This has been an eventful holiday week, and not just because The Lion King celebrated another benchmark — as did, more oddly, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. (scroll to 27 and 30, below) There were surprises sprung on both Kinky Boots and Macbeth
There is more eventfulness to come, though I suspect less controversial. There’s a live Sound of Music on NBC Thursday, then a documentary about Sondheim debuting next Monday – and there are plenty of shows to see before they close. The top ten lists for 2013 have already begun. See below.
Given the oddness of this week in New York theater, best to sing one of the melodies we’ll be hearing on Thursday:
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
Week in New York Theater
Monday, November 25, 2013
Sutton Foster will play a disfigured woman in the Roundabout Theater’s revival of Violet for 20 weeks starting March 24, 2014. The production was presented for one night as part of the new Encores Off-Center series.
Eighteen years and more than 100 plays after it began, The Flea Theater, started by a group including Sigourney Weaver and her husband Jim Simpson, will have a groundbreaking December 5 for a new building with three Off-Off Broadway theaters
Its Broadway run ends Dec. 29, but Big Fish will live on with an original cast album,its director Susan Stroman announced officially at an event at the 92nd Street Y.
Starting today:Nominate an artist or arts org for Fractured Atlas’s First Annual Arts Entrepreneurship Awards
As Tara Thornton in True Blood, Rutina Wesley has survived an abusive alcoholic fundamentalist mother, a murdered boyfriend, and a sadistic vampire. But Tara is scarcely worse off than the character Wesley is playing in Charles Fuller’s new play, One Night, at the Cherry Lane. Wesley is now portraying Alicia, a military veteran.
Three decades ago, playwright Charles Fuller won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his exploration of racism in the military, “A Soldier’s Play,” a murder mystery he adapted into one of Denzel Washington’s first movies, “A Soldier’s Story.”
So when Fuller now turns his attention to sexism in the military, and veteran neglect, attention must be paid – even though the result is disappointing.
26
James Franco and Chris O’Dowd will make their Broadway debuts in a revival of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” at the Longacre March 19-July 27, 2014
Fun Home will get a cast recording, released by PS Classics, in February
A few weeks ago, Wicked was the first-ever Broadway show with an entire category on Jeopardy! Here is the second-ever: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Current Hot American Playwrights Who Have Never Been on Broadway
J. Kelly Nestruck @nestruck I’d like another list – playwrights who have been on Bdwy, but with their worst plays.
Jason Zinoman@zinoman No Kenneth Lonergan? Come on.
Wendy Rosenfield @WendyRosenfield Right. And wow.
Jason Zinoman: He’s top of the list, as far as im concerned. Even if it is alphabetical.
Wendy Rosenfield: Agreed. It’s a strange world when LaBute makes it there before Lonergan.
Taylor Mac @TaylorMacNYC it’s clear from this list how young the decider is. Work has happened outside of the last five years — the point being best doesn’t mean most successful in the last five years.
Jonathan Mandell@NewYorkTheater Who would you include that’s omitted from the list?
Taylor Mac Len Jenkins, Karen Hartman, Naomi Wallace, Carson Kreitzer, Victor Lodato, & divine David Grimm r a few that pop in my head.
To be clear, your picks are all worthy (I love them) but want to give love to playwrights who aren’t on the “now” list.
Elizabeth Vincentelli @EVincentelli Can we include Maria Irene Fornes? ‘The Office’ had previews in 1966 but didn’t open. It’s a technicality!
27
To celebrate the third anniversary of the first performance of SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark, we are rolling out a series of videos of dramatic readings of selections from Glen Berger’s new tome, Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History
Mini-Macbeth
The performance I attended of the Lincoln Center production of Macbeth tonight (the first night of Hanukkah) was canceled after 20 minutes because the automatic scenery failed to function. Ethan Hawke came out to play guitar for a couple of minutes, as “a Thanksgiving bonus.”
A 20-minute Macbeth, a mini-Macbeth, because of same failed scenery? They couldn’t improvise?
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 28, 2013
@NewYorkTheater Someone must’ve said the title.
— Andy Germuga (@andytgerm) November 28, 2013
@NewYorkTheater Seriously? Freaky!
— Pippin Parker (@NSD_Director) November 28, 2013
@NewYorkTheater What? No sword fight tonight? Bummer!
— Blanca Acevedo (@Sapphire902) November 28, 2013
@NewYorkTheater They should have screwed their courage to the sticking place. #MacBethJokes
— Pippin Parker (@NSD_Director) November 28, 2013
@NewYorkTheater Well, the scenery is the best part.
— Jesse Oxfeld (@joxfeld) November 28, 2013
.@NewYorkTheater‘s live tweeting of tonight’s derailed Ethan Hawke’s Macbeth is killing me.
— Mac Rogers (@macwrites) November 28, 2013
@inflammatorywrt @macwrites @NewYorkTheater Enjoying “Before Macbeth.” Can’t wait the nine years till the next film.
— David J. Loehr (@dloehr) November 28, 2013
@inflammatorywrt @macwrites @NewYorkTheater clearly a ticket to Shakespeare on bway equals Ethan Hawke on acoustic guitar.
— Daniel John Kelley (@funwithiago) November 28, 2013
@funwithiago @macwrites @NewYorkTheater tbh 15 year old me would have thought that worth the price of admission.
— Kari Bentley-Quinn (@inflammatorywrt) November 28, 2013
For the record, Ethan Hawke did NOT sing the Hanukkah Song when Macbeth was canceled tonight after 20 mins due to faulty scenery
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 28, 2013
28
Theater Thanksgiving
10 Shows to Be Grateful For in 2013
(My reasoning for top 10 list)
Performance of Kinky Boots at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Shocks Viewers?!
I’m baffled parents feel need to explain performers wearing red boots, but not a 100-ft Pillsbury Doughboy
29
Holiday Gifts For Theater Lovers
30
The Lion King played its 6,681st performance this evening, becoming the fourth-longest-running show on Broadway.
To do my bit for human rights, I’ve been drinking from my @KinkyBoots sippy cup all weekend.
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) December 1, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
