Fugard uses just such moments to sculpt the textured layers of personality of the three characters in his 1974 play, and there are no finer stage performers than the three whose job it is to bring them to life in the Roundabout revival at the American Airlines Theater, especially Rosemary Harris, who last appeared on Broadway about two years ago in “The Royal Family” — and first appeared on Broadway in 1952! Yet, despite the performances, the accumulation of moments that are themselves not all that important makes “The Road to Mecca” feel more like a chore than a pleasure until the powerful last half hour of this two and a half hour play.

Harris plays Miss Helen, who was a church-going Afrikaner from the small town of New Bethesda in the desolate area of South Africa known as the Karroo, until she abruptly changed 15 years earlier when her husband died. She stopped going to church, and started crowding out her vegetable garden with concrete sculptures that she envisions as if in a dream and then feverishly works to create — owls, camels, mermaids, Buddhas. They are all mysteriously pointing East, toward Mecca.

Her Mecca seems monstrous to the townspeople whom she has known for decades, including Marius the widowed minister, played by Jim Dale, best-known for the everywhere-at-once energy of his roles in “Barnum” and “Scapino”, but here portraying a well-meaning prig for whom propriety matters more than passion. In the name of helping the aging Miss Helen, he is urging her to give up her oddly-decorated home and move into the church-sponsored nursing home

This outrages Elsa, a young, rebellious schoolteacher from distant Capetown who befriended Miss Helen on a chance encounter a few years before, and now pays her occasional visits. The play takes place on one such visit, lasting just a single night, in which Elsa has traveled 12 hours in response to a letter that Miss Helen wrote to her that makes clear her despair. Elsa is performed by Carla Gugino, who is best-known for her roles in the “Spy Kids” franchise and other such movies and on TV shows, but who has also done Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill on Broadway.

“The Road to Mecca” is the first of at least four plays by Fugard that will be presented over the next few months as part of a celebration of his 80th birthday. The Signature Theater Center, opening this month, has selected three of Fugard’s plays for its inaugural season. Fugard gained his reputation as a leading voice in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The officially racist policy of apartheid lasted nearly half a century, mobilizing the world. But apartheid ended almost two decades ago. It will be interesting to see whether works by the author of the devastating “Master Harold and the Boys” retain their force in a post-apartheid world. The evidence is not good in “The Road to Mecca,” which was inspired by the real story of a woman from the Karroo (the region where Fugard himself grew up) who became a pariah in her town because of the sculptures in her yard, and who committed suicide. In “The Road to Mecca,” the issue of race comes up only indirectly, but there are a plethora of other significant themes to choose from: the crucial role of art in people’s lives, the nature of friendship, the meaning of freedom, the conflict between individual vision and social acceptance, the fight with light against the darkness of impending death. It could feed a terrific term paper. If only the play’s many long speeches did not sometimes seem as heavy as Miss Helen’s concrete sculptures, and far less whimsical.

Set designer Michael Yeargan doesn’t actually show us any of those sculptures, a missed opportunity. The monsters are out in the yard, and the play takes place only in what must be the parlor. It must be the parlor because “The Road to Mecca” is filled with parlor talk. How more effective Fugard’s play would have been with less of that, and more of the monsters.

For up-to-the-minute theater news, views and reviews, follow Jonathan Mandell on his Twitter feed at @NewYorkTheater
Broadway World has designated @NewYorkTheater as one of the top theater Twitter feeds: “Talk about a tweeter who knows his Broadway stuff! From news to conversation-starters to commentary, he’s got it all.”
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The Road to Mecca
American Airlines Theater
By Athol Fugard
Directed by Gordon Edelstein; sets by Michael Yeargan; costumes by Susan Hilferty; lighting by Peter Kaczorowski; music and sound by John Gromada; hair and wig design by Paul Huntley
Cast: Rosemary Harris (Miss Helen), Carla Gugino (Elsa Barlow) and Jim Dale (Marius Byleveld).
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.
Ticket prices: $67 – $117
“The Road to Mecca” is set to run through March 4.

That “Porgy and Bess” is not just any show is glimpsed from its treatment in The New York Times, which has called this production “tepid,” explicitly or implicitly, in at least five reviews by three staff critics and a columnist. Would any other show characterized as lacking force or enthusiasm get so much attention?

Surely some of this is because of Stephen Sondheim, who wrote an eviscerating letter in response not to the show itself (which he hadn’t seen) but to comments made in a published interview by this production’s director Diane Paulus (best-known as the director of the hit revival of “Hair”), star Audra McDonald, and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who revised the 77-year-old libretto by DuBose Heyward, about the melodramatic goings-on in Catfish Row, a fictional black community in Charleston, South Carolina. Sondheim seems to hold a unique position in the theater world these days; if Jerry Herman had written such a letter, would it have had the same effect?

But it is not Sondheim alone that has turned this production of “Porgy and Bess” (officially called “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess”) into a must-see show of the season, despite its disappointments.

“Porgy and Bess,” is a work many people think they know, but what they know is the music, the glorious songs composed by George Gershwin, a breathtaking — revolutionary — fusion of Blues, gospel, spirituals, Tin Pan Alley, jazz, classical. “Summertime” may be the most recorded song in history, with tens of thousands of versions, from Billie Holiday to The Zombies. Compared to the songs themselves, the show for which Gershwin wrote “Summertime” –– and “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “A Woman Is A Sometime Thing” and “My Man’s Gone Now” – is performed irregularly. The last revival of the musical in New York was at Radio City Music Hall for five weeks three decades ago.

One reason surely why this is so – which Sondheim omits completely from
his letter, and indeed is mentioned only a handful of times in the hundreds of comments his letter generated – is the uncomfortable question of racial stereotyping.

