it's a “surefire, genuine, walkaway, blockbuster, lines down to Broadway, boffola, sensational, box office lollapalooza, gargantuan hit!”
___________________________________________________________
La Cage aux Folles
Marquis Theatre
Starts November 7, Opens December 9
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: The ultimate gay family values musical! The original La Cage was a Broadway institution—running over four years and famously beating out Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George several times at the 1984 Tony ceremonies. The plot follows the original French flick and the updated Miami-set The Birdcage--devoted father Georges (along with drag star lover Albin) has his life shaken up when son Jean-Michel returns home with intentions to marry his girlfriend, the daughter of ultra-conservatives. Although he seems to have been courting celebs at one point (Kelsey Grammer, anyone?), director Jerry Zaks has instead assembled a rock solid group of theater pros for the show--folks like Daniel Davis (now in The Frogs) as Georges and Gavin Creel (Thoroughly Modern Millie) as Jean-Michel. But all eyes will be on Gary Beach, offering a nice follow-up to his high-camp Tony-winning work in The Producers. Here, Beach gets to make us laugh and then make us cry, with his triumphant wig-flipping second act anthem…
The Main Attraction: …“I Am What I Am.” The Jerry Herman showstopper to end all showstoppers.
The Forecast: Reviews will play a big part here, but the team looks pretty winning from this vantage point.
___________________________________________________________
Good Vibrations
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
Starts December 4, Opens January 13
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: The latest song catalog musical, this time focusing on the laid-back hits of the Beach Boys—songs like “Surfin',” “Surfin' USA” and “Surfer Girl.” Not surprisingly, the show takes place on a beach, where a group of small-town teens deal with love and loss under the California sun. “Wouldn't It Be Nice” to go back to those days of youth and relive all the “Fun, Fun, Fun” of high school? That's what producers are hoping audiences will think about this new tuner (direct from a trial run up at Vassar this summer), staged by Urinetown (and Dance of the Vampires--shhh…) choreographer John Carrafa.
The Main Attraction: You can't escape the appeal of a stageful of fresh-scrubbed newcomers for family audiences. Especially if American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini re-signs with the show (Wait—wasn't he just in a beach musical?!)
The Forecast: Will audiences flock to a beach musical in the dead of winter? The familiar songs will help. Nice reviews would help more.
___________________________________________________________
Little Women
Virginia Theatre
Starts December 2, Opens January 20
E-MAIL ME WHEN TICKETS ARE ON SALE!
The Pitch: A long-gestating musical adaptation of the 19th- century novel by Louisa May Alcott about her own estrogen-heavy family in Civil War New England. Playing the part of Alcott's alter ego, tomboy Jo, is Sutton Foster, the Tony-winning young star of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Foster is following in the footsteps of past film Jos like Katharine Hepburn, June Allyson and Winona Ryder and stage Jo Jessie Royce Landis, an actress who spent 40 years on Broadway, playing the role in a revival of Marian De Forest's play adaptation which was produced three times in the early part of the 20th century.
The Main Attraction: You already know what I'm going to say—Miss Foster, showing off some different colors than her triple-threat work as Millie Dillmount afforded her. She will be, I predict, astonishing.
The Forecast: Literary classics don't always make the transition well—just ask anyone involved with recent financial duds like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Jane Eyre. Then again, I think Little Women has a more appealing story than either of these other shelf-sitters. Still, any new musical is an uphill struggle and Louisa May Alcott isn't the name that, say, John Waters is these days!
___________________________________________________________
Best of luck to all of the above shows! That's it for now. Talk to you next week. Please e-mail me any of your questions, comments or critiques!
Paul Wontorek
Editor-in-Chief
For an archive of old Stage Note columns, click here.