A slew of honors for Broadway mainstays were announced this past week, as well as the Outer Critics Circle Awards this morning (see News below.)
Meanwhile, new theater is still happening Off and Off-Off Broadway, much of it …different: a detective story about a Nazi photo album, a combination opera-play-Passover seder, a wordless biodrama, an avant-garde riff on fashion, a sexy romp on Artificial Intelligence
Also below:some new season announcements, a glimpse at the renovated Palace, and proof that the three best friends on stage at “Merrily We Roll Along” are also now best friends off-stage.
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
“Here There Are Blueberries” turns the real-life discovery of an ordinary-looking photo album into a riveting detective story, with the characters gathering clues to unravel a series of mysteries, including one of the greatest unsolvable mysteries in history: the Holocaust. It’s the latest extraordinary documentary theater from Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project.
Small Acts of Daring Invention
The children’s book author Dare Wright is billed as the inspiration for this unusual theater piece, although her name is never mentioned on stage. Actually, nothing is mentioned on stage. “Small Acts of Daring Invention” is completely wordless. For all its wordy title, it’s also hard to put into words exactly what it is. It’s sort of mime, although without Marcel Marceau’s clown makeup or graceful movements; not quite object theater, although there is a plethora of puppets; too literal to be an art installation, although the set is elaborately and inventively cluttered; too abstract to be a straightforward biographical drama, although Dare Wright’s life and work are in every moment – if you know enough about her in advance to catch on. Full review
“Exagoge,” inspired by the oldest known Jewish play, is a wildly ambitious, complicated but largely accessible new work of immersive theater: a play, opera, and Passover seder all in one – and all in just 100 minutes, which (if you know seders) is itself an achievement. There is much else besides its comparative brevity to recommend this latest work by the reliably erudite Edward Einhorn and his Untitled Theater Company No. 61., which began at La MaMa in the middle of Passover and ran through May 12th. Full review
“Scarlett Dreams” is a play that imagines a near-future dominated by Artificial Intelligence, so I asked ChatGPT how it would review the play. It instantly produced a 303-word review…Still, there might be some room for a human-generated review, since the chatbot didn’t even mention writer and director S. Asher Gelman or his clever cautionary script, brought to life by a game cast (also not mentioned), especially Andrew Keenan-Bolger. Full review.
At first, “Shimmer and Herringbone,” the third and final absurdist play in the avant-garde theater company Talking Band’s fiftieth anniversary season, promises to be a series of riffs on shopping for clothes….Its 24 scenes (in under 90 minutes) offer random wit, wisdom and color rather than a completely coherent play. Full review
The Week in New York Theater News
Eboni Booth’s “Primary Trust” Awarded 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Drama
“I wrote about being hungry for connection, and then I got so much connection through the production, and that was very meaningful,” Booth tells the Times.
Finalists are “Public Obscenities” and “Here There Are Blueberries”
Directors Jack O’Brien and George C. Wolfe will each receive the 2024 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater.
Billy Porter will receive the 2024 Isabelle Stevenson #TonyAward in recognition of his outstanding dedication and contributions as an activist and spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ communities
For those theater lovers who want to attend the Tony Awards ceremony at Lincoln Center, but are not invited to David H. Koch Theater, where the 77th Annual Tony Awards with host Ariana DeBose will be held, there is now Broadway Fanfare: A giant screen a few yards away, outdoors at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, will screen the awards ceremony, preceded by a 7:30 p.m. live in-person show featuring performances and appearances. Although offered for free to the general public, “American Express Card Members attending the event will enjoy exclusive perks, such as a dedicated Card Member entrance. Terms and capacity limitations apply.”
2024 Outer Critics Circle Awards: Stereophonic, Suffs, Dead Outlaw, Primary Trust
2024 Off Broadway Alliance Award Nominations
Nathan Lane and André Bishop will receive special awards from the Drama Desk — Lane, the Harold S. Prince Award for Lifetime Achievement and Lincoln Center Theater’s Bishop, the inaugural William Wolf Award
Robert Downey Jr. to make his Broadway debut as a famous writer with an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence in “MCNEAL,” a new play by Ayad Akhtar (“Disgraced”) Sept 5 – Nov 24, opening September 30, 2024, Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater.
Season Announcements
NYU Skirball Fall season features seven works from reliably cutting-edge theater companies with unusual (though now familiar) names, including The Builder Association, The Civilians and Nature Theater of Oklahoma.
The first of the seven, “Counting and Cracking,” in September, is a sweeping, episodic play that features nineteen actors from across the globe on a multi-generational journey of a Sri Lankan-Australian family from 1956-2004.
It is is a co-production with the Public Theater, which announced its 2024-2025 season, which also includes a revival of “Gatz,” the verbatim text of “The Great Gatsby” by Elevator Repair Service.
Little Island announced a busy summer season, starting with Twyla Tharp’s newest full-length piece, “How Long Blues” Also one week each of public events (to be announced shortly) by (among others) Suzan-Lori Parks and Justin Vivian Bond
A glimpse at the newly renovated Palace Theater
The marriage of Lindsay Mendez to actor J. Alex Brinson, featured her two castmates who play best friends in “Merrily We Roll Along,” and have apparently become so: The Monday ceremony was officiated by Jonathan Groff, with Daniel Radcliffe as the ring bearer.