“Porgy and Bess” has had a complicated life, according to a fascinating account by James Standifer. George and Ira Gershwin wrote the songs to a story by DuBose Heyward that was originally a novel and then adapted with his wife Dorothy Heyward into a play, “Porgy,” which opened on Broadway in 1927.
Heyward was a white native of South Carolina and had what was considered an enlightened attitude at the time: “I saw the primitive Negro as the inheritor of a source of delight that I would give much to possess.” George Gershwin himself wrote: “I have adapted my method to utilize the drama, the humor, the superstition, the religious fervor, the dancing and the irrepressible high spirits of the race.”
The Gershwins’ insistence that the cast be comprised of black performers (rather than the standard practice of hiring white performers in blackface) meant that what they created could not be performed at the Metropolitan Opera, which had commissioned George Gershwin in the first place to compose an American opera on a subject of his choosing, but which barred African-Americans from performing on its stage.
Todd Duncan, the original Porgy in the 1935 Broadway debut of “Porgy and Bess,” later wrote: “I knew it would cause controversy among my people because of its representation of black life and music.” The original script contained frequent use of the “n” word, the most common epithet for black people. “Members did not like this,” said Etta Moten, who replaced Anne Brown as Bess, “but were afraid to object, that being the tenor of the times.” (Eventually, Ira Gershwin eliminated the epithet.)
Two decades later, William Warfield, who played Porgy in a European tour, said “the black community wasn’t listening to anything about plenty of nothing being good enough for me. Blacks began talking about being black and proud.” Harry Belafonte declined the role of Porgy in the 1959 Otto Preminger film, viewing it as demeaning. A decade after, Harold Cruse, co-founder of the Black Arts Theater in Harlem and later a black studies professor, said “Porgy and Bess belongs in a museum and no self-respecting African American should want to see it, or be seen in it.”
Attitudes obviously are evolving, but this is the necessary context to understand the effort by the Gershwin estate to ask the current creative team to revise the piece. Much scorn and ridicule has been expressed for the change in title to “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” seen as a denigration of the Heywards. From where I sit, it is the Gershwin songs that make “Porgy and Bess” eternally thrilling; the Heyward story and dialogue are at best dated. (DuBose Heyward did write the lyrics for some of the most memorable of the songs.)
The changes to the script, in my view, are largely improvements, and will in any case go unnoticed by all but the most diligent aficionados; the overall plot remains the same: Porgy is in love with Bess, a loose woman and a drug addict who wants to live a decent life, but bounces from the brute Crown to the crippled Porgy, back to Crown, then Porgy, then the sinuous and insinuating drug dealer Sportin’ Life. (It is not clear whether the Sondheim letter scared the new production off more drastic changes.) The heavy Gullah dialect has been translated for a general audience. In the original, we first see Porgy about to join a game of craps, saying “I got a pocket full of the Buckra money.” This has been changed to “I got a pocket full of the white folks’ money.”
The residents of Catfish Row still call the white policemen “boss.” The policemen no longer call the residents “uncle.” Lori-Parks has deftly rearranged or interpolated lines of dialogue to avoid what most offended audiences in the past: Now it is clearer that Porgy is singing of his happiness with Beth in “I Got Plenty O’ ‘Nuttin” (retitled “I Got Plenty of Nothing”) rather than exulting that he is poor and oppressed.
Some of the characters have been eliminated, among them a white patrician named Archdale meant to be sympathetic, who posts bond for another (eliminated) character because “his folks used to belong to my family.” The emphasis now seems to be on creating a sense of a self-contained black community with whom the audience can identify, rather than presenting exotic “others.”
This may help explain why Porgy no longer rides around in a goat cart; he uses a cane and a leg brace. For some reason, this seems to irk a lot of people, and inspired the funniest line in Sondheim’s diatribe: “So now he can demand, ‘Bring my cane!’ Perhaps someone will bring him a straw hat too, so he can buck-and-wing his way to New York.”
One need not be a purist, though, to be disappointed by some of the changes in the traditional presentation of the music; one need only have seen “Porgy and Bess” in the opera house, or heard classic recordings of it. I was not troubled by the replacement of recitatives with spoken dialogue; this “Porgy and Bess” is on Broadway, after all. Those who object to a Broadway musical treatment of this work might be conveniently forgetting that “Porgy and Bess” was reportedly not really taken seriously as an opera in the United States until the 1976 production at the Houston Opera, and wasn’t even performed at the Metropolitan Opera until 1985.
But it is hard to deny the letdown that results from a paltry 22-member orchestra and the unnecessary meddling of musical adapter Diedre Murray. This carries over to the singing. In the work song “It Take a Long Pull to Get There,” to pick a clear example, the grunted “huh” at the end of each line lacked the oomph of the full-force operatic approach.
What redeems the music are the stand-outs in the cast. Nikki Renée Daniels is a lovely Clara, the character who initially sings “Summertime,” in this production joined by her husband Jake, played by Joshua Henry, last on Broadway in “The Scottsboro Boys.” Phillip Boykin, making his Broadway debut as the murderous Crown, has a convincingly brute presence and a mountainous voice. Norm Lewis, an established Broadway star, makes for a stirring Porgy, his voice appropriate for the Richard Rodgers if not La Scala.
But this “Porgy and Bess,” as you may have heard, belongs to Audra McDonald, whose voice soars operatically even as her every gesture and facial expression attempt to capture a real woman behind what everybody seems to be calling an archetype. I wish I knew how Bess were an archetype, and why “archetype” is somehow better than “stereotype.”
The outrage over this revision of “Porgy and Bess” for some reason brings to mind the reactions to the Village Halloween Parade. When it began, it was a neighborhood affair, startlingly original, modest, and small, the various paraders through back-streets of Greenwich Village almost like an art happening. Its popularity transformed it into an annual televised extravaganza attracting millions of people and channeled to the main avenues; a tourist event. There are many Villagers nostalgic for the original, indignant at what it has become.
But here is the difference with “Porgy and Bess”: The original is still around — or rather, the operatic version put together decades after its debut — available on albums and in opera houses. Both “Porgy and Bess” and “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” are worth seeing.

For up-to-the-minute theater news, views and reviews, follow Jonathan Mandell on his Twitter feed at @NewYorkTheater
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THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS
At the Richard Rodgers Theater
By George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray; directed by Diane Paulus; choreography by Ronald K. Brown; orchestrations by William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke; sets by Riccardo Hernandez; costumes by ESosa; lighting by Christopher Akerlind; sound by Acme Sound Partners; wig, hair and makeup design by J. Jared Janas and Rob Greene; music supervisor, David Loud; music director and conductor, Constantine Kitsopoulos; music coordinator, John Miller; associate director/production stage manager, Nancy Harrington; technical supervisor, Hudson Theatrical Associates; company manager, Bruce Klinger; general manager, Richards/Climan; associate producers, Ronald Frankel, James Fuld Jr., Allan S. Gordon, Infinity Stages, Shorenstein Hayes-Nederlander Theaters, David and Barbara Stoller, Michael and Jean Strunsky and Theresa Wozunk. Presented by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Rebecca Gold, Howard Kagen, Cheryl Wiesenfeld/Brunish Trinchero/Lucio Simons TBC, Joseph and Matthew Deitch, Mark S. Golub and David S. Golub, Terry Schnuck, Freitag Productions/Koenigsberg Filerman, the Leonore S. Gershwin 1987 Trust, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Ken Mahoney, Judith Resnick, Tulchin/Bartner/ATG, Paper Boy Productions, Christopher Hart, Alden Badway, Broadway Across America, Irene Gandy and Will Trice..
Cast: Audra McDonald (Bess), Norm Lewis (Porgy), David Alan Grier (Sporting Life), Phillip Boykin (Crown), Nikki Renée Daniels (Clara), Joshua Henry (Jake), Christopher Innvar (Detective), Bryonha Marie Parham (Serena) and NaTasha Yvette Williams (Mariah).
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.
Buy tickets to “Porgy and Bess”

What’s on Broadway? Long-running shows, shows about to close, and shows about to open.

