A friend writes about the final performance of Merrily We Roll Along on Sunday:
“The Merrily performance was so moving. Worth every penny. The crowd was high energy Saw some people with bottles of champagne. Standing ovations after many songs. A funny moment during “It’s a Hit” with reference to winning a Tony in the future where they passed around the pretend Tony to every actor on the stage.” (see video of final bow, below)
I had my own Merrily encounter over the holiday weekend, an unexpected one, when I re-watched “Lady Bird.” The movie is only seven years old, but I couldn’t help but see it differently. It’s not just because so many in the cast are better known now – it features Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lois Smith, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Saoirse Ronan, Stephen McKinley Henderson (one of the latest Theater Hall of Fame inductees; see below.) And not just that the director who was making her solo directorial debut, Greta Gerwig, has since gone on to helm one of the highest grossing films of all time (That would be Barbie.) But do you remember the musical the kids are putting on? It’s Merrily We Roll Along!
Speaking of surprise relevance in old movies. I rewatched Independence Day, and stumbled across this early scene:
White House aide: They’re not attacking your policies; they’re attacking your age..
President: Isn’t it amazing how fast everyone can turn against you
July 2024 New York Theater Openings
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Nobody Cares: Laura Benanti in your ear
Laura Benanti’s autobiographical show is far from the first live performance that Audible has produced at the Minetta Lane Theater in order to turn it into an audiobook; the company has been releasing “Audible Originals” recorded in front of a live audience at that theater in Greenwich Village since 2018. But Benanti is surely the first to mock Audible for doing so, as she does from the very start… Full review
Rank 10 Broadway Musicals About American History
The Week in New York Theater News
Broadway in Bryant Park 2024 Free Summer Concert Schedule
First up, this Thursday: “Back to the Future,” “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Who’s TOMMY,”“The Wiz,” “Water for Elephants”
Broadway’s Suffs disrupted by protesters (Playbill)
The Theater Hall of Fame 2024 inductees: actors Elizabeth Ashley (Take Her, She’s Mine; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Boyd Gaines (Gypsy, The Heidi Chronicles), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Between Riverside and Crazy, Fences), and Donna Murphy (Passion, The King and I); actor and playwright Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Taboo); composer William Finn (Falsettos, A New Brain); playwright David Rabe (Sticks and Bones, Hurlyburly); and, posthumously, producer Todd Haimes, the late artistic director of the Roundabout Theatre Company.
The 26th annual Broadway Barks returns to Shubert Alley on Saturday, August 3, 2024 to benefit New York City animal rescue groups.
In Memoriam
Jon Landau, 63, producer of Titanic and Avatar (and Broadway producer of Springsteen on Broadway)
“His first exposure to filmmaking was through his parents, Ely and Edie Landau, who together produced ambitious independent films for a mass audience, including adaptations of stage plays by Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee and Bertolt Brecht. Many of these adaptations were released through a subscription service that the Landaus created called the American Film Theater”
(John’s sisters: Tina, Broadway director and librettist, and Kathy, executive director of Symphony Space)
