All but a handful of Broadway shows are performing today, the day after Christmas, even though they usually don’t on Mondays. Twenty-one of them are performing twice today – and one Broadway show is performing three times!
It’s all part of #ShowDay, which is not really a thing yet, but organizers would like the day after Christmas to be as well-known for going to live performances as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is known for shopping.
Here’s 2016 Show Day “Grand Marshal” Kate Shindle, president of Actors Equity and in the cast of the touring company of “Fun Home”
The last week of 2016 is a good time to look behind and look ahead
Behind:
Top (and Weirdest) New York Theater Stories of 2016
Ahead:
Broadway Spring 2017 Preview Guide
Week in New York Theater Reviews
Bright Colors and Bold Patterns
Nobody would ever confuse ‘Bright Colors and Bold Patterns,” a gay comedy written and performed solo by Drew Droege, for “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” Yet oddly, there were moments in this funny show that brought O’Neill’s tragedy to mind.
What’s most interesting about the century-old play “God of Vengeance” – and, let’s face it, the reason why a new production of it is opening, at La MaMa – is that it inspired “Indecent,” an Off-Broadway hit by Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman that is transferring to Broadway in the Spring. “Indecent,” the backstage story of Sholem Asch’s controversial play, is a sweeping tale taking place on two continents over 50 years, packed full of characters, with deft stagecraft and smartly choreographed musical numbers.
The New Yiddish Rep’s production of “God of Vengeance” itself is not sweeping. There are no musical numbers. This is not the 1922 Broadway production, which was in English and resulted in criminal prosecutions for obscenity, the focus of Vogel’s play. The play at La MaMa is the Yiddish version that Asch wrote in 1906, “Got Fun Nekome.”
Week in New York Theater News
AP’s Entertainer of the Year – Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Miranda was virtually everywhere in popular culture this year — stage, film, TV, music and politics, while engaging on social media as he went. ”
Raul Esparza sings The Flag Song, cut from Assassins
In tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber, a mash-up of Cats, School of Rock, and Phantom of the Opera, his musicals currently performing on Broadway.
WATCH: @CatsBroadway, @SoRmusical & @PhantomBway perform a mashup tribute to the great @OfficialALW only on @GMA! pic.twitter.com/kEMNMyz1Dv
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 22, 2016
RIP Dick Latessa, 18-time Broadway veteran, Tony winner for originating Wilbur in #Hairspray, 87
“You are timeless to me.” pic.twitter.com/Rm9hxF5DBi— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 20, 2016