It’s most exciting to talk about the 17 shows scheduled to open in Spring 2012, especially to producers, who hope Spring will be less dismal than the offerings in the autumn.
To encourage theatergoers to buck the trend and spend January and February on the Great White Way, we are entering Broadway Week (which is really almost three weeks), January 17 to February 4, where you can buy two tickets for the price of one at 21 Broadway shows. (Off-Broadway Week, offering the same deal, runs form January 30 through February 12.)
But while there are three shows opening on Broadway this month, and several theater festivals, now is a relatively fallow period in New York theater, and much “stage news” this week had to do with the screen in one way or another – TV stars Darren Criss’s debut and William Shatner’s return; the announcements of film adaptations of several quintessential stage musicals, including one by Sondheim, and the theater backgrounds of some of the Golden Globe winners. And I had a Twitter chat with Olympic champion Apolo Ohno about performing on Broadway. (Scroll to Thursday)
Welcome to the 89th edition of The Week in New York Theater Tweets.

Monday, January 9, 2012
He must like Broadway. Hugh Jackman is already planning return in “Houdini” by Aaron Sorkin Stephen Schwartz in the 2013-14 season.

What happens when you mix Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess? A wedding. Will Swenson and Audra McDonald announced their engagement.

The Public Theater is reportedly negotiating to bring to Central Park the recent British production of Sondheim/Lapine “Into the Woods”

Darren Criss is a bigger draw than Daniel Radcliffe: “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” made $1.4 mil in his 1st week, more than all but one previous week.
Ryan McPhee (@mchadoaboutryan) But what if Daniel Radcliffe’s run in How to Succeed was also a limited three-week engagement?

Follies co-stars Elaine Paige and Ron Raines interview each other on The Wing’s Downstage Center.

Could there be an all-white Porgy & Bess? Only if the Gershwin estate said yes. A look at musical estates: Heirs/estates of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Gershwins, Lerner/Lowe etc. have mixed motives – keeping in the public eye,new copyright, more money.

What says cool on stage these days: videos, smoke, a loud rock band, men in mascara, a smidgen of nudity. My review of a show in the Under the Radar Festival: In The Solitude of Cotton Fields

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Rob Marshall is re-teaming with Disney for film adaptation of Sondheim/Lapine’s Into the Woods.
Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater): What do people think of Into The Woods as a film? Doesn’t it seem like the quintessential stage musical?
Arianna Armon (@OperaKitty) Prefer it as animated film.
Trey Graham (@treygraham): “Chicago” seemed like quintessential stage show too, until it wasn’t
Mary-Tyler Upshaw (@Blogfilledlife): There is NO way it would “read” properly.
Daniel Bourque (@Danfrmbourque): Be REALLY tough to get right. It’s so theatrical will require a major rethink
Jonas-Olof Rosin (@JonasRosin): I have been waiting for a film version of this for years. I think it absolutely screams movie, think it can be great.
Devon (@amysticwisdom): I could see it as an adorable cartoon. Otherwise… I don’t know how well it’ll transfer to screen
Rob Weinert-Kendt (@RobKendt): In “Finishing the Hat,” Sondheim talks about the long-dead plans for a Jim Henson movie.

Once, the musical based on the movie, closes Off-Broadway on January 15, then records a cast album January 17,which will be available when the show opens on Broadway on March 18.

Estelle Parsons will join Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara in the cast of the new Gershwin musical “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” opening April 24.
Parsons, 84, is still best known for her role in the film Bonnie and Clyde, but this will be her 29th Broadway show.

Dolly Parton says she is writing a musical about her life story for Broadway.

Step aside, American Idol: Andrew Lloyd Webber is producing a new TV show to find Jesus for UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. (This is NOT for the Broadway production, which the Stratford Shakespeare Festival originated in Toronto)

After a 25-year delay, Les Miserables is set to begin filming in March, with Hugh Jackman as Valjean and Russell Crowe as Javert.
Michael Padgett (@MichaelWPadgett); Makes you wonder what the casting would have been back then!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Returning to Broadway after 50 years, William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal) in one-man show Feb 14-Mar 4 entitled Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It.
“My plan has always been to return to Broadway every 50 years. I can’t ask my fans to wait longer for me than Halley’s Comet, so I’m coming back.”

Victoria Clark will replace Bernadette Peters as Sally when Follies performs in L.A. May 3 to June 9
Brian DeVito (@bdevit):Great choice
Kevin Metzger (@kevmetz): Yes! A must-see performance
Eric Sciotto (@E_DaddySciotto): FAB

Denis O’Hare has co-written and will co-star with Stephen Spinella (they will alternate performances) in adaptation of Homer’s epic. “An Iliad” Feb 15-Mar 25 at the New York Theater Workshop.

This season the New York Theater Workshopis doubling the number of its shows that have gone to Broadway: Rent, Dirty Blonde, now Peter and the Starcatcher and Once

John Logan, playwright of Red, screenwriter of Hugo, has been hired to write film adaptation of Broadway hit Jersey Boys.
Is there any show that cannot/should not be made into a film?
Scott McQuiston (@satyr69): Sleep No More
Rebecca Codas (@broadwaylover95): An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin
David (@DavidsUniverse): Well, if they made that [epithet] Rock of Ages into a film, then no
Robert Carreon (@ahrmi): It’s all about the vision. You never know til you take the risk and give it a shot
Lara Morton (@Laraemorton): All of the Broadways shows that STARTED as films. You know, 80% of the contemporary fare….
Sara Calvey (@SaraMCalvey): I really don’t think Phantom should have been. But that’s a tough question when most shows already have been or are movies.

My review of
Sontag: Reborn
At around 16 years of age, Susan Sontag 1. offered Thomas Mann a reinterpretation of his “Magic Mountain” 2. had her first affair with a woman, 3. met the professor she would marry shortly afterwards.
“I know what I want to do with my life,” Sontag wrote in one of the journals that is the text of “Sontag: Reborn,” part of the Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theater. “I want to sleep with many people….I don’t intend to have my intellect dominate me.”
….”The writer must be four people: 1. The nut. 2. The moron. 3. The stylist. 4. The critic”
Full review

Thursday, January 12, 2012
It’s official: Jeremy Jordan will star in Newsies, opening on Broadway March 15. He just starred in Bonnie & Clyde.

On A Clear Day, You Can See Forever will close on Sunday, January 29, having played 57 regular performances

Leap of Faith with Raul Esparza is taking over the St. James April 3rd thanks to Clear Day’s exit.

Public Sings! March 5 only. Laura Benanti, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Raul Esparza etc sing from shows that original at the Public Theater, such as Hair, Chorus Line

Chicago critic Jonathan Abarbanel says to producers: Give Sondheim a rest. Make room for Frank Loesser, Kurt Weill, Cy Coleman
Ryan Mooney (@RyanInVancouver): Interesting argument

Apolo Anton Ohno (@ApoloOhno): Saw Broadway show last night – Spiderman. Had an amazing time! Went backstage and met the cast, crew. Very cool! Flying, singing, fun!
Jonathan Mandell: Could you do the flying and singing you saw in Spiderman? Ever consider performing on stage?
Apolo Anton Ohno: I wish! I have so much respect for those performers, musicians, actors/tress’s. The entire crew is incredible!

Friday, January 13, 2012
Sondheim’s 1994 musical Passion will be produced at Classic Stage Company in February 2013, the first musical in the company’s 45-year history

Closing on Broadway tonight: An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. Over the next nine months they will tour to Kansas City, Sarasota, Wisconsin, Ca.,Texas.

Saturday, January 14, 2012
Pipe Dream, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s1955 musical, getting New York City Center Encores! treatment, with Laura Osnes (Bonnie & Clyde) March 28-April 1. Pipe Dream is based on John Steinbeck’s 1954 novel, Sweet Thursday, about “outcasts yearning for a better life” in California bordellos and flophouses

Bobby Steggert (Ragtime, Yank) one of five cast members in Assistance, about assistants humiliated by their bosses, February 3-March 11 at Playwrights Horizons.

A rite of passage for many theater artists is taking a job with “assistant” in the title. American Theatre Magazine looks at the pluses and minuses

Julie Andrews will direct The Great American Mousical based on kids book she co-wrote with her daughter, at Goodspeed in November

Teddy Lamb (@TheodoreBass):This has made my life

Married couple Matthew Cavenaugh (West Side Story) znc Jenny Powers (Grease, The Good Wife last week) perform at Birdland February 13

Terri White @TheTerriWhite): Lord Lord Lord, only a few more performances of Follies.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Vanity Fair “theater geek” interviews
Anything Goes director Kathleen Marshall about Sutton Foster as the new Ethel Merman/Barbra Streisand

The Broadway League (@TheBwayLeague): Bravo
Golden Globes winners,especially Broadway veterans Woody Allen , Claire Danes, Morgan Freeman, Kelsey Grammer, Jessica Lange, Madonna, Christopher Plummer, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep
Indira Satyendra (@hudsonette) Streep must come back to Broadway!!

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 @NewYorkTheater
Broadway World has designated @NewYorkTheater as one of the top theater Twitter feeds: “Talk about a tweeter who knows his Broadway stuff! From news to conversation-starters to commentary, he’s got it all.”
New York Theater Facebook page

There are also some remarks about writing far sharper than anything supposedly featuring writers on Broadway these days, “Seminar” “Stick Fly” or “Other Desert Cities”

“My desire to write is connected to my homosexuality. I need to identify as a weapon, to match the weapon that society has against me.”

“The writer must be four people: 1. The nut. 2. The moron. 3. The stylist. 4. The critic. 1 supplies the material, 2 lets it come out, 3 is taste, 4 is intelligence. A great writer has all four – but you can still be a good writer with only 1 (the nut) and 2 (the moron.)”

What I didn’t see in “Sontag: Reborn” is a compelling reason to have made a theatrical work out of the published book her son edited, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963, which has the text of the performance piece and more. Austin Switser’s video images – words scroll like animated characters across the screens of the set – Don Dobson’s busy sound design –pull attention away from Sontag and what mattered about her, her words.

“Sontag: Reborn” will be presented at the Public Theater for $20 until Sunday, January 15.

For up-to-the-minute theater news, views and reviews, follow Jonathan Mandell on his Twitter feed at @NewYorkTheater
Broadway World has designated @NewYorkTheater as one of the top theater Twitter feeds: “Talk about a tweeter who knows his Broadway stuff! From news to conversation-starters to commentary, he’s got it all.”

New York Theater Facebook page

Welcome to the 88th edition of The Week in New York Theater Tweets.

Monday, December 12, 2011
When St. Ann’s Warehouse
leaves its DUMBO home of 11 years in May, it will move just five blocks away to 29 Jay St., its new home; the lease has been signed

My reviews of “Krapp’s Last Tape” and “Misterman”:
Whatever else they have in common – and it’s much – the current productions in Brooklyn of “Krapp’s Last Tape” with John Hurt and “Misterman” with Cillian Murphy share one above all: Live theater matters. Yet both, ironically, rely heavily on tape recorders – old-fashioned, reel-to-reel tape recorders.
Both Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Enda Walsh’s “Misterman” at St. Ann’s Warehouse are one-man shows with more than one character, supplemented by the voices on the tape, and thus difficult to call monologues. Both plays were written by Irish-born playwrights of extraordinary gifts, with literate, oblique, not totally accessible scripts that work better on stage than on page. Both of the current New York productions, starring actors better-known for their movie roles, feature stage performances of a lifetime.
Full review

Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Though planned to run through February 5th, Private Lives with Kim Cattrall will close December 31, five weeks early, due to poor ticket sales.

Wonder what happened to Broadway-bound “Detroit” by Lisa D’Amour? Now headed Off-Broadway, set for Playwrights Horizons 2012/13 season.
When it opens in New York, “Detroit” will be the third show in town named after a U.S. city. (“Chicago,” “Memphis”)

What’s next for Book of Mormon director Casey Nicholaw? Maybe one of two musicals: 1. A musical based on the children’s story “Tuck Everlasting” or 2. A musical based on the “Austin Powers” films

Indie Theater People of the Year 2011 – e.g. Gemini Collision Works, Lesser America, The Nerve Tank, Ashlin Halfnight. (A parallel universe)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Manhattan Theater Company’s “Venus in Fur” with Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda will still end its run Sunday at the Samuel J Friedman Theater. But it then moves to the Lyceum for an extended run from February 7 to June 17, 2012

Promo video for MagicBird, a play by @LombardiPlay team about Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird, Broadway-bound Spring 2012

La Mama Cantata, Elizabeth Swados tribute to Ellen Stewart, back at LaMamaETC December 29 and 30.

January “Anything Goes” cast changes: Robert Petkoff (Spamalot) as stuffshirt fiance, Julie Halston as haughty mother of ingenue.

