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Hamilton Cast Rebels. Daniel Radcliffe Returns. Taylor Mac Resides. Week in New York Theater

   Published Date: April 17, 2016  Leave a Comment on Hamilton Cast Rebels. Daniel Radcliffe Returns. Taylor Mac Resides. Week in New York Theater

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The producers of Hamilton have agreed to give the musical’s original cast members an unspecified share of the profits, which are reportedly some half a million dollars a week and sure to grow, given the planned new productions. More than two dozen cast members had hired labor lawyer Ronald H. Shechtman, and they were given support by a Twitter feed #Stand4Ham, which ran the photograph above after the announcement.

“This should be a real moment of celebration for any actor who feels powerless,”  Actors Equity president Kate Shindle said.

Broadway openings April 2016
Broadway openings April 2016

Off-Broadway Amidst The April Avalanche

With the normal April avalanche of Broadway openings beginning later this week, it seems a good time to herald the shows being presented Off-Broadway by resident theaters that, in the words of critic Michael Feingold, have been enriching our lives with non-new plays. A selection:

The Week in New York Theater Reviews

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Hamilton the Revolution — review of the book and 14 photographs from it.

l-r: Stark Sands and John Christopher Jones as Christians, F. Murray Abraham as a Jews, Shiva Kalaisel Van and Austin Durant as Muslims.
l-r: Stark Sands and John Christopher Jones as Christians, F. Murray Abraham as a Jews, Shiva Kalaisel Van and Austin Durant as Muslims.

Nathan The Wise

Frank Langella and Kathryn Erbe
Frank Langella and Kathryn Erbe

The Father

The Week in New York Theater News

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Matilda will close January 1, 2017, having played almost 1,600 performances.

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Anastasia, a stage musical inspired by the 1997 animated film,plans a 2016-17 Broadway run sometime after it appears this summer at the Hartford Stage Company. The musical has a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty an lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. (the writer of Ragtime)

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Daniel Radcliffe returns to the New York stage in “Privacy” at the Public Theater July 5-August 7.

“Inspired by the revelations of Edward Snowden, and drawing on dozens of exclusive interviews with the country’s top journalists, politicians and academics, Privacyexplores our complicated relationship with technology and data through the funny and heartbreaking travails of one lonely guy arriving in the city to figure out how to like, tag and share his life without giving it all away.”

SpecialTonyAwards2016

Special Tony Awards this year honor theater lawyer Seth Gelblum vocal coach Joan Lader and costume shop owner Sally Ann Parsons

Gavin Creel and Jane Krakowski
Gavin Creel and Jane Krakowski

She Loves Me extends four weeks, through July 10,

 

 

Vineyard Theater’s 2016-2017 Season includes a new musical by John Kander and Greg Pierce, and new plays by Nicky Silver and  Gina Gionfriddo

The-Immortals poster

Charles Mee’s The Immortals, three plays on Matisse,Picasso,Van Gogh. FREE at Brave New World Rep, opening May 12.

TaylorMactwice

Taylor Mac has become Here arts center’s playwright in residence for three years (at fully salary), thanks to one of the National Playwright Residency Program grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Howlround.

The Marx Brothers and Beauty in I'll Say She Is
The Marx Brothers and Beauty in I’ll Say She Is

“Lost” 1924 Marx Brothers Musical, I’ll Say She Is, found once again, May 28-July 2 at the Connelly Theater.

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Jed Bernstein abruptly left his job as president of Lincoln Center after little more than two years, saying he wants to return to (Broadway?) producing

Theater-related film news:

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Barbra Streisand in (re)negotiation to film Gypsy

Fences by August Wilson: Denzel Washington (Troy Maxson) and Viola Davis (Rose)
Fences by August Wilson: Denzel Washington (Troy Maxson) and Viola Davis (Rose)

 

Denzel Washington definitely doing Fences with Viola Davis

AnneJackson

RIP Anne Jackson, 90, classic stage star with husband Eli Wallach (who died in 2014)

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Week in Theater Reads

TommyKail

“My job is the same if I’m making a new musical or making a play for sixty-five people or doing a live television broadcast. The job is to take care of the actor…” – Tommy Kail, director of Hamilton, Grease Live, and two Off-Broadway plays this season.

DianeRodriguez

 

Acting and activism are intertwined “As an actor you have to activate a scene… It’s not about you in a scene. If you’re acting by yourself, the scene’s bad.. When I teach acting and also when I teach activism that is what it is: You become an activator or an activist and you try to affect other people in a positive way~Diane Rodriguez,

In our culture, art is often defined as useless, writes Sarah Ruhl, who tried to make her play useful.

“I have a community organizing background—I worked for the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee when I was in high school. So I just started making theatre, and making the community that I wanted to live in, and many, many years later, people described that as audience development, or community engagement, but for me it was about making a world. And I didn’t find many texts when I looked at the canon, so I began to write and edit and document.”~ Democratizing the Arts, Aesthetic Practice, and the Relationship to Community Change: A Conversation with Roberta Uno

“Spectacle replaces meaning, noise erases nuance. Intricate and challenging melodies are replaced with ever more simplistic chords. We have less and less patience for anything more….[The aim of theater] has always been the same: not only to help explain and elaborate on our world, but more importantly, to sharpen our abilities to experience it fully…[Soho Rep] can—amid the noise, the clutter, the rage, and the impatience—make more of a difference now than ever.”~How Theatre Can Bring Us Back to Our Senses by Tim Blake Nelson

What if we in the arts are the people standing between the fall and survival of a civil society? And what if the only way to save that society is—imperiled as we are—to disengage entirely from the economic model that brought us to this brink? ~ The Servant Economy by Todd London

Why Broadway is so white: Real Estate, Nepotism and David Mamet

 

Oddities and Ends

What it’s like to be on Broadway when you’re not in ‘Hamilton’

 

 

ChristopherWheeldon 60 Minutes on American in Paris director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon

Kelli O’Hara’s last day in The King and I

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Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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