This is the busy season on Broadway, with seven more shows opening before the end of the month, and this past week in New York Theater full of announcements – new Broadway shows based on the Book of Mormon , football coach Vince Lombardi, the movie “Dances With Wolves”; the return of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter.) There were some controversies as well. The biggest was over the Pulitzer Prize in Drama awarded to “Next To Normal.” There was a debate over whether the creators of “South Park” would denigrate the Church of Latter Day Saints in their new musical. I also recount a Twitter debate on which are the “real” rock musicals.
Broadway openings that remain this season:
American Idiot, 4/20; Sondheim on Sondheim, 4/22; Promises, Promises, 4/25; Fences, 4/26; Collected Stories 4/28; Enron, 4/27 Everyday Rapture, 4/29
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Monday, April 12, 2010
“In The Heights” is going to be a film, directed by Kenny Ortega (Michael Jackson’s “This Is It”) starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and original star of the Broadway musical. Shooting begins in August.
David Mamet’s laments about the theater (a preview of a new book): True theatergoers are being replaced by tourists; shows have become spectacles; theaters are closing; political theater taken over
Rose Ginsberg (@MsEnScene, stage director): The biggest surprise about Mamet’s complaints re: modern theater is how much I agree with him.
The Royal Shakespeare Company is presenting Romeo & Juliet on Twitter, in “Such Tweet Sorrow”
The Pulitzer Controversy
Next to Normal wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama!
It is only the eighth musical to have won since the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded in 1918. (A ninth, Oklahoma, was given a Pulitzer in a different category):
George S. Kaufman and the Gershwin brothers’ Of Thee I Sing (1932)
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific (1950)
Bock & Harnick’s Fiorello! (1960)
Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962)
Michael Bennett’s A Chorus Line (1976)
Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George (1985)
Jonathan Larson’s Rent (1996)
Brian Yorkey’s and Tom Kitt’s Next to Normal (2010).
Pulitzer drama prize jury chair Charles McNulty writes angrily in the Los Angeles Times that the Pulitzer Board blew it. His main objection is not to “Next to Normal” itself but to the process by which it was selected. The drama committee nominated three plays for consideration – “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Rajiv Joseph, “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” by Kristoffer Diaz (which will be coming to Second Stages later this month), and “In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play” by Sarah Ruhl (which was presented in New York by Lincoln Center Theater last year).
The Pulitzer board ignored the recommendations and made their own selection, members reportedly attending a performance of “Next To Normal” the night before their selection.
Jonathan Mandell (@Newyorktheater, me): What do you think of the controversy?
Wendy Rosenfield (@WendyRosenfield, theater critic, Philadelphia Inquirer): I totally empathize with McNulty. Why ask pros to give time and expertise to Pulitzer jury, then ignore them? What an insult. You?
Jonathan Mandell: The Pulitzer for Drama has always struck me as off. “The Shadow Box”? “Rabbit Hole”? No award for drama 12 times? The Pulitzers are mostly awards for journalism. Why has the drama award been so prized?
Ann Wallace (@aenordland, theater fan): The Pulitzer is for writing, which means the criteria is different than other drama awards. There is always controversy.
Responding to McNulty’s criticism, the Pulitzer Board replied: “it is unfair to say that the board simply plucked ‘Next to Normal’ out of nowhere for the prize.”
Alex Jensen (@jensen11us, actor and director) dislikes the Pulitzer going to “Next to Normal.” They got it wrong plain and simple. This is not on the same level as past winners.
New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley weighs in on Pulitzer controversy. He is “mystified” by controversy since “I have never bought a book, read a poem or seen a play because it was by a Pulitzer winner.”
“Next to Normal” fans on BroadwayWorld.com bulletin board ask: What’s with all the “Next to Normal”" hate?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Today is National Arts Advocacy Day. Advocates travel to D.C. Witnesses ranging from actor Jeff Daniels to U.S. Army Brigadier General Nolen V. Bivens (ret.) testify in
support of a budget of $180 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
There is also a campaign to make the arts a trending topic on Twitter.
