B'way Update: Tony Aftermath, New Season

Jennifer Hudson at the Tonys:
What is that lady in a silver nightgown doing in our bedroom, boys?

With the Tony Awards handed out, the 2013-14 New York theater season is finally over. There have been a deluge of closings in the wake of that ceremony. Mothers and Sons and After Midnight posted closing notices while big winners All the Way and A Raisin in the Sun will end their limited engagements as scheduled. In a moment worthy of the NBC's crazy Smash, Jennifer Hudson showed up just before the Best Musical category to sing a song from a show she won't be in that hasn't even opened yet (Finding Neverland), dressed totally out of sync with the other characters, all because producer Harvey Weinstein didn't want Sting to be the only one to tout an upcoming production. BTW, next year, I guarantee the Best Score category will be given out on the air because the aforementioned multiple Grammy winner will be a nominee for his The Last Ship (another BTW, did they know that show would have the same title as a sci-fi TV series?)

Speaking of dissed categories, for some reason, the Tony Administration Committee has decided to eliminate the Sound Design Award altogether. No reason was given. I've heard rumors that the categories received a lot of blanks on the Tony ballot and the Committee concluded that the electorate doesn't know enough about Sound Design in either a play or a musical to care about voting for it. A similar situation happened with the Drama Desks in 2012 when that group ditched Orchestrations in their list of nominees. Enraged Broadway musicians started an online petition to restore the category and threatened to boycott if their colleagues weren't also honored. It worked and only one or two days later Orchestrations was restored. There is a similar groundswell of support and a petition for the sound designs afoot and I hope the Tony will also correct their mistake. 

Meanwhile, there have been more announcements of new shows for 2014-15 including Constellations starring Jake Gyllenhaal in his Broadway debut and Pulitzer Prize winner Disgraced which played Off-Broadway at LCT's Clara Tow Theater. Here's an updated calendar of the major B'way and Off-B'way openings for 2014-15:

   

June 19--Holler If Ya Hear Me (Palace)

July 30--Sex with Strangers (Second Stage)

Sept. 11--This Is Our Youth (Cort)

Sept. 28--You Can't Take It With You (Longacre) 
Sept. 30--India Ink (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
Sept.--The Fortress of Solitude (Public Theatre)

Oct. 5--The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Barrymore)
Oct. 2—The Country House (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) 

Oct. 9---It's Only a Play (Schoenfeld) 

Oct.16--On the Town (Lyric) 

Oct. 23--Disgraced (Lyceum) 

Oct. 26--The Last Ship (Neil Simon) 

Oct. 30--The Real Thing (American Airlines/Roundabout)

Oct.--Allegro (CSC); Father Comes Home from the Wars (Public); Grand Concourse (PH); Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Second Stage)

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

Nov. 13—The Elephant Man (Booth Theatre) 

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

Nov. 20--A Delicate Balance (Golden)

November--Straight White Males (Public); Pocatello (PH); A Particle of Dread, Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature)
Fall 2014--Honeymoon in Vegas (possibly Brooks Atkinson)

2014 (Sometime)—Dames at Sea, Liberace Musical, The Color Purple 
Jan. 13--Constellations (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
Jan. 15--Into the Woods (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
2015--Winter--On Your Feet

Jan. 2015--Hamlet (CSC); Hamilton (Public)

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

February 2015--Placebo (PH); Big Love, The Liquid Plan (Signature)

March 12--On the 20th Century (American Airlines/Roundabout)

March--The Total Bent (Public); Iowa (PH)

May 2015--Dr. Faustus (CSC); What I Did Last Summer (Signature)

Fall 2015--Fiddler on the Roof

2015-16--Houdini, Night Mother, Noises Off (Roundabout), The King and I (Lincoln Center)

Future--Disney's Frozen, Soul Train, Pretty Woman