Broadway Update: Piano Lesson, Cost of Living

It looks like Into the Woods WILL stay at the St. James and Piano Lesson will open at the Ethel

Denzel Washington and
LaTanya Richardson Jackson in
A Raisin in the Sun
at the Barrymore.
Credit: Brigitte Lacombe

Barrymore rather than the previously announced St. James. Greg Evans of Deadline reports (as of 5:00 am this morning, July 26) the transfer of theaters. In an interview with Piano Lesson director LaTanya Richardson Jackson, the website confirms the August Wilson Pulitzer Prize-winning revival will begin preview performances at the new venue on Sept. 19 with no opening date announced as of yet. (The Piano Lesson website now lists the Barrymore as the show's home.) Woods producers have not confirmed if their smash-hit Sondheim-Lapine revival will be extending. 

Richardson Jackson will be making her Broadway directorial debut and is the first woman to stage a Wilson play on Broadway. She will be directing her husband Samuel L. Jackson as well as John David Washington and Danielle Brooks. The Barrymore is the site of her Tony-nominated performance as Lena Younger in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun (opposite Denzel Washington, John David's father.) She also acted in a Broadway revival of Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. In another example of such theatrical serendipity, the Barrymore was the home for original productions of both Raisin (1959) and Joe Turner (1988).

“When I came on board and all of this first came together,” Richardson Jackson told Deadline, “my dream was The Barrymore. I’m a novice – first time directing on Broadway – and I thought you just chose the theater you want and you got it, and so I was like, I want the Barrymore. They said, well, you gotta wait to see if you can get the Barrymore. So  we went to  look at other theaters to see what was available…and we had to adjust to a different theater that was huge. But I am so excited about now being in that Barrymore because it’s the theater of my heart.”

Producer Brian Anthony Moreland commented in a statement, "We are thrilled to have secured this iconic playhouse, which happened to have been one of August Wilson's favorite theaters. The legacy of the Barrymore makes it the ideal space to experience a play all about how we shepherd and look after our ancestral legacies."

In other Broadway news, another Pulitzer Prize winning play has announced dates and further casting. Martyna Majok's Cost of Living will begin previews on Sept. 12 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater as part of Manhattan Theater Club's 2022-23 Broadway season with an Oct. 2 opening date (October is beginning to look pretty crowded with five B'way openings and probably a sixth with Piano Lesson.) Tony nominee Kara Young (Clyde's) and David Zayas (Dexter on Showtime) will join Gregg Mozgala (just completed Richard III in Central Park) and Katy Sullivan from the original 2017 Off-Broadway production. 

2022-23 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule
Aug. 25--Kinky Boots (Stage 42)
Aug. 28--Two Jews, Talking (Theater at St. Clement's)
Aug. 30--As You Like It (Delacorte)
Sept. 19--The Piano Lesson (Barrymore) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 22--Sesame Street: The Musical (Theater Row)
Sept. 24--Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 27--A Raisin in the Sun (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Oct. 2--Leopoldstadt (Longacre)

Oct. 3--Cost of Living (MTC/Friedman)

Oct. 6--1776 (Roundabout/AA)

Oct. 9--Death of a Salesman (Hudson) 

Oct. 20--Topdog/Underdog (Golden)

Oct. 26--Straight Line Crazy (The Shed/Griffin)

Oct. 28--Where We Belong (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Oct. 30--A Man of No Importance (CSC)

October--Catch as Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons); Downstate (Playwrights Horizons)

Nov. 2--Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (MTC/City Center Stage I)

Nov. 3--Almost Famous (Bernard Jacobs)

Nov. 4--Plays for the Plague Year (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Nov. 10--Kimberly Akimbo (Booth)

Nov. 13--Fiddler on the Roof (New World Stages)

Nov. 17--& Juliet (Sondheim)
Nov. 20--KPOP (Circle in the Square)

Nov. 21--Becky Nurse of Salem (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Dec. 1--Ain't No Mo (Belasco)

Dec. 4--A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical (Broadhurst)

Dec. 11--Some Like It Hot (Shubert)

Dec. 20--The Collaboration (MTC/Freidman)

February--The Trees (Playwrights Horizons)

March--Regretfully So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons)

April 13--Camelot (Lincoln Center/Vivian Beaumont)

May--Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons)

Fall 2022 (no dates yet)

Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)

the bandaged place (Roundabout/Underground)

Camp Siegfried (Second Stage/Tony Kiser)

Summer, 1976 (MTC/City Center Stage II)

2022-23 (no dates or theaters yet)

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, Black Orpheus, Cinderella, Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical, Dancin', The Ohio State Murders, Pal Joey, Square One

Winter 2022-23

Dark Disabled Stories (Public)

The Wanderers (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Spring 2023 

Prime Facie (a Shubert theater TBA)

The Thanksgiving Play (Second Stage/Hayes)

Good Bones (Public)

Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC/City Center Stage II)

Shadow/Land (Public)

2023 and Beyond

Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby

Future--Good Night, Oscar; The Devil Wears Prada; The Griswolds' Family Vacation; The Karate Kid; Back to the Future; Our Town; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Sing Street; Smash; Soul Train; The Who's Tommy