This week, six shows closed on Broadway and three more announced they would be closing, in the theater’s brutal version of ringing out the old.
But it was also a week to ring in the new. I put together four preview guides for the new year:
Broadway Spring 2015 PreviewOff-Broadway Spring 2015 Preview
January 2015 Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway Openings
(Each month I put together a guide to the shows that are opening, as a way of including independent theater)
Here’s a poll of Broadway shows you’re most looking forward to in Spring, 2015.
The Week in New York Theater
December 29, 2014 – January 5, 2015
Monday, December 29, 2014
Tony Kushner tells Out Magazine he’s working on 1. musical with Jeanine Tesori about the death of Eugene O’Neill. 2. a play for Broadway. “I’m working on an adaptation of a big, sort of famous German-language play, but I can’t say which one. And it may be for a big star, but I can’t say whom. It’s for Broadway, and I recently finished the first draft.”
New Year’s Eve in NYC: Last Minute Plans
Can Alzheimer’s be treated with the arts? Researchers aim to determine the answer.
Ever see so many gleaming teeth? MT @nicrouleau A little Mormon gathering before going across the pond pic.twitter.com/ZwKnEoDOAN
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) December 30, 2014
Best-read 2014 reviews and essays in NewYorkTheater.me
“Theater is life, film is art, and television is furniture” aphorism seen on T-shirts starting in 1993. Is it true?
Pippin Parker: Film is our dreams, television is our lives, theater is our ghosts.
How about: “How about: Theater is $100, film is $15, TV is free (except cable.) #NoPoetry
December 30
New York Theater December 2014 Quiz
Four of five Kennedy Center honorees this year are Broadway veterans: singer Al Green, actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks, singer-songwriter Sting, and comedienne Lily Tomlin. (Outlier: ballerina Patricia McBride)
December 31
RIP Edward Herrmann, veteran and movies, television and six Broadway productions, 71.
Resistance from local community to grandson’s proposal for an Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theater in his former house near Philadelphia.
Magical moments on stage 2014
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Celebrate! pic.twitter.com/jYaIhah8J4
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 1, 2015
60-Hour Record-Breaking Cabaret Show at Metropolitan Room
For “services to drama,” the Queen of England has knighted John Hurt, Damed Joan Collins and Kirstin Scott Thomas, and given James Corden OBE. “I feel very lucky to be born in a country where creativity is both encouraged and valued,” Corden said. He means UK.
To be fair,we have Presidential Medal of Freedom (Sondheim and Streep among 2014 winners), and Kennedy Center honors (see above)
All below free to the public starting today..if copyright law hadn’t been changed. http://t.co/C3hypQc6Mo pic.twitter.com/ZeiaP5ns5v
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 1, 2015
Friday, January 2
Theaters are making their lobbies smartly interactive, including Signature Theater
@brubendall Have they sung to you like Nat King Cole: Unemployable In every way, And forever more That’s how you’ll stay.
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 2, 2015
Saturday, January 3
Message from @IdinaMenzel: “I am more than the notes I hit.” pic.twitter.com/kPuJasOeVH
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 3, 2015
“I’m going to LA and… have a meeting with my peoples an I’m going to tell them let’s get me on Broadway.”~Snooki
Can a prison theater workshop prepare men for a life of freedom?
Every day this month,11:57- midnight, this man yawns in Times Square – on the big screens. #artproject pic.twitter.com/nnKSA1GIvs
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 3, 2015
Sunday, January 4
Disgraced to close March 1
Closing today: Once (opened on March 12, 2012), Pippin (Opened April 25, 2013), This is Our Youth (September 11, a limited run), The Real Thing (October 20, a limited run) and Side Show (Opened November 17, 2014), The Illusionists (December 4, a holiday run)
Here Lies Love closes Off-Broadway.
A less sad closing to @AmericanInParis at @theatrechatelet in Paris,since it’s coming to Bway in March pic.twitter.com/5sN0JuFtmP
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 4, 2015
Seven years after opening on Bway, 4fouryears after closing at New World Stages,The 39 Steps will revive at Union Square Theater in April.
“Never have writers moved between television and the stage so fluidly,”
“Despite some amusing bits and clever songs,it’s only occasionally as much fun as it ought to be” review of Galavant on ABC, with songs by Alan Menken.
Terrific punishment (especially for a play without music!) ht/tp @PaulChahidi pic.twitter.com/XRe0B5JH7N
— Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) January 4, 2015
@NewYorkTheater @PaulChahidi Though some desperate unemployed bassoonists might take it as an opportunity to audition on a major stage, no?
— 24/6: Jewish Theater (@246Theater) January 5, 2015
@246Theater @NewYorkTheater love the thought of desperado bassoonists armed only w cell phones posing a threat to concerts everywhere.
— Paul Chahidi (@PaulChahidi) January 5, 2015
Monday, January 5
Come to the Cabaret — until March 29th. That’s when it will close.
Despite noble efforts by Sting, The Last Ship is closing on January 24.
Andrew Lloyd Webbers says Cats will be back on Broadway, he hopes with Nicole Scherzinger, who is currently playing Grizabella in the London production.
Does the (possible) imminent return of Cats make you full of glee or ready to flee?
@NewYorkTheater @CatsMusical A thrilling, campy feeling.
— Hillary Reeves (@hillreeves) January 5, 2015
No. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! -M RT @playbill: The CATS are heading back to Broadway? http://t.co/7b3Ik3Gpl7 pic.twitter.com/vTFdikvYVN
— Lucky & the Mick (@thecraptacular) January 5, 2015
@NewYorkTheater @CatsMusical Glee – if my #cats are in it.
— Jennifer Mudge (@JenniferMudge) January 5, 2015
Self-censorship by writers in democracies almost = those in authoritarian regimes – PEN report. report.
The last two weeks were the highest attended and highest grossing on Broadway “in recorded history,” says The Broadway League.
“According to the Broadway League, 2014 was the best attended and highest grossing calendar year on Broadway”
I believe the highest-grossing – tickets cost more
But highest attending?
In 1928, according to several texts, 20 million people attended Broadway shows. In 2014, according to the Broadway League, it was 13 million.
Terry Teachout: Box-office grosses not corrected for inflation are meaningless.
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs to measure diversity in museums and performing arts organizations
