Broadway Spring Awakening. James Franco and Anne Hathaway Broadway-Bound? New York Theater Tweets 61

Good People opening on Thursday is the first of TEN Broadway shows scheduled to open in March alone, and that doesn’t count the shows starting previews – although it does count Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark since (as of this moment) they are only thinking of delaying the opening once again.
At right are the posters of the Broadway shows in the order of their opening. For detailed information about all remaining shows opening on Broadway in Spring 2011 — 23 in March and April alone — check out Broadway Spring 2011, which I’ve been updating for months.
This was the week of the Oscars, prompting…ambivalence among some theater people…
Ronald Pederson (@RonaldPederson, “thespian radical”): The world’s best actors will be working in theatres tonight

But most in the theater community watched avidly, and treated the screen as an extension of the stage.

Join New York Theater on Twitter.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Woo-hoo: The Ohio Theater, kicked out of Wooster Street after 20 years, is moving in September to the Archives Building in the West Village!

The Mormon Times writes about The Book of Mormon (the Broadway musical), “surprised by the dismissive condescension [they] take toward Mormonism”

A sure-fire non-seller: a video game of Waiting for Godot

Mint Theater puts on old plays “nobody has ever heard of…They were better storytellers” back then, says the Mint’s artistic director, Jonathan Bank. “There are certainly great writers today, too, but I think too many playwrights today think they are writing movie scripts for the theater”

My review in Back Stage of stage adaptation of “In The Time of The Butterflies”

The outrage and sorrow that greeted the murder of the three elegant and revolutionary Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic during the homicidal dictatorship of General Rafael Trujillo have never really ended. These emotions are evident on the anniversary of the sisters’ death, which is officially commemorated every year throughout Latin America and is the subject of “In The Time of the Butterflies,” the 1994 novel by Dominican-American author Julia Álvarez, as well as the 2001 Showtime cable movie based on it, starring Selma Hayek. Outrage and sorrow will also most likely be the reactions to the stage adaptation of Álvarez’s novel by playwright Caridad Svich. Playing in Spanish with simultaneous English translation at Repertorio Español, it largely does justice to this story of injustice.
Full review

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

“Angels in America” at Signature Theater will now close on April 24, its final extension. (It was originally set to run just until Dec 19 ’10)

Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater, me): I love the casting of “The Good Wife” television series; most of the actors are regular New York theater performers.
Chandra Thomas (@nychandra, actor): Yup, it’s filmed in a studio in Greenpoint. Great people on the set.
Jonathan Mandell: But how odd that it is filmed in New York but made to look like Chicago. Most shows are filmed in Toronto and made to look like NYC.
A. Scott Falk (@ascottfalk) Juliana Margulies didn’t want to leave New York and uproot her family, so she insisted on shooting here.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Revival of The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s AIDS play that started as a reading with Joe Mantello (returning to acting from directing), Ellen Barkin and possibly Cheyenne Jackson, set to open on Broadway’s Golden Theater April 27!

Brian Murray and Jayne Houdyshell become Rev Chasuble and Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest March 22. Brian Bedford remains Lady Bracknel

American Idiot launches national tour in Fall 2011, & holding open auditions for all roles starting next month in LA, Toronto, Boston, Chicago

Bravo to Billy Elliot for offering ShowTrans for non-English Speakers, I-Caption for the deaf and D-Scriptive for the blind. I-Caption, hand-held device showing dialogue, lyrics,sound effects,is also at Jersey Boys,Mamma Mia! and Wicked.

Benefit reading tonight of The Idealist with Alison Pill, Tony Roberts tonight which is also being webstreamed.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Joel Grey is both starring in a Broadway musical (Anything Goes) and directing a (different) Broadway play (The Normal Heart). At age 79.
Lance Carter (@DailyActor, actor): Please find out where he gets his energy from and send it to me

James Earl Jones, currently in Driving Miss Daisy, will play former US president in Spring 2012 Bway revival of “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man”

Laurence Fishburne starred in “Thurgood” (Supreme Court Justice) on Broadway in 2008, then toured the country with it. Tonight it’s on HBO

Write about something else besides Spider-Man, press agent tells Michael Riedel of NY Post. And he does: new Broadway buzz especially for Book of Mormon and Catch Me If You Can.

Friday, February 25, 2011

“Rent” is being revived at New World Stages with original director! Open auditions, March 18; previews, July 14; opening planned for Aug. 11

He’s just finished performing in La Cage Aux Folles as Georges at Broadway’s Longacre Theater. Today, Kelsey Grammer (@Kelsey_Grammer) will marry wife number four, Kayte Walsh, in it.

Grammer’s replacement is already leaving.
Jeffrey Tambor is dropping out after nine days because of pain from recent hip surgery. New casting announced soon

Ragtime team returning with workshop at Lincoln Center in June of new musical based on real-life relationship bet. Edgar Degas & a ballerina

Saturday, February 26, 2011
Spider-Man producers are considering delaying the opening yet again, as late as June, but keeping the “A-list gala” on March 15th. The reasoning is that they have hired, or in the process of hiring, fixers to the show, and March 15th is not enough time to make the changes the new hires suggest.
Spider-Man scheduled opening dates: 2/18/10, 12/21/10, 1/11/11, 2/07/11, 3/15/11 –> 6/?/11?

