B'way Update: The Return of Scott Rudin

Banished producer Scott Rudin says 
he's gone through therapy, made apologies,
 and plans toreturn to Broadway.

According to the New York Times, producer Scott Rudin is planning a return to Broadway following a long absence due to his abusive behavior with subordinates. Rudin stepped away from producing on stage and film in 2021 after articles in the Hollywood Reporter and New York magazine alleged his verbal abuse, bullying, throwing objects, pushing assts. from a moving car, smashing a computer on an assistant's hand and firing an assistant for bringing him the wrong kind of muffin. He also resigned from the Broadway League and withdrew from the Broadway revival of The Music Man as well as from five A24 films including Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once, and  Alex Garland's Men. He has won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and 18 Tony Awards. Rudin states he has undergone therapy and apologized publicly and to certain individuals. 

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
in Little Bear Ridge Road at Steppenwolf.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

In the Times article, Rudin states he plans to produce Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale, Grangeville) in the fall. The play will star Laurie Metcalf, following the play's premiere last year at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello. The play, set as most of Hunter's works are in Idaho, centers on an estranged aunt and nephew settling the estate of their brother and father at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic. In the spring, Rudin will reunite Metcalf and Mantello as star and director for David Hare's new play Montauk. A revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is planned for the 2026-27 season to star Nathan Lane and Metcalf with Mantello directing. Such as production with Lane and Metcalf and Mantello was announced in 2020, but the pandemic shut down theaters and another Salesman with Wendell Burton came to Broadway from London after the theaters re-opened. (Presumably, Metcalf will now have more time for the stage now that The Conners is ending its seven-season run on ABC.)

Rudin also intends to present Cottonfield by Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park, Downstate) and directed by Robert O'Hara (Shit. Meet. Fan.) on Broadway in the fall of 2025. (Side note: The New York magazine article from 2021 says that Rudin pulled out of the Broadway production of Clybourne Park and two other Norris plays when the actor-playwright withdrew from a Rudin-produced HBO pilot.) There will also be an Off-Broadway production of Wallace Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days, directed by Andre Gregory, Shawn's co-star from My Dinner With Andre.

B'way/Off-Bway Reviews: The Picture of Dorian Gray; Othello; The Jonathan Larson Project

Sarah Snook in The Picture of
Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

In a dazzling feat of technology and acting pyrotechnics, Sarah Snook of Succession fame  plays 26 characters and brings Oscar Wilde’s 1891 classic of gothic horror The Picture of Dorian Gray to vital life in the 21st Century. Adapter-director Kip Williams employs a small army of black-clad camera operators and a flotilla of flying video screens to create a modern update on this shattering morality tale. Not surprisingly, our era of shallow Instagram posts and click-bait is a perfect fit for Wilde’s story of the titular libertine whose portrait ages while he remains young and beautiful.

Williams’ ingenious staging combines live action with multiple video reflections emphasizing Wilde’s theme of deceptive pretty surfaces concealing inner corruption. The intricate video design is by David Bergman. When we first enter the Music Box Theater, we are greeted by a gigantic screen and an empty stage. Snook is first discovered way upstage being filmed. The actual actress is dwarfed by her cinematic reproduction. As she switches roles, she employs simple props like a paintbrush to denote the artist Basil Hallward and a cigarette for the hedonistic Lord Harry Wotton to puff. She is then fitted with a blonde wig in order to become the self-absorbed Dorian Gray and then something miraculous happens. Various versions of Snook as different characters appear on the screens and she interacts with herself, creating the illusion of a stage full of actors. This reinforces the theme of surface versus soul. 

Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

As the evening progresses, the screens multiply, flying in and out of the action, creating a ballet of reality conflicting with reproduction. The action sometimes spills backstage and into the bowels of the theater, recreating a low dive. At one point, an entire dinner party is simulated as five Snooks dine with the genuine article (it’s hard to tell which is the real one.) Marg Howell’s sumptuous Victorian-era costumes come in handy here in distinctly differentiating the characters, and a special shout-out to hair and make-up supervisor Nick Eynaud. Snook’s acting is magnificent in conjuring up the spectrum of British society from the upper crust to the lower dregs. She’s especially moving in depicting Dorian’s conflict over his narcissistic indulgence and eventual guilt. She’s also hilariously inept as the actress Sybil Vane, Dorian’s love object, purposefully acting badly as Juliet.

Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

Sybil is one of the few female roles and Snook’s easy leaping back and forth over the gender line emphasizes the queer sensibility of Wilde’s original. Lord Harry is obviously sexually attracted to Dorian and acting on the love that dare not speak its name is most likely among the many “sins” that Dorian commits during his pursuit of pleasure at all costs. 

