"West Side Story" will now open on February 20th; "To Kill a Mockingbird" will play a special free performance at Madison Square Garden on February 26th for 18,000 students; Daniel Fish will premiere a new production of Frank Loesser's 1956 musical "The Most Happy Fella" at the Bard SummerScape Festival; 2019 Broadway grosses were 3.7% below the record set in 2018, but attendance reached a record 90.51%; Greta Gerwig is writing a new musical that will feature tap dance; RIP composer Allee Willis, playwright Pamela Payton-Wright, composer Jerry Herman, and production designer Peter Larkin
All tagged Lincoln Center
"Little Shop of Horrors" extends to March with Gideon Glick; "Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation" to play the York Theatre Company; Johnny Depp producing another Michael Jackson-themed musical in LA; Beth Leavel and Taylor Iman Jones to star in Broadway-bound musical "The Devil Wears Prada"; Jordan Fisher is Broadway’s next Evan Hansen; "Soft Power" will get a cast album; Jo Ellen Pellman will star as Emma in the Netflix film adaptation of "The Prom"; Camille A. Brown joins “Aida” development lab; cast of "Hangmen" announced; "Hustlers" musical might be in the works; RIP Marion McClinton, Valerie Taylor-Barnes, and John Simon
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick will reunite on stage for the first-ever Broadway revival of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite"; 2019 Theater Hall of Fame inductees; Angela Lansbury to headline one-night-only benefit staging of "The Importance of Being Earnest"; Ari’el Stachel to star "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" concert at Lincoln Center; Rupert Everett has replaces Eddie Izzard in "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; Harry Hadden-Paton and James Frain helm North American premiere of "The King’s Speech"; Gwen Verdon documentary "Merely Marvelous" premieres on September 20th; RIP Chris March, Jeff Fenholt, P.J. Barry, and Peter Nichols
"The Cher Show”, "King Kong", and "Pretty Woman" will close on August 18th; West End “Betrayal” headed to Broadway; MCP to present concert of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”; Neil Diamond and Liberace musicals in development; casting announced for “The Prom” film, “Hercules” in the park, “Road Show” at City Center”, and “Scotland, PA” at Roundabout; West End’s “Present Laughter” and gender-swapped “Company” rumored for Broadway; “Waitress” becomes longest running show at the Brooks Atkinson; RIP Martin Charnin, William F. Brown, and Sid Ramin
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical" books the Al Hirschfeld Theatre; BC/EFA awards $225k for fire relief; League of Professional Theatre Women report finds gender equality progress Off-Broadway; "The Ferryman" extends 20 weeks; "The Secret Life of Bees" cast announced; Norbert Leo Butz, Laura Osnes, and Ethan Slater join Fosse/Verdon on FX; "If I Forget" to air on PBS; tickets on sale for Lincoln Center's "American Songbook" series; Astoria Performing Arts Center to present "Caroline, or Change"; producer Jerry Frankel dead at 88; writer William Goldman dead at 87
REVIEW: “Pretty Woman: The Musical” is a big mistake. Big. Huge.
“Pretty Woman: The Musical” features a painfully uninspired new score, a largely Xeroxed script, no romance, and a gaudy and cheap-looking production entirely devoid of emotion or entertainment. Turning this classic 1990 film into a stage musical was a big mistake. Huge.
"A Bronx Tale" will close August 5th; Glenda Jackson will do "King Lear" on Broadway in Spring 2019; an all female Broadway revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross" is in the works; the Vineyard Theatre announces its 2018-2019 season; Austin Pendleton is directing and starring in "Wars of the Roses: Henry VI & Richard III"; Manhattan Concert Productions will present "The Scarlet Pimpernel"; Liliane Montevecchi and Dame Gillian Lynne have died
REVIEW: "Admissions"
“Admissions” is a provocative new play by Joshua Harmon that pierces the veil of “white liberalism” to reveal simmering interpersonal issues that contradict beliefs in institutional ideals. Smartly staged and exquisitely acted, this play poses uncomfortable but important questions about race, identity, and privilege as our country navigates an increasingly divisive and siloed discourse.
REVIEW: “Junk”—Ayad Akhtar’s Financial Thriller
“Junk” is a fast paced, financial thriller set in the 1980s that explores how our debt-laden, wealth-obsessed society came to be. There are no heroes and no hope to be found in this excellent new play by Ayad Akhtar (“Disgraced”), only a cautionary tale whose lesson it is too late to learn.
REVIEW: A grim, subterranean future in “After the Blast”
“After the Blast” by Zoe Kazan at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theatre provides a well-acted story that imagines a grim, post-apocalyptic future underground where our characters grapple with depression and search for life’s meaning and purpose. Oh, and there’s a robot in the cast.
REVIEW: We Die Soon – Morisseau’s “Pipeline”
Run, don’t walk, to get seats for “Pipeline” before it closes on Sunday.