B'way Update: Window Replaces Room

Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan
in The Sign in Sidney Brusteins's Window
Credit: Catalina Kulczar

Donald Trump's 34-count indictment isn't the only big news coming out of Manhattan this week. The revival of Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window which recently finished its run at BAM is transferring to Broadway just in time to qualify for the 2023 Tony Awards. The play about a group of bohemian Greenwich Village residents in the 1960s will begin previews on April 25 at the James Earl Jones Theater and open two days later on April 27, the last possible day for Tony Award consideration. The quickie transfer and short preview period were made possible when the Jones' previous resident, a stage version of Emily Donoghue's novel Room, was postponed indefinitely because a major backer withdrew funding. The cast from the BAM production, directed by Anne Kaufman, will repeat their performances including Oscar Isaac (Scenes from a Marriage, Hamlet) and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Big Knife) in the lead roles of Sidney and Iris, an idealistic intellectual and his wife, an aspiring actress. 

Sign was Hansberry's follow-up to her tremendously successful Broadway debut A Raisin in the Sun. Sign opened in 1964 at the Longacre Theater, transferred to the Henry Miller, and closed after a total of only 101 performances, just two days before Hansberry died at 34 from pancreatic cancer. The cast included Gabriel Dell, Rita Moreno, and Alice Ghostley who won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play as Mavis, Iris' bigoted sister. There was a 1972 revival, also at the Longacre, which ran only 5 performances. This cast featured Hal Linden, Zohra Lampert, and Frances Sternhagen who received a Tony nomination for the same role for which Ghostley won.

2022-23 and 2023-24 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule 
April 5--Lortel Award nominations announced
April 11--Regretfully So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons)
April 12--Fat Ham (AA)
April 13--Camelot (Lincoln Center/Vivian Beaumont)

April 19--Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Barrymore)
April 20--The Thanksgiving Play (Second Stage/Hayes)

April 23--Prime Facie (Golden)
April 24--Good Night, Oscar (Belasco)
April 25--Summer, 1976 (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) 
April 25--Outer Critics Circle nominations announced

April 25--Drama League Award nominations announced (NY Public Library)
April 26--New York, New York (St. James)

April 27--The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (James Earl Jones)
April 29--Fuenta Ovejuna (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
May 2--Tony Award Nominations Announced
May 4--Primary Trust (Roundabout/Laura Pels) (previews begin; opening TBA)
May 5--Days of Wine and Roses (Atlantic Theatre Company) (previews begin; opening TBA)
May 7--Lortel Awards (NYU Skirball Center)
May 16--King James (MTC/City Center Stage I)
May 16--Outer Critics Winners announced
May 19--Drama League Awards (Ziegfeld Ballroom)
May 25--Outer Critics Circle Awards (Bruno Walter Auditorium/Lincoln Center Library)
May 30--Grey House (Lyceum)
May--Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons)
June 11--Tony Awards (United Palace)
June 22--Once Upon a One More Time (Marquis)
June 28--Hamlet (Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park) 
July 9--Orpheus Descending (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
July 20--Here Lies Love (Broadway)
July 24--The Cottage (Hayes)
Aug. 3--Back to the Future (Marquis)
Sept. 19--Merrily We Roll Along (begins previews; opening TBA) (Hudson)
September--Here We Are (The Shed Griffin Theater)

September--The Refuge Plays (Roundabout/NYTW/Laura Pels)

October--I Need That (Roundabout/AA)

Summer 2023

Purlie Victorious

Fall 2023

I Can Get It for You Wholesale (CSC)

Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC/City Center Stage II)

Winter 2024

Pericles (CSC)

Spring 2024

Home (Roundabout/AA)

Jonah (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Wine in the Wilderness (CSC)

2024-25

Smash

2024 and Beyond

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

Future--Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Black Orpheus; BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical, Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; Harmony; I Need That; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; Lempicka; Our Town; Pal Joey; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Soul Train; What a Wonderful World; The Who's Tommy; The Wiz; Working Girl