Editor’s notes: The Spring Season ’17

               ….full of divas and diversity, mostly borrowed, seldom new

 

An exciting dose of Divas:  fans will delight in seeing Glenn Close, Patti Lupone,  Christine Ebersole, Bette Midler, Cate Blanchette, Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney to date.

 

Film inspired productions will be evidemt in Anastasia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Groundhog Day

 

Another source of material comes from Off Broadway; Indecent, Sweat, Significant Other and Oslo.

 

A pretty impressive array of revivals include Tennesse Williams’ Glass Menagerie,  Noel Coward’s Present Laughter, Arthur Miller’s The Price, Lillian Hellman’s Little Foxes, John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation and the boffo musicals, Miss Saigon and Hello,Dolly,

A Doll’s House, Part 2 picks up after Henrik Ibsen’s classic “Part 1” concludes. Starring Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, and Condola Rashad, performances begin April 1 at the Golden. And another new play The Play That Goes Wrong, which follows a drama society trying to stage a 1920s murder mystery, comes in from the West End with its original cast and creative team beginning previews March 9 at the Lyceum.

New on the musical front are Bandstand, which transports audiences to the 1940s world of swing with Laura Osnes and Corey Cott, and Come From Away, about the travelers whose planes were diverted to a small Newfoundland town following the 9/11 attacks.

THE PRESENT
• Theatre: Ethel Barrymore
• Previews: December 17, 2016
• Opening: January 8, 2017
• Written by Andrew Upton
• Director: John Crowley
• Cast: Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh
• New play based on Anton Chekhov's Platonov, with the action transposed to the 1990s.
• Seen previously at the Sydney Theatre Company of Australia, where it debuted in 2015.
• Limited run through March 19, 2017.

JITNEY
• Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman
• First Preview: December 28, 2016
• Opening: January 19, 2017
• Written by August Wilson
• Director: Ruben Santiago-Hudson
• Cast: André Holland, Harvey Blanks, Anthony Chisholm, Brandon Dirden, Carra Patterson, Michael Potts, Keith Randolph Smith
• Manhattan Theatre Club will host the Broadway premiere of Wilson's first play, the only work from his the American Century Cycle never previously seen on Broadway. Set in the early 1970’s, the story follows a group of men who drive unlicensed cabs or “jitneys.”

UPCOMING:

SUNSET BOULEVARD
• Theatre: Palace
• First Preview: February 2, 2017
• Opening: February 9, 2017
• Written by Christopher Hampton and Don Black (book/lyrics), and Andrew Lloyd Webber (music)
• Director: Lonny Price
• Cast: Glenn Close
• Revival of the 1994 musical based on the 1950 Billy Wilder movie about a faded Hollywood silent film goddess who tries to make one last comeback. This production was seen in a spring 2016 revival in London.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
• Theatre: Hudson
• Previews: February 2, 2017
• Opens: February 23
• Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lapine
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford
• Transfer of the New York City Center‘s fall 2016 concert version of the Pulitzer-winning 1984 musical about pointillist painter George Seurat.
• Limited engagement through April 23.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER
• Theatre: Booth
• Previews: February 14, 2017
• Opens: March 2, 2017
• Playwright: Joshua Harmon
• Director: Trip Cullman
• Cast: Gideon Glick, Barbara Barrie, and Lindsay Mendez
• Transfer of the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2015 Off-Broadway hit about a gay bachelor looking for love in the big city.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
• Theatre: Belasco
• Previews: February 7, 2017
• Opens: March 9, 2017
• Playwright: Tennessee Williams
• Director: Sam Gold
• Cast: Sally Field and Joe Mantello
• Revival of the classic 1947 “memory play” about a restless young man and his relationship with his fading Southern belle mother and his painfully shy sister, for whom he is asked to bring home a “gentleman caller.”

COME FROM AWAY
• Theatre: Schoenfeld
• Previews: February 18, 2017
• Opens: March 12, 2017
• Book, music and lyrics by the Canadian husband-and-wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
• Director: Christopher Ashley
• Cast: Chad Kimball, Jenn Colella, Joel Hatch, Rodney Hicks and Caesar Samayoa.
• New musical that explores the lasting connection forged between a group of travelers whose planes were diverted to a small Newfoundland town on Sept. 11, 2001.
• The show had its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in summer 2015, prior to a fall 2015 run at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, where it broke box-office records. A tryout tour is underway. It played Washington, D.C.'s Ford's Theatre Sept. 2-Oct. 9, 2016, followed by a Nov. 15, 2016-Jan. 1, 2017, run at Toronto's Mirvish Theatre.  

