Cumming in Macbeth: Broadway Season Just Got Interesting

Things just got interesting on Broadway. I had previously posted 2012-13 was an exceptionally busy but dull season. Now the situation is spicing up, not only is Christopher Durang's wild comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike moving from Off-Broadway to Broadway, Alan Cumming's acclaimed one-person interpretation of Macbeth will be playing a limited engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre with previews starting April 7, opening April 21. In this bizarre rendering of Shakespeare's tragedy which has played the Lincoln Center Festival and the National Theatre of Scotland, Cumming is the sole patient in a mental institute acting out all the roles in the story of the Thane of Cawdor's bloodthirsty rise.Macbeth is popular these days with Sleep No More Off-Bway and a segment devoted to the play on PBS's Shakespeare Uncovered hosted by Ethan Hawke.

This spices up the solo category for the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards with Bette Midler, Holland Taylor, Fiona Shaw, and now Cumming in the running (the Tonys don't have a separate solo actor category so it will be interesting to see who among the one-person people will get nominations for Best Actor or Actress).


Sonia and Vanya is now the front runner for the Best Play Tony. The Other Place is more of a showcase for Laurie Metcalf. Grace, Dead Accounts and The Anarchist are all forgotten. But there are several upcoming candidates including The Assembled Parties, Lucky Guy, The Nance and The Velocity of Autum if it ever finds a theater. With Miss Firecracker, Velocity is only one or two shows to land. Here's an updated rundown:

NEW PLAYS
Ann
The Anarchist
The Assembled Parties
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Dead Accounts
Grace
I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers
Lucky Guy
The Nance
The Other Place (previously produced Off-Broadway)
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (transfer from Off-Broadway)
The Velocity of Autumn (theatre and dates TBA)

NEW MUSICALS
Bring It On
Chaplin
A Christmas Story
Hands on a Hard Body
Kinky Boots
Matilda
Motown the Musical
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella
Scandalous: The Life and Times of Aimee Semple MacPherson

PLAY REVIVALS
The Big Knife
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cyrano de Bergerac
An Enemy of the People
Glengarry Glen Ross
Golden Boy
Harvey
The Heiress
Macbeth
The Miss Firecracker Contest (theater and dates TBA)
Orphans
The Trip to Bountiful
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

MUSICAL REVIVALS
Annie
Fela!
Elf the Musical
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Pippin
Pump Boys and Dinettes

SPECIALTIES
Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons on Broadway
Lewis Black: Running on Empty
Manilow on Broadway
Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth