As nonprofit theater companies struggle through an open-ended shutdown, Playwrights Horizons got a double shot of validation from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.Continue Reading
‘PLAZA SUITE’ ADVANCE SALE TOPS $10 MILLION; BOSTON CRITICS SIDELINED
EXCLUSIVE: A month before previews start on Broadway, the limited run of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite is approaching full occupancy.
The advance sale for the revival with husband-and-wife stars Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker has surpassed $10 million, according to a person familiar with the production. Its tryout at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre ends on Saturday and previews begin on March 13 at the Hudson Theatre.
In response to the strong demand for tickets in Boston and New York, lead producer Ambassador Theatre Group, which operates the Colonial and the Hudson, has already raised prices on Broadway by as much as 150 percent.Continue Reading
IDINA MENZEL LOOKS LIKE A GO FOR ‘FUNNY GIRL’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Idina Menzel is in talks to play Fanny Brice this fall in the first Broadway revival of Funny Girl, the hit 1964 Jule Styne-Bob Merrill-Isobel Lennart musical that starred Barbra Streisand.
The show would be directed by Michael Mayer and overseen by the U.K. producers Sonia Friedman and David Babani, according to two people familiar with the project. In 2015, Mayer staged a Funny Girl revival at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory (where Babani serves as artistic director) starring Sheridan Smith. The production had a revised book by Harvey Fierstein and transferred to the West End.Continue Reading
‘SING STREET’ LIKELY TO OPEN AT THE LYCEUM IN APRIL (EXCLUSIVE)
The producers of Sing Street are in talks to transfer their musical to the Shubert Organization’s Lyceum Theatre this spring, in time to qualify for Tony Award nominations.
The adaptation of the highly-regarded 2016 movie, about Dublin schoolboys who form a band influenced by Duran Duran and other English pop groups of the era, would begin previews in late March ahead of an April 19 opening, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. A developmental production at New York Theatre Workshop opened on Dec. 16 and is scheduled to close on Jan. 26. Continue Reading
HUGH JACKMAN & SUTTON FOSTER ‘MUSIC MAN’ TIX TOP OUT AT $499 (FOR NOW)
EXCLUSIVE: Scott Rudin knows the territory — the Broadway territory, that is. Visiting River City with Hugh Jackman in Rudin’s upcoming revival of The Music Man won’t come cheap.Continue Reading
HUGH JACKMAN TO STAR IN RUDIN-PRODUCED ‘MUSIC MAN’
Cementing his position as Broadway’s most prolific and arguably most powerful producer, Scott Rudin said today that he’s reviving The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman, in October 2020.Continue Reading
ACTORS’ EQUITY ENDS STRIKE AGAINST BROADWAY LEAGUE
After 33 days, Actors’ Equity has ended its limited strike against the Broadway League over how its members are compensated for developing new work.
Actors had sought profit share and a raise from the current $1,000 weekly salary when participating in a developmental lab, which are multi-week workshops to create new plays and musicals.Continue Reading
‘DO NOT WORK’: ACTORS’ EQUITY AUTHORIZES MINI STRIKE
Actors’ Equity Association, which has been negotiating a new contract for play and musical development, authorized a strike today to halt collaboration in rehearsal rooms known as developmental labs.
FROM ‘REBECCA’ TO RUMPELMAYER’S: PRODUCER SEEKS INVESTORS FOR REVIVAL OF DINING ICON
EXCLUSIVE: Ben Sprecher raised and spent millions on a Broadway musical version of Rebecca that never opened. For his next act, he wants to recreate an Old World family restaurant, updated for the Instagram age.
Will investors pick up the tab?
‘OKLAHOMA!’ IN DUMBO IS A BOLD TAKE ON A PERFECT MUSICAL: REVIEW
Some theatrical ideas are so ambitious it almost doesn’t matter whether they succeed or fail – the fun is in seeing them play out. In his audacious, stripped-down staging of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, which opened Sunday at St Ann’s Warehouse, director Daniel Fish exposes the repression, lust, and violence that always lay beneath the surface of this seminal musical.
