In celebration of the Blue Wave – which has grown steadily in the week since Election Day — a silly observation: There have been 51 Broadway shows with “Blue” in the title.
I’m reluctant to point out there have been just about the same number with “Red” in the title. I prefer to think of the shows that had both in the title, though it’s been a while – the 1898 drama “The Red, White and Blue” and the 1936 Cole Porter musical, Red, Hot and Blue,, starring Ethel Merman, Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante, which introduced the song “It’s De-Lovely” – It’s delightful, it’s delicious,
It’s delectable, it’s delirious….
Not silly: Sample Broadway’s Most Entertaining Shows About Serious Social Issues
Week in Theater below: News of the new Evan Hansen, the full cast of Ain’t Too Proud, Fiddler fiddles on, a video taste of Mary Poppins returns. And: Separated at Birth?
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
American Son
While anxiously waiting in a Miami police station for word of what happened to her son Jamal, an educated African-American woman named Kendra (Kerry Washington) talks with her estranged white husband Scott (Steven Pasquale) about the nightmares she’s had over the years about Jamal – of “nooses and crosses,” but, far worse and far more often, “getting stopped by a cop.”
That nightmare has turned into Kendra’s reality in American Son, a timely if flawed drama whose power comes largely from Kerry Washington’s intense performance.
The Chinese Lady
AFong Moy was the first Chinese woman in the United States. Brought to New York in 1834, she was put on display in a museum.
Out of this true story, playwright Lloyd Suh has fashioned “The Chinese Lady,” an often amusing but pointed and instructive play that is as deceptively simple as calligraphy. Its bold strokes are masterfully etched by actors Shannon Tyo as Afong and Daniel K. Isaac as Atung, her interpreter.
“The Female Role Model Project” is a pioneering work of theater by a new company called Transforma, in which artists and scientists collaborate to explore attitudes about women, and questions of female identity. The 90 minute show, which is running at 3-Legged Dog Art and Technology Center through December 2, is a mad mix of tones and activities, from game-playing to storytelling to electroencephalogram analysis. If it’s too uneven, abstruse, and ultimately too scattershot to work as a whole, “The Female Role Model Project” is an intriguing experiment, with moments that are engaging, entertaining, and just plain cool.
The New One
“The New One “isn’t literally new. Mike Birbiglia’s solo show debuted Off-Broadway three months ago – where it sold out quickly. It’s now on Broadway – same cast (i.e. Mike Birbiglia), same creative team, a bigger stage, a few new producers.
I liked it when it was at the Cherry Lane. I’m happy that Birbiglia is making his Broadway debut. I feel no need to see the show again…Here’s my old review of that show and two other transfers: “Daniel’s Husband,” and “School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play.”
The Week in New York Theater News
Casting for “Aint Too Proud,” which is scheduled to open on Broadway on March 21, 2019: Derrick Baskin as Otis Williams, James Harkness as Paul Williams, Jawan M. Jackson as Melvin Franklin, Jeremy Pope as Eddie Kendricks and Ephraim Sykesas David Ruffin.
The ensemble will feature Esther Antoine, Saint Aubyn, Shawn Bowers, E. Clayton Cornelious, Rodney Earl Jackson Jr.,Taylor Symone Jackson, Jahi Kearse, Jarvis B. Manning Jr., Joshua Morgan, Rashidra Scott, Nasia Thomas, Christian Thompson, Curtis Wiley and Candice Marie Woods.
Fiddler plays on
The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s revival in Yiddish of Fiddler on the Roof at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which extended four times and ran for more than 100 performances, will end at the museum in December – and transfer in January to off-Broadway’s Stage 42, formerly the Little Shubert Theatre
2019 Kids’ Night on Broadway will take place on Tuesday, February 26, 2019. Tickets will available for purchase in early December. Kids’ Night on Broadway is an annual event where children 18 and under can attend participating Broadway shows for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult.
Jimmy Award-winner Andrew Barth Feldman, a 16-year-old high school junior, will make his Broadway debut as Evan in “Dear Evan Hansen” starting January 30, 2019
Austin Pendleton will briefly bring back his Wars of the Roses: Henry VI & Richard III. December 3–5 at Theater for the New City
“Arcade Amerikana,” which combines rave culture, cinema and
performance art, will immerse audiences in a Las Vegas rehab retreat for the virtually addicted, December 4 – 16, at Industry City in Brooklyn.
“‘Celebrity Autobiography,’ a comedy show in which celebrities act out the memoirs of other celebrities,
will perform four Monday night performances at the Marquis Theatre on Nov. 26, Dec. 3, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17.
The Bat Out of Hell national tour has been “postponed”
Ian McKellen to celebrate 80th Birthday with 80-venue U.K. tour of new solo show, raising money for British theaters.
Separated at birth?
Actor @will_roland and writer/showrunner @WriterRAS Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa pic.twitter.com/xxr1WHcjAg— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) November 9, 2018
REST IN PEACE
Paula Wayne, 84, the golden-voiced leading lady of Broadway’s Golden Boy opposite Sammy Davis Jr.
Douglas Rain, 90, Shakespearean actor who performed for 32 seasons t the Stratford Festival, but was best known as the voice of the computer HAL In ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
Dorothy Bruns, 44, the driver of the car that killed two children in Brooklyn, including Ruthie Ann Miles’, was discovered by a friend dead in her apartment, a bottle of prescription pills and a suicide note near her body