Luckily, there are alternatives, two of them: “SpiderMann” musical “thrown together in less than a month…with a $5 ticket price.” March 13,14 at The Tank. And “Spiderman Smackdown”, Justin Moran’s “guerilla theater project to write, rehearse, and perform a fully realized musical based on the character Spiderman in under 30 days with a budget of $0,” also debuting March 13th.

“Freezing” vs. Fixing A Show
If Spider-Man can try to fix a show after reviews have come out,why can’t more honest shows that have officially opened try to make repairs? (I checked with Actors Equity: No union requires that a show be “frozen”)
Mike Smith Rivera (@apocalypseclown, performer, clown): My guess is it’s either because they’re too emotionally exhausted or the ego prohibits changes to their “baby”.
Liz Woolf (@lizwoolf, stage manager): A lot of shows make small changes while the show is running.
Amy Jo Jackson (@amyjojackson, actor): Freezing is really a means of keeping a director out of the actors’ hair, and giving the stage manager a means of keeping order.
Nikki Hayden (@iam_nikkihayden, advertising sales executive who loves the arts): Scarlet Pimpernel completely scrapped their original show and reopened it with Version 2.0.
Rob L. (@ElderPoptart, musical theater enthusiast): Wicked made small changes to their book after opening the London production

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Jason Patric is the grandson of Jackie Gleason, and the son of Jason Miller, the author of the play Patric is appearing in, a revival of “That Championship Season” (@ThatChampSeason). Oddly, he has an urn with his father’s ashes on the set.

Last performance tonight in American Idiot for John Gallagher Jr. (@JohnGallagherJr), who was a member of the original cast, as well as Michael Esper and Billie Joe Armstrong. (@airstreamrally and @BJAofficial)

Other Desert Cities closing today, but a Broadway transfer planned for the fall. Acting is amazing; script, not:

The Oscars and The Theater
None of the best actor in a leading role nominees, Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Colin Firth, James Franco have been on Broadway

Tod (@roadwarrior07, actor): Do they have to be? The thespian culture is dying. It’s just a matter of time before Hollywood takes over Broadway too.
Jonathan Mandell: Everybody agree?
Mathew deGuzman (@mathewdeguz, actor): Absolutely not.
JD Carrera (@JDCarrera, actor): I fear there may be some truth to that. I think that is largely where much of the backlash against Spidey came from. It represents a Hollywood mentality/PR machine that is focused entirely on the bottom dollar and creating good spin. The difference is a film is a completed work…A play is a living, breathing thing. Something that is a mutual experience between performers & audience. It changes/evolves
Reen (@crdesmond, “Jersey Girl”): So many “unknown” actors working in labors of love on stages from amateur to professional. Hollywood can’t be everywhere
Erica McLaughlin (@EricaMTheatre, actress, TDF staff): Hollywood has taken over Broadway. But the thespian culture lives on elsewhere, Off Bway, regionally, Off Off. Hopefully new thespians will be enraged by commercialism and go back to making good theater!

Three of the best actress Oscar nominees have been on Broadway: Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman.
Natalie Portman, who won for Best Leading Actress for her role in “The Black Swan,” played the title role in the revival of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in 1997.

During the Oscar broadcast, Halle Berry spoke of her Broadway debut Fall 11 in Katori Hall ‘s “The Mountaintop” about the night before Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination
Aaron Sorkin, who won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Social Network,” has had two plays on Broadway, “A Few Good Men,” which was a hit, and “The Farnsworth Invention,” which wasn’t
Chris Laws (@chrislaws22): Write more plays Aaron!
A consensus developed during co-host Anne Hathaway’s musical number: She should find a Broadway musical in which to star. Anyone suggest a good one? Or should it be original?
Catherine (@Ladybirdplane) Funny Girl! Better her than Lea Michele!
Sue Kisenwether (@spaltor, ticket broker): How about Chicago
Alvin (@thecheapmonk, singer, actor):As Elphaba in Wicked.
Jenny (@JennyPeaceLOVE): Les Mis!
Brandon Rivera (@liv2act94): Into the Woods,
Yvette Kojic (@yvettekojic, actress): A revival of thoroughly modern millie? she would have been a great Sheila in Hair, too!
Liz Owen (@LizOwenLA,mom): Isn’t there a Garland musical with her in the works?

James Franco (@JamesFranco) says he plans to play a gigolo to Nicole Kidman’s aging actress in revival of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth in the Fall of 2011

“The King’s Speech,” won the 2011 Academy Awards for best picture, actor, director and screenplay. Director Tom Hooper’s mother found “The King’s Speech” at a play reading.
Jason Hoover (@Jasonhoover):…and turned it into a movie….not a play..
Ross McKeen (@mightytoycannon, director Oregon Children’s Theater):
Go theater! (And Mom).

The week in New York Theater Tweets is a selection and enhancement of Jonathan Mandell’s Twitter feed, and is posted every week, usually on Monday.
For up-to-the-minute theater news, views and reviews, follow Jonathan Mandell on his Twitter feed at New York Theater
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