My review of Lysistrata Jones

The Broadway version of “Lysistrata Jones” begins with a loud boom, a full moon, a stage full of smoke, and an intoning diva in Grecian attire. Hooded monks move down the aisles of the Walter Kerr, then suddenly disrobe, revealing a bunch of college kids, dressed in T-shirts, jeans, sweat shirts emblazoned with their school’s logo, who get down — rocking, rapping and rolling. The beginning is big and funny and exciting, and leads you to think: They’ve pulled it off, this unlikely transition to Broadway from a small basement basketball court at Judson Memorial Church.
The euphoria is short-lived

Full review

Thursday, December 15, 2011
As Bobby Lopez points out, Avenue Q (which he co-worte) began at the same time as the Iraqi War began. One officially ends today. The better one continues to run.

“Margin of Error” music video from The Civilians play, “The Great Immensity,” about climate change

Margin of Error from Polly on Vimeo.

Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara pose for photograph and poster to promote “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” a new musical with songs by the Gershwin brothers, which opens April 24th

“Nothing can replace a live audience.That’s been the case for 3,000 years”~ film and stage actor Christopher Plummer, just turned 82. For his first stage role more than six decades ago, a high school dramatization of “Pride and Prejudice,” he did no research to play Mr. Darcy. “I was already arrogant”

My review of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus
William Shakespeare is said to have coined several English words and phrases in his first tragedy, “Titus Andronicus,” including “Devil incarnate” and “unappeased” – though not, surprisingly, “bloody awful.” That is how it has been judged (emphasis on the bloody) by critics from the 17th century (“rubbish”) to the 20th…the main reason to see the Public Theater’s production of “Titus Andronicus,” in a brief run that ends December 18, is curiosity: How can they pull this off? Is “Titus Andronicus” really the worst of Shakespeare’s plays?
Full review

Chris L (@chrism799): Titus Andronicus gets a bad rap, but I’d say Measure for Measure is the worst one I’ve seen. It makes no sense.
Brian DeVito (@bdevit): Titus is actually my favorite.
Jonathan Mandell: If Titus is your favorite Shakespeare, what do you like the least?
Brian DeVito: Henry IV, part 1.
Suzanne Du Charme (@SuzanneDuCharme): It’s a brutal play. A true revenge tragedy with some of the most disturbing imagery ever.
Charlene V. Smith (@charlenevsmith): The worst play he wrote is Henry VIII

Friday, December 16, 2011
To nobody’s surprise, Bonnie & Clyde, which opened December 1 to largely negative reviews, is officially closing December 30.
Linda Buchwald (@PataphysicalSci The saddest part of its closing is that the cast was made to believe there was a chance they’d stay open.
Sahar Helmy @SFH26): Since Bonnie & Clyde is closing, will Jeremy Jordan be in Newsies? I hope so!!

Returning to Broadway after half a century: William Shatner in one-man “Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It” at Music Box in February.

iTunes, in its Rewind2011, @iTunes #Rewind2011 names @BookofMormonBWY “Broadway Soundtrack” of the year. Nice, but it’s a CAST RECORDING

Tweet Seats are trending — not on Twitter (yet), but in theaters! The Public Theater trying it in two shows coming up. The first is for the Gob Squad’s January 19 showing of Kitchen and requires that you apply. The second is for Goodbar concert at the Under the Radar Festival, where there are “no restrictions on tweeting & photos”
Nella Vera (@Spinstripes): Really have no idea what to expect from upcoming Tweet Seats experiment–hope to learn something. May or may not be satisfying for Tweeters.

To promote Smash, the TV series that is debuting in February, NBC is trying to interest Broadway folk; it screened pilot for Joel Grey, Alan Rickman and some 100 other luminaries at the Museum of Modern Art.

Top Ten Complaints
Lynn Nottage @Lynnbrooklyn): Why am I not surprised that women and people of color are absent from most New York theater critics top 10 lists?
Tina Fallon (@tina24hour) Perhaps because they’re underrepresented among the critics themselves
Billy Flood (@Bflood28): great WHITE way…same old same old.
Adam Feldman @FeldmanAdam) What plays by people of color do you consider slighted? Racism’s not the issue, just quality in a strong year.
Jonathan Mandell: What shows should have been included in top 10 lists that were not?
Billy Flood: It’s about access, funding, opportunity.It’s systemic to Broadway. The disease goes far beyond lists.

Sometimes the best performances are not in the best shows. Examples of good performances in iffy shows?
Terry Teachout (@TerryTeachout): I saw a number of superb performances in shows I either didn’t like or about which I had significant reservations. Among them: Mark Rylance in “Jerusalem” and Patrick Page in “Spider-Man.”

