The first of the April Avalanche on Broadway begins Thursday with the opening of King Lear, starring Glenda Jackson, and ends on April 25 (the Tony eligibility cut-off date) with Beetlejuice starring Alex Brightman.
April Openings
But the end of the Broadway season doesn’t spell the end of the Broadway musical — adapting for film. Here are the four with release dates:
Aladdin: May 24
The Lion King: July 19
CATS, December 20
In The Heights, June 26, 2020
Also coming up (but without release dates yet): West Side Story, Come From Away, Wicked — actually, too many to mention.
March Quiz
Week in New York Theater Reviews
AIn’t No Mo
Welcome to African-American Airlines, where if you broke & black, we got yo back” – those are the first two messages painted on the wall as we walk up the staircase in the Public Theater to “Ain’t No Mo’.” The play by Jordan E. Cooper, making his Off-Broadway debut as both a playwright and an actor, takes its audience on a trip through the present-day African-American experience. The trip is meant to be more than just a metaphor. Black people are leaving the United States en masse on flights to Africa. It appears to be voluntary, but maybe not really. “If you stay here, you only got two choices for guaranteed housing, and that’s a cell or a coffin,” explains Peaches, portrayed by the playwright. Peaches, a drag queen dressed all in pink, functions as the airline’s flight attendant and ticket agent, and the playwright’s mouthpiece.
An hour-long play that presents a chimp in captivity, recalling her youth with a human family.
The chimp is a puppet, manipulated by three puppeteers. “Chimpanzee” shows the power of puppetry to elicit emotion for a story that would surely be less effective told in any other way.
Dad in a Box: A comedienne trying to be funny while her father is dying
William Sheepspeare. A Theater Book for Two Year Olds Full of Sheep Puns.
Week in New York Theater News
Second Stage 2019-20 season (in all 3 of their theaters): On Broadway: Linda Vista by Tracy Letts; Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg. Off-Bway: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer. The Underlying Chris by Will Eno
John Leguizamo is taking his Latin History for Morons to 15 cities, starting June 20th and 21st at New York’s Apollo Theater, ending up in L.A.’s . Ahmanson Theatre in September.
New announcement/tease by Signature Theater: Future seasons will be presenting the work of Sarah Ruhl, Anna Deavere Smith, Samuel D Hunter, Lauren Yee and The Mad Ones.
Fifth annual Broadwaycon returns to to the New York Hilton Midtown January 24-26, 2020. First announced guests: Anthony Rapp, George Salazar, Judy Kuhn, Kristolyn Lloyd, Heidi Blickenstaff, Tommy Bracco, Andrew Kober, Brad Oscar, Gillian Pensavalle, Erin Quill, Jennifer Ashley Tepper, and Fredi Walker-Brown
Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black, The Color Purple ) will star as Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Delacorte in Central Park this summer “I haven’t done Shakespeare in nine years, I’m ready,”
Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Tony winner as Angel in the original Rent) will star in Original Sound, Adam Seidel’s O play about a young Nuyorican beat maker who calls out a rising pop star for ripping off his track, sometime this Spring the Cherry Lane,
Taylor Mac Wants Theater to Make You Uncomfortable
“Everyone expects to be safe in the theater — maybe challenged a bit with an idea or two — but I say, well, maybe you’re not going to be safe,”
On #WorldTheatreDay let us appreciate how many BEAUTIFUL theaters there are in the world —
Mexico, Italy, Syria, New York!See also: St. Petersburg, Barcelona, Paris, Beijing –>https://t.co/4XAseUvp2r pic.twitter.com/SowENEXjcc
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 27, 2019
Attorney General Barr Summarizes Famous Broadway Musicals by Orli Matlow
(@HireMeImFunny) in @mcsweeneysSweeney Todd: “A barber reunites with his wife.”
The Sound of Music: “A family decides to leave Austria.”
Chicago: “Complete and total exoneration for Roxie and Velma.”
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 30, 2019
