Alex Edelman was a winner at the 76th annual Emmys for “Just for Us,” in Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, which this year could be considered the 2024 Emmy Awards theater category: Two of the other nominees had also created solo shows on New York stages that were turned into streaming specials.
“Just for Us,” a joke-filled Daniel-in-the-Lion’s-Den play, recounting the true story of the Yeshiva-trained Edelman’s actual visit to a meeting of antisemites, had marked his Broadway debut, and earned him a Special Tony Award.
Liza Colón-Zayas, New York theater royalty ( “Between Riverside and Crazy” both Off and on Broadway, “Water by the Spoonful,” “Our Lady of 121st Street”) won an Emmy for her role as Tina in “The Bear,” in a category — Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – whose other nominees included prominent Broadway veterans Carol Burnett, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Meryl Streep.
“To all the Latinas who are looking at me, keep believing, and vote; vote for your rights,” Colón-Zayas in her acceptance speech, a video of which is below, with an introduction by presenters with the stupidest shtick of the night.
Edelman’s video is also below, introduced by cast members of Saturday Night Live with a shtick about SNL honcho Lorne Michaels.
Other Broadway veterans that snagged trophies last night: Billy Crudup, Alan Cumming, Jean Smart.
And lets not forget last week’s “Creative Arts” Emmy for Pasek and Paul Pasek for “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” from Only Murders in the Building, which put them in the rarefied community of EGOT winners.
Complete list of nominees and winners from the Television Academy (and easier-to-read list from the New York Times)
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
“The Roommate” is like a female “The Odd Couple” that’s more odd and less funny, and worth a Broadway production for two reasons: Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone…the ultimate pros with a combined total of 117 years experience as professional performers… Full review
“Counting and Cracking” tells the story of four generations of one family from Sri Lanka – once called Ceylon, an island nation off the coast of India – whose later generations were forced by civil strife to emigrate to Australia….[It] makes some unusual demands on a New York theater audience. But those willing and able to engage with it are ultimately rewarded with a memorable and meaningful saga – one with a few vividly etched characters, moments of charged emotion and suspenseful melodrama worthy of Dickens or “Casablanca,” some masterful or playful staging, and a powerful message about the effects of public turmoil on individual lives. Full review
Reframing 9/11: PAC NYC’s First Year
The opening of the new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site a year ago has done what the rebuilders had hoped it would, at least for me. On the twenty-third anniversary of 9/11, the imagery of Ground Zero, and my memory of that awful day, have been supplemented (if not yet completely replaced) by a year’s worth of memorable theatrical performances within the glowing marble cube of the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, now commonly called PAC NYC, during its eclectic and effective inaugural season.
The Week in New York Theater News
Marsha Mason this weekend took over the role portrayed by Mia Farrow in “The Roommate” after Farrow contracted Covid, even though the show has an official understudy. (It’s unclear when Farrow will be returning.)
Lear deBessonet (now at Encores) will be Lincoln Center Theater’snew Artistic Director. Bartlett Sher (Lincoln Center’s long-time resident director) will assume the new role of Executive Producer, at the end of the theater’s 40th anniversary season, which will be the end of André Bishop’s 33-year tenure.
Two Broadway shows with limited runs have been added to the 2024-2025 Broadway season’s Fall lineup.
There will be a holiday run for the second revival of “Elf” the 2010 musical adapted from the 2003 movie, this time with Grey Henson (Mean Girls, Shucked) starring as Buddy, a human raised by Santa’s elves, who learns about his origins and heads to New York City to meet his biological father. The show will open at the Marquis on November 17, and close on January 4.
“All In: Comedy About Love,” will run for ten weeks starting in December (no specified opening date) at Hudson Theater, adapted from the short stories by Simon Rich about dating, heartbreak, and marriage and performed by a rotating cast, led for the first five weeks by John Mulaney and featuring Fred Armisen, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
“Real Women Have Curves,” a musical adapted from the 2002 movie and 1990 play by Josefina López, has announced a Broadway run in 2025, with a website up but as yet no cast, venue or opening date. The musical, which had a brief run at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge earlier this year directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, tells the story of a L.A. teenager, who dreams of college and a career in New York City, but her family’s expects her to stay home and work at their garment factory.
Brendan Fraser and Brian J. Smith will play estranged half-brothers brothers in “Grangeville,” a new play by Samuel D. Hunter, at Signature Theater February 4–March 16, 2025. Grangeville takes its title from the remote Idaho town of the same name. Across a void of thousands of miles and oceans of hurt, two half-brothers tentatively reconnect over the care of their ailing mother. Fraser and Hunter are reuniting after their Oscar-winning movie, “The Whale,” based on Hunter’s play (which I liked better than the movie.)
Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction, produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will take place this year on Sunday, September 22, from 10am to 7pm, with the live auction beginning at 5pm.
In Memoriam
James Earl Jones, 93. A photo appreciation of his career
