How close has legitimate theater come to capturing the political theater of Presidential campaigns and party conventions, especially the real-life implausible whiplash political dramas of the last two months?
There’s the Gershwin’s “Of Thee I Sing,” the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. True, it’s a frothy satire, terribly outdated, in which the Presidential candidate runs on a platform of love, sponsoring a beauty pageant to select his bride-to-be. On the other hand, “joy” is featured in one of the Gershwin’s songs, “Love Is Sweeping the Country”:
Each girl and boy alike sharing joy alike
Feels that passion’ll soon be national
There’s “The Best Man,” a play by Gore Vidal, a grandson of a U.S. senator and an office-seeker himself, about the campaign between a principled candidate and one who would do anything to win. Melvyn Douglas won the Tony Award in the original 1960 Broadway production, for portraying the principled candidate. His casting had a special resonance at the time: He was married to Helen Gahagan Douglas, a Congresswoman who had run for the Senate against Richard M. Nixon, who freely insulted her (“pink right down to her underwear”); she responded by calling him “Tricky Dick,” an epithet with legs.
Then there’s the 2018 Off-Broadway play “Kings” written by Sarah Burgess and directed by Thomas Kail (best known for “Hamilton”) which is not about Presidential candidates at all, although one of the two politicians in it, a Senator, has Presidential ambitions. But the other is the first black woman to get elected as a Congresswoman for her district, and she has learned the central lesson of politics, and the main point of the play: ”There is one thing about which we all agree, left, right, center: Money has corrupted our politics.”
“N/A,” an intelligent and illuminating political comedy, happened to open on June 27, the very night of the pivotal debate between Biden and Trump. The show, which is a debate of sorts between Holland Taylor and Ana Villafañe as characters who are (in everything but name) understood as Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. From now until the show closes on September 1, taking smart advantage of its relevance, the producers are offering $20 off to registered voters using VOTEIN2024.
It’s not the only theater encouraging people to participate in democracy
Two non-partisan groups, Broadway Votes and HeadCount, have launched a voter engagement sweepstakes. Click the link to check to see if you’re registered to vote, and you will be chosen to win two tickets to four different Broadway and/or Off-Broadway shows of your choosing, plus flight and hotel accommodations at the ACE Hotel New York City.
Kids Night on Broadway is happening tomorrow, August 20th. Theatergoers ages 18 & under can attend a participating Broadway show for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult
Broadway Week returns September 3–15. Score 2-for-1 tickets, on sale now, with code BWYWKF24, available for 23 productions, including long-time favorites like the Book of Mormon, Hamilton and Wicked, newcomers Hells Kitchen, Stereophonic and Suffs, and not-yet-opened The Hills of California and The Roommate
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
More than 7,000 languages currently exist in the world, of which an astonishing 700 are spoken in New York City — more than anyplace else on earth.Language and music are portable homelands,” explain the hosts of “Language City,” an eye-opening and entertaining show presented for free at The Glade, one of the two outdoor theaters on Little Island.
Theater artist Dan Daly gives a distinct new context to this Biblical character, one that’s lyrical, inventive, pointed – and very different.
The Week in New York Theater News
Phylicia Rashad will make her Broadway directorial debut helming the Broadway transfer of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s “Purpose”, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Tony-winner for Appropriate,), beginning February 25 at the Helen Hayes Theater, opening “in mid-March.” A civil rights activist and preacher who had marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. welcomes his eldest son, a politician, home from prison as his wife prepares to serve her own sentence. The younger son, a divinity school dropout, also shows up, with an unexpected friend.
National Black Theatre 2024-2025 season
The Divining: Ceremonies from in the name of the m/other tree
Written, Directed, and Choreographed by: Ebony Noelle Golden
Sept 13 – 22
3-part series of ritual performances, processions, and visual installations that invites you to experience the intersection of art, activism, and spirituality.
KINGS…come home
Playwright: Smita James, Veronique Efomi & Munganyende
March 5 – March 16, 2025
The Victoria Theatre at The Apollo
The journey of a displaced family looking for a new home
Bowl EP
Written and Directed by: Nazareth Hassan
April 17 – May 25, 2025
Vineyard Theatre
Kelly K Klarkson and Quentavius da Quitter need to find a name for their rap group. Through flirty interludes, cringy overshares, and practicing their ollies, they grow increasingly closer.
Chiaroscuro
Playwright: Aishah Rahman
May 26 – June 22, 2025
The Flea Theatre
On a love boat-type cruise ship for Black singles, “pretty” means light-skinned, all the men are dark, and Papa Legba, the African trickster spirit, is disguised as a ship steward.
Sweetwater: The Gospel of Iman
Playwright: Nathan Yungerberg
June 26 – June 29, 2025
Umar, a young gay black writer residing in New York City during the AIDS epidemic, and his closest female friend, Charlie, conjure the spirits of the lives lost
Transport Group 2024-25 season
Bus Stop
Written by William Ing
May 2025
Beautiful Jolie Gabor, Her Glamorous Three Daughters, and Always the Happiness Is Life
A new musical with words and music by Michael John LaChiusa
Starring Mary Testa
Mother of the Gabor sisters
1939
This experimental new work conceived by Jack Cummings III tells the story of a middle-aged couple trying to escape Europe at the beginning of the Second World War. Using only dialogue from major Hollywood films of the most revered year in cinema history, 1939 explores the psychological fractures that occur when human beings are stranded indefinitely between life and death.
Shows Are Turning to Influencers: To reach younger and more diverse audiences, Broadway shows are increasingly looking to Instagram and TikTok creators. (NYTimes)
In Memoriam
Gena Rowland, 94, an intense actress, twice Oscar nominated, often in collaboration with her husband, John Cassavetes. She was Older Allie in the movie “The Notebook” now portrayed by Maryann Plunkett on Broadway. In 1956, Rowland made her only appearance on Broadway, starring opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s “Middle of the Night,” a play about a 50-ish garment manufacturer who has a romance with a woman in her 20s. Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the play in The New York Times, called her performance “especially good.”
Adam Epstein, 49, Tony-winning Broadway producer (Hairspray, Amadeus, The Crucible, Cry Baby)
