B'way Update: Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne, Ella Fitzgerald Musical

Laura Linney in 
My Name Is Lucy Barton.
Credit: Manuel Harlan

Five-time Tony nominee and four-time Emmy winner Laura Linney (The Big C, John Adams, Frasier, Wild Iris) will return to Broadway in the premiere of Summer, 1976, a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn (Proof). Previews begin April 4, 2023 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater as part of Manhattan Theater Club's season. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan direct. In addition to Proof, Sullivan directed Auburn's The Columnist. Linney last appeared on Broadway at the Friedman in the one-woman play My Name is Lucy Barton. She also starred at the Friedman in The Little Foxes and Sight Unseen. Summer, 1976 was originally announced for MTC's Stage II Off-Broadway space at City Center for a fall opening. 

The play set in Ohio at the titular time during America's Bicentennial celebration, concerns the unlikely friendship between Diana, an artist and single mom, and Alice, a free-spirited housewife, and their journey towards independence. Additional cast, opening night and creative personnel will be announced.

Gabriel Byrne
Credit: Jerome De Perlinghi

Two-time Tony nominee Gabriel Byrne (Long Day's Journey, Moon for the Misbegotten, In Treatment) will also be coming back to Broadway, a bit sooner than Laura Linney. The Irish-born actor will bring his autobiographical solo show, Walking with Ghosts to the Music Box Theater, previews Oct. 18 for a limited run opening Oct. 27. Lonny Price (Sunset Boulevard, Lady Day) directs. The one-man play has played Dublin's Gaiety Theater and the Edinburgh Festival earlier this year with a London West End run set for Sept. 7-16.

"What an honor to be on Broadway again, especially in a glorious venue like the Music Box,"  Byrne said in a statement. "It was a real joy to hear laughter in a theatre during the premiere run of Walking with Ghosts in Dublin. I've chosen to be honest and unflinching in the recounting of a life from working class Dublin to Hollywood. Although rooted in the local, I hope the play has a universal resonance."

Ella Fitzgerald

Legendary vocalist Ella Fitzgerald--in my humble opinion the greatest of the 20th century--will be the subject of a new musical. Ella: An American Miracle will employ several of Fitzgerald's hits for its score and a book by actress-playwright Anna Deavere Smith. A "work session" is now taking place through Sept. 21, concluding with a private industry presentation. Tony winner and recording artist Dee Dee Bridgewater (The Wiz) and Charity Angel Dawson share the title role, playing her at different stages of her life.  Philip Wm. McKinley (The Boy from Oz) directs.

“Composers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing their songs because listening to her, they knew how their songs were supposed to be sung,” said Smith in a statement. “A jazz singer, a scat singer, she also famously both sang and defined the American song book. To say she had humble beginnings is a profound understatement. She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.”

Off-Broadway News:

Obie and Drama Desk winner Mia Katigbak (The Trial of the Catonsville Nine) and Manu Narayan (My Fair Lady, Bombay Dreams) will headline the first Off-Broadway revival of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize winning A Delicate Balance. This will be the first production of the play with an all-Asian cast. Previews Oct. 22. Opens Nov. 6 at the Connelly Theater...The Gingold Theatrical Group will present a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Candida at Theater Two on Theater Row, previews Oct. 5, opens Oct. 25.  

2022-23 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule
Aug. 30--As You Like It (Delacorte)
Sept. 10--Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
Sept. 13--Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood (York Theater Company)

Sept. 22--Sesame Street: The Musical (Theater Row)
Sept. 29--american (tele)visions (New York Theatre Workshop)
Oct. 2--Leopoldstadt (Longacre)
Oct. 2--Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (Public Theater/Elevator Repair Service)
Oct. 3--Cost of Living (MTC/Friedman)
Oct. 6--1776 (Roundabout/AA)
Oct. 6--Peerless (Primary Stages/59E59)
Oct. 9--Death of a Salesman (Hudson) 
Oct. 13--The Piano Lesson (Barrymore)
Oct. 19--A Raisin in the Sun (Public Theater)
Oct. 19--The Year of Magical Thinking (Keen Company/location TBA) (previews begin; opening TBA)
Oct. 20--Topdog/Underdog (Golden)

Oct. 25--Candida (Gingold Theatrical Group/Theatre Row)
Oct. 26--Straight Line Crazy (The Shed/Griffin)

Oct. 27--Walking with Ghosts (Music Box)
Oct. 27--Take Me Out (return engagement) (Schoenfeld)
Oct. 30--A Man of No Importance (CSC)
October--Catch as Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons); Downstate (Playwrights Horizons); Only Gold (MCC Theater)
Nov. 2--Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (MTC/City Center Stage I)
Nov. 3--Almost Famous (Bernard Jacobs)
Nov. 6--You Will Get Sick (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Nov. 6--A Delicate Balance (NAATCO/Transport Group/Connelly Theater)
Nov. 9--Where We Belong (Public Theater) 
Nov. 10--Kimberly Akimbo (Booth)
Nov. 15--the bandaged place (Roundabout/Underground)

Nov. 15--Camp Siegfried (Second Stage/Tony Kiser) 
Nov. 16--Plays for the Plague Year (Public Theater) 
Nov. 17--& Juliet (Sondheim)

Nov. 20--KPOP (Circle in the Square)
Nov. 21--Becky Nurse of Salem (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Nov. 21--Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (New World Stages)
Nov. 29--Des Moines (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
Dec. 1--Ain't No Mo (Belasco)
Dec. 1--Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust Land (York Theater Company)
Dec. 4--A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical (Broadhurst)
Dec. 8--The Ohio State Murders (James Earl Jones)
Dec. 11--Some Like It Hot (Shubert)
Dec. 12--Merrily We Roll Along (New York Theatre Workshop)
Dec. 19--Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)
Dec. 20--The Collaboration (MTC/Friedman)
February--The Trees (Playwrights Horizons)
March 1--the best we could (a family tragedy) (MTC/City Center Stage I)
March 8--Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Keen Company/Theater Row)
March--Regretfully So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons)

April 4--Summer, 1976 (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) (previews begin, opening TBA)

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

April 29--Fuenta Ovejuna (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
May 16--King James (MTC/City Center Stage I)
May--Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons)
July 9--Orpheus Descending (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)

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', 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)

New York, New York

Shadow/Land (Public)

Sweeney Todd (Lunt-Fontanne) (possible)

Fall 2023

Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC/City Center Stage II)

2023, 2024 and Beyond

Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby, Frida, the Musical, High Noon

Future--Good Night, Oscar; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; The Griswolds' Family Vacation; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; 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; Working Girl