Posted in New York Theater, New York Theater Weekly Summary

Broadway Sings: Vote! #Stageworthy News.

   Published Date: November 6, 2018  Leave a Comment on Broadway Sings: Vote! #Stageworthy News.
Pilobolus In 2016
Pilobolus In 2016

Today is Election Day! If you live in NYC, find your polling site here.

If you live anywhere in America, you can go to Vote.org for some cool info — like, for example, what’s on your specific ballot.

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Get Out The Vote Plays2 (1)

Below, everybody from the cast of Hamilton to Daphne Rubin-Vega, Laura Benanti and Randy Rainbow to civil rights hero Congressman John Lewis weigh in with some funny, touching, inspiring and annoying messages urging you to take democracy seriously.

Also below,the week in New York theater: November openings, October’s quiz, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Off-Broadway plans after Puerto Rico; Wicked at 15 (Watch the NBC special);

 

November New York Theater openings

 

The Week in NY Theater Reviews and Previews

Torch Song

The 1982 Broadway production of Torch Song Trilogy, starring Harvey Fierstein as Arnold Beckoff, a sometime drag queen and gay Jewish romantic searching for love and acceptance, could be credited with having made history. But no such claim would be credible for the revival, renamed Torch Song, starring Michael Urie as Arnold and Mercedes Ruehl as his mother.  It’s just an entertainment now, unthreatening and largely unchallenging,…

But if Torch Song suffers in comparison to the spate of first-rate gay plays over the last few decades, and the excellent revivals over the past year, there’s no denying how witty and well-meaning it is. Many in the barrage of one-liners are still quite funny, and the strong performances of Urie and Ruehl in particular help make more palatable the artificial feel to many of the scenes.


Lewiston/Clarkston

Lewiston/Clarkston, two powerfully affecting plays by Samuel D. Hunter about 21stcentury descendants of the 19thcentury North American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, play out in close-up — a stage just 13 feet wide. Such close proximity of audience to actors could be a challenge for both. But even at its most intense,“Lewiston/Clarkston” is never less than credible, and all the more moving, thanks to the direction by Davis McCallum and the six-member cast, who give astonishingly good performances.

Food for the Gods

La MaMa Puppet Festival

Food for the Gods is about the killing of black men; Exodus addresses the current refugee crisis; Blind is a solo work about disability. These may not sound like typical subjects for puppet shows, but little about the La MaMa Puppet Festival fits most audiences’ preconceptions about the art form

VOTE

“It might be nice. It might be niiiice… to get to democracy back on track,”

Daphne Rubin-Vega and a dozen other Broadway veterans sing .

Taylor Mac to Stephen Colbert: “Donald Trump is like the heckler in chief. He’s trying to steal the story of America away from America.”

The Week in NY Theater News

Heidi Schreck’s “What The Constitution Means To Me” will transfer to Greenwich House starting November 27th.

 

The cast of Head Over Heels will celebrate the release of their Original Broadway Cast Recording … with an in-store performance and album signing event at the Drama Book Shop on Monday, November 12 from 5:00pm – 7:00pm

Harvey Fierstein:: “I try to do one new idea a year. Now I’m working on a play about my old friend Bella Abzug. The former Congresswoman is also a character in the current play Gloria: A Life

Rest in Peace

“We can only do what is possible for us to do. But still it is good to know what the impossible is.” – María Irene Fornés, 88, an influential playwright who gained admiration from her peers more than fame from the public.

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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