The producers of “All in: Comedy about Love,” one of the three shows that ended their Broadway runs last weekend, have announced “All Out: Comedy About Life” for next season (venue and cast still to be determined.) “It’s about ambition, envy, ego, spite, and the blind pursuit of fame and fortune,” remarked Simon Rich, whose stories will once again be read by a rotating cast of celebrities. “I think some New Yorkers might find the theme even more relatable than love.”
Rich has a point. February annually celebrates love (On Valentines Day, What Broadway Says About Love. Excerpts from 8 shows.) But this year, the month seems more about grief (see Redwood) and retribution (see Washington DC).
Presidents Day, also every February, felt more ominous this year, certainly for theaterlovers. 11 U.S. Presidents on the Arts from George Washington to the Present (Donald Trump took over as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – which he told reporters he had never visited – on the birthday last week of Abraham Lincoln, who was a frequent theatergoer….)
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Idina Menzel returns to Broadway as Jesse, a New York gallery owner who, out of grief for the death of her son, leaves her wife and her life, drives cross country, and winds up spending several restorative days on a redwood tree. Does this sound substantial enough for a Broadway musical? But a star can work wonders. In this case, I don’t mean Menzel, as welcome as she is. I mean the tree….
Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir
When Jeffrey Seller was 18 years old and frustrated at his new job as the drama director at a summer camp for kids, somebody handed him a copy of Moss Hart’s 1959 memoir “Act One,” touting it as the best book about the theater ever written. Seller, who went on to become a successful Broadway producer best-known for the landmark musicals “Rent” and “Hamilton,” sees reading Hart’s book as a significant enough moment in his life that he writes about it in his own memoir, “Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir” (Simon and Schuster, 368 pages.) …“Theater Kid” may not be the best book about the theater ever written, but it’s pretty damn engaging: convincing dialogue, well-drawn portraits; the appealing perspective of a yearning outsider; the useful perspective of a knowledgeable insider.
The Week in New York Theater News
Trump and the arts:
Trump’s Revenge Now Includes His Takeover of the Kennedy Center (NYTimes)
“The question now is what a thin-skinned showman will do with an institution of music, theater and dance that has been central to Washington’s cultural life for more than 50 years.” More country music? A concert by “J6 choir” (the pardoned January 6 rioters)?
Why the Kennedy Center purge matters (The Conversation)
Sutton Foster will star in a stage musical adaptation of “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” based both on the 1980 movie starring Sissy Spacek and Loretta Lynn’s autobiography, with Sam Gold attached as the director, and music production by Jeanine Tesori. Loretta Lynn, a beloved country music star, died in 2022 at the age of 90. There have been plans for a Broadway-aimed musical about her life for at least a decade. (Playbill)
Jordan Fisher will return to Broadway in Moulin Rouge! The Musical as Christian, April 15 to July 20.
Andrew Scott’s solo Vanya is now running March 10 – May 11 (still opening March 18)
Brandon Victor Dixon will depart Hell’s Kitchen on March 9 and Maleah Joi Moon on March 30.
$28 digital rush tickets on TodayTix for “The Jonathan Larson Project,” which opens March 10 at the Orpheum Theater in the East Village
Poll: Which 2025 Best Picture Oscar Nominee Would Work Best and Worst on Broadway
The Week’s Theater Video
Sneak peak of “Hitting the Road” from the lovely Broadway musical Maybe Happy Ending. (Cast recording “coming soon”)
