2018 Theater Hall of Famers. RIP Marin Mazzie. Lear and Mockingbird Casts Complete. The Week in NY Theater

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

Chaunte Wayans and Adina Verson in Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties

Collective Rage

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….

Stars in the Night

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….

The First Annual Trump Family Special

Trump Fatigue

“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….

Book: Lulu The Broadway Mouse

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” (Running Press Kids), a book geared to readers age 9 to 12, about a young mouse named Lucy Louise who wants to be a star on Broadway….What the book does best is share some backstage lore and life – some of it well-known (never say “Good luck,” or “Macbeth” in a theater), some more obscure, at least to me, such as that Broadway actors have to buy their own makeup…

Week in New York Theater News

 

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.

WP Theater 2018-19 season

Lauren Gunderson

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.

Madeleine George

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.

Rehana Lew Mirza

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

Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley in The Lehman Trilogy

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.

 

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?)

 

 

Author: New York Theater

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

Leave a Reply