Glee’s second season debuts tonight with to (more) Broadway stars: Wicked’s Idina Menzel and Spring Awakening’s Jonathan Groff.
Reprise Records will release the Broadway cast recording of American Idiot on April 20, same day the show will open at the St. James. MTV previews entire album
Bad Addams Family reviews didn’t stop soaring sales — “$851,000 in tickets last weekend on top of a $15 million sales advance.”
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Lombardi, starring Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years), about famed football coach Vince Lombardi, is slated to open at Circle in the Square on Broadway, Oct. 21. The National Football League is a producing partner, the first time the NFL has invested in live theater.
The Book of Mormon,” a musical about the Mormon founder and two fictional present-day missionaries in Africa, by the creators of South Park and one of the composer-lyricists for Avenue Q, is set for Broadway next March. It was originally scheduled to debut at the New York Theater Workshop.
“There’s a lot of Mormon stuff in our work because Matt and I both grew up around a lot of Mormons,” South Park’s Trey Parker told Michael Riedel of the New York Post. “I’ve never met a Mormon I didn’t like. They’re really nice people. They’re so Disney. They’re so Rodgers and Hammerstein.”
Spencer Williams (@abroadwaycritic, theater blogger):
For someone who’s writing a musical called “The Book of Mormon” they sure don’t know what they are talking about… My stance on “The Book of Mormon” musical. Stick to your cartoons and leave Broadway alone.
Jonathan Mandell: 1. How do you know “The Book of Mormon” is going to be an offensive parody? 2. You hate Big Love then too?
Spencer Williams: 1. Did you see the writer(s) for this musical? Of course it will 2. Big Love isn’t a parody it’s a drama – TOTALLY DIFFERENT
L Schwartzy (@logainne ) But you — like most of us outside the creative team — barely even know the content.
Chris Caggiano (@ccaggiano, theater blogger of “Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals” and professor of musical theater): How about we see the show before we judge?
Spencer Williams: I’m not judging the show I’m judging the content
Some Mormons are excited about the Broadway-bound Book of Mormon creators, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune
“How can they call us a cult once we’re headlining 52nd Street? The Jews got ‘Fiddler.’ The Catholics got ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Doubt.’ It’s our time to shine,” John Dehlin writes in a blog post on Mormon Matters entitled Top 10 Reasons Why This Mormon is Excited About the South Park “Book of Mormon” Broadway Musical
Thursday, April 15
Harry Potter enters the business world: Daniel Radcliffe to star on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Spring 2011
For those too young to remember him, Radcliffe was the Justin Bieber of the 2000′s.
A producer aiming for Broadway with “epic dramatic musical” of Kevin Costner film “Dances with Wolves” Will it be four hours long?
Kevin Daly (@kevinddaly, theater blogger): I’m more interested in Daniel Radcliffe in How to Succeed than Dances with Wolves the Musical.
Jonathan Mandell: Why not combine them? Dances with Sharks?
Billy Crudup stars in The Metal Children written and directed by Adam Rapp about censorship, at Vineyard Theater May 5 – June 13
Addams Family will record cast album April 19 (So there, critics!)
My review of The 39 Steps Review: Thriller Reborn As Slapstick Now Off-Broadway
“Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps,” a play based on the 1935 film, with the same plot and most of the same 150 characters as the Hitchcock spy thriller – except that it’s a slapstick comedy performed by a cast of just four — ended its two-year run on Broadway in January. It has now opened Off-Broadway three months later… There is a new cast, and there are 98 fewer seats to fill in the theater, but not much otherwise has changed…The 39 Steps is in fact, still pointless, and still funny, but it is no longer a fresh serving of the very British brand of manic silliness that we Americans most associate with Monty Python, and before that Beyond The Fringe. The producers are apparently convinced that they have a comic evergreen in The 39 Steps, that theatergoers will forever have a taste for this frenzy…They may be correct. Full review
Friday, April 16, 2010
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, a musical based on the 1994 film is aiming for Broadway in March 2011. The producer is reportedly talking to Matthew Cavanaugh (West Side Story) and Will Swenson (Hair) about roles.
