Nature’s getting dramatic, taking center stage, with the earthquake last week and the eclipse today.
(New York City is expected to see a partial solar eclipse, with the moon covering about 90 percent of the sun, peaking at 3:25 p.m. across the five boroughs, lasting no more than a minute. “It’s really exciting to watch as the first bite gets taken out of the sun by the moon,” astrophysicist Jackie Faherty told the Times That is due around 2:10 p.m. in New York City. Wear special solar eclipse glasses!)
But that’s not all that’s temporarily pushed aside Broadway. The absence of openings last week allowed for more off-beat, one-of-a-kind, one night only theater to gain attention — including Raja Feather Kelly’s dance-theater piece about today’s Great American Eclipse of 2024. My reviews below.
Last week also saw the launch of the awards season, with the nominations for the Lucille Lortel Awards, which honor Off-Broadway theater.
But Broadway didn’t completely disappear — it was in the title of a newly published novel by Jack Viertel, whose illustrious and varied career in the theater includes his immensely informative “The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built.” My review of “Broadway Melody” below.
And for those contemplating actually attending Broadway as the season roars to an end, below is now a completed list of each show’s discount policies and procedures.
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Over the weekend, the seven characters of “The Absolute Future” prepared for the total eclipse but missed it, on stage at NYU Skirball. Raja Feather Kelly’s dance-theater piece was a world premiere that contemplates the world at the moment of the eclipse through stunning movement, lyrical metaphor and heavy conversation. Full review.
Zombie fungi – the same parasites that wipe out civilization in the sci-fi thriller “The Last of Us” — are real; fruit flies grieve; a group of five towns in 17th century Italy filed a lawsuit against local caterpillars for pilfering from the townsfolks’ gardens. These are among the scientific and historical facts that, mixed with stories from Ancient Greek mythology and scenes from Classic Greek tragedy, are turned into a visually splendid song-and-dance puppet extravaganza. “The Four Lives” is the thirtieth inventive production by Theodora Skipitares, one of the leading puppet artists of New York, whose skills at sculpture and design merge with a penchant for wide-ranging if sometimes abstruse erudition and a playful approach to the avant-garde. Full review
Jonathan Larson’s Rent by Deaf Broadway
Once again, the voices of the original Broadway cast of “Rent” rang out from a New York stage — this time at Lincoln Center, while a dozen Deaf cast members performed Jonathan Larson’s “Rent“, a one-night-only experience that was both eye-opening and literally buzzing …Full Review.
Book: Broadway Melody
Jack Viertel’s first novel focuses on the lives of three fictional characters — Ike, a trumpet player; Vincent, a stagehand; and Aurora, a performer. “Broadway Melody” is an entertaining read, but theater lovers attracted to it as a source of authentic Broadway history or even just reliable dish should be prepared to make side trips to Google and IBDB and YouTube for verification or correction or, at the very least, elaboration. Full review.
The Week in New York Theater News
New York Theater Awards 2024: Calendar and Guide
Most nomination announcements happen in April. Most award announcements and ceremonies happen in May and June. Here is the first of them for this awards season:
Lucille Lortel Award Nominations 2024: Off Broadway’s Best
Why are Broadway tickets so expensive right now? It’s not just inflation (Gothamist)
…rising production costs…raising ticket prices to account for the uncertainty around revenue from advance sales….dynamic pricing…star-driven vehicles
Broadway Rush and Lottery for Spring 2024 Shows
(Here are the discounts — rush, lottery, digital rush, digital lottery — offered by the 19 shows opening at the end of 2023-2024 Broadway season.)
“Kate Shindle, who has served as president of Actors’ Equity Association for nine years, is stepping down after a tenure dominated by the coronavirus pandemic that for a time idled all of the labor union’s members. Shindle, 47, said she expected to remain active in the labor movement, but that she was eager to resume working as an actor.” (NY Times)
Signature Theater 2024-25 season:
- Dominique Morisseau’s world premiere play, Bad Kreyol, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, about a Haitian American woman visiting her cousin in Port-au-Prince, challenging everything from her relationship with her identity to her understanding of “doing good,” Fall 2024
- Samuel D. Hunter’s world premiere play, Grangeville, virtually collapsing and emotionally underscoring the oceans-apart distance between two half-siblings, Winter 2025
- Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, reuniting the playwright with director Les Waters, who staged the play’s acclaimed world premiere production and revisits the work after nearly two decades, Spring 2025
- A developmental presentation of Melis Aker’s Fish, following two teenagers who look for answers to profound loss by catfishing ISIS, September 2024
An oral history of Mrs. Lovett, one of theater’s greatest, bloodiest roles. ‘I left my body’: Patti LuPone, Sutton Foster, Helena Bonham Carter and others who have played the pie-making schemer from ‘Sweeney Todd’ explain what makes her iconic (Washington Post)
In Memoriam
Christopher Durang, 75, pointed dramatist, hilarious satirist, author of such memorable plays as “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo” “Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them” “Vanya and Sonia, and Masha and Spike.”
Before his illness, Durang kept an informative Frequently Asked Questions page about his life and opinions on his website.
Howard Atlee, 97, Showman Who Promoted Dramas and Dogs. As a press agent, he had his first big hit with “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
