One might argue that, given the new administration in Washington, every day is April Fool’s Day, but the theater community treats April 1st with particular glee..
“COME FROM AWAY’s Gander Township Rejects Application To Build Trump Hotel and Casino” (Broadway World)
“Script for Lost Beckett Sitcom Pilot Uncovered” (American Theatre)
“The Tony Awards to Add Best Performance by a Leading Animal Category” (TheaterMania)
George Takei announces he’s running for Congress against House Intelligence Chairman Davin Nunes (The Daily Buzz.) I wish this one had been true.
No, I’m not running for Congress. Happy 4/1!
But Jon Ossoff is on 4/18. Help him win at https://t.co/ctCcRiYcdL. Let’s flip Congress in ’18 pic.twitter.com/41uj6l3yt7
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) April 1, 2017
We’re living in a world where every piece of news about the White House could have qualified as an April Fool’s headline in years past.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) April 1, 2017
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
The Play That Goes Wrong
Before the play-within-the-play begins, its director apologizes for “the box office mix-up,” expressing hope that “the 617 of you affected will enjoy our little murder mystery just as much as you would have enjoyed Hamilton.” That’s the most sophisticated joke – indeed one of the few verbal ones — in this silly slapstick backstage farce that has improbably opened on Broadway.
Audiences may indeed enjoy The Play That Goes Wrong….if not as much as Hamilton, perhaps, surely as much as Noises Off, which it resembles, minus the plates of sardines nor anything approaching that play’s cleverness. And I say this having called Noises Off, when it had its second Broadway revival last year, little more than The Three Stooges with a British accent.
The Week in New York Theater Quizzes and Polls
Favorite Broadway Opening in April?
New York Theater Quiz for MarchNew York Theater Quiz March 2017
The Week in New York Theater News
Signature Theater’s 2017-2018 season will include a special tribute to Edward Albee, who died in 2016,
J Stephen Adly Guirgis
Jesus Hopped the “A” Train October 3-November 2, 2017, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Our Lady of 121st Street, May 1-June 10, 2018, directed by Anne Kauffman.
A new play by Guirgis, to be announced, will be presented during the 2018-19 season.
Suzan-Lori Parks
The Red Letter Plays:
F**king A, August 22-October 1, 2017, directed by Jo Bonney
In the Blood, August 29-October 8, 2017, durected by Sarah Benson.
Edward Albee
At Home at the Zoo: Homelife & The Zoo Story, January 30-March 11, 2018, directed by Lila Neugebauer.
Dominique Morisseau’
Paradise Blue, April 24-June 3, 2018, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
Significant Other to play final performance July 2, four months after opening.
(In an article in Crain’s, Philip Boroff suggests that “Significant Other,” and “Sweat” both suffered because critic Charles Isherwood, who championed them Off-Broadway, lost his job at the Times, and Ben Brantley’s reviews of them on Broadway were not as positive.)
Jane Krakowski and Christopher Jackson will announce The Tony Awards nominations Tuesday morning, May 2, from New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Cast announced for 1984 (@RevisedTruth): Tom Sturridge, @OliviaWilde in her Bway debut, a Reed Birney. Opens June 22 @hudsonbway pic.twitter.com/YU7tR9Rz9v
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 3, 2017
News reports of 1st-ever formal meeting of G7 culture ministers left out: who’s the US “culture minister”?https://t.co/0VtRUVZVKJ
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 31, 2017
The Fred and Adele Astaire Awards have been rebranded to celebrate the legacy of Broadway legend Chita Rivera. The inaugural Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography, presented by American Dance Machine for the 21st Century, will be given September 11 at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Nominations will be announced May 1 at the Friar’s Club.
(An article from 2010 suggests why they would change the name of the awards.)
Plays As Literature Twitter chat
To me, what makes a play literature is that you can read it. And there are scripts even for Beckett’s 40-second plays
Strength & beauty of a play: It works both on stage and on the page. These are different, albeit related, experiences#howlround
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 30, 2017
Ian Hylands I live by the The Royal Shakespeare Company ’s firstst law:“Treat new plays like they are Shakespeare, and Shakespeare like it’s a new play”
Rush recap:
$30 Dolls House Part 2 (only during previews)
$32 Six Degrees of Separation
$35 Bandstand
Get to box offices when they open
Tony Award-winner Sheila Bond died on 3/25. She was known for her role as Fay Fromkin in “Wish You Were Here.” https://t.co/T65LA4mA79 pic.twitter.com/ibyOkDqCjk
— The Tony Awards (@TheTonyAwards) April 3, 2017