Saturday, December 17, 2011
Carol Channing, soon to turn 91, says she can no longer find the “Ninas” in the Al Hirschfeld caricatures of her from “Hello Dolly” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” But she is busy putting together a new stage show, “A Carol Channing Christmas,” to debut near her home in California. She is also the subject of a new film documentary, “Carol Channing: Larger Than Life,” that will be in theaters next month. “John Fitzgerald Kennedy once told me I was his favorite performer. He was mine.”
Non-Profit Theater’s Profits
New York’s non-profit Broadway theaters — Lincoln Center Theater, the Roundabout Theater Company, and the Manhattan Theater Club — are aggressively pursuing, well, profits, says the New York Times.
Tina Fallon: As Gerry Schoenfeld used to say, “there’s no profit like not-for-profit!”
Isaac Butler (@parabasis) The distance between the image these theaters project and their programming is infuriating.
In Parabasis blog post: The move towards increasingly commercial behavior has been a cause of concern and controversy for years…. Lacking from the article: Any quotes from anyone who really thinks this might be a bad thing.
Jonathan Mandell: Is anybody else disturbed by the non-profits acting in effect like commercial producers?
Jordan Paige (@jordanc): Not at all, if it makes them work harder to produce a quality and appealing product, there’s no harm in seeking profit.
Linda Essig (@LindaInPhoenix): Nonprofits can (in fact must) make money.These organizations don’t have owners/shareholders. The Public had “A Chorus LIne,” which enabled them to produce new work for years afterward.
The Public Theater (@PublicTheaterNY): Joe Papp always credited A Chorus Line with funding many of theater’s other plays. But it, too, began as downtown show.
Michael Seel (@MichaelSeel): I’ve always thought Los Angeles has a couple of those, too. There is no govt review process to keep them in check.
Howard Sherman (@HESherman): All theater is about finding an audience. Why can’t a non-profit play a production to sustained audiences when possible? Roundabout leased the Sondheim specifically as home for long running shows, leaving American Airlines Theater for “Man and Boy,” “The Road to Mecca,” etc. The argument is convenient when people want to bash big organizations. Was Signature commercial for sustained run of “Angels in America”?
Jonathan Mandell: “Angels in America” at the Signature is a great example of how to do it right: Subsidized (cheap) tickets!
Signature ran for eight months. For the first four months, they charged $20 for all tickets. For the last four, extended months, they charged from $30 to $85.
If non-profits keep tickets prices low, as in the Signature Theater, who can complain? But $100+ tickets? How can you tell it’s non-profit?
Howard Sherman: People bemoan state of Broadway, but think about recent seasons without shows from the Roundabout, Lincoln Center, and Manhattan Theater Club?
Jonathan Mandell: Longstanding complaint from commercial producers: Non-profits have an unfair advantage. Other gripe: New works get short-shrifted
Howard Sherman: There is greater personal risk for commercial producers. But there is also great potential for personal reward.
Tony Adams (@halcyontony): If not-for-profits can’t show how they are different than commercial operations, they don’t deserve a tax-exemption. They need money to fulfill their mission,for sure. But they get a massive tax-subsidy for serving the public good
Irondale Center Theater (@IrondaleCenter): Many “mission driven” non-profits get seduced into searching for the next big hit. It takes them off mission. The intent of the not-for-profit laws is to create work outside the commercial marketplace — work that is not likely to find its support through investment or ticket sales.
Jonathan Mandell: The motto of the Lincoln Center Theater is: “The arts not for the privileged few, but for the many”
War Horse tickets tonight: orchestra aisle, $308
Andre Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, annual compensation: around $482,000.
Bernard Gersten, executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater, annual compensation: $495,893.
Please don’t tell me no individual makes money in a non-profit theater.
True, the talented Mr. Bishop, unlike commercial producers, makes that half-million whether Lincoln Center Theater shows are hits or flops.
Other non-profit salaries: Todd Haimes of Roundabout: $402,403
Carolyn Meadow of Manhattan Theater Club: $336,270
Herb Grove of Manhattan Theater Club: $315,899
Linda Essig: Other large NY nonprofit executive compensation: Metropolitan Museum: $800,000; NYC Ballet : $662,000. Whitney: $687,000. Speaks to market.
Jonathan Mandell: With due respect, “speaks to market” is an Orwellian construction when 24 million Americans are un/underemployed
Linda Essig: I agree. I’m not saying it’s “right” in an abstract (or concrete) sense, just that it “is.” PS Public Theater: $262,000
Bailey (@flybailey): Those people work hard and deserve those salaries.
Nella Vera: Bernie transformed failing org into leading institution.Have to pay leaders to stay in the arts
Jonathan Mandell: Are you saying non-profit artistic directors and executive producers would start working in banks if their non-profits paid them less?
Nella Vera: Don’t know that but know lots of people who would be great leaders one day but they now work in other fields.
Jonathan Mandell: Mention two arts administrators who left because of the pay.
Nella Vera: Charles Dillingham left CTG (where he was Managing Director) to do consulting work. Artistic directors leave for Broadway.
Don’t know about money in last example. The point is there is movement for a variety of reasons. I have to think that money factors in sometimes.
Jonathan Mandell: Actors making $9,000, I can see leaving because of pay. Arts administrators, making $200,000, hard to picture.
Nella Vera: We lose a lot of our great actors to TV and film, too. Happy for them, sad for theater.
Jonathan Mandell: What public wants: diverse,quality shows, low theater prices. Theatermakers want: fair opportunity. Do Broadway non-profits deliver?

Sunday, December 18, 2011
Sydney Theater’s Uncle Vanya with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving will be presented at New York City Center July19 to 28, 2012, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.
The Public Theater: The Darren Criss show at Joe’s Pub is now sold out. Autographed posters still available for a bit if you bring a toy to donate!
Darren Criss is so hot that today’s 2 p.m. show sold out shortly after the tweeted about it. How to Succeed is going to be a mob scene
David Gordon (@MrDavidGordon): The number of teen girls at the Public Theater lobby waiting for Darren Criss is amazing.
Nella Vera: Maybe they are there for Jay Sanders (in Titus Andronicus)

Václav Havel (October 5, 1936 – December 18, 2011)
More New Yorkers saw Vaclav Havel’s plays at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, which started producing them in 1968, than Vaclav Havel himself saw: His plays were banned in Czechoslovakia and Havel himself was imprisoned.
His love of rock and roll brought Vaclav Havel to revolutionary politics: He was outraged at the arrest of his favorite Czechoslovak band
Martin Luther King Jr. used to say that cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency: Is it politic? Vanity: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?
Vaclav Havel, who died at age 75, said it differently: Having hope is not the same as being optimistic, said the playwright turned protester turned president. Hope “is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. “

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 @NewYorkTheater
Broadway World has designated @NewYorkTheater as one of the top theater Twitter feeds: “Talk about a tweeter who knows his Broadway stuff! From news to conversation-starters to commentary, he’s got it all.”

New York Theater Facebook page

Here are the shows that you can see on Broadway as of this writing (updated 2/03/12)– or that are scheduled to open in Spring 2012. Many are closing in January, 2012, some unscheduled. Listing is alphabetical

ANYTHING GOES
Stephen Sondheim Theater
Opened: April 7, 2011
Cast: Sutton Foster, Joel Grey
Twitter feed: @AnythingGoesRTC
Revival of Cole Porter’s musical
My review of Anything Goes: Cole Porter in Red, White and Blue

THE BOOK OF MORMON
The Eugene O’Neill Theater
Opened: March 24, 2011
Director: Jason Moore and Trey Parker
Twitter feed: @BookofMormonBWY
This new musical by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (book), the creators of South Park, and Robert Lopez, one of the composer-lyricists for “Avenue Q” (music and lyrics) is about both the founder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and a modern disciple.
Buy tickets to The Book of Mormon

My review of The Book of Mormon: Ridiculing Religion, Worshiping The Great White Way

CHICAGO
Ambassador Theater (219 West 49th Street)
Opened: November 14, 1996
Twitter: @ChicagoMusical
A chorus girl in 1920′s Chicago murders her lover and becomes a star. This cynical, tuneful 1975 musical adaptation by John Kander and Fred Ebb (“Cabaret” team) of a 1926 play was revived to great acclaim by director Walter Bobbie and choreographer Ann Reinking in homage to original choreographer Bob Fosse. But it has gone through many, many cast changes since then. Some say this is the production that invented the modern Broadway practice of “stunt casting.”
BUY TICKETS TO CHICAGO

