B'way Update: Fahrenheit 451; More Gilded Age Casting

Julie Christie and Oskar Werner in
Francois Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Ray Bradbury's 1953 science-fiction classic Fahrenheit 451 will be adapted for the Broadway stage by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok (Cost of Living). Bradbury's dystopian novel is set in a near future where firemen set books to blaze rather than rescuing people from flames. There have been two film versions of the novel. Francois Truffaut, in one of his rare English-language movies, adapted the work in 1966 with Oskar Werner, Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack. Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon starred in a 2018 TV version for HBO. This will be the first time a Bradbury work has been seen on Broadway. A program of three one-acts based on his short stories titled The World of Ray Bradbury played Off-Broadway in 1965.

Majok said, "The relevancy of mind domination and the end of the world in our current age needs no words; what struck me most in Fahrenheit 451 was its lens on our loneliness. How our yearning for connection and fear of its absence can be feasted upon. How we long to devote ourselves to something true and lasting in a fracturing society. And the ways we blow up our lives to unearth the truth we've buried – which will shatter us into our most honest selves. As Bradbury writes, 'We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in awhile.'"
 
“It is a privilege and thrill to bring this seminal novel to the stage, with one of our most visceral and acclaimed living writers,” said the producers in a statement. “Mr. Bradbury’s and Ms. Majok’s works both stem from the deeply human and personal, and we’re excited by the significance of this collaboration.”
 
The Bradbury Estate commented that, “We are delighted to bring Fahrenheit 451 to a new audience, with the impact and intimacy that only theater can offer, to be working with producers who care so deeply for the work and with Martyna Majok, a truly great dramatist of enormous intelligence, sensitivity and skill.”

In other news, another group of New York-based theater actors have been announced as cast members for the upcoming third season of HBO's The Gilded Age.  Dylan Baker (Happiness, The Good Wife, Tony nominee for La Bete ), Kate Baldwin (Broadway’s Hello, Dolly!), Michael Cumpsty (42nd Street, Severance), John Ellison Conlee (The Fully Monty, Boardwalk Empire), Bobby Steggert (Yank, Ragtime, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and newcomer Hannah Shealy (The Rose Tattoo) join the cast. 

Dylan Baker

Baker will play Dr. Logan, a family doctor who treats a number of high society families, with Baldwin as Nancy Adams Bell, the older sister of John Adams (Claybourne Elder). (I think this is another fictional Adams.) Cumpsty will portray Lord Mildmay, a British nobleman who comes to dine at Sidmouth Castle, with Conlee as a successful, educated and polished businessman, Weston; Steggert as the famed artist John Singer Sargent, who has just begun his career painting the great ladies of society and Shealy as Charlotte Astor, the married daughter of Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), recently returned from an eventful trip abroad.

2024-25 Broadway/Off-Broadway/Awards Calendar 
Fall 2024
Nov. 7--Walden (Second Stage/Kiser)
Nov. 8--Gatz (Elevator Repair Service/Public)
Nov. 10--We Are Your Robots (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
Nov. 10--Strategic Love Play (Audible/Minetta Lane)
Nov. 11--What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical (Studio 54)
Nov. 12--Maybe Happy Ending (Belasco)

Nov. 12--300 Paintings (Vineyard)

Nov. 14--Tammy Faye (Palace)

Nov. 14--King Lear (Kenneth Branagh Theater Company/The Shed)

Nov. 17--Elf the Musical (Marquis)

Nov. 18--Shit. Meet. Fan. (MCC Theater)

Nov. 19--Swept Away (Longacre)

Nov. 20--Babe (New Group/Signature Theater Center)

Nov. 21--Death Becomes Her (Lunt-Fontanne)

Nov. 21--The Blood Quilt (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Nov. 25--The Merchant of Venice (CSC/Arlekin Players) 

Nov. 26--The Dead, 1904 (IRT/American Irish Historical Society)

This Is My Favorite Song (Playwrights Horizons)

