B'way Update: Oh, Mary!, Crazy Rich Asians, etc.

Cole Escola in Oh, Mary!
will transfer to Broadway this summer.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Mary Todd Lincoln is coming to Broadway. After a sold-out, twice extended run at the Lortel Theater Off-Broadway, Cole Escola's riotous comedy Oh, Mary! starring Escola in the title role, will transfer to the Lyceum Theater this summer. Performances begin June 26 in advance of a July 11 opening for a limited run through Sept. 15. 

Oh, Mary! stars Escola as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism and suppressed desires abound in this one act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot (Cole Escola). The show also stars Conrad Ricamora as Mary’s Husband, James Scully as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, with Hannah Solow and Peter Smith completing the cast. 

Mrs. Lincoln has been portrayed on Broadway before in a more serious vein. In the Broadway season of 1972-73, she was portrayed in three productions by Julie Harris in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play), Eva Marie Saint in The Lincoln Mask and Geraldine Page in Look Away.

Dead Outlaw Lives with 9 OCC Noms

Andrew Durand and Jeb Brown
are both nominated for OCC Awards
for Dead Outlaw.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Dead Outlaw, the Off-Broadway musical tracing the true history of a mummified corpse found in an amusement ride, received the most Outer Critics Circle Award nominations with 9. Stereophonic got the most for Broadway productions with 7. The nominations were announced on April 23 by Merrily We Roll Along stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez at the Museum of Broadway. Groff and Mendez won OCC awards last year for the show's Off-Broadway run. 

Founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season by respected theater journalist John Gassner, the Outer Critics Circle's membership includes writers working for more than 90 newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online news organizations worldwide. David Gordon leads the group as president, with a board of directors that also includes Richard Ridge, Joseph Cervelli, Patrick Hoffman, David Roberts, Cynthia Allen, Harry Haun, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson, and Doug Strassler. The board also serves as the nominating committee.

The OCC considers both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, in some categories together and in others separately. Beginning last year, the organization eliminated gender-specific acting categories.

The winners will be announced on May 13 with a ceremony to follow on May 23 at the Bruno Walter Auditiorium of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.

Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and
Daniel Radcliffe announced the OCC noms
at the Museum of Broadway.
Credit: Matthew Cubillos / The Museum of Broadway

A complete list of the nominees follows:

2024 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD NOMINATIONS

 
Outstanding New Broadway Play
Jaja's African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh
Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions by Paula Vogel
Patriots by Peter Morgan
Stereophonic by David Adjmi
The Shark Is Broken by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw
 

Drama League Nominations

Lindsay Mendez, Jonathan Groff, and
Daniel Radcliffe of Merrily We Roll Along
are all nominated for the Distinguished Performance
Drama League Award.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Theater award season is now in full throttle. The nominees for the 90th annual Drama League Awards were announced  by Vanessa Williams and Bebe Neuwirth on Mon. April 22 at the Lincoln Center's NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. The awards for outstanding work on and Off-Broadway, will be presented on May 17 at 12 noon at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. First awarded in 1922 and formalized in 1935, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America. They are the only major theater awards chosen by a cross-section of the theater community — the industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics who are Drama League members nationwide. The Outer Critics Circle Award noms will be announced tomorrow and the Drama Desk and Tony noms will be next week.

2024 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARDS NOMINATIONS

 
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
 
THE COMEUPPANCE 
 
FLEX
 
GRIEF HOTEL
 
THE HUNT
 
JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING 
 
MOTHER PLAY
 
OH, MARY!
 
