Plays Rule on B'way - the Second Seven

Posted by Bruce Miller
It’s been more than 48 hours since I discovered that Broadway is enjoying an historic fall, having mounted more straight plays (The Ritz notwithstanding) in 2007 than during any other Fall Season in the last 27 years. And, yes, I know that everyone else probably noticed this months ago, but I didn’t notice it until now, and I’m excited.

It’s not that I don’t love musicals—I do. It’s just that I love plays even more. I’m so used to Broadway trending away from plays that this reversal gives me cause for rejoicing.

One of the questions I receive most often—it comes with the job title—is, “I’m going to New York next Tuesday and can go to only one show. What should I see?” Hopefully these last three posts will help to give at least a little guidance in that department.

Rock ’n’ Roll by Sir Tom Stoppard began previews on Oct 19 and opened on Nov 4 to nearly unanimous, heart-stopping raves. It’s a transfer of the London production that won just about every major award that London has on offer, and it jumped across the pond complete with its three amazing stars: Rufus Sewell, Sinead Cusack and Brian Cox. It’s directed by the deservedly acclaimed Trevor Nunn. It uses rock ’n’ roll as a roadmap to chart its way through the political and personal turmoil of the last several decades, finding connections between love, revolution and music that illuminate our current century. I’m passionate about seeing it and seeing it soon.

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts began previews on Oct 30 and opened on Dec 4, and it also received nearly unanimous, heart-stopping raves. As American as Rock ’n’ Roll is British, August is a transfer of the award-winning premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, based in Chicago. In the NY Times, Christopher Isherwood says, “Tracy Lett’s fiercely funny, turbo-charged tragicomedy is, flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.” When Tracy Letts wrote Killer Joe, Gary Hopper started talking to me about him. When he wrote Bug, Irene Ziegler started singing his praises. Now all of the American theatre community is paying attention. This is another play I’m desperate to see.

The Seafarer, written and directed by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, began previews on Oct 30 and opened on Dec 6, and again received great reviews—although not quite as great as its two predecessors. The Seafarer is a supernatural tale set on Christmas Eve in an Irish bar, where five Irishmen, one of whom may not be who or what he appears, descend into drunkenness and share spine-tingling yarns. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but this play is surely as Irish as August is American and Rock is British. At the end, it’s also, from most accounts, unexpectedly uplifting.

Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is being revived on Broadway for the first time since 1923 in an all-star production that is lighting up the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center. The play began previews on Nov 1 and opened on Dec 2, starring Michael Cerveris, John Cullum, Phylicia Rashad, John Pankow and Martha Plimpton, under the direction of Mark Lamos. Again, the critics have been mostly enthusiastic, especially toward Michael Cerveris’s performance and Mark Lamos’s direction. Cymbeline was the first show to open after the strike, and it appears that it will have the successful limited engagement that had been planned.

Is He Dead? is that rarest of rarities—a new, previously unproduced farce by Mark Twain. Not known as a dramatist, old Sam Clemens nonetheless penned a couple of hoary chestnuts, and after this one was discovered in the University of California, Berkeley archives, it was “polished”—there’s that running theme again—by David Ives, and from all accounts turned into an effective comic vehicle for the Scott Wichmann of Broadway known as Norbert Leo Butts. The play’s a hit! A HUGE hit!! And, again, that rarest of rarities on 21st Century Broadway—a laugh-a-minute comedy hit!!! Exactly what Broadway used to have in abundance, seldom has anymore, and desperately needs. Our friend Lizzy Holland saw it a few days ago, and claims to have laughed herself silly.

The Homecoming by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter began previews on Dec 4 and opened on Dec 16 to, again, some truly amazing reviews. The NY Times starts out with, “First of all, it really is that good!” And Linda Winer of Newsday named it her Best Production of 2007. The Homecoming is, of course, a masterwork of 20th Century English language theatre, and apparently, after 40 years, it still sizzles with the right cast and director, both of which this current revival appears to have.

November, the new David Mamet play starring Nathan Lane, began previews on Dec 20 with a planned opening on Jan 17. There’s lots of promise. I’ll let you know more after the play opens.

Until then, have a Happy New Year. I hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Did Broadway Just Make History...or What?

Posted by Bruce Miller

Is it just me, or is Autumn 2007 going to go down in the record books as one of the most promising four-month periods for non-musicals on Broadway in the last several decades?

First of all, there was the issue of quantity—the subject of today’s blog post. We exited Labor Day with the promise of thirteen (count ‘em) plays slotted for a fall opening, and four musicals. When was the last time since the 70s that you saw a ratio like that?

The worthy entries in order of originally scheduled (pre-strike) first performance were:

Sept 13 - Mauritius, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club;

Sept 14 - Pygmalion, pictured above and to the right, a revival of the classic by George Bernard Shaw, produced by Roundabout Theatre Company and starring no lesser lights than Claire Danes, Jefferson Mays and Boyd Gaines;

Also on Sept 14 – a revival of The Ritz by Terrance McNally, also produced by the Roundabout;

Oct 4 – A Bronx Tale, pictured above and to the left, a somewhat revived, somewhat new play written by and starring Chazz Palminteri, directed by Jerry Zaks;

Oct 12 – Cyrano de Bergerac, pictured to the right, a revival of the classic by Edmond Rostand (didn’t you love the Barksdale production?) starring Kevin Kline, Jennifer Garner and Daniel Sunjata;

Oct 15 – The Farnsworth Invention, pictured below, another brand new play by my favorite TV writer, Aaron Sorkin, about—what else—the beginning of television, starring Hank Azaria and Jimmi Simpson, directed by Des McAnuff;
Oct 19 – Rock ’n’ Roll, pictured to the left, a brainy transfer of a brand new play from London, by perhaps the world’s greatest living English-speaking writer, Tom Stoppard, directed by Trevor Nunn;

Oct 30 – August: Osage County, pictured to the right, the first of the two brand new plays named after months of the year, this one spawned at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, by Tracy Letts;

Also on Oct 30 – The Seafarer, another brand new play by the prolific Irish playwright Conor McPherson;

Nov 1 – Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, starring Michael Cerveris and Phylicia Rashad;

Nov 8 – Is He Dead?, pictured below, the world premiere of a newly discovered play by Mark Twain, adapted by David Ives, starring Norbert Leo Butz (when you’ve got a name like that you’d better be funny), and directed by Michael Blakemore;
Nov 23 – a revival of The Homecoming by Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter (all right, some will argue that he’s the greatest living English-speaking playwright, and David Mamet fans, wait your turn), starring Eve Best, Raul Esparza, Michael McKean and Ian McShane;

and last but not least, Dec 20 – November, by David Mamet (yes, some will argue that he's… and Edward Albee fans, you’ll have to wait until his 80th birthday in March to make your case), starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, directed by Joe Mantello.

Now that’s a Fall Season that any true-blue theatre aficionado would salivate over. Then of course came the strike, which shuffled some of the dates. And as the plays opened, the assessments of quality were varied, to say the least.

But any way you measure it, it was a Fall Season to make you stand up and cheer. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about quality, which will give us even more to cheer about—and look forward to as we plan our winter/spring NYC theatre weekends.

--Bruce Miller