Thanksgiving is technically over, but this one is going to last. There’s much about this past week in New York theater for which we’re grateful.
Below watch the full number of “The Prom” from the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the 60 Minutes preview of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the trailer for the new Lion King, and the entire documentary, “Harold Prince: A Director’s Life.” Also: stage worthy news about Al Pacino, Head Over Heels, the new season at the Park Ave Armory, an analysis of gender parity Off-Broadway, of Branden Jacob-Jenkins’s An Octoroon and of the most satisfying song in Hamilton. A tale of a Good theatrical Samaritan. Also: Justin Bieber.
Top 10 NYC Theater in 2018 to be Grateful for
Week in NY Theater Reviews and Previews
The Thanksgiving Play: How Not To Celebrate Thanksgiving
Jump Start: Puppetry from Lyrical to Hysterical at La MaMa
To Kill A Mockingbird, preview on 60 Minutes.
Week in NY Theater News
As expected, the kiss during the performance of The Prom at the 92nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (see: Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Broadway Way) provoked passionate reaction
Millions of small children just watched two girls kiss and had their innocence broken this morning. @nbc and @Macys just blindsided parents who expected this to be a family program, so they could push their agenda on little kids. #macysthanksgivingdayparade #MacysDayParade pic.twitter.com/EmCLSfNmAj
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) November 22, 2018
My small children’s innocence was broken by active shooting drills in school.
Seeing two girls kissing just solidifies what they already innately know. Love is love. https://t.co/bjdauAj5GB
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 23, 2018
The first #LGBTQ kiss in the Parade’s history. We here at @ThePromMusical have never been so proud. #LoveIsLove
— Josh Lamon (@JoshLamon) November 22, 2018
Head Over Heels will play its final Broadway performance on Sunday, January 6, 2019, after 188 regular performances and 37 previews. Too bad. It’s fun and forward-thinking.
No true paradise remains in place forever. 💔
— Bonnie Milligan (@BeltingBonnie) November 26, 2018
Celebrity Autobiography will play at Broadway’s Marquis Theater on Monday nights starting tonight: November 26, December 3, December 10 and December 17 at 8PM. The celebrities who will make fun of other celebrities’ autobiographies by reading excerpts from them include Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Lewis Black, Mario Cantone, Rachel Dratch, Susan Lucci “and more.” The memoirs ridiculed include those by Vanna White, Dolly Parton, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers.
The Park Avenue Armory 2019 Season:
THE LEHMAN TRILOGY
March 22–April 20, 2019
Directed by Sam Mendes and starring acclaimed actors Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Ben Miles who play the Lehman brothers and their sons and grandsons over nearly two centuries
EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND WOULD HAPPEN
June 3–9, 2019
Artist and composer Heiner Goebbels reenacts 100 years of history to show a world in strife through performance, sound, movement, and moving image
DRILL
June 20–July 21, 2019
Immersive, site-specific film installation Drill by Hito Steyerl that mounts new commissions by the Armory alongside pre-existing works in a dynamic installation exploring the world’s power structures, inequalities, and obscurities
ANTIGONE
September 25–October 6, 2019
Japanese director Satoshi Miyagi’s multicultural adaptation of Antigone, which stages the classic Greek tragedy within a large river of water and incorporates traditions from Japanese Noh, Indonesian shadow play, and Buddhist philosophy
BLACK ARTISTS RETREAT 2019: SONIC IMAGINATION
October 11–12, 2019
Theater Gates’ Black Artist Retreat, hosted for the first time outside of Chicago and designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and innovation among black visual artists, recreating the kind of public-spirited dialogue associated with the civil rights movement of the sixties. As part of the weekend’s event, the public is invited to a roller skating celebration party in the Drill Hall amidst an installation of Gates’ seven-foot-tall disco-ball glacial sculptures, known as housebergs.
JUDGMENT DAY
December 5, 2019–January 11, 2020
The world premiere of a new adaptation of Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play Judgment Day, part moral fable, part sociopolitical comedy, part noirish thriller commissioned by the Armory and directed by Richard Jones
Al Pacino will play King Lear in a movie version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, directed by Michael Radford, who directed the Oscar-winning actor in The Merchant of Venice in 2004. Says Radford: “Lear is the one that everyone aims for. Al has been toying with the idea for a long time. There’s a difference between Shylock, who’s only in five scenes, and Lear, who is in every scene, pretty much.”
One key scene helped cement ‘Hamilton’ as a Broadway legend. The team that crafted it explains how.
Saks Fifth Avenue unveils dazzling theater-themed holiday windows, partnering with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
HIV-positive adults explore the therapeutic effects of theater
/The Journal of American Drama and Theater Volume 31, Number 1
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and the Reconstruction of Melodrama
Good Samaritan, Performance division
Went to @CuttingRoomNYC w/friends to see @BenVereen. After long wait, club announced Ben was ill (he’s fine now) & show was canceled. I felt for the lovely dressed-up people, so I said to owner, “Refund their tix $ & I’ll go on”. He did, I did, & a great time was had by all. pic.twitter.com/os2WmY9yB7
— Elayne Boosler (@ElayneBoosler) November 24, 2018
I love the cheeky “Black Friday” e-mail I just got from @nypl
“for an unlimited time only… Offer does not expire.” pic.twitter.com/vADm82jpti
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) November 23, 2018
Below is the trailer for the new Lion King, a CGI remake of the Lion King animated film, which debuted on June 15, 1994. The new film will be released on July 19th 2019.
We probably don’t need to remind anybody reading this that The Lion King, the Broadway musical adaptation directed by Julie Taymor, opened 21 years ago this month, on November 13, 1997. Now, more than 8,700 performances, its the third longest running show in Broadway history (after Phantom of the Opera and Chicago) and, at more than $ 1.5 billion, the highest-grossing Broadway musical ever.
(Will there be an adaptation of the CGI remake?)
