New York City was lucky this time. The blizzard that the Weather Channel dubbed Nemo saved the worst of its ire for other regions, allowing all Broadway and most Off-Broadway shows to remain open. Whether or not the theaters were affected anyway because people stayed home will be clear within the next couple of days.
But there was plenty this week to keep the New York theater lover occupied — including news of the discovery of Richard III in a parking lot in England, and the debut of the second season of Smash. Also below: American Idol’s Crystal Bowersox has big Broadway news; Broadway and big bucks; a Broadway show drops out; brilliant theater makers David Yazbek and Dave Malloy separately offer their manifestos on what’s wrong with New York theater.
The week in New York Theater
February 4, 2013:
Richard III Unburied
Richard III’s remains found in Leichester parking lot. He really was a hunchback. Shakespeare wrote 100 years after the king’s death
Suzi Steffen (@SuziSteffen):
“Where’d you leave the Mini Cooper, honey?”
“R-III.”
Katha Pollitt @KathaPollitt
Richard III not a hunchback — he had scoliosis of the spine from about age 10
Jonathan Mandell: Pardon me Dr. Pollitt
Katha Pollitt: Medieval chiropractor, if you will.
‘Richard III’ actors react to discovery of king’s remains: “Shakespeare was a dramatist, not a historian”
Disinterred Richard (@RichardNumber3 You would not believe what I owe to get out of this car park
Jonathan Mandell: This was inevitable
Anne Margaret Daniel (@venetianblonde) Yes it was
Disinterred Richard: The secret mischiefs that I set abroach I lay unto the grievous charge of others. Know what I’msayin?
Anne Margaret Daniel
I do, dear. Welcome back to the light of day
Disinterred Richard: The voice isn’t bad but the hair has GOT to GO.
I love this: Drilling Company’s Shakespeare In The Parking Lot (longtime series on Lower East Side) will be presenting Richard III this summer.
Despite mixed reviews, The Heiress has recouped its $3 million capitalization (translation: made $). It closes February 9th.
Broadway and Bucks
CNBC presented a half-hour show, “Betting Big on Broadway,” about investing in theater.
Some highlights:
Producer of Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark: “I think we’re somewhere between idiots and true believers…and lucky.”
Jujamcyn Theaters run by Jordan Roth grosses $200 million a year. Roth gambled early on a show called The Book of Mormon
“The Lion King” has grossed $5.2 billion in 17 years. It’s toured 96 cities worldwide, seen by 55 million people
71% of Disney stage shows have made a profit. (industry average: 25%)
Disney shows Tarzan and Little Mermaids bombed: “I got it wrong,” says Disney theater honcho Thomas Schumacher.
The first three weeks of Newsies on stage outgrossed the entire run of the original movie.
Despite star draw, in the end, Grace recouped only 90% of its investment. Mixed reviews and Sandy didn’t help.
In 1949, it was more expensive to see a first-run movie in Times Square than a Broadway play. Movie: $2. Play: 85 cents.
(from documentary “Broadway, The Golden Age”)
Andy Mientus (@AndyMientus): Last night’s sleep before I’m on TV. What will tonight’s dreams hold?
5
SMASH
Smash, Season 2 — Critic’s Reviews: They are mixed
San Francisco Chronicle: Smash is back and again ready to become the hit it deserves to be.
New York Times: “no good right from the start…Broadway is a vicious, thrilling, glamorous place. Smash…has been small, wan & polite.”
David Yazbek Jonathan Mandell: Wrong about Smash, or wrong about Broadway?
David Yazbek: Both
Jonathan Mandell: So which adjectives would you select for Broadway, and which for Smash?
David Yazbek: Broadway=90% shit. Smash=99% shit.
During the two-hour premiere of season 2, many people “live-Tweeted” about Smash –
brief example:
Jonathan Mandell: The villain of #Smash, Eileen’s ex-husband, is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael Cristofer.
But this time around, the cast of Smash was Tweeting during the show as well.
Ahh it’s starting!!! Pay attention if you didn’t watch last year! If you’re watching for me, you have about 50 minutes to kill 😉 — Andy Mientus (@andymientus) February 6, 2013
6
Tom Hanks will be making roughly $100 per minute in Lucky Guy on Broadway! (He is reportedly worth $300 million; his pictures average more than $100 million)
Tom Hanks last performed on stage in 1979, in NYC, in a production of Machiavelli’s The Mandrake, in Columbia Universty’s Casa Italiana
Can’t believe I didn’t know this. Peter Scolari is in LUCKY GUY with Tom Hanks? BOSOM BUDDIES ARE BACK!
Smash season 2 premiere had only 4.47 million viewers — down SEVENTY-ONE % in viewers aged 18-49 from season 1 premiere. However, the Joe Iconis song in the show,” Broadway, Here I Come,” is on the Top 100 on iTunes.
Friends of ailing playwright Maria Irene Fornes help bring her closer to home
The “Pippin” marquee at the Music Box is animated. How do people feel about this?
I don’t like them at all. Takes all the class away from Broadway. It isn’t Vegas.
I love it. It was animated for Dead Accounts too. Gives you a chance to share more info & the movement grabs your attention
no matter what anyone thinks of it, its representative of where so much of Broadway is at… #ridiculous
7
Will Smith’s daughter Willow drops out of doing film remake of Annie: “Daddy, I have a better idea, how about I just be 12.’”
Script for “Motown” is “still in flux,” producer tells Michael Riedel of the New York Post. Original writer Berry Gordy Jr. himself now has two “consultants”
“Jersey Boys” plays its 3,000th performance on Broadway tonight:
Oh what a night!
Doo dit doo dit dit doo dit doo dit dit
All “Book of Mormon” seats #31.43 — in London, first preview Feb 25 at Prince of Wales Theatre (20 pounds actually)
Edward Watt (the husbands in Scandalous) will play Superman in New York City Center’s Encores’ concert of Charles Strouse’s It’s A Bird ..It’s A Plane…It’s Superman Mar 20-24
Given up on your Broadway dream, and too young to be a stage mother? You can audition your cat next week for a role in the forthcoming “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
League of Independent Theater to hold Meet The Candidates on arts issues March 12 at the Players Club
Blizzard warning in NYC for tomorrow through Saturday. Unclear yet how this will affect theatrical performances.
8
Broadway and the Blizzard of 2013
There’s nothing more eerie yet magical than an empty Times Square
Bobby Lopez ( @lopezbobby): I guess Nemo is finally coming to Broadway (laughs weakly)
Did you know Daniel Craig is married to Rachel Weisz? Well,did you know they want to star on Broadway in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal?
Will they get Hugh Jackman to play the other guy?
9
No Broadway shows were canceled. Some Off-Broadway and Broadway shows are offering snow deals.
“Pump Boys and Dinettes” was scheduled to open on Broadway April 8, but it has been “postponed indefinitely”
Closing tonight: The Heiress, with Jessica Chastain.
My reviews of the Spanish plays, “Fuenteovejuna” and “The Mark of Zorro.” Zorro a Spanish play, you say? Well, in a way.
“Always…Patsy Cline” on Broadway this summer? So says American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox to The Hollywood Reporter. No firm dates or theater
Benny Berry (@TheBennyBerry) Wouldn’t she be better in “Always… Janice Joplin”?
Crystal Bowersox (@crystalbowersox); That aughta be next!!
The brilliant theater artist Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812) explains why he was completely silent for 90 minutes in a panel discussion on the future of theater: The many “crises of American theatre” are self-imposed and imaginary, based on a desire for more money.
10
Once beat out Newsies, Follies, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Nice Work If You Can Find it to win the Best Musical Theater Album Grammy
