theater

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 »

For the seventh year in a row, hundreds of strangers will drop trow on the subway this Saturday, and The Observer will be there to watch (and participate, as per the organizer's instructions). Last year Improv Everywhere, a 70-person performance troupe whose stated mission is to “cause chaos and joy in public places," assembled over 300 people for “No Pants 2k7," and founder Charlie Todd is looking forward to another big turnout this year--600 Facebook members have already signed up.

We chatted with Mr. Todd on the eve of “No Pants 2k8” about what motivates a bunch of strangers to ride the subway in their skivvies.  read more »

New York's city council announced that "Live Theatre Week," in which Off Broadway shows will offer a buy-one-get-one-ticket-for-free deal, will be held Jan. 21-27. In a statement, League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers president George Forbes said, "We are honored that the City Council is recognizing the importance of Live Theatre in New York City, and we are pleased to be able to give back to our audiences, in the form of this special promotion. We hope New Yorkers and tourists will take advantage of this offer which enables them to purchase half-price tickets in advance."

Look for participating shows and theaters after the jump.  read more »

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 »

Words and Music by Jerry Herman, a documentary about the Broadway composer and writer of Milk and Honey, Hello Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage Aux Folles will air tonight on PBS at 9:30 p.m. Mr. Herman wrote the words and music for some of the greatest Broadway musicals ever mounted and is the winner of two Tony awards, including best composer and lyricist for Hello, Dolly! According to press notes, with his ebullient, optimistic and hummable songs that exemplify the "show tune," Jerry Herman extended the Golden Age of Broadway almost single-handedly, as new generations keep discovering his tuneful, optimistic and deceivingly simple songs. Yet, as Michael Feinstein says, "Jerry has succeeded so well in his mission that people don't give him credit ... because to be simple without being cliche is nearly impossible."  read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Get out your anti-war paint. The Godlight Theatre Company is bringing the staged adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five or: The Children's Crusade is coming to Off-Broadway. Previews will start on Jan. 11 at 59E59 Theaters and run until Feb. 17.

Playbill reports:  read more »

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.

The New York Post reports:  read more »

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 »

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 »

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.

Playbill reports:  read more »

The Nederlander Organization is suing striking stagehands in a $35 million claim filed late Tuesday. The Nederlanders, whose theaters stage several of Broadway's most popular current productions, claim that the stagehands' strike is costing $17 million a day.

From Reuters:

"Producers sued members of Local and its president James Claffey Jr. in Manhattan federal court seeking to recover damages for lost revenues… The League of American Theaters and Producers has said the strike that has darkened some 25 productions since November 10 is costing a total of about $17 million for every day it lasts."

Broadwayworld.com notes:

The Nederlander Organization currently owns the following strike-affected houses: Gershwin (Wicked), Neil Simon (Hairspray), Richard Rodgers (Cyrano de Bergerac), Brooks Atkinson (Grease), Nederlander (Rent), Marquis (The Drowsy Chaperone), Minskoff (The Lion King), Lunt-Fontanne (The Little Mermaid) and Palace (Legally Blonde).

• Reuters
• Broadwayworld.com

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 »

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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.

Playbill explains:

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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.

Dylan Baker, who you might recognize as the nerdy doctor in Spider-Man 2 or the creepy, perverted dad in Happiness, will join David Mamet's November, which will begin previews on Dec. 20 starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf.

Playbill reports:

"Set just days before a major presidential election," press notes state, "November involves civil marriages, gambling casinos, lesbians, American Indians, presidential libraries, questionable pardons and campaign contributions."

In the world premiere, Metcalf will play Clarice Bernstein, aide to President Smith (Lane). Baker will take on the role of presidential adviser Archer Brown.

“I’m totally getting my ass kicked,” said Paul Dano, the 23-year-old actor best known as the brooding, Nietzsche-obsessed older brother in last year's Little Miss Sunshine. “But in a very good way,” he added, discussing his role as Charlie, a heartbroken college dropout, in the Ethan-Hawke directed, off-broadway play Things We Want currently in previews at The Acorn Theater.

Mr. Dano’s character is one-third of a trio of brothers in The New Group production. They’re forced to live together in their childhood apartment as lost adults, slugging whiskey shots, quoting Pinocchio, threatening to jump out windows and desperately searching for the things that will make them happy. Teddy (played by theater vet Josh Hamilton) seeks the answers through a guru known as "Mr. Miracle," while Sty (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage) numbs himself with alcohol. Charlie is preoccupied with his “heartbreakdown,” which happened after his girlfriend, Zelda, broke up with him and he dropped out of culinary school.

“What’s frightening about Charlie is that there are definitely some things that happen to him that I can relate to, in a personal way,” Mr. Dano explained. “It’s much harder to play somebody who does hit close to home. That was definitely what attracted me to Charlie and that’s definitely the challenge that I’m facing right now.”

"I think there’s an honesty in Charlie, I think there’s an honesty in the writing too. This is a modern play, it’s a new play and it’s not like presentational theater or something. It’s pretty realistic. I just think Jonathan’s writing is an amazing combination of darkness and humor. I think there is a lot of uncomfortable laughs, I can relate to that."

Read more about Paul Dano in his new play Things We Want in next week's issue of the Observer, out on Oct. 31. Check here for tickets to the show.

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.

   read more »

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."

 read more »

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.

 read more »

Via Playbill:

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.

 read more »

Via Playbill:

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.

   read more »

Variety reports:

"Xanadu" producers Tara Smith and B. Swibel are at work developing an updated, musical version of "To Die For," the 1991 novel and 1995 pic it inspired.

Joyce Maynard, who wrote the novel, is participating in the development of the tuner.

No creative team has been confirmed, although the project is not the same one as "Alive at Ten." That tuner by Kirsten Guenther and Ryan Scott Oliver, which has a similar premise, was workshopped at NYU over the summer.

Gus Van Sant directed the Columbia movie adaptation of "To Die For," which starred Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix and Matt Dillon.

“The Farnsworth Invention is actually very complex with 150 characters at more than 50 locations,” said Des McAnuff, director of Aaron Sorkin’s new Broadway play The Farnsworth Invention, which opened to previews last night.  read more »