Over the past week, there has been so much hoopla bout Broadway — reopening nights, festival concerts, TV spots, heartfelt speeches about Broadway being back (Kristin Chenoweth: “There’s no place like home.” Lin-Manuel Miranda: “I don’t ever want to take the theater for granted again.” Julie Taymor: “Theater in New York is the soul and the lifeblood of the city”)….Even Stephen Sondheim announced a new musical for next season!
And there’s more to come, including the return of the free Broadway in Bryant Park lunchtime concert this Thursday, and the Tony Awards next Sunday showcasing nominated plays and play revivals (none of which are returning) and only three musicals, (only one of which, “Moulin Rouge,” will have reopened by the time of the ceremony.)
Argument is futile. Videos celebrating “Broadway is Back” are everywhere (is this ironic?) Below are more than a dozen of them:
Reopening Night (September 14th)
#Ham4Ham
The Lion King
Wicked
Chicago
Sondheim on TV
Sondheim to Stephen Colbert: “I’m been working on a show with a playwright named David Ives called “Square One”, and we had a reading of it last week that was really encouraging, so we’re going to go ahead with it, and with any luck, we’ll get it on next season.”
It’s unclear (at least to me) that “Square One” is just a renamed version of (what was at one point named) “Bunuel” or a completely different musical, albeit with the same collaborator, David Ives.
Broadway Week at The Tonight Show
This is Broadway Finale Concert at the Curtain Up Festival in Times Square
A dozen moments from the two-hour concert
The Week in Theater Reviews
Thicket & Thistle is the kind of company that anybody serious about theater in America would want to encourage. This is what drew me to “Waterman,” which turns out to be a Fringe-style sci-fi, folk-rock musical comedy, aswirl with plot points and pointed commentary (via satire and parody) on such issues as climate change and fruitless war
“Repulsing the Monkey,” which is set in an old bar in Pittsburgh about to be sold to (and destroyed by) gentrifiers, takes place in an old bar in New York, the White Horse Tavern.
Fall 2021 Theater Books: 3 Memoirs, 2 Biographies
The Week in Theater News
Players Theatre 
Soho Playhouse 
Actors Temple Theater
Theaters Sue NYC Over Vaccine Mandate (Bloomberg)
A group of small theaters, including Players Theater, Soho Playhouse, and, The Actors Temple, have filed a lawsuit claiming that they are being unfairly singled out by a city policy that requires them to verify that their patrons are vaccinated against Covid-19 before letting them in, because the same policy does not apply to houses of worship. (
Soho Rep‘s 46th season will put eight artists on staff, with a weekly salary of $1,250, a year of health insurance coverage and a $10,000 budget to create a new work in any format. The 2021-22 season begins with four weekends of free presentations of works-in-progress September 24-October 18. (NY Times)
The New York Innovative Theatre Awards gave 2020-21 Honorary Awards to The Parsnip Ship, The Indie Theatre Fund/IndieSpace, Penny Arcade/Steve Zehentner. Outstanding Stage Manager went to Rachel April; the Doric Wilson Emerging Playwright: toChris Weikel; the Indie Theatre Champion Awards to Randi Berry; Episcopal Actors Guild; Ximena Garnica, JACKNY; Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Aimee Todorof
BroadwayCon 2022 will be held at The Manhattan Center and The New Yorker Hotel on Friday, February 18 through Sunday, February 20, 2022. Tickets go on sale starting September 22.
“Beetlejuice” is returning to Broadway, this time at the Marriott Marquis, on April 8, 2022.
“Six”, officially opening October 3 2021, is offering a $30 lottery
Cast announced for Mrs. Doubtfire, which is opening on December 5, 2021. Joining Rob McClure are Jenn Gambatese as Miranda Hillard, Peter Bartlett as Mr. Jolly, Charity Angél Dawson as Wanda Sellner, Mark Evans as Stuart Dunmire, J. Harrison Ghee as Andre Mayem, Analise Scarpaci as Lydia Hillard, Jake Ryan Flynn as Christopher Hillard, Avery Sell as Natalie Hillard and Brad Oscar as Frank Hillard. Mrs. Doubtfire will also feature Cameron Adams, Calvin L. Cooper, Kaleigh Cronin, Maria Dalanno, Casey Garvin, David Hibbard, KJ Hippensteel, Aaron Kaburick, Jodi Kimura, Erica Mansfield, Brian Martin, Alexandra Matteo, Sam Middleton, LaQuet Sharnell Pringle, Akilah Sailers, Jaquez André Sims, Travis Waldschmidt and Aléna Watters.
Rest in Peace
Jean-Claude van Itallie, 85, playwright, director and performer who was a mainstay of the experimental theater world and who was especially known for “America Hurrah,” a form-bending trio of one-acts that opened in 1966 in the East Village and ran for more than 630 performances