CLYBOURNE PARK
Walter Kerr Theater
Opening: April 12, 2012
A “white update” of “A Raisin in the Sun.”
My review of Clybourne Park when it was at Playwrights Horizons
THE COLUMNIST
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
David Auburn’s (Proof) latest drama portrays the dilemma faced by powerful Washington columnist Joseph Alsop, host to the Kennedy Camelot circle who becomes involved in a political, and personal, drama.
Director: Daniel Sullivan
Cast: John Lithgow
First preview: April 3 2012
Opening: April 25, 2012
Closing: June 3, 2012

DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Ethel Barrymore Theater
A revival of the 1949 play by Arthur Miler
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Linda Emond, Andrew Garfield, John Glover
First preview: February 13, 2012
Opening: March 15, 2012
Closing: June 2, 2012

Twitter handle: @SalesmanBway
DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER
American Airlines Theater
The play by Marc Camoletti is a sequel to “Boeing-Beoing”
Director: John Tillinger
First preview: March 30, 2012
Opening: April 26, 2012
Closing: June 17, 2012

END OF THE RAINBOW
Peter Quilter’s play with music is set in December, 1968, when Judy Garland is about to make her comeback.
Director: Terry Johnson
Cast: Tracie Bennet, Michael Cumpsty
First preview: Monday, March 19, 2012
Opens: April 2, 2011

EVITA
A revival of the 1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about Argentina First Lady Eva Peron
Director: Michael Grandage
Cast: Elena Roger, Ricky Martin, Michael Cerveris
First preview: March 12, 2012
Planned opening: April 5, 2012

The GERSHWIN’S PORGY AND BESS
A “re-imagined” version of the opera by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin set in the 1930′s in Catfish Row in Charleston South Carolina
Director: Diane Paulus
Cast: Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, David Alan Grier, Phillip Boykin
First preview: December 17, 2011
Opening: January 12, 2012

My review of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

GHOST The MUSICAL
Lunt-Fontanne
A new musical based on the 1990 Whoopi Goldberg Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore movie.
Director: Matthew Warchus
Cast: Richard Fleshman, Cassie Levy
First preview: March 15, 2012
Opens: April 23, 2012

GODSPELL
Circle in the Square
Director: Daniel Goldstein
Opened: November 7 2011
My review of Godspell

GORE VIDAL’S THE BEST MAN
A revival of the 1960 play about a race for the presidnt
Director: Michael Wilson
Cast: Candice Bergen, James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, John Larroquette
First preview: March 6, 2012
Opening: April 1, 2012

HARVEY
Studio 54
Revival of the 1944 play by Mary Chase about Elwood and his friend, a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit named Harvey.
Director: Scott Ellis
Cast: Jim Parsons, Jessica Hecht, Charles Kimbrough
First preview: May 18, 2012
Opening: June 14, 2012

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

Al Hirschfeld Theater (302 West 45th Street)
Opened: March 27, 2011
Director: Rob Ashford
Original Cast: Nick Jonas
until end of year.
Twitter feed: @H2SBway
A revival of the 1961 musical, spoofing self-help business books, about a go-getter rising up the corporate ladder.
Buy tickets to How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

My review of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

JERSEY BOYS

August Wilson Theater (245 West 52nd Street)
Opened: November 6, 2006
Twitter: @JerseyBoysInfo
The story of the 1950′s-60′s singing group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, whose hits include “December 1963 [Oh, What A Night]” (my favorite) as well as “Sherry,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” etc.
Here is what I wrote about the show recently, in an article entitled Jersey Boys vs. Jersey Shore: Although the music is better known than the musicians, and yes there are almost three dozen songs in the show, the story of the group is better than most of those ‘Behind The Music’ documentaries.
BUY TICKETS TO JERSEY BOYS

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
A revival of the 1971 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
First preview: March 1, 2012
Opening: March 22, 2012

LEAP OF FAITH
St. James Theater
In this musical based on the 1992 film with Steve Martin, Raúl Esparza plays con-artist Jonas Nightingale, who, finding himself stranded in a backwater Kansas town, attempts to separate the locals from their cash via a revival meeting.
First preview: April 3
Twitter feed: @LeapofFaithBway

THE LION KING
Minskoff Theater (200 West 45th Street)
Opened: November 13, 1997
Twitter: @TheLionKing
Based on the 1994 Disney animated film about the coming-of-age of a young lion in the African jungle, this musical offers African-inflected music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice and the visual magic of Julie Taymor. Taymor is the director, a composer and lyricist for some of the songs. But above all, she is the designer of the costumes, masks, and puppets — and it is these visuals that make this show a good first theatrical experience.
BUY TICKETS TO THE LION KING

MAGIC/BIRD
A play by the same team that produced “Lombardi,” that chronicles the rivalry and intertwined stories of basketball players Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Director: Thomas Kail

First preview: March 21, 2012
Opening 11 Apr 2012
Cast: Tug Coker
Kevin Daniels
Deirdre O’Connell
Peter Scolari
Rob Ray Manning, Jr.
Francois Battiste
Twitter feed: @MagicBirdBway

MAMMA MIA!
Winter Garden (1634 Broadway)
Opened: October 18, 2001
Twitter: @MammaMiaMusical
It’s hard even for hard-core Mamma Mia fans to argue that the story pieced together using some two dozen hits from the 1970′s pop group ABBA makes very much sense: A young woman getting married on the Greek island where she has grown up invites the three men who may be her father to the wedding, without telling her mother: She had summer-quickie affairs with all three. The lyrics of some of the songs don’t always actually fit with what’s supposed to be happening at any moment.
But fans don’t care. The infectious music, most memorably “Dancing Queen,” and the whimsical disco-era dance numbers are enough for them. And whatever else you may think about the musical, it is true what the fans say: It is not quite as cheesy at the Meryl Streep movie.
BUY TICKETS TO MAMMA MIA

MARY POPPINS
New Amsterdam Theater (214 West 42nd Street)
Opened: November 16, 2006
Twitter: @PoppinsMusical
The musical is based on the 1964 movie musical starring Julie Andrews with some added songs, and added plot from the original P.A. Travers stories that tells of unruly children tamed by a magical, flying nanny. There is more of a focus on the overworked parents, and their strained relationship. I did not see this Broadway musical until recently. I am told the London version was darker and more sophisticated, and that its transfer to Broadway was sweeter but still suited for adults. What I saw, though, were sets that stood out — they seemed expensive and with sufficient mechanical innovations (such as Mary Poppins flying over the audience) to distract theatergoers with Attention Deficit Disorder. But otherwise I found this version longer and more lumbering that I was expecting.
BUY TICKETS TO MARY POPPINS