Denzel Washington and Viola Davis talk about August Wilson and his plays in this video.
Wendy Rosenfield deserves my own effing Pulitzer for squeezing a very complex Lee Blessing world premiere into a 380-word review.
Jonathan Mandell: You mean deserves to be NOMINATED for a Pulitzer. There sounds like there’s more honor in that
Saturday, April 17, 2010
What is a real rock musical?
Vanity Fair article that is really an advance for American Idiot: Rock has had a place on Broadway for decades, from Hair to Jesus Christ Superstar to The Who’s Tommy to Rent. But most of the shows that made it to Broadway (with the notable exception of Tommy) featured somewhat watered-down versions of rock music—not the kind of stuff you could hear on a modern-rock radio station or drive your parents crazy by blasting in your bedroom. In the past few years, however, there has been a profusion of successful Broadway musicals with harder-edged, guitar-driven scores
The article then mentions Spring Awakening, Passing Strange, and Rock of Ages.
Jonathan Mandell: Are they saying Million Dollar Quartet and Memphis aren’t rock music? Then what are they?
“Tiny Tina” (@ChristinaSees, “foodie and city girl”): Rock encompasses all genres that stem from rockabilly and blues… Memphis is also a rock musical.
Jonathan Mandell: Hair and Rent are watered-down rock? I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about. He doesn’t like that they STARTED on Broadway
Kris Vire (@krisvire, theater editor, Time Out Chicago magazine):
I think there’s a case for Spring Awakening, American Idiot & Passing Strange being rock-ier than Hair or Rent
Particularly if the author knows Rent primarily from cast recording, which totally soft-rocks the score.
Kevin Daly: But do they rock more than “Rockabye Hamlet?” Yes, I went there.
Kris Vire: I also think Million Dollar Quartet and Memphis represent different era of rock from what Hair & Tommy represented, especially since they’re both new shows courting nostalgia crowd. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Jonathan Mandell: People treat this stuff like it’s religion, complete with accusations of apostasy for idolizing false rock gods
Kris Vire: What, like people don’t dissect more traditional Broadway scores with the same fervor? 
Howard Sherman (@hesherman, executive director of The American Theatre Wing): At AMERICAN IDIOT. I confess to limited knowledge of the Green Day catalogue. I gather that’s about to change.
Jonathan Mandell: Howard goes punk
Howard Sherman: Howard owned albums by The Clash and The Ramones on vinyl “back in the day,” I’ll have you know
Jonathan Mandell: So will you be adding to your punk collection?
Howard Sherman: I have original “Idiot” album in my iPhone. I decided to see show, then listen to original, so I wouldn’t go with preconceptions.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Hal Prince, Patti LuPone etc talk about Sondheim in the L.A. TImes, hooked to opening Thursday of Sondheim on Sondheim
Hal Prince first met Sondheim at the opening of South Pacific in 1949! First worked together on West Side Story in 1956. Last worked together on “Merrily We Roll Along” which was “savaged,” ending their collaboration but not their friendship.
LuPone on Sondheim’s ‘incredibly intricate melodies & complicated lyrics..the first time I have to do 1, my heart stops until song is over.’
My review of La Cage Aux Folles opening tonight on Broadway
More than a quarter of a century later — with same-sex marriage legal in seven countries and five American states plus the District of Columbia, and the gay civil rights movement asking for more than implicit tolerance — La Cage the musical, like the club it depicts, hasn’t aged so well. If you think political matters irrelevant to an entertainment like “La Cage Aux Folles,” or even impolite to bring up, that’s the point: The musical is divorced from the context that gave it some resonance….To be fair, my reaction is quite at odds with many critics …Full review
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Jonathan Mandell
Jonathan Mandell, who tweets as New York Theater, is a native New Yorker and third-generation journalist with diverse experience on newspapers, magazines and websites.He has ...
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