THE PRICE
• Theatre: American Airlines 
• Previews: February 16, 2017
• Opens: March 16, 2017
• Playwright: Arthur Miller
• Director: Terry Kinney
• Cast: John Turturro, Tony Shalhoub, Jessica Hecht
• Roundabout Theatre Company revival of the 1968 drama about two estranged brothers who reunite to sell their the remainder of their parents’ estate.
• Limited engagement through May 7.

SWEAT
• Theatre: Studio 54 
• Previews: March 4, 2017
• Opens: March 26, 2017
• Playwright: Lynn Nottage
• Director: Kate Whoriskey
• Cast: Carlo Albán, James Colby, Khris Davis, Johanna Day, John Earl Jelks, Will Pullen, Miriam Shor, Lance Coadie Williams, and Michelle Wilson
• Broadway transfer of the hit Public Theatre production of Nottage’s drama about blue-collar workers in a Pennsylvania town at the turn of the millennium.

MISS SAIGON
• Theatre: Broadway
• Previews: March 1, 2017
• Opens: March 23, 2017
• Written by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music), Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (lyrics), Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (book)
• Director: Laurence Connor
• Cast: Jon Jon Briones and Eva Noblezada
• An American soldier named Chris marries Kim in Vietnam before departing for the US. Three years later, he returns to find Kimstill alive and raising Tam, a boy he fathered. With the Viet Cong closing in on the city and two women wanting the only place in his heart, Chris has big decisions to make.
• Prior to its West End opening, Cameron Mackintosh said the London revival of Miss Saigon might transfer to Broadway in 2015 if it was well received. The revival went on to break box office records.
• Limited run through January 15, 2018.

AMÉLIE
• Theatre: Walter Kerr
• Previews: March 9, 2017
• Opening: April 3, 2017
• Written by Dan Messé (music), Nathan Tyson (lyrics), Craig Lucas (book)
• Director: Pam MacKinnon
• Cast: Phillipa Soo and Adam Chanler-Berat
• A musical adaptation of the award-winning 2001 film, which starred Audrey Tautou as a shy waitress with a wild imagination.
• Composer Dan Messé, who penned music for the Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night with his Brooklyn-based folk-rock band Hem, has adapted Amélie for the stage. A developmental workshop was held in July 2016, led by MacKinnon. The show had its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in August 2015.

PRESENT LAUGHTER
• Theatre: St. James
• Previews: March 10, 2017
• Opening: April 5, 2017
• Playwright: Noël Coward
• Director: Moritz von Suelpnagel
• Cast: Kevin Kline, Kate Burton
• Revival of the 1940s comedy about the tribulations of a popular matinee idol.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
• Theatre: Lyceum
• Previews: March 9, 2017
• Opening: April 2, 2017
• Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields
• Director: Mark Bell
• Cast: Matthew Cavendish, Bryony Corrigan, Rob Falconer, Dave Hearn, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill, and Nancy Zamit.
• Olivier Award-winning comedy about an amateur university production that goes hopelessly awry, is in the second sell-out year of its West End run.

WAR PAINT
• Theatre: Nederlander
• Previews: March 7, 2017
• Opening: April 6, 2017
• Writers: Book by Doug Wrights; music and lyrics by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie
• Director: Michael Grief; choreographer: Christopher Gattelli
• Cast: Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole
• Musical based on the rivalry of cosmetics titans Helena Rubenstein (LuPone) and Elizabeth Arden (Ebersole)
• Premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in summer 2016.

OSLO
• Theatre: Vivian Beaumont
• Previews: March 23, 2017
• Opens: April 13, 2017
• Playwright: J.T. Rogers
• Director: Bartlett Sher
• Cast: Jennifer Ehle, Daniel Jenkins, Jefferson Mays and Daniel Oreskes
• Transfer of Lincoln Center Theatre's successful spring /summer 2016 Off-Broadway production of the play about the top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords.

GROUNDHOG DAY
• Theatre: August Wilson
• Previews: March 16, 2017
• Opening: April 17, 2017
• Music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, book by Danny Rubin
• Director: Matthew Warchus
• Cast: Andy Karl
• A musical adaptation of the 1993 Bill Murray film about a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman who is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, PA, when he finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to repeat the same day again and again…and again. Will he ever unlock the secret and break the cycle?
• Produced in London in summer 2016.

INDECENT
• Theatre: Cort
• Previews: April 4, 2017
• Opening: April 18, 2017
• Written by Paula Vogel, score by Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva
• Directed by Rebecca Taichman, choreography by David Dorfman
• Cast: TBA
• Play with music inspired by the real-life controversy surrounding the 1923 Broadway production of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance, the love story of two women.
• Premiered at Yale Rep in fall 2015, transferred to a successful Off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre in spring 2016.
• This production would represent the Broadway debut of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Vogel (How I Learned to Drive).

THE LITTLE FOXES
• Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman
• Previews: March 29, 2017
• Opens: April 19, 2017
• Playwright: Lillian Hellman
• Director: Daniel Sullivan
• Cast: Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon
• Manhattan Theatre Club revival of the 1930s drama about ruthless Southern belle Regina Giddens and her scheme to outwit her husband, who stands in the way of her profit-making dreams.

HELLO, DOLLY!
• Theatre: Shubert
• Previews: March 15, 2017
• Opens: April 20, 2017
• Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman; book by Michael Stewart
• Director: Jerry Zaks; choreographer: Warren Carlyle
• Cast: Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce
• Revival of the blockbuster 1964 musical about a matchmaker who sets out to find a match for herself at the turn of the 20th century.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
• Theatre: Lunt-Fontanne
• First Preview: March 28, 2017
• Opening: April 23, 2017
• Written by David Greig (book), Marc Shaiman (music & lyrics), Scott Wittman (lyrics), Roald Dahl (novel)
• Director: Jack O'Brien
• Cast: Christian Borle as Willy Wonka
• When Charlie wins a golden ticket to the weird and wonderful Wonka Chocolate Factory, it's the chance of a lifetime to feast on the sweets he's always dreamed of. But beyond the gates astonishment awaits, as the five lucky winners discover not everything is as sweet as it seems.
• A West End production opened in June 2013.

ANASTASIA
• Theatre: Broadhurst
• First Preview: March 23, 2017
• Opening: April 24, 2017
• Music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, book by Terrence McNally
• Director: Darko Tresnjak
• Cast: Christy Altomare, Derek Klana, Ramin Karimloo, Mary Beth Peil, John Bolton, and Caroline O’Connor
• Inspired by the 1997 film about a young woman who may be the last surviving member of the Russian royal family. The score features songs from the movie, including the Oscar-nominated “Journey to the Past,” plus additional new songs from the same Tony Award-winning team. 
• The musical had its world premiere at Hartford Stage May 12 through June 26, 2016.

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION
• Theatre: Barrymore
• Previews: April 5, 2017
• Opening: April 25, 2017
• Playwright: John Guare
• Director: Trip Cullman
• Cast: Corey Hawkins, Allison Janney, and John Benjamin Hickey
• Revival of the 1990 drama about a young con man who is embraced by wealthy New Yorkers after passing himself off as a celebrity’s son.

BANDSTAND
• Theatre: Jacobs
• First Preview: March 31, 2017
• Opening: April 26, 2017
• Music by Richard Oberacker and book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker
• Director/Choreographer: Andy Blankenbuhler
• Cast: Laura Osnes and Corey Cott
• This self-described “big-band musical” chronicles a mismatched band of WWII veterans who join forces to compete in a radio contest with dreams of stardom. 
• The show had a hit first production in summer/fall 2015 at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2
• Theatre: Golden
• First Preview: April 1, 2017
• Opening: April 27, 2017
• Playwright: Lucas Hnath
• Director: Sam Gold
• Cast: Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, Condola Rashad
• Sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s modern classic about a woman who makes a momentous decision to leave her husband and children.

 

In the “race” to the Tonys plays vie for last place – probably  to keep productions fresh in the minds of voters

 So gear up for almost daily openings in March and April