MEMPHIS

Shubert Theatre
Opened: Oct. 19, 2009
Director: Christopher Ashley
Choreographer: Sergio Trujillo
Original Cast: Chad Kimball, Montego Glover
A new rock ‘n’ roll musical penned by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan.
Memphis Review: The Birth of Rock and Roll Yet Again
BUY TICKETS TO MEMPHIS

NEWSIES
Nederlander
A musical based on the 1990 film of the New York Newsboys Strike of 1899
Director: Jeff Calhoun
Cast: Jeremy Jordan
First preview: March 19, 2012
Opening: March 29, 2012

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
Imperial
A new screwball romantic comedy with a book by Joe DiPietro using the songs of George and Ira Gershwin
Director: Kathleen Marshall
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Kelli O’Hara

ONCE

Bernard B. Jacobs Theater
Based on the hit 2006 movie, Once tell the story of the romance between a Dublin street musician and a Czech immigrant. Its song “Falling Slowly” won the Oscar.
First preview: February 18, 2012
Opening: March 18, 2012
Twitter handle: @OnceMusical

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS

Music Box Theater
The production by the National Theatre of Great Britain of a comedy by Richard Bean about a confused man who works both for a local gangster and a criminal in hiding.
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: James Corden
First preview: April 6, 2012
Opening: April 18, 2012

OTHER DESERT CITIES

Booth Theater
Director: Joe Mantello
Cast: Stockard Channing, Rachel Griffiths, Stacy Keach, Judith Light, Thomas Sadowski
Opened: November 3, 2011

My review of Other Desert Cities

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Majestic Theater (247 West 44th Street)
Opened: January 26, 1988
Twitter: @TheOperaGhosts
The Phantom of the Opera, based on a 1911 French novel by Gaston Leroux, is about a disfigured genius named Erik who lives in the catacombs of the Paris Opera House and falls in love with Christine, an aspiring singer whom he helps…until an old flame of Christine’s named Raoul steps back into the picture.
However, the story in the musical, written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber — with more than its share of 1980′s heavy power ballads — is starting to take second place to the story of the musical, which is the longest-running Broadway musical of all time, and probably the most profitable.
Webber has written a “sequel,” entitled “Love Never Dies,” which was set for Broadway in the 2010-2011 season, but, after scathing reviews in London, will now be delayed.
BUY TICKETS TO PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Palace Theater
Opened March 20, 2011
Director: Simon Philips
Cast: Will Swenson, Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams
My review of Priscilla Queen of the Desert: Excess as Entertainment

THE ROAD TO MECCA

American Airlines Theater
Athol Fugard’s play about a widow turning her home into a work of art whose pastor wants to put her in an old-age home
Director: Gordon Edelstein
Cast: Rosemary Harris, Carla Gugino, Jim Dale
First preview: December 16, 2011
Opened: January 17, 2012

ROCK OF AGES
Brooks Atkinson Theater (256 West 47th Street)
Opened: April 7, 2009
Twitter: @RockOfAges
It is 1987 in an L.A. club, and a girl meets a boy — she is new to town, he is shy but has the voice of an aircraft carrier and dreams of being a rock star. Both are smitten by the 1980′s rock songs of big-hair bands like Journey, Bon Jovi, and Poison….which you must be too, in order to appreciate this generally well-reviewed juke-box musical.
BUY TICKETS TO ROCK OF AGES

SEMINAR

John Golden Theater
A play by Theresa Rebeck about a writing class with a dictatorial instructor
Director: Sam Gold
Cast: Alan Rickman
Opened: November 20, 2011
My review of Seminar: Are The Best Writing Teachers Abusive?

Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It
Music Box Theatre
Audiences are taken on a trip through the colorful life and career of William Shatner, known as much for his unique persona as for his work on television and film.
First preview: 14 Feb 2012
Opening 16 Feb 2012
Closing 04 Mar 2012

SISTER ACT
The Broadway Theater
Opened: April 20, 2011
Director: Jerry Zaks
Musical based with songs by Alan Menken (“Little Shop of Horrors,” “Beauty and the Beast”) based on the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie about a lounge singer disguising herself as a nun and hiding out in a convent to escape the mob.

My review of Sister Act

SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK
Hilton Theater
First preview: November 28
Original Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano
Twitter feed: @SpideyOnBway
This musical originally by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger (book) and Bono and The Edge (music and lyrics) follows the story of Spider-man the geek turned superhero. It was originally scheduled to begin previews in February, 2010, finally did in November, 2010, and opened on June, 13 2011.

BUY TICKETS TO SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK

My review of Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark

STICK FLY

Cort Theater
Lydia Diamond’s play about an affluent African-American family airing secrets one weekend in Martha’s Vineyard
Director: Kenny Leon
Opened: December 8, 2011
My review of Stick Fly

A Streetcar Named Desire
Broadhurst
Revival of the Tennessee Williams play set in the French Quarter of 1940′s New Orleans about vulnerable Southern belle Blanche DuBois who comes to live with her sister, Stella, and her ruffian brother-in-law Stanley. The play has probably the most famous line ever uttered in an American drama.
Director: Emily Mann
Cast:Blair Underwood
Nicole Ari Parker
Daphne Rubin-Vega
Wood Harris
First preview: April 3, 2012
Opening: April 22, 2012
Closing: July 12, 2012
Twitter handle: @Streetcar2012

VENUS IN FUR
Reopening at the Lyceum beginning February 7, 2012

David Ives play inspired by an infamous 19th century erotic novel is most notable for the star-making performance by Nina Arianda
Director: Walter Bobbie
Cast: Nina Arianda, Hugh Dancy
My review of Venus in Fur

WAR HORSE

Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center
Opened: April 14, 2011
Directors: Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris
A new play based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo about a boy and his beloved horse during World War I. This is the American premiere of a play that has been on the London stage for several years, and will be designed by the London team, including video and puppetry.
My review of War Horse

Wicked
Gershwin Theater (222 West 51st Street)
Opened: October 30, 2003
Twitter: @WICKED_Musical
The musical tells the story of “The Wizard of Oz” from the witches’ perspective, more specifically from the Wicked Witch of the West, who was not, as a child, wicked at all, but just green-tinted, taunted, and misunderstood. There is so much to like about this musical, the clever twists on the familiar tale, the spectacular set, and music that is a lot more appealing in context (such as the song “Defying Gravity”) that I will forgive the contortions necessary to tack on a happy ending.
BUY TICKETS TO WICKED

WIT

Samuel J. Friedman Theater
A revival of the 1998 play by Margaret Edson about a woman academic undergoing experimental treatments for cancer.
Director: Lynne Meadow
Cast: Cynthia Nixon
First preview: January 5, 2012
Opening: January 26, 2012
Closing: March 4, 2012