B'way Update: Parsons and Spinella in 'Autumn'

Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella in The Velocity of Autumn at Arena Stage
Credit: Teresa Wood

The long-delayed production of The Velocity of Autumn is finally coming to Broadway. The two-character play by Eric Coble about an elderly woman threatening to blow up her Brooklyn brownstone if she can't stay there, has been on the "upcoming" list for what seems like decades now. Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella will repeat their performances from the original Arena Stage, Washington DC production when the show begins previews at the Booth Theater (currently home to The Glass Menagerie) on April 1 in advance of an April 21 opening. Spinella plays her son who tries to negotiate with her not to light the match. BTW, Spinella will be appearing the CSC production of Brecht's A Man's a Man opening Jan. 30 for a limited run through Feb. 16. Parsons leaps to the head of the list of frontrunners for the Best Actress in a Play Tony since she is 86 and has never won one before, though she's been nominated four times (The Seven Descents of Myrtle, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Miss Margarida's Way, Morning's at Seven.) Her biggest competition are two other "mothers": Tyne Daly in Mothers and Sons and Diahann Carroll in A Raisin in the Sun.That means the only announced Broadway show without a theater is The Realistic Joneses which will probably go into the Cort once Waiting for Godot/No Man's Land ends its limited run. So I updated the my Broadway/Off-Broadway calendar and added a few new shows:


Jan. 12—Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Stephen Sondheim)
Jan. 16--Machinal (American Airlines/Roundabout)
Jan. 29--Intimacy (New Group/Acorn)
Jan. 23--Outside Mullingar (Samuel Friedman/MTC)
Jan. 30--A Man's a Man (CSC)
Jan.-Feb.--King Lear (Frank Langella/BAM)
Feb. 9--The Tribute Artist (59E59/Primary Stages)
Feb. 6--Bronx Bombers (Circle in the Square)
Feb. 13--Dinner with Friends (Laura Pels/Roundabout)
Feb. 20--The Bridges of Madison County (Gerald Schoenfeld)
Feb. 24--Kung Fu (Signature Theatre)
Feb-March--Antony and Cleopatra (Public Theater)
Feb-March--Love and Information (NYTW/Minetta Lane)
Feb-March-A Doll's House (Young Vic/BAM)
March 2--Arlington (Vineyard Theater)
March 2—Stage Kiss (Playwrights Horizons)

March 3--The Happiest Songs Play Last (Second Stage)
March 6--All the Way (Neil Simon)
March 13--Rocky (Palace)

March 18—Tales from Red Vienna (MTC/City Center Stage I)
March 20--Aladdin (New Amsterdam)
March 23--Les Miserables (Imperial)
March 24--Mothers and Sons (Golden)
March 27--If/Then (Richard Rodgers)
March--The Realistic Joneses (Theatre/Dates TBA)
March--Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, 3) (Public Theater)
March-April--A Second Chance (Public Theater)

April 3—A Raisin in the Sun (Barrymore)
April 8--The Threepenny Opera (Atlantic Theatre Company)
April 10--Bullets Over Broadway (St. James)
April 16--Of Mice and Men (Longacre)
April 17--Act One (Vivian Beaumont)

April 20--Violet (American Airlines/Roundabout)
April 21--The Velocity of Autumn (Booth)
April 21—Your Mother’s Copy of the Kuma Sutra (PH/Peter Sharp)
April 22--Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Belasco)
April 23--Casa Valentia (Friedman/MTC)
April 24--Cabaret (Studio 54/Roundabout)
April--Annapurna (New Group/Acorn)

May 5—The City of Conversation (Mitzi Newhouse/Lincoln Center)
Spring--Holler If Ya Hear Me (Theater TBA)
June 8--Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall)

June 9—Fly By Night (Playwrights Horizons)

June 17—When We Were Young and Unafraid (MTC/City Center Stage I)
June--Macbeth (Kenneth Branagh) (Park Ave. Armory)

2014 (Sometime)—Dames at Sea, The Last Ship, Liberace Musical
2015-16--Houdini

This brings the total of Broadway shows for 2013-14 to 41. Here's a rundown:

Plays

Act One

All the Way
Bronx Bombers

Casa Valentina

Mothers and Sons

Outside Mullingar

The Realistic Joneses

The Snow Geese

A Time to Kill

The Velocity of Autumn

Musicals

After Midnight

Aladdin

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Big Fish

The Bridges of Madison County

Bullets Over Broadway

First Date

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Let It Be

If/Then

A Night with Janis Joplin

Rocky

Soul Doctor

Play Revivals

700 Sundays

Betrayal

The Glass Menagerie

Macbeth

Machinal

No Man’s Land

A Raisin in the Sun

Richard III

Romeo and Juliet

Twelfth Night

Waiting for Godot

The Winslow Boy

Musical Revivals

Cabaret

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Les Miserables

Violet

Specialties

Forever Tango

Il Divo