“Oh, Mary,” which opened on Broadway this past week, is meant to be funny and deliberately tasteless; one scene in it, reimagining the first American presidential assassination, turns out to be especially ill-timed. A song in a Broadway show no longer running, controversial in its day, feels more timely:
“Lots of madmen have had their say – But only for a day….Angry men/ don’t write the rules/And guns don’t right the wrongs” — from “The Ballad of Booth” in Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins”
—
(See below)
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
The opening of “Oh, Mary!”… at the Lyceum marks the Broadway debut of Cole Escola as both playwright and performer, but the Off-Broadway run earlier this year of this campy comedy about First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln has already turned Escola into the latest boy wonder of the theater world (albeit 37), an overnight sensation (who began posting comic videos on YouTube sixteen years ago), and something of a queer hero (chosen by the Dorian Awards as LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season — one of many theater awards bestowed on both the artist and the show),,,“Oh, Mary!” is entertaining, yes, bawdy, queer, tasteless – i.e. camp – but like an overlong sketch. Full review
“Empire: The Musical,” about the construction of the Empire State Building, has a pleasant enough score, and a hard-working cast, but there’s nothing thrilling about it – certainly not its own dancing-on-beam number, “Lookahee,” whose lyrics begin “Hey, pretty girl, turn your head and look at me.” For all its busyness, “Empire” is too often an energy-sapping exercise, its fictionalized plot so pointlessly convoluted it hardly feels worth sorting out. Full review
“Ain’t Done Bad” is a dance theater piece about a gay boy who leaves his small town to find love in the big city; its apparent similarity to “Illinoise” helped draw me to “Ain’t Done Bad” in the first place, but the timing also makes a comparison unavoidable, which puts Jakob Karr’s show at a disadvantage. I found “Illinoise” extraordinary and often thrilling. My reaction to “Ain’t Done Bad” is more uncertain….The story is the weak link. Full review.
The Week in New York Theater News
Joining Sutton Foster and Michael Urie in the cast of the Broadway transfer of the Encores! production of “Once Upon A Mattress,” which opens at the Hudson Theater on August 12: Brooks Ashmanskas as The Wizard, Daniel Breaker as The Jester, Will Chase as Sir Harry, Nikki Renée Daniels as Lady Larken, David Patrick Kelly as King Sextimus, and Ana Gasteyer as Queen Aggravain. Only the last two of these six were in the original Encores! concert (my review.)
New Group Theater’s star-studded 2024-2025 season, its 30th, three to be presented at the Signature Center, the fourth at the Vineyard Theater.
Babe
by Jessica Goldberg, directed by Scott Elliott, with Marisa Tomei.
From grunge to femme punk hits, Abby (Tomei) and Gus have produced it all. Their work marriage is legendary and Gus has the platinum records to prove it. But when Katherine, a fresh hire, calls Abby out on the compromises she’s made in her work union, Abby must face the music and fight to survive.
Fall 2024
Curse of the Starving Class
A revival of the acclaimed play of family dysfunction by the late Sam Shepard, directed by Scott Elliott, with Calista Flockhart, Cooper Hoffman and Christian Slater.
Winter 2025
The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse
A new musical by Fake Friends, the duo Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley now best-known for their Pulitzer-nominated “Circle Jerk.” In 2006, The New York Post infamously labeled Paris, Lindsay and Britney “The Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse.” But who is the fourth girl in that famous photo? Today, three Gen Z internet sleuths investigate that icon – Coco, an early 2000’s one-hit wonder who mysteriously vanished.
Spring 2025
Bowl EP
Written and directed by Nazareth Hassan, about a duo seeking a name for their rap group, growing closer through flirty interludes and cringy overshares.
Spring 2025 at Vineyard Theater
The internationally acclaimed Belarus Free Theater will launch La MaMa’s 63rd season in September with “KS6: Small Forward,” about an Olympic athlete and women’s basketball star, the first and only popular sports figure in the history of Belarus to have openly come out as gay, who now lives in exile as an outspoken, frontline activist against the dictatorship in her native country.
This year’s Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction will take place on Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m
2024 New York Independent Theater Award Hono
Watch These 10 For Free: Theater newly on tape at TOFT
Watch 2024 Broadway in Bryant Park Week 1
“Lin-Manuel Miranda is wrapping up the recording of a concept album for a new musical co-written by playwright Eisa Davis, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The album will be based on the 1979 movie The Warriors, whose sympathetic depictions of gang members and gritty cinematography made it a standard bearer for youth counterculture. Representatives for Miranda declined to comment.” (Bloomberg)
In Memoriam
Joseph Hardy, 95, performer and Tony-winning director, who helmed the original “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.”
A public memorial for long-time stage manager Thomas J. Gates will be held at the St. James Theatre today, July 15, at 2 PM.. Gates, 51, who was the production stage manager of “Illinoise” at the St. James, was killed by a New Jersey Transit train in May.