PATRIOTS
 
PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
 
STEREOPHONIC
 
WET BRAIN

Dudley Malone: Supporting Character in Two Musicals

Dudley Field Malone who appears
in Suffs and whom I played
in an Off-Off-Bway musical

In April of 2022, at the end of a marathon of theatergoing to catch up with all the shows opening before the cut-off before Tony and Drama Desk eligibility, I was watching Shaina Taub's musical Suffs at the Public Theater. This inventive historical pageant follows the sweeping story of the Women's Suffrage Movement of the early 20th century. All of the many roles, both male and female, are played an all-woman cast. One of the male roles was that of Dudley Malone, President Woodrow Wilson's Chief of Staff, who resigns in protest over Wilson's opposition to the women's cause and eventually marries Doris Stevens, one of the leaders of the movement. Taub has rewritten and revised the show and now it has just opened on Broadway in another crowded season. I loved it even more this time and hope it survives the Tony nominations.

As I watching this supporting character,  I remembered where I had heard the name before. Malone was later served as co-counsel to Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey trial, defending Tennessee school teacher John T. Scopes for daring to teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in the Bible Belt state. Ironically, Malone was also a character in an obscure musical based on that trial, called--wait for it--Sodom and Gorilla (get it?) And I played that role in an Off-Off-Broadway production.

Tsilala Brock as Dudley Malone and 
Grace McLean as President Woodrow Wilson
in Suffs.
Credit: Joan Marcus

He later specialized in international divorce cases and established an office in Paris. After declaring bankruptcy in 1935, he moved to Hollywood, serving as legal consultant to 20th Century Fox and even appearing in a few films. His resemblance to Winston Churchill got his cast as the British Prime Minister in Mission to Moscow (1943). He is listed on imdb.com as making an unbilled appearance as Churchill in An American in Paris, but I don't remember it. I have to look at the film again. After divorcing Stevens in 1929 in Paris, he married actress Edna Louise Johnson in London in 1930. He died in 1950 in Los Angeles.

Dudley Malone as Winston
Churchill with unbilled
actor as Stalin in
Mission to Moscow

Book Review: Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

(Bought with the remainder of a Barnes and Noble Christmas gift card): I saw this on the counter at Barnes and Noble and the subject matter grabbed me. This actually happened: Ellen and William Craft escaped from slavery in 1848 Macon, Georgia by disguising themselves a young white man and his slave. Ellen was light enough to pass as white and was a clever seamstress. She made herself a suit of clothes and wearing scarves and bandages was able to impersonate a young, white man in ill-health. This was the only disguise that would work. A black man traveling with what appeared to be a white woman would have gotten them both killed. They got on board a series of trains to Philadelphia, then settled in Boston, supposedly beyond the reach of slave catchers. But the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 forced them to move again, all the way up to Canada and then to England. 

Ilyon Woo's narrative reads like a Netflix mini-series with Ellen and William on the verge of being discovered at every moment. Woo details what their trip would have been like with research on what trains, ships, and stagecoaches were like at the time. She also provides context and background with histories of the Crafts' families and their enslavers. Gender issues are also explored. Ellen defied so many rules of the day, but when the couple escaped the Great Britain and went on the lecture circuit, she did not speak. William did the talking because it was considered unseemly for a lady to appear to show agency and speak about it in public. A fascinating read and deep dive into the history of slavery and those who escaped from it.

Woody Allen's Coup de Chance

Niels Schneider and Lou de Laage
in Woody Allen's
Coup de Chance

The main reasons to see Woody Allen's Coup de Chance are the gorgeous shots of Paris and the French countryside in autumn, and, if you are completist like me, to be able to say you've seen all 50 of his films. Otherwise, this latest and perhaps final effort from Allen is another retread of his suspense, trick-ending efforts such as Crimes and Misdemeanors, Scoop, Match Point, You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger, Irrational Man, and Cassandra's Dream, except it lacks the humor of the first two. A woman embarks on an affair with her high school classmate she happens to bump into on the street. Her husband discovers her infidelity and hires underworld goons to "eliminate the problem." Sound familiar? So many of Allen's "suspense" films seem to be about creating plot twists and story problems to solve rather than examining human beings and their foibles. Coup de Chance most closely resembles the Martin Landau plot arc of Crimes and Misdemeanors, which I felt was the weakest part of that film. Allen is fascinated with guilty people operating outside the law and sometimes getting away with it. Perhaps this parallels his subconscious feelings of guilt over the Soon-Yi affair/marriage and his daughter Dylan's accusations of child abuse. Although I don't see the comparisons clearly. Maybe he wants to exact his own form of justice? I saw this at the Quad at 11:30 am on the Monday of the solar eclipse. The film was gorgeous to look at (I didn't look at the eclipse because I had no special glasses), but it felt as empty as Rifkin's Festival, Allen's last film. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters as I did in Radio Days, recently viewed on TCM. There are reports Allen will be filming another movie in Italy this fall. I will probably see it, but not expect anything great.

