spring round-up
As spring reluctantly peers over the buildings and warms the faces of the people hiding from ICE dressed as Disney characters in Times Square, Broadways newest offerings give us something to smile about. It may feel like going to the opera in the final days of the Weimar Republic, but we take what we can get.
Still Going Strong
Adam Lambert and the voice of Moana, Auliʻi Cravalho are leaving Cabaret having been replacements themselves. Stepping in as Sally Bowles is Eva Noblezada just back from Gatsby at the Broadway Theatre and then joining the rest of the original cast of Hadestown for a West End victory lap and video recording. Orville Peck, who only wears a mask in public as part of his artistic expression, (so fuck him kinda,) will be playing the Emcee. Maybe Happy Ending is this season’s odds-defying underdog wherein Darren Criss and Helen J. Chen sing and star in a hard to define love story musical about two individuals who, by all accounts are robots. “But they’re not though… you just have to see it,” say the moist eyed people leaving the theatre.
The 44th St showdown
What really gets me going every time I walk down a certain section of 44 th St is Gypsy starring Audra McDonald as Mama Rose right across the street from Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger. The two divas just there staring at each other from their respective posters. Anyone will tell you that one of these super talented super stars is going to end up with the Tony, and they both deserve it.
Big names and big tickets
George Fucking Clooney on Broadway.
And TWENTY TWO other people star in Good Night and Good Luck! The equity bond for that show alone must be enough to buy a studio apartment near City College. Yes this was that movie from a while ago. In it, Clooney plays Edward R Murrow standing up to Joseph McCarthy on air while risking his career and possible jail time as hard right-wing fascists try to destroy their enemies using the FBI and the courts as their own personal weapons. Sounds scary. Orchestra seats start around $799, but there are $49 rush and digital lottery tickets as well as $69 standing room released the day of the performance at the last minute.
Othello!
Denzel Washington in the lead role and Jake Gyllenhaal as the jealous Iago under the direction of the can-do-on-wrong, Kenny Leon (Our Town, Appropriate, Hamlet at the Public) for only fifteen weeks. All anyone can talk about though, is the fabled $1000 orchestra seat. I have only found $899 orchestra seats on Ticketmaster, so that seems more reasonable. (Unless you have second thoughts after considering Denzel in the drab Joel Coen film from 2021.) Things heated up recently between the usually good-for-a-laugh NY Post and the production, after their theatre critic Johnny Oleksinski was uninvited from the press opening after penning a column calling out the outrageous ticket price. Not to be outdone, Oleksinski broke with time honored protocol and posted his unkind review early!
Take that Creasy-Bear.
Go to Lunch
The other movie-star-fueled revival that those of us who still wanna eat eggs will never afford is Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross making its fourth turn on Broadway since it won the Pulitzer in the late 80s. It’s playing at the recently renovated Palace Theatre where Elton John’s Tammy Faye just tanked. The play looks great, and Kieran Culkin’s recent Oscar win can’t hurt the production either. They are not selling the balcony to this one, but orchestra is starting around the mid $300 range, which seems comparatively reasonable. The rumor is that when this cast leaves they are going to finally proceed with an all-female cast for the hyper-masculine tale of real estate bottom feeders cursing at each other.
Other shows to look out for this season
Liberation at The Roundabout only has a few more weeks left and is a NY Times Critic’s pick.
Purpose by recent Tony winner for Appropriate Brandon Jacobs Jenkins just opened at the Helen Hayes. It got mixed reviews, but the Post’s Johnny Oleksinski loved it, and you know what a pain in the ass that guy is.
Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Another Roy sibling on the boards this season in her Olivier winning London import where she plays Oscar Wilde’s man who only ages in the mirror.
The other British show that is selling out is the West End smash Operation Mincemeat which is this Broadway Outsider’s pick of the season. It’s a hysterical farce about a real life secret mission during world war two.
Smash, the musical based on a TV show based on a musical has finally fulfilled its destiny and closed the meta circle of its existence, and the early word is that it’s a crowd pleaser.
Honorable maybes go to Idina Menzel singing her heart out in Redwood which is about a woman Eat Pray Loving in a tree. People say she’s phenomenal and the stage tech is reminiscent of the sphere in Las Vegas and The Last Five Years Jason Robert Brown’s love story starring Jo Bro Nick Jonas.
