2018 Theatre Hall of Fame inductees:
Actors Rene Auberjonois, Christine Baranski, Cicely Tyson
Playwrights Maria Irene Fornes, David Henry Hwang, Adrienne Kennedy
Director Joe Mantello
Producer James Houghton, posthumously.
Below: Complete casting for Glenda Jackson’s King Lear and To Kill a Mockingbird; highlights reel from Marin Mazzie’s career.
The Week in NY Reviews and Previews
The full title of “Collective Rage,” Jen Silverman’s playful, bawdy, and episodic genderqueer/feminist/lesbian comedy about five women named Betty, is 47 words long. Only once does it include the word “pussy.” That’s not true of the play as a whole. In 19 scenes over 90 minutes, the characters say “pussy” far more than they say, or express, “rage.”…But “Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties” etc. is not (just) out for some schoolyard impudence. The five good actresses playing the Betties deliver some memorable moments of oddness and hilarity….
Although billed as “an intimate immersive production,” what “Stars in the Night” actually offers, at its best, is the exact opposite — a spectacular public setting. An audience of no more than a dozen at a time are led through several locations indoors and outdoors in DUMBO, a Brooklyn neighborhood that feels inherently theatrical…Unfortunately, most of the show’s characters, portrayed by eight members of the Los Angeles-based company Firelight Collective, are not much more developed than those passersby. The story they act out is vague, arty, cliched and confusing….
“I think there has been a growth in Trump fatigue,” says Tony Stinkmetal, who admits that he himself shares it — which is why it’s surprising that he has created a show called “SlashR” that’s been promoted as an “outrageous, sexy, and bloody political satire that massacres Trump and the current era of American politics.” It is one of at least three Trump-related satires currently on New York stages with brief or sporadic runs….
Jenna Gavigan made her Broadway debut at age 16 as a member of the ensemble in the 2003 revival of Gypsy…Now she has written
“Lulu the Broadway Mouse
Week in New York Theater News
Joining Glenda Jackson in Broadway’s gender-nonconforming production of King Lear: Ruth Wilson (as Cordelia AND the King’s Fool), Elizabeth Marvel (Goneril), Aisling O’Sullivan (Regan) , Pedro Pascal (Edmund) and Jayne Houdyshell as the Earl of Gloucester (!)
Opens April 4. pic.twitter.com/QHCKeP6kEh— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 12, 2018
The Glenda Jackson Lear will also feature @SeanCarvajal (Jesus Hopped the A Train) John Douglas Thompson (Jitney, Emperor Jones, @carouselbway etc.), @russellwharvard (Tribes, Spring Awakening) and Matt Maher (The Flick). What a cast! pic.twitter.com/eZlUw1rHuZ
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 12, 2018
Joining Jeff Daniels in the Broadway cast of “To Kill a Mockingbird”:
Celia Keenan-Bolger, Will Pullen, Gideon Glick, Frederick Weller,
Gbenga Akinnagbe, Stark Sands, Dakin Matthews, Erin Wilhelmi,
Danny McCarthy, Neal Huff, Phyllis Somerville, Liv Rooth,
Danny Wolohan, Baize Buzan, Thomas Michael Hammond, Ted Koch,
David Manis, Aubie Merrylees, Doron JéPaul Mitchell, Jeff Still,
Shona Tucker, Rebecca Watson, and LaTanya Richardson Jackson.
Oct 28-Nov 25 Natural Shocks by Lauren Gunderson, directed by May Adrales
A woman is forced into her basement when she finds herself in the path of a tornado.
Feb 6-March 10 Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George, directed by Leigh Silverman
The Greek god Dionysus has returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state.
March 3-31 Hatefuck by Rehana Lew Mirza. Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Layla, an intense literature professor, accuses Imran, a brashly iconoclastic novelist, of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes.
plus Parity Plays Festival & 40th Anniversary Reading Series
featuring the work of Anna Deavere Smith et al
Another thrillingly ambitious play is coming to the Park Avenue Armory : “The Lehman Trilogy,” originally at the National Theater in London, follows the three Lehman brothers from their 1844 arrival in NYC to the 2008 collapse of the financial firm bearing their name. Written by Stefano Massini, directed by Sam Mendes. March 22-April 20
After 25 years, Theater Talk is coming to an end, thanks to a dispute with CUNY TV. “To me, it’s an art project. I don’t see a vision in going corporate or having overseers,” says host and executive producer Susan Haskins (Can’t you guys work it out?!)
Cynthia Nixon, 12-time Bway actress, two-time winner, and life-long activist New Yorker lost her bid to be the Democratic nominee for Governor of New York.
Thank you all for believing and fighting and leaving it all on the field.
We started something here in New York, and it doesn’t end today.
This is just the beginning. And I know that together, we will win this fight.
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) September 14, 2018
R.I.P.
Marin Mazzie, 57, Theater Hall of Famer ( on Broadway: ‘Ragtime,”‘Kiss Me, Kate’ plus nine more), after a three year battle with cancer, during which she kept on performing. Condolences to her husband & frequent acting partner Jason Daniel.
Broadway lights will be dimmed Wednesday Sept 19 at 6:45 p.m in her memory, at the Al Hirschfeld, Broadhurst, Gershwin, Gerald Schoenfeld, St. James, and Nederlander Theaters
(What’s with the Broadway League’s new policy of dimming the lights only in a handful of Broadway theaters when a Broadway luminary dies? Did I miss the memo?)
