B'way Update: Wonderful Live Radio Play

Andrew Rannells will play George Bailey
in It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.

The holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life continues its journey of conquering all media after film and TV with a Broadway version recasting the heartwarming story of George Bailey and his Christmastime redemption as a radio play. It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play will begin a special limited holiday engagement at the Broadhurst Theater on Nov. 4 with an opening set for Nov. 18, running through Jan. 3, 2027. Tony winner Jerry Zaks will direct the adaptation by Joe Landry, based on the story "The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern which served as the basis of the beloved Frank Capra film (Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Capra and Jo Swerling). 

The cast will be headlined by Andrew Rannells (Book of Mormon) as George Bailey, Megan Hilty (Death Becomes Her, Smash) as Mary Bailey, Titus Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as the Angel Clarence, Harry Hamill (LA Law) as Mr. Potter and others, and Lisa Rinna (Days of Our Lives) as Violet and others. 

The production which was first presented professionally at the Stamford Connecticut Center for the Arts in 1996, takes place in a 1940s radio studio complete with foley sound effects and holiday carols performed during commercial breaks. This adaptation has been subsequently presented on numerous regional stages.

"This story has touched the hearts of millions for generations, and I'm thrilled to now be bringing it to the Broadway stage this holiday season with this sensational cast of musical theater, television, and comedy greats," said director Jerry Zaks. "This production's unique format as a radio play calls back to the charm of a bygone era, while also folding in exciting surprises to thrill modern audiences, making for a memorable and joyful holiday experience for all!"

A scene from one of the many regional
productions of It's a Wonderful Life:
A Live Radio Play (Peterborough Players)

B'way Review: School Girls or, The African Mean Girls Play

Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls or, The African Mean Girls Play is much more than a variation on

Denee Benton, Jordan Rice, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, 
Lucia Aremu, Erin Morton, and
Heather Alicia Simms in School Girls
or The African Mean Girls Play.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Tina Fey’s Mean Girls screenplay and musical adaption. Originally presented Off-Broadway at MCC Theater in 2017 and now in a vibrant, explosively comic Manhattan Theater Club revival on Broadway, Bioh’s clever play employs the basic template of a queen bee making life miserable for her classmates to explore themes of racism, colorism, sexism, and self-destructive behavior. She doesn’t merely transport the nasty power dynamics of Fey’s world and that of Heathers, the similar film comedy now running as a musical Off-Broadway, to an African setting. She gives individual riotous life to each of her characters and full vent to the issues that face them. 

Director Whitney White and a seamless ensemble deliver a rollercoaster of hilarity and pathos on a rollicking 80-minute ride. White’s tight and flavorful staging exhibits exquisite timing so that the laughs and the dramatic blows land solidly and build to a disturbing conclusion.

Denee Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers
in School Girls or The African Mean Girls Play.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Set in a girls’ boarding school in 1986 Ghana and according to a playwright’s note inspired by real events, the plot revolves around the visit of a recruiter for an upcoming beauty contest. Bioh wisely rises the stakes of gaining a spot in a seemingly unimportant event like a pageant and makes the competition revealing of character and motivation. The main conflict is between dominating bully Paulina (enjoyably hissable Denee Benton) and new, friendlier girl from the States Ericka (steely Jasmine Amy Rogers). Their struggles are more than skin deep, literally. The darker-skinned Paulina resents lighter-toned Ericka and applies toxic bleaching creams to “whiten” her complexion with damaging results. Despite her American advantages and wealthy family, we learn by play’s end Ericka is just as vulnerable and needy as Paulina. Benton and Rogers are equally versatile in conveying the shattered, vulnerable interiors of these seemingly combative social warriors. 

B'way Update: Damn Yankees

Austin Scott, Julianne Hough and
Neil Patrick Harris will headline a 
new production of Damn Yankees.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

The new revival of Damn Yankees announced its lead cast, theater and dates at a press conference at Yankees Stadium. Major League Baseball and its production label MLB Studio will serve as co-producers of the baseball-themed 1955 musical. Tony and Emmy winner Neil Patrick Harris will star as Applegate, the incarnation of the devil who tempts a middle-aged baseball fan into becomes a youthful hitter in return for his soul. Julianne Hough of Dancing with the Stars plays Lola, his seductive accomplice and Austin Scott (Hamilton) will play Young Joe, Applegate's target. Previews begin March 24, 2027 at the Marquis Theater prior to an April 20 opening.

Tony winner Sergio Trujillo (Ain't Too Proud) directs and choreographs. The setting will be updated to the early 2000s with an adapted book by Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife) and Will Power. Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime) writes additional lyrics. The original 1955 production was directed by George Abbott with choreography by Bob Fosse. Abbott co-wrote the book with Douglass Wallop based on the latter's novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Richard Adler and Jerry Ross wrote the score. A 1995 revival with Victor Garber and Bebe Neuwirth also featured book revisions and played the Marquis.

This revised edition previously appeared at Washington DC's Arena Stage.

Off-B'way Review: The Invention of Love

David Greenspan and Annabel Capper
in The Invention of Love.
Credit: Paul Lutvak

Tom Stoppard’s dense literary masterpiece The Invention of Love receives a thoughtful, moving production at the tiny space at Theaterlab, highlighted by luminous performances by eight-time Obie winner David Greenspan as the poet-scholar A.E. Housman, Yaron Lotan as his younger self, and an insightful ensemble cast. The play is a challenging three-hour examination of Housman’s life as a brilliant student of Latin and Greek at Oxford followed by his career as a writer and professor, and his unrequited, gay passion for classmate Moses Jackson. Stoppard also traces attitudes towards homosexuality in British society in the same period (the 1880s-90s) as the government passes anti-sodomy laws and Oscar Wilde rises and falls as a symbol of aesthetic art and then decadence. The dazzling Stoppard frames the narrative with the just-deceased Housman's crossing into the underworld on the river Styx guided by the grumpy mythical ferryman Charon. Figures from the poet’s past appear and debate each other on the beauty of classical literature, male love, and who created the first love poem (hence the title).

Stoppard had been criticized for writing heady intellectual theatrical head-scratchers (to some), such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, and Jumpers—wordy plays that mined heady academic and historical themes—while failing to create emotionally-motivated characters. He finally broke through with The Real Thing in 1984, balancing witty wordplay with a heartbreaking love story between a playwright and an actress. Here he manages to perform a similar balancing act, illuminating Housman’s passion for the works of antiquity while delineating his forbidden love and the society that forces him to repress it. 

Book Review: Civilwarland in Bad Decline

(Taken out of the 40th Street NYPL): I almost didn't finish this one, which is rare for me, especially for a book this short (just under 200 pages.) I enjoyed George Saunders' recent best-seller Lincoln in the Bardo. Also I kept hearing he was the greatest thing since sliced bread--or Kurt Vonnegut. Critics were dubbing him another Mark Twain. But these stories in his first published collection did not appeal to me. The title story which opens the book was gripping and funny. A sad-sack middle manager of a failing historical theme park bemoans his sorry fate and consorts with a family of ghosts. It was darkly funny. But then every story that followed was EXACTLY the same. Some pitiful wretch is stuck in a bizarre setting (usually a theme park), whines about how awful his or her life is, commits a mistake that makes things even worse and either dies or goes to jail. The final novella, Bounty, is a Candide-like voyage tale set in a dystopian future where those born with genetic mutations (called Flaweds) are oppressed into slavery by the Normals. The hero escapes from his prison to seek out his sister and encounters endless misery. What fun! 

The 2012 edition is fleshed out with an introduction and an author's afterward to fill out 198 pages. I liked the afterword better than the stories. Saunders describes his early years struggling to fulfill his dreams of being a writer while working as at a boring job as a technical writer in Rochester, NY. His description of the reality was more compelling than his repetitive, depressing fantasies.

B'way Update: Blue Man Group; Encores News

Blue Man Group will make its Broadway debut
this holiday season.

Blue Man Group, the three-person performance troupe which had one of the longest runs in Off-Broadway history, will be making their Broadway debut with A New Holiday Surprise at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. The limited holiday-season engagement will begin previews Nov. 12 with an opening set for Nov. 17 and play through Jan. 3, 2027. The group's run at the Astor Place Theater ended on Feb. 2, 2025 after three decades and more than 17,000 performances. The brainchild of three friends, Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton, Blue Man Group had the bald, blue-faced trio pounding drums full of paint, oozing Twinkies from their chests and performing other various oddities. During the course of the run, several actors took over the roles and the franchise expanded to Orlando and Las Vegas. 

"This production marks two exciting milestones: Blue Man Group's first-ever holiday production as well as its Broadway debut," said Marie-Josée Adam, President and CEO of Blue Man Group. "This is exactly how we envisioned the iconic trio would re-enter the New York marketplace: with a brand-new show packed with holiday fun, unexpected surprises, and a few twists that only Blue Man could pull off. We can't wait to welcome a whole new generation of families into the Blue Man world for an unforgettable and wonderfully unpredictable holiday experience."

The show will tour to Chicago and Boston and other cities to be announced.

In other news, Encores has announced the complete cast for its concert staging of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. SNL veteran Rachel Dratch (The Rocky Horror Show and those homeowner insurance commercials) will play Patty (not Peppermint Patty) and Emmy winner Jeff Hiller (HBO's Somebody Somewhere) will play Schroeder. They will join previously announced David Hyde-Pierce as Charlie Brown, Danielle Brooks as Lucy, Jin Ha as Linus, and Ayo Edebiri as Snoopy. Sam Pinkleton (Oh Mary!) directs. This indicates they will be using the original script by Clark Gesner and not the one for the 1999 Broadway revival which replaced Patty with Charlie Brown's little sister Sally (played by Kristin Chenoweth who won a Tony for the role.) Charlie Brown will play Feb. 3-14 at City Center.

In addition, Encores' previously announced production of Hallelujah, Baby! will be replaced by a new staging of Let 'Em Eat Cake, the 1933 sequel to Of Thee I Sing. Hallelujah has been postponed for further development--probably meaning updating the book for this 1967 tuner on race in America. Cake (March 17--28) should be interesting. It's a satiric political fantasy depicting a sitting President disputing his loss for re-election and mounting a revolution to regain power. Sound familiar? This sequel by the Gershwins, George S. Kaufman and Morris Ryskind takes a darker tone than its predecessor Of Thee I Sing and only ran 90 performances.

Off-B'way Review: Pre-Existing Condition; In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Lupita Nyong'o in Pre-Existing Condition.
Credit: Jessica Kourkounis

Marin Ireland is one of our most versatile and talented actresses, usually turning up as conflicted and struggling mothers, daughters, wives, or girlfriends in perceptive, searing Off-Broadway plays. With her play Pre-Existing Condition, now at the Greenwich House Theater after an engagement at the tiny Connelly Center last season, she joins the ranks of promising playwrights. In 80 shattering minutes, she documents the wrenching experience of an unnamed woman A, vainly attempting to come to terms with exiting a toxic relationship after her ex assaulted her. The protagonist turns to the law, counseling, therapy, friends, and new relationships, but none offers her resolution or closure. “I don’t know what I want,” she cries more than once. Often she tells whoever will listen (except her distant mother whom she can’t bring herself to tell about the violence she has endured) she just wants the feeling of powerlessness and victimization to go away. But there is no resolution other than the slow process of unpacking her emotions and facing them. 

Ireland painstakingly documents A’s journey through rage, self-blame, and guilt through a

Lupita Nyong'o and Jeff Keller in
Pre-Existing Condition.
Credit: Jessica Kourkounis

series of short, fragmented scenes that flow smoothly thanks to Maria Dizzia’s subtle, graceful staging and Isabella Byrd’s sensitive lighting. The entire play takes place on Cate McCrea’s bare set which resembles a nondescript, support-group meeting room. The play opens with A leaving numerous voicemail messages for a lawyer. He finally returns her calls and informs her there is little legal recourse for her situation since there were no outside witnesses, the police weren’t called, and the laws are antiquated. From there A tentatively embarks on dating, attends individual and group therapy sessions and meets with a friend offering an apology from the former boyfriend. 

In an interesting casting choice, the lead role will be played by a series of different performers during the show’s limited engagement. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o opens the run and delivers a complex, deeply-felt performance as A. She charts the main character’s circuitous path from numbness to rage to hard-won reflection. She  bubbles with anger, flirts with humor, and hards back tears. She jiggles her leg nervously in one scene, giggles with suppressed anxiety during a first, tentative date in the next. A bravura range of reactions to a ruptured romance. (Philipa Soo, Edie Falco, Hari Nef, and Susanna Flood will follow.)