'Crucible' and 'Father' Join Broadway Spring Roster

Frank Langella will star in a play called
 The Father for the second time

Of course as soon as I post a Broadway/Off-Broadway calendar, two new shows announce openings in the spring--The Father with Frank Langella and the sixth Broadway production of The Crucible. The Father is not to be confused with the play of the same name by August Strindberg which also starred Langella in 1996. This one is a new play by French playwright Florian Zeller about a man suffering from dementia. It will be part of Manhattan Theater Club's season at the Friedman previewing March 22 and opening April 12. Arthur Miller's The Crucible previews Feb. 29 and opens on April 12 at a theater to be announced. Ben Whislaw plays John Proctor, Tony winner Sophie Okonedo will be his wife Elizabeth, and Ciarin Hinds is Deputy Governor Danforth. (I played Reverend Parris in college.) Ivo van Hove is directing so it will probably be set inside a wind tunnel or something with everyone dressed as mummies. Van Hove is one weird-ass director. I still remember his Streetcar Named Desire at New York Theatre Workshop where Elizabeth Marvel as Blanche DuBois dove into a bathtub fully clothed and emerged dripping wet and covered with suds, then went right back into the scene without a pause. It was like a Carol Burnett Show parody of an avant-garde production. (His Scenes from a Marriage was brilliant I will admit.) But van Hove's A View from the Bridge is also opening on Broadway this season and received raves during its London run. With the two Miller plays, Long Day's Journey, Fiddler on the Roof, and Color Purple, the season is like a retread of old times--which is also being done, the Harold Pinter play I mean. Broadway is becoming like a college course in Dramatic Literature with very little new work on display. Here's the updated calendar:


Aug. 6--Hamilton (Richard Rodgers)
Aug. 10--Cymbeline (Shakespeare in the Park/Delacorte)
Aug. 11--John (Signature)
Aug. 18--Informed Consent (Primary Stages/Duke on 42nd St.)
Aug. 19--Mercury Fur (New Group/Signature Thr.) 
Aug. 24--Love and Money (Signature)
Aug. 27--A Delicate Ship (Playwrights Realm at Playwrights Horizons)
Aug. 27--Whorl Inside a Loop (Second Stage)
August--Greek Festival (CSC)
Sept. 9--The Legend of Georgia McBride (MCC/Lortel)
Sept. 12--Isolde (TFANA)
Sept. 17--The Christians (Playwrights Horizons)
Sept. 27--Spring Awakening (Brooks Atkinson)
Sept. 27--Daddy Long Legs (Davenport)
Oct. 8--Fool for Love (Friedman/MTC)
Oct. 8--Barbecue (Public)
Oct. 13--The Gin Game (Golden)
Oct. 14--Clever Little Lies (Westside)
Oct. 14--Eclipsed (Public)

Oct. 15--Old Times (Roundabout)
Oct. 15--Perfect Arrangement (Primary Stages/Duke at 42nd St.)
Oct. 15--Travels with My Aunt (Keene Company/Clurman)
Oct. 20--Ripcord (MTC/City Center Stage I)
Oct. 20--First Daughter Suite (Public)
Oct. 22--Dames at Sea (Helen Hayes)
Oct. 25--The Humans (Laura Pels/Roundabout)

Oct. 25--Cloud Nine (Atlantic)

Oct. 27--Sylvia (Cort)
Oct. 29--Therese Racquin (American Airlines/Roundabout)
October--Hir (Playwright Horizons)
Nov. 1--King Charles III (Music Box)
Nov. 5--On Your Feet (Marquis)
Nov. 8--Allegiance (Longacre)
Nov. 9--Dada Woof Papa Hot (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Nov. 12--A View from the Bridge (Lyceum)
Nov. 15--Misery (Broadhurst)
Nov. 19--China Doll (Gerald Schoenfeld)
Nov. 19--The Illusionists: Live on Broadway (Neil Simon)
Nov. 19--Steve (New Group/Signature)
Nov. 23--Important Hats of the 20th Century (MTC/City Center Stage II)

November--Incident at Vichy, Night Is a Room (Signature), Henry IV (St. Ann's Warehouse); Marjorie Prime (Playwrights Horizons)Dec. 2--Invisible Thread (Second Stage)
Dec. 3--The Color Purple (Bernard Jacobs)
Dec. 3--Gigantic (Vineyard)
Dec. 6--School of Rock (Winter Garden)
Dec. 7--Lazarus (NYTW)
Dec. 10--The Color Purple (Jacobs)
Dec. 17--Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway)
December--These Paper Bullets (Atlantic); Mother Courage and Her Children (CSC)
Jan. 14, 2016--Noises Off (Roundabout)
Jan. 20--Our Mother's Brief Affair (Friedman/MTC)
January--Dot (Vineyard); Smart People (Second Stage)

2015-16--Children of a Lesser God, Houdini, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Gotta Dance, Bright Star
Feb. 9--Prodigal Son (MTC/City Center Stage I)
February--Angel Reapers (Signature); Buried Child (New Group/Signature); Pericles (TFANA); Familiar (Playwrights Horizons)
March 3--She Loves Me (Roundabout/Studio 54)
March 21--American Psycho (Shubert theater TBA)

March--Nathan the Wise (CSC); Dry Powder, Head of Passes (Public); Antilla Pneumatica (Playwrights Horizons)
April 7--The Crucible (Theater TBA)

April 12--The Father (MTC/Friedman)

April 17--Tuck Everlasting (Broadhurst)
April 19--Long Day's Journey Into Night (Roundabout/American Airlines)
April 21--Shuffle Along (Music Box)
May--The Total Bent (Public); Peer Gynt (CSC); Indian Summer (Playwrights Horizons)
Spring 2016--Falsettos, Waitress
2016-17--The Wiz, Camp David
March 9, 2017--Groundhog Day
2017--Sherlock Holmes

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

2015-16 Broadway Season

New Plays
China Doll

The FatherKing Charles III
Misery
Our Mother's Brief Affair
Therese Racquin

New Musicals
Allegiance

Amazing Grace

American Psycho

Hamilton (transfer from Off-Broadway)

On Your Feet

School of Rock

Shuffle Along

Tuck Everlasting

Play Revivals
The Crucible
The Gin Game
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Noises Off
Old Times
Sylvia
A View from the Bridge

Musical Revivals
The Color Purple
Dames at Sea
Fiddler on the Roof
She Loves Me

Special Attractions
The Illusionists: Live on Broadway
Penn and Teller