B'way Update: 'Network' 'Glengarry' News; Dziemianowicz Out at the Daily News

Bryan Cranston in the London production of Network

The new Broadway season just got more exciting. In addition to Glenda Jackson playing King Lear and Elaine May appearing on a Broadway stage for the first time in 50 years in The Waverly Gallery, Tony-Emmy-Golden Globe winner Bryan Cranston will recreate his Olivier-winning performance as crazed newscaster Howard Beale in a transfer of Ivo van Hove's stage version of the Oscar-winning Network. Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) adapted Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay. Previews begin Nov. 10 at the Cort Theater in advance of a Dec. 6 opening. No announcement if the rest of the cast will be American or British. Michele Dockery (Lady Mary on Downton Abbey) took on the Faye Dunaway role of a ruthless network exec in London. She would certainly qualify as an international star. In one of van Hove's staging coups, audience members were seated on stage enjoying a five course meal prepared in an onstage kitchen. Characters would play scenes amidst the diners. There was nothing in the press release stating if the onstage restaurant would be recreated for the Cort, but the elaborate video design and numerous giant screens and cameras will no doubt make the transatlantic trek. Network was prescient in its vision of a reality-TV-mad society where rage and flash outweighed honest journalism. In the age of Trump, Beale's rants should resonate deeply.

This just in: Tootsie has announced specific dates and a theater: previews begin March 29 at the Marquis and it opens on April 23. Also Amy Morton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Chicago PD) will direct an all-female version of David Mamet's profanity-laden Pulitzer winner Glengarry Glen Ross, set to open on Broadway next May. This should be interesting since all the characters are  testosterone-fueled real estate salespeople and casting them with women will shatter many stereotypes.

Critical Shrinking News
In the latest round of critical bootings, Joe Dziemianowicz was removed from his position as theater critic and reporter for the New York Daily News. He was only part of a massive slaughter at the storied tabloid which cut 50 percent of its already depleted staff. Joe worked at the News for 17 and half years and has served as Vice-President and Treasurer of the New York Drama Critics Circle. It's unclear if the News will continue to bother covering theater at all moving forward. (I called the paper's customer service line, got an actual person, but couldn't get a straight answer.) Since Joe's departure, there have been two Broadway openings--Straight White Men and Head Over Heels. The News did not run reviews of either show on its website's theater page which has not been updated since the firings. Incidentally the New York Post did review Head Over Heels with a negative notice by entertainment reporter Johnny Oleksinski, but didn't bother with Straight White Men even though it features a hot movie star--Armee Hammer.

Okay, the News did update its Theater webpage with one story--reporter Brian Niemietz broke the important news that Julia Roberts attended a preview performance of Pretty Woman. We'll see if Niemietz will actually review the show which opens on Aug. 16. Speaking of which, here's an updated list of Broadway and Off-Broadway openings.

Aug. 13--Getting the Band Back Together (Belasco)

Aug. 16--Pretty Woman (Nederlander)
Sept. 12--Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (MCC/Lortel)
Sept. 20--The True (Signature Theater)
Sept. 24--I Am Most Alive With You (Playwrights Horizons)

Sept. 25--Berndhart/Hamlet (Roundabout/American Airlines)

Sept. 27--The Nap (MTC/Friedman)
Oct. 1--Girl from the North Country (Public)
Oct. 7--Oklahoma! (St. Ann's Warehouse)
Oct. 15--Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company)

Oct. 16--Apologia (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Oct. 18--The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54)
Oct. 18--Gloria: A Life (Daryl Roth)

Oct. 21--The Ferryman (Jacobs)
Oct. 22--Plot Points in Our Sexual Development (LCT/Clare Tow)
Oct. 23--India Pale Ale (MTC/City Center Stage I)

Oct. 25--The Waverly Gallery (Golden)
Oct. 25--The Niceties (MTC/Stage II)

Nov. 1--Torch Song (Second Stage/Hayes)
Nov. 4--American Son (Booth)
Nov. 7--Eve's Song (Public)

Nov. 8--King Kong (Broadway)
Nov. 11--Thom Paine (based on nothing) (Signature Theater)

Nov. 15--The Prom (Longacre)
Nov. 19--The Hard Problem (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Dec. 3--The Cher Show (Neil Simon)
Dec. 6--Network (Cort)

Dec. 13--To Kill a Mockingbird (Shubert)
2019--The Secret Garden, Burn This
Jan. 7--Blue Ridge (Atlantic Theater Company)

Jan. 22--Choir Boy (MTC/Freidman)

Jan. 24--True West (Roundabout/American Airlines)
Feb. 19--Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout/Fiasco/Laura Pels)

March 14--Kiss Me, Kate (Roundabout/Studio 54)
April 11--King Lear (Theater TBA)
April 23--Tootsie (Marquis)

April 24--Ink (MTC/Friedman)
May 2019--Glengarry Glen Ross

Feb. 6, 2020--West Side Story
2020--Michael Jackson Musical

Future--Dave, Death Becomes Her, Hadestown, Moulin Rouge the Musical, Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, The Devil Wears Prada, Jagged Little Pill, Working Girl, Half-Time, Roman Holiday, The Wiz, Camp David, Photograph 51, An Enemy of the People, Sherlock Holmes, Singin' in the Rain, Pat Benatar Musical

2018-19 Broadway Season

New Plays
American Son
Bernhardt/Hamlet
The Ferryman
Ink
The Lifespan of a Fact
The Nap
Network
To Kill a Mockingbird

New Musicals
The Cher Show
Gettin' the Band Back Together
Head Over Heels
Pretty Woman
The Prom
Tootsie

Play Revivals
The Boys in the Band
Choir Boy
King Lear
Straight White Men
Torch Song
True West
The Waverly Gallery

Musical Revivals
Kiss Me, Kate

2019-20 Broadway Season

Play Revivals
Glengarry Glen Ross

Musical Revivals
West Side Story