Broadway Update: Lane and Martin to Star in Mac's Gary and Network Moves

Andrea Martin and Nathan Lane

The weirdest press release of the year just came into my mailbox. At first I thought it was a joke. Tony winners Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin will be starring in a new comedy called Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus by Obie-winning performer-playwright Taylor Mac. Weird title, huh? But it's legit. The show will be directed by another multiple Tony winner George C. Wolfe and begin previews at the Booth Theatre on March 5 with an opening set for April 11. (The Booth will play host to American Son with Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale in a limited run in the fall. Also, Glenda Jackson's King Lear has announced an April 11 opening but no theater. So somebody will have to change their dates.)


Mac won a special NY Drama Critics Circle Award and was a Pulitzer finalist for his 24-Decade History of American Popular Music and an Obie for The Lily's Revenge. His play Hir played Playwrights Horizons and was a funny, jagged take-off on traditional family dysfunction works like The Glass Menagerie and Death of a Salesman with the characters experimenting with sex and gender roles. Gary takes place during the fall of the Roman Empire after Shakespeare's tragedy with Lane and Martin as servants cleaning up the bloody mess. What's really exciting about this show are the rare combinations. Mac, a darling of the avant-garde, making his debut on commercial Broadway, and comic legends Lane and Martin working together, plus the always imaginative Wolfe directing.

In other news, Network has moved from the Cort to the Belasco, probably because Gettin' the Band Back Together has closed earlier than expected at the latter theater. In addition to Bryan Cranston repeating his Olivier winning performance as Howard Beale, Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black will make her Broadway debut in the Faye Dunaway role of Diane Christensen, the cold-blooded TV executive. When he last appeared on Broadway as Lyndon Baines Johnson in All the Way, Cranston remarked during one of his many award acceptance speeches--I think it was the Outer Critics Circle--that people kept asking him if he wanted to do another Broadway show. "I feel like I just had a baby and everyone's asking 'Do you want to have another one?'" I guess he's ready to go through the pangs of childbirth again.

Here's an updated list of Broadway and major Off-Broadway openings:
Sept. 12--Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (MCC/Lortel)
Sept. 16--The Emperor (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
Sept. 20--The True (The New Group/Signature Theater)
Sept. 24--I Am Most Alive With You (Playwrights Horizons)

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

Sept. 27--The Nap (MTC/Friedman)
Oct. 1--Girl from the North Country (Public)
Oct. 1--What the Constitution Means to Me (NYTW)
Oct. 7--Oklahoma! (St. Ann's Warehouse)
Oct. 8--Popcorn Falls (Davenport)
Oct. 15--Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company)

Oct. 16--Apologia (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
Oct. 17--Mother of the Maid (Public/Anspacher)

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)
Oct. 30--Days of Rage (Second Stage)
Oct. 30--Good Grief (Vineyard)

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. 14--Wild Goose Dreams (Public/Martinson)

Nov. 15--The Prom (Longacre)
Nov. 19--The Hard Problem (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Nov. 23--The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays (Marquis)

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

Dec. 13--To Kill a Mockingbird (Shubert)
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)

Spring 2019--Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial)
March 6--Burn This (Hudson)
March 10--Be More Chill (Lyceum)
March 14--Kiss Me, Kate (Roundabout/Studio 54)
April 11--King Lear (Theater TBA)
April 11--Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Booth)
April 23--Tootsie (Marquis)

April 24--Ink (MTC/Friedman)
April 2019--Beetlejuice (Winter Garden)
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, Mrs. Doubtfire, 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
Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
Ink
The Lifespan of a Fact
The Nap
Network
To Kill a Mockingbird

New Musicals
Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations
Be More Chill
Beetlejuice
The Cher Show
Gettin' the Band Back Together
Head Over Heels
Pretty Woman
The Prom
Tootsie

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

Musical Revivals
Kiss Me, Kate

Special Attractions
The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays

2019-20 Broadway Season

Play Revivals
Glengarry Glen Ross

Musical Revivals
West Side Story