B'way Update: Duelling Romeo and Juliets????

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler 
will star in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway
this fall. 

A new production of Romeo and Juliet is coming to Broadway this fall, but not the one with Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers that is opening in London this May. A totally different Romeo and Juliet, starring Kit Connor (Heartstopper) and Rachel Zegler (Steven Speilberg's West Side Story) featuring music by Grammy winner Jack Antonoff and direction by Tony winner Sam Gold (Fun Home) has been announced to open this fall 2024. The UK Mail had reported the London R&J, directed by Jamie Lloyd, was planning to transfer to Broadway after its sold-out West End, but this has not been confirmed. 

So we might have two Romeo and Juliets on Broadway in 2024-25. It's not unprecedented. There were two major simultaneous productions of R&J in NYC in 2013: one on Broadway with Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad, and one Off-Broadway at CSC with Elizabeth Olsen and Julian Cihi.

Director Sam Gold said, “With the presidential election coming up in November, I felt like making a show this fall that celebrates youth and hope, and unleashes the anger young people feel about the world they are inheriting."

The press release explains the story thusly: "The youth are fucked. Left to their own devices in their parents’ world of violent ends, an impulsive pair of star-crossed lovers hurtle towards their inescapable fate. The intoxicating high of passion quickly descends into a brutal chaos that can only end one way."

I Wake Up Streaming, Part 1: Manhunt, Ripley, Gentleman, Franklin

A few weeks ago, I thought this title would be great for a podcast to review everything that's streaming now (A parody of the film I Wake Up Screaming). But I'm too lazy to set up a podcast, so I just jotted down my thoughts on what shows I'm viewing via the various platforms which have replaced cable.

Brandon Flynn and Tobias Menzies in
Manhunt. 

Manhunt (Apple TV): Tobias Menzies stars as Action Cabinet Secretary Edward Stanton persuing Abe Lincoln's killer John Wilkes Booth in this adaptation of a non-fiction book. I love historical series, but this one tries to cram too much into too short a space. The actual hunt for Booth and his accomplice David Herrold took place over 12 days, but so much happens in each day in this series it's ridiculous. For example, Dr. Mudd's slave Mary, gets a land grant, sets up a school, starts teaching and loses her land thanks to mean old President Andrew Johnson all in two days. It's still a fascinating look at a volatile time in our history.

Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn and Andrew Scott
in Ripley.
Credit: Netflix.

Ripley (Netflix): Andrew Scott, now plays the polar opposite of the sensitive screenwriter in All of Us Strangers. He is the sociopathic Tom Ripley in an elegant adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the first of her five novels about killer-grifter with no scruples about murdering anyone who interferes with his pursuit of wealth and luxury. Previously filmed with Matt Damon and Jude Law, this series is filmed in black and white, much to the annoyance of certain young viewers. Not used to the subtlety of grey, they complained about the lack of color and dropped off after one or two episodes. Scott is perfect as the deadly Ripley. Steve Zaillian wrote and directed the entire series brilliantly, creating taut suspense worthy of Hitchcock. Gen-Zers and millennials don't know what they're missing. There are rumors Zaillian plans to adapt the remaining Ripley novels but Scott wants a break first. This will give me a chance to read the books first.

Book Review: The Outsiders

(Downloaded on my Kindle for $7): SE Hinton's best-selling novel of Oklahoma JDs gets under your skin. I decided to read it after seeing the musical version now on Broadway, plus it's on PBS's list of 100 favorite books. At less than 200 pages, I figured it would be a quick, easy read. It was and very deep. The narrator Ponyboy Curtis hangs out with a makeshift family/gang known as Greasers in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are preyed upon by the upper-middle-class Socs (for Socials). Ponyboy likes to read and draw and gets good grades in school, but his world is beset by senseless violence. A lot of bad stuff goes down, but the plot is not as important as Ponyboy's reflections on his dead-end life. Hinton gets inside the characters. You feel know you them by the end of the book.

B'way Update: Patti LuPone, Mia Farrow, Tom Holland

Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow will return to
Broadway in The Roommate.

According to the New York Post, three-time Tony winner Patti PuPone and Mia Farrow will return to Broadway in a two-person play called The Roommate by Jen Silverman. Directed by Tony winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), the play will begin preview performances at the Booth Theater in late August and open in September. After her last Broadway appearance in the revival of Company, LuPone announced she was turning in her Equity card. Guess she will be renewing it now. Farrow last appeared on Broadway for a week of performances in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. 

The Roommate which premiered in 2015 at the Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, deals with two Iowa women in their mid-50s sharing a house and discovering each other’s secrets as they start their lives over.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and Tom Holland
will star in Romeo and Juliet in London
and possibly Broadway afterwards.
Credit: Jamie Lloyd Company

In other unconfirmed news, the UK Mirror reports that the West End production of Romeo and Juliet starring the latest screen Spider-Man Tom Holland will transfer to Broadway when it completes its London run. The show sold out its entire limited run which begins at the Duke of York Theater in May in two hours. The production directed by Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard) has been embroiled in a controversy ever since it was announced that Juliet would be played by black actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. Racist comments have flooded the actress's social media, forcing her to shut down the comments section.

The Jamie Lloyd company has issued this statement: "Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment. We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported."

A 2013 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet starred actors of different races--Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad and there was no racist outcry. What could explain this disgusting change? I could speculate about the proliferation of hate speech and social media, the election of certain figures who tolerate such vile speech, but this development is a certainly an ugly one.

B'way Update: MTC Season Includes Sondheim, Vladimir, Eureka

Lea Salonga and Bernadette Peters
in Old Friends, transferring to
Broadway in 2025.
Credit: Danny Kaan

Manhattan Theater Club has announced plans for its 2024-25 season on and Off-Broadway, which will include the Broadway premieres of Eureka Day and the London Sondheim revue, Old Friends starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga who will repeat their London performances. The Stephen Sondheim tribute ran in London's West End in 2023 and will begin previews at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theater on March 25, 2025 with an opening date TBA. The show will have a pre-Broadway run at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater from Feb. 8--March 9. The production was devised by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie. Additional cast members will be announced. 

Book Review: Letter to My Daughter

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library): Another essay collection from Maya Angelou. A quick read with lasting, valuable wisdom. These brief pieces focus on life lessons written to the daughter Angelou never had and to the women she had treated like daughters throughout her eventful life. We get advice on cultural sensitivity, never giving up, and social etiquette. There are also reflections on Celia Cruz, activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and Coretta Scott King. The most striking piece details a gruesome encounter with with an abusive, jealous boyfriend--it's harrowing and brutal--and fills in some gaps in her six autobiographical books. I'd like to read a bio that takes up where her memoirs leave off.

Wet Brain Dominates 39th Lortel Award Noms

Wet Brain from Playwrights Horizons
and MCC Theater, received the most
Lortel nominations.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Wet Brain, John J. Caswell's Jr.'s play about a Hispanic family dealing with the father's alcoholism and delusions of being kidnapped by aliens, co-produced by Playwrights Horizons and MCC Theater, received the most nominations for the 39th annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Off-Broadway excellence, with 8. The nominations were announced April 4 by Amber Iman and George Abud, stars of the Broadway musical Lempicka. The Lortels, named for the legendary Off-Broadway producer, will be presented on May 5 at the NYU Skirball Hall. The event is open to the public and tickets are available starting April 11 at tickets.edu.nyu or at the NYU box office, Tues.-Sat., 12-6PM. 

Other productions with strong showings include Stereophonic with 7 and (pray) and Dead Outlaw with 6 each.

Book Review: Even the Stars Look Lonesome

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library) In between longer books, I took out three short volumes by two favorite authors: Joan Didion and Maya Angelou. I have read all of Angelou's autobiographies and most of her poetry, but not her essays. (I met her once when I was in high school. She was promoting one of her books at a Philadelphia bookstore. I had written her a letter and enclosed a copy of an essay I had written about her which won a prize. She sent me back an autographed copy of a book of her poetry. She was delightful to me at the bookstore.) At less than 150 pages, this is an easy but powerful read, full of Angelou's personal experiences and observations derived from a rich and varied life. Her relationship to the South is particularly fascinating and the piece on a slavery folk museum in Baton Rogue, LA is poignant. I disagreed with her views on supporting the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. She felt that having an African-American voice on the court outweighted his deplorable record on Civil Rights, that he could be persuaded to see the light. (She doesn't even mention the Anita Hill controversy.) Now decades later, we see the damage Thomas and his wife have done to the country. But her eloquent writing defending her position is wroth reading.

B'way Update: Our Town Cast, Dates and Theater; OCC Noms

Cast members, dates and a theater have been announced for the upcoming Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's beloved Our Town, to be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Purlie Victorious, A Raisin in the Sun). Previews will begin Sept. 14 at the Barrymore Theater prior to an Oct. 10 opening. 

Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, Ephriam Sykes, 
Billy Eugene Jones, Katie Holmes and Julie Halston
will star in Our Town.

The 28-member cast will be led by Emmy, Golden Globe & Screen Actors Guild Award-winner Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) as “Stage Manager”, Zoey Deutch as “Emily Webb”, Katie Holmes (All My Sons) as “Mrs. Webb”, Obie & Audelco Award-winner and Drama Desk-nominee Billy Eugene Jones (Purlie Victorious, Fat Ham) as “Dr. Gibbs”, Tony & Grammy Award-nominee Ephraim Sykes (Ain't Too Proud) as “George Gibbs”, Tony & Drama Desk Award-nominee and Emmy-Award-winner Richard Thomas (The Waltons, Race) as “Mr. Webb”, Tony & Drama Desk-nominee Michelle Wilson (Sweat, Confederates) as “Mrs. Gibbs”, 2021 Special Tony Award-winner and Drama Desk-nominee Julie Halston (Tootsie, You Can't Take It With You) as “Mrs. Soames”, Donald Webber Jr. as “Simon Stimpson”, as well as Ephie Aardema, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Safiya Kaijya Harris, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Hagan Oliveras, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Matthew Elijah Webb and Nimene Sierra Wureh.  The final two cast members will be announced at a later date.

Book Review: South and West: From a Notebook

(Taken out of Jackson Heights Library) "In New Orleans in June the air is heavy with sex and death, not violent death  but death by decay, overripeness, rotting, death by drowning, suffocation, fever of unknown etiology." What an opening sentence. Joan Didion's rough drafts are more intoxicating than the finished versions of most writers. This brief treat is taken from Didion's notes for two articles never finished. In the first longer segment, she and her husband travel from New Orleans and head into the South with no particular agenda. In the second, much shorter vignette, she has gone to San Francisco to cover the Patty Hearst trial for Rolling Stone, but winds up writing about herself and her relationship to California the state where she grew up. What emerges is a sharp portrait of a particular place and time. The South cannot forget the past and is trapped by it--to a certain extent, they still are 50 years later. The West has no past and only looks forward. It's very short, you can read it in less than two hours, but Didion will haunt you with her indelible images.

Book Review: Downtown Owl

(Bought at the Strand Bookstore for $6.95) I had been meaning to read this novel for a long time. I bought it because the titles of Chuck Klosterman's books have always intrigued me when I saw them on tables at used bookstores. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Eating the Dinosaur, The Visible Man. I don't really care about high school football, or rock bands of the 1980s, two of the topics which obsess the citizens of the titular tiny town in rural North Dakota, but the characters are well-drawn and Klosterman can be very funny. He focuses on three apparently unrelated Owl-ites--morose high school student Mitch (nicknamed Vanna because his last name Hrlicka has so few vowels), new teacher and lonely alcoholic Julia, and retiree Horace. Each chapter is from the point of view of one of these three, except two focusing on Julia's teaching colleague and football coach John Laidlaw who has a tendency to seduce his female students, and Mitch's fellow student, the antisocial and perhaps sociopathic Cubby Candy. Mitch is lonely, Julia is lonely, Horace is lonely. John and Cubby are nuts. Without revealing too much of the plot, their stories come to a rather abrupt ending with little resolution. But there are plenty of clever and insightful scenes of their desperate search for connection and meaning in a town with little to offer outside drinking, driving around and watching or playing football.

Book Review: The Body of the Soul

(Borrowed from my husband who bought it on Amazon) This was a short book of stories, so I figured I could polish it off before moving on to other longer works. Russian author Ulitskaya offers fascinating portraits of citizens caught between their intellect and their passions. An older woman wants to commit suicide, but then marries the reluctant doctor prescribing the pills to do the job. A stuffed toy dog takes on significance for a deprived family. A librarian gradually loses her command of vocabulary. Hints of magic realism as one character transforms into a butterfly and a coroner receives a visit from the afterlife. Enjoyable and thought-provoking in spite of their brevity. (only 150 pages).

Book Review: Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal and a Swan Song for an Era

(Bought at Barnes and Nobles with a left-over gift card from Christmas) I've been wanting to read this since Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans (based on this book) started airing on FX to see where the two differ. Both chronicle the fallout of Capote's publication of a chapter from his unfinished novel Answered Prayers in Esquire Magazine revealing the dirty little secrets of several of his high-society friends. Rich elegant queens of American elite, whom he dubbed "his swans," were portrayed as vicious, petty gossipmongers. Babe Paley, Lee Radziwell, Slim Keith all froze him out of their circle and he languished in a whirlpool of booze and drugs. CZ Guest remained a friend. Leamer offers biographies of seven of these women--Gloria Guinness and Marella Agnelli were not included in the FX series. Pamela Churchill makes a cameo appearance at the infamous black and white ball. Leamer's book is tight and economical, drawing parallels between Capote's tortured bio and those of his swans. The screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz has imagined several additional chapters to Answered Prayers as well as Capote encountering James Baldwin and the Maylses Brothers (Grey Gardens) filming the black and white ball.

I don't think Capote ever finished Answered Prayers. The series imagines he did but burned the manuscript and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz imagines endings for each of the characters in the book. It's a fascinating read but not very in-depth.

B'way Update: Tammy Faye and Sunset Set Dates

Andrew Rannells and Katie Brayben 
will repeat their London performances
when Tammy Faye moves to Broadway.
Credit: Marc Brenner

As the 2023-24 Broadway season begins the final mad rush to its conclusion just before the Tony deadline, the 2024-25 season is starting to solidify. Two shows announced for the fall, Tammy Faye and the revival of Sunset Boulevard, both London transfers, have announced definite dates and theaters. Tammy Faye, the musical based on the life of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, will begin previews Oct. 19 at the newly renovated and elevated Palace Theater with an opening set for Nov. 14. Katie Brayben and Andrew Rennells will repeat their Olivier-nominated performances