EDITOR’S NOTES – OCTOBER ‘09

 

FASTEN YOUR THEATER SEATBELTS – THE SEASON IS TAKING OFF & BROADWAY IS BLITZED WITH OPENINGS 

 

The pace of Broadway arrivals is as busy as later in the year when producers vie with each other for opening in time for the Tonys (there is a pact that only one show can open a night)

So here goes in order of opening nights:

 

 

A Steady Rain

Dynamic testosterone duo Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman’s acting styles have been described as “Wolverine meets the Robot” in this story about two Chicago cops with differing accounts of an incident. Be prepared: It’s mostly monologues.

Opens Sept 29 Schoenfeld to 12/6 only

 

Superior Donuts

Set in Chicago, this drama centers on the unlikely friendship between an ex-hippie donut-shop owner named Arthur Przybyszewski and his brash young African-American employee, Franco Wicks, who wants to change the decrepit shop for the better.

Written before his recent smash hit August: Osage County, I’ll follow Tony winning author Tracy Letts anywhere.

Oct 1 Music Box theater

 

Wishful Drinking: Carrie Fisher, the offspring of Eddie and Debbie Reynolds, so you can imagine, offers a glimpse into her life of the highs and lows in her own Hollywood story, after Princess Leia, handling her battles with addiction, depression, and mental institutions with a wry, witty attitude. Hear it’s surprisingly engrossing.

Opens Oct.4; Studio 54 through Jan 3

 

Hamlet

Jude Law as the brooding Dane in an unusual approach.

Hear its already sold out!

Opens 10/6, Broadhurst to 12/6 only

 

 

The Royal Family

The 1928 valentine to theater by George S Kaufman & Edna Ferber features an all star cast led by Rosemary Harris. Follow a famous family of stage stars as they go about the drama of the day: choosing scripts, dashing off to performances, stealing kisses from handsome beaus. But what’s this business about the youngest diva wanting to quit the stage for domestic bliss? Never, darling! 

Opens 10/8 MTC Friedman Theater limited run

 

 

Oleanna

David Mamet’s rouser about a professor and his student (Bill Pullman and Julia Styles) caused so much gender warfare in the audience last time it played that they tried to balance the scales a bit in this production...not a date show, bring a friend.

Opens 10/11 John Golden

 

Bye Bye Birdie

In this 1960 chestnut hip-swingin’ teen idol Conrad Birdie has been drafted into the army.  But don’t worry, girls! His manager Albert has cooked up a plan to send him off with a swell new song and one last kiss from a lucky teenage fan...on The Ed Sullivan Show! Probably a guilty pleasure – take a kid for legitimacy!

Opens 10/15 Roundabout at Henry Miller

 

 

Memphis

The first new musical of the season about a white Disc Jockey in the ‘50’s playing black music…and more. Fifties southern blues and rock finally get their own (non-jukebox) musical.

Love the music!!!

Opens Oct. 19,  Shubert Theatre

 

After Miss Julie

A new interpretation of August Strindberg's classic drama about class and sex transposes Miss Julie to the English countryside in 1945. Sequestered in her grandmother's country house on the eve of the Labour Party's historic landslide victory, young Miss Julie engages in a forbidden flirtation that quickly spins into a life and death struggle for power. Sienna Miller sizzles and ex Jude Law is two blocks away!

Opens 10/22 Roundabout at American Airlines

 

Brighton Beach Memoirs
First revival of the 1983 Neil Simon’s touching evocation of the world of young Eugene Morris Jerome (new star Josh Grissetti), Brooklyn in 1937, and the entire Jerome family (including Laurie Metcalf).
Opens Oct. 25  Nederlander Theatre running in rep with…

Broadway Bound… in the 1986 sequel audiences would return to the Jerome house some 12 years and a thousand laughs later, only to discover that while times change, family is forever.
Opens Dec. 10  Nederlander Theatre

Photo by Joan Marcus

Finian’s Rainbow

Remounting of City Center’s Encores! production of Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg’s 1947 musical, Finian’s Rainbow, a show with an interesting take on economics and race relations, surprisingly still pertinent. For those who missed it, a second chance. Take it!

Opens 10/29  St. James Theater

And this is only October!!! Hang on!

 

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