B'way Update: Holiday Shuffle

As the holidays loom, Broadway vultures are circling ailing shows in the hopes of plucking up the theaters they vacate. No sooner does Pippin announce it's throwing in the towel on Jan. 4 than The Heidi Chronicles dives in and snaps up its home the Music Box. Right now the only unclaimed house is the Jacobs which will be vacant

Will It's Only a Play move to the Jacobs?

when Once shutters on the same day as Pippin. But instead of a new show opening there, the word on the street is that the fabulously hot It's Only a Play will move there from the Schoenfeld which is promised to The Audience with Helen Mirren. Nathan Lane, the star of It's Only a Play and the best thing about it, is committed to play The Iceman Cometh at BAM, so rumors are flying that he will be replaced by Martin Short whose memoir I Must Say has just been released. There is speculation that The Last Ship, Sting's debut musical which received mixed notices, might not survive till New Year's and hovering over the desirable Neil Simon are The Visit, the musical version of the Durrenmatt play which has been on the regional circuit for decades, The Band Wagon, the stage version of the classic MGM movie playing at Encores this weekend, and Amazing Grace, a show telling the story behind the well-known spiritual, recently in Chicago. There's also The First Wives Club, also playing in Chicago in March, but it probably won't be ready for this season

Also in the news: The Edison Cafe is closing. This is one of the last vestiges of the old Broadway where you could get an inexpensive meal and rub elbows with the likes of Neil Simon and August Wilson...The Temptations and the Four Tops will play a brief engagement at the Palace during the week between Christmas and New Years.    

Updated rundown:
Nov. 6--Sticks and Bones (New Group at Signature Center)

Nov. 11--Lost Lake (City Center/MTC)

Nov. 16--The River (Circle in the Square) 

Nov. 16--Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature)
Nov. 17--Side Show (St. James)
Nov. 18--By the Water (MTC/City Center Stage II)
Nov. 19--Allegro (CSC)

Nov. 20--A Delicate Balance (Golden)
Nov. 23--A Particle of Dread (Signature) 

November--Straight White Males (Public); Pocatello (PH); Punk Rock (MCC/Lortel)
Dec. 4--The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible (Marquis)
Dec. 7--The Elephant Man (Booth)
Dec. 8--The Invisible Hand (NYTW)
Dec. 29--The Temptations and the Four Tops (Palace)
2015 (Sometime)--Dames at Sea, Liberace Musical, The Color Purple, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Jan. 13--Constellations (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
Jan. 15--Honeymoon in Vegas (Nederlander)
Jan. 22--Into the Woods (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
Jan. 2015--Hamlet (CSC); Hamilton (Public)

Feb. 23--Big Love (Signature)

Feb. 24--The World of Extreme Happiness (City Center/MTC)

February 2015--Placebo (PH); The Liquid Plan (Signature); The Nether (MCC/Lortel)

March 3--John and Jen (Keene Company)
March 5--Fish in the Dark (Cort)
March 12--On the 20th Century (American Airlines/Roundabout)
March 19--The Heidi Chronicles (Music Box)
March 28--The Audience (Schoenfeld)

March--The Total Bent (Public); Iowa (PH)
April 2--Skylight (Golden)
April 7--Hand to God (Booth)
April 8--Finding Neverland (Lunt-Fontanne)
April 9--Wolf Hall, Parts I and II (Winter Garden)
April 12--An American in Paris (Palace)
April 14--It Shoulda Been You (Brooks Atkinson)

April 15--The King and I (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)
April 21--Doctor Zhivago (Broadway)
April 22--Fun Home (Circle in the Square)
April 23--Airline Highway (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
Spring 2015--Amazing Grace

May 21--The Sound and the Fury (Elevator Repair Service at the Public)
May 2015--Dr. Faustus (CSC); What I Did Last Summer (Signature); Permission (MCC/Lortel)

Oct. 5--On Your Feet (Marquis)
Oct. 29--Therese Racquin (American Airlines/Roundabout) 
Nov. 2015--Fiddler on the Roof
Fall 2015--China Doll, American Psycho
Jan. 14, 2016--Noises Off (Roundabout)

2015-16--Children of a Lesser God, Houdini, Gigi, Night Mother

Future--Bandstand, Disney's Frozen, Soul Train, Pretty Woman, The First Wives Club, Magic Mike, Freaky Friday, King Kong, Miss Saigon, The Visitor 

2014-15 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

Airline Highway

The Audience

Constellations

The Country House

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Disgraced (transfer from off-Broadway)

Fish in the Dark

Hand to God (transfer from off-Broadway)

The River

Wolf Hall, Parts I and II

New Musicals

An American in Paris

Doctor Zhivago

Finding Neverland

Fun Home (transfer from off-Broadway)

Holler If Ya Hear Me

Honeymoon in Vegas

It Shoulda Been You

The Last Ship

Play Revivals

A Delicate Balance

The Elephant Man

The Heidi Chronicles

Love Letters

It’s Only a Play

The Real Thing

Skylight

This Is Our Youth

You Can’t Take It With You

Musical Revivals

The King and I

On the Town

On the Twentieth Century

Side Show

Specialties

The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible

The Temptations and the Four Tops