Modern technology is also more directly interjected into this 19th century tale, but the contemporary flourishes do not feel forced. It seems like the most natural thing in the world for Lord Harry and his Billie Burke-like aunt to whip out their I-phones to text their snide witticisms on London society and for the stagehands to inject them with Botox as they sip tea. In one bravura sequence, Snook as Dorian alters his/her appearance through filters on an I-phone which is projected on one of the giant screens. Dorian literally changes before our very eyes. All these clicks and tweaks are executed by Snook while delivering Wilde’s scintillating prose, seemingly without taking a breathe. A mini-tour de force within a larger one.

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal 
in Othello.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

While Sarah Snook is believably performing two dozen characters, Denzel Washington is giving a showy, actor-ly accounting of the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello at the Barrymore while his above-the-title co-star Jake Gyllenhaal focuses on the inner workings of Othello’s nemesis Iago and shows us more of the character than the actor. Kenny Leon’s high-profile production is making the headlines because of its exorbitant ticket prices (the top ducat is nearly $1,000). The big query on many theatergoers’ minds is: is the revival really worth that much? That’s an individual question of taste and priority, but my take is this is a decent enough production which grips the audience and imparts the Bard’s intense depiction of jealousy. It’s not spectacular but it’s a satisfying evening.

B'way Update: John Krasinki, Private Lives, Beaches, James Taylor

SAG winner and Emmy nominee John Krasinski (The Office, A Quiet Place) will star in the debut production of Studio Seaview (formerly Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theater), Angry Alan, a solo play about a man diving into a digital rabbit hole. Penelope Skinner's dark comedy premiered during the 2018 Edinburgh Festival. Tony winner Sam Gold directs. Previews begin May 23 with an official opening of June 11 for a 10-week limited run. Krasinki last appeared Off-Broadway in Dry Powder at the Public Theater in 2016.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be returning to Off Broadway, and to be surrounded by such a force of talent in Penny and Sam is quite literally a dream scenario,” Krasinski said in a statement.

Private Lives: It's a bit early,  but we have our first production of the 2026-27 season. Jeffrey Richards, Playful Productions, Rebecca Gold, and M/B/P Productions have announced they will present a revival of Noel Coward's 1931 comedy Private Lives sometime two seasons ahead. No news of casting or creative personnel yet.

Gertrude Lawrence and Noel Coward
in Private Lives.

Coward's mannered comedy concerns divorced couple Elyot and Amanda who encounter each other while on their respective honeymoons with new spouses. This will be the ninth Broadway production of the play. Previous outings have earned Best Actress Tonys for Tammy Grimes and Lindsay Duncan and a nomination for Maggie Smith. There have also been stagings starring Coward, Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier, Tallullah Bankhead, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Joan Collins and Simon Jones, and Kim Catrall and Paul Gross. 

Beaches Launches Tour: The musical version of Beaches, based on Iris Rainer Dart's novel and the

Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor in
the Signature Theater, Wash. DC
production of Beaches the Musical.
Credit: Brett Beiner

1988 film starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, will launch a pre-Broadway national tour in the fall of 2026. The show features music by Grammy winner Mike Stoller with lyrics by Dart and a book by Dart and Thom Thomas developed in collaboration with David Austin. Tony nominee Lonny Price (Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Sunset Boulevard revival) directs. Beaches had a production in Calgary in 2024 and developmental productions in Washington, DC and Chicago.

James Taylor Musical: Grammy winner James Taylor joins Billy Joel, Carol King, Tina Turner, Cher,

James Taylor

Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, and numerous other pop music stars to have his songbook serve as the basis of a musical. Fire and Rain will feature an original story by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracey Letts (August: Osage County) and direction by Tony winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit). Taylor's songs have previously appeared in the 1978 Broadway musical Working.

B'way Reviews: Operation Mincemeat; Buena Vista Social Cub

Two disparate musicals originating away from Broadway, one in London and the other Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre Club, recently opened with a day of each other and separated by one theater. Operation Mincemeat debuted at the Golden and Buena Vista Social Club set up shop at the Schoenfeld (sandwiched between them is The Outsiders, last year’s Best Musical Tony winner, at the Jacobs.) Both shows take their inspiration from real events and spin dazzling entertainments out of them.

Zoe Roberts, Jak Malone, Natasha Hodgson,
David Cumming, and Claire-Marie Hall in
Operation Mincemeat.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Operation Mincemeat is a riotously funny satire combining elements of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Beyond the Fringe, and those marvelous movies depicting the British struggle to defeat Hitler such as The Battle of Britain, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing and The Imitation Game. A nimble cast of five (three of whom collaborated on the book, music and lyrics) play all the characters in a madcap send-up of stiff-upper-lip tributes to the English homefront and spy thrillers. The versatile ensemble crosses gender lines with ease with the three women playing numerous male roles and the two men enacting females with dexterity.

The truth-based plot follows the wacky scheme to deceive German intelligence by placing false information about British troop plans on the corpse of a derelict disguised as a pilot. Of course, there are twists and turns involving internal rivalries within MI5, Spanish coroners, Yank fliers, submarine crews and double agents. But along the way, we get innovative comedy numbers as well as believable character development. The participants in the stratagem are depicted not just as cartoonish caricatures but three-dimensional people with motivations beyond eliciting laughs. The clever script and score by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoe Roberts operates on several levels; it’s a musical spoof as well as a convincing espionage nail-biter. Robert Hastie’s fast-paced direction strikes the perfect balance between zany lampooning and honest portraiture.

Jak Malone and Zoe Roberts in
Operation Mincemeat.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

The best example of this dichotomy of drama and comedy occurs when Jak Malone as Hester Leggatt, the ultra-efficient female staff member usually charged with preparing tea and taking dictation, makes a vital contribution to the operation. In the song “Dear Bill,” she creates a letter from a sweetheart to be placed on the cadaver to make his false mission convincing to the Germans. In Malone’s tender rendering, it becomes gradually clear that Hester is reliving a personal heartache from the previous war and the tragedy of combat and death intrudes on the breakneck farce. In contrast, Malone is delightfully ghoulish as the supplier of dead bodies and zestfully brash as an American pilot. In addition to “Dear Bill,” highlights include a shockingly funny Nazi number which approaches “Springtime for Hitler” from The Producers in its brash mockery and a Marx-Brothers mishmash involving hats and telephone chords as the status of the dead body is juggled between national authorities. Both of these and the rest of the zingy numbers feature Jenny Arnold’s inventive choreography.

Book Review: The Body Artist

(Borrowed from NYPL, 40th St., Manhattan)  I'll be frank. I picked this slim Don DeLillo novella because it was short. (Still not willing to go back to Peter Bogdanovich's insider-baseball interview with Fritz Lang.) It's beautifully written as with all of DeLillo's work, but confusing. A performance artist is mourning the suicide of her older husband, a revered filmmaker. A mysterious strange man shows up in their rented house on the New England coast. He appears to be mentally challenged and repeats phrases from the late husband, jumbled with other seemingly random sentences. (Some of the dialogue reminded me of Samuel Beckett.) The artist is inspired to create a new piece using her own body and she tries to decipher the mystery of her visitor. DeLillo never explains the meaning of the visitor and the ending didn't make sense to me. I did enjoy the description of a typical morning between the artist and the filmmaker which opens the book. The minute details of fixing breakfast, fleeting thoughts, observing birds at feeders, and avoiding conversation were meticulously observed and fascinating to read. DeLillo's books are always interesting, but this one puzzled me. A cold, clinical study of grief with more questions than answers.  

Interview: Orchestrator Doug Besterman's B'way Triple Play

Doug Besterman has three
shows running on Broadway this season.

After 31 Broadway shows, three Tony and two Drama Desk Awards, orchestrator Doug Besterman is achieving a rare feat: three shows running simultaneously in one season. Death Becomes Her opened to rave reviews in November at the Lunt-Fontanne and two dissimilar shows: Smash and Boop! The Musical are now in previews at the Imperial and the Broadhurst respectively. Besterman made his Broadway debut working in collaboration with James Raitt on the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees. He has won Tonys for his work co-orchestrating with Ralph Burns on Fosse and Thoroughly Modern Millie and won a solo Tony for The Producers. His numerous other credits include A Bronx Tale, It Shoulda Been You, Dracula, Seussical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many more.

Film credits include the live action version of Beauty and The Beast, and Frozen. TV credits include the Marc Shaiman/Scott Witman compositions for Smash, Schmigadoon, ABC’s version of Annie, The Sound of Music Live, and Peter Pan Live

I managed to snag a chat with the very busy Besterman to discuss his present shows, past hits and what exactly an orchestrator does.

What exactly does an orchestrator do?

It’s a great question. The composer of the show will write a score. They’ll generally deliver that score in a form that can be played on the piano. They may be various other folks on the music team who contribute to that score such as dance arrangements, vocal arrangements, transition music, an overture, that sort of thing. In the end, they have a set of songs and material on piano sheet music. Then I take that piano music and flesh it out for whatever the ensemble is for that project. For a Broadway show, it could anywhere from nine to 19 musicians. On a film it might be 40 to 100 musicians. I’m translating that music into whatever is required for the instrumentation for that project. 

Book Review: Walks with Men

(Borrowed from the NYPL, 40th St.) I took out Ann Beattie's long short story or short novella when I got bored with Peter Bogdanovich's endless interviews with legendary directors. Slightly over 100 small pages, I read it in a few hours. The story concerns writer Jane and her relationships with men--a boyfriend, a husband and her father. The much older husband is a somewhat shadowy figure we don't get to know very well. Also, he treats Jane badly, not telling her he's married when they first get together. She treats him like a mentor, recording some ridiculous life advice he dispenses, like always wear raincoats made in England and when you have wine call it a "drink" or something like that. I guess this is meant to be funny. There are the usual Ann Beattie details which give life to the characters. The father's housemate--are they gay???--is obsessed with I Love Lucy. A neighbor who is gay plays with an Etch-a-Sketch. Beattie does capture the atmosphere of NYC in the 1980s and a young woman dealing with heartbreak and complicated relationships.