B'way Update: Sweeney Todd Confirmed, DeVito as a Hoarder, Iglehart as Armstrong

Annaleigh Ashford and Josh Groban
Credit: Franz Szony

It's official. The revival of Sweeney Todd, the 1979 Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler musical about a cut-throat barber and his pie-making cannibalistic accomplice, will definitely begin previews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Feb. 25, 2023 in advance of a March 26 opening. Pop superstar Josh Groban and Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford will star. The production had been rumored for several weeks and was reported on in Broadway Journal. On Sept. 5, artwork for the show began showing up on social media and the Ticketmaster website posted a performance calendar (tickets go on sale Mon. Sept. 18).

Additional cast members will be announced at a later date. The creative team will be an all-star one. Thomas Kail (Hamilton) directs, Olivier winner Steven Hoggett choreographs, Tony winner Mimi Lein will design the sets, Tony nominee Emilio Sosa handles the costumes, and multiple Tony winner Natasha Katz the lighting. There will be a 26-piece orchestra with musical supervision by Alex Lacamoire. The previous Sweeney Todd revivals (two on Broadway and one Off) have been on a small scale.

Danny DeVito at the 2017 Drama Desk
nominees event.
Credit: Barry Gordin

In other news, Emmy and Drama Desk winner Danny DeVito (Taxi, The Price) recently headlined a staged reading of a new play by prolific playwright Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Dead Accounts, Seminar, Mauritius) at the Dorset Theater Festival in Vermont. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the actor stated he intends to bring the play, I Need That, which co-stars his daughter Lucy, to Broadway or Off-Broadway in a year. DeVito plays Sam, a compulsive hoarder who must clean up his apartment or face eviction. Lucy DeVito will play his daughter in the play and a third actor, Ray Anthony Thomas, is his friend Foster who aids in the clean-up. Rebeck was also recently in theater news for joining the team of the musical version of Working Girl as book writer.

Tony winner James Monroe Igelhart (Aladdin) stars in an industry reading of What a Wonderful World, a bio musical on jazz legend Louis Armstrong, on Sept. 19 and 20. Conceived by Tony nominee Christopher Renshaw (Taboo, The King and I) and Andrew Delaplaine, the musical is told from the point of view of the women in Armstrong's life and will feature songs made famous by the legendary Satchmo and a book by Aurin Squire (TV's The Good Fight, This Is Us). Renshaw directs. Wonderful World debuted at Miami New Drama in 2020.

2022-23 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule
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)
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. 7--Only Gold (MCC 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 26--Sweeney Todd (Lunt-Fontanne)
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)

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; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; The Griswolds' Family Vacation; Harmony; I Need That; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; Lempicka; Back to the Future; Our Town; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Sing Street; Smash; Soul Train; What a Wonderful World; The Who's Tommy; Working Girl