Winter 2024-25

Dec. 4--Annie (Theater at Madison Square Garden) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Dec. 11--All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich (Hudson) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Dec. 12--Cult of Love (Second Stage/Hayes)

Dec. 16--Eureka Day (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) 

Dec. 19--Gypsy (Majestic)

Jan. 20--The Antiquities (Playwrights Horizons/Vineyard Theater)

Jan. 23--English (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Jan. 25--Henry IV (TFANA/Polonsky Theater Center)

Feb. 13--Redwood (Nederlander)

Feb. 20--Liberation (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Curse of the Starving Class (New Group/Signature Center)

Dakar 2000 (MTC/City Center Stage I)

A Knock on the Roof (NYTW)

Sumo (Ma-Yi Theater/Public)

2024-25

My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?)

Romeo and Juliet w.Tom Holland/Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (?)

Spring 2025

March 10--Ghosts (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

March 18--Vanya (Lucille Lortel)

March 19--Buena Vista Social Club (Schoenfeld)

March 19--We Had a World (MTC/City Center Stage II)

March 20--Operation Mincemeat (Golden)

March 23--Othello (Barrymore)

March 24--Wine in the Wilderness (CSC)

March 27--The Picture of Dorian Gray (Music Box)

March 30--The Swamp Dwellers (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)

Mid-March--Purpose (Hayes)

April 3--Good Night and Good Luck (Winter Garden)

April 5--BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical (Broadhurst)

April 6--The Last Five Years (Hudson)

April 8--Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

April 10--Smash (Imperial)

April 14--John Proctor Is the Villain (Booth)

April 17--Bowl EP (Vineyard Theater/National Black Theater)

April 21--Floyd Collins (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

April 22--Stranger Things: The First Shadow (Marquis)

April 23--Just in Time (Circle in the Square)

April 24--The Pirates of Penzance (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

April 27--Real Women Have Curves (James Earl Jones)

April 28--Outer Critics Circle nominations announced

May 1--Tony Nominations announced

May 12--Outer Critics Circle Award winners announced

May 20--Goddess (Public Theater)

May 22--Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony

May--Bus Stop (CSC/NAATCO/Transport Group)

June 2--Theater World Awards (Theater TBA)

June 8--Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall)

Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. (Public)

Glengarry Glen Ross

Hold Me in the Water (Playwrights Horizons)

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (New Group/Signature Center)

Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole (NYTW)

Lunar Eclipse (Second Stage/Kiser)

Show Boat (Target Margin/NYU Skirball)

2025

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Sugar Daddy

Summer 2025

Twelfth Night (Public Theater/Delacorte)

2025-26

The Queen of Versailles

Fall 2025

Initiative (Public)

The Seat of Our Pants (Public)

Waiting for Godot

2026

Hello, I'm Dolly

Future--Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beaches the Musical; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Fahrenheit 451; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; The Interestings; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Pal Joey; Particle Fever; Purple Rain; The Queen's Gambit; Rear Window; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Soul Train; Studio 54; Working Girl.

2024-25 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich

Cult of Love

Good Night and Good Luck

The Hills of California

Job 

John Proctor Is the Villain

Left on Tenth

MCNEAL

Oh, Mary!

Purpose

The Roommate

Stranger Things: The First Shadow

New Musicals

Boop! The Betty Boop Musical

Buena Vista Social Club

Death Becomes Her

Just in Time

Maybe Happy Ending

Operation Mincemeat

Real Women Have Curves

Redwood

Smash

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends

Swept Away

Tammy Faye

What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical

Play Revivals

English

Eureka Day

Glengarry Glen Ross

Home

Othello

Our Town

Romeo and Juliet

Yellow Face

Musical Revivals

Elf the Musical

Floyd Collins

Gypsy

The Last Five Years

Once Upon a Mattress

The Pirates of Penzance

Sunset Boulevard

Solos/Specialties

The Picture of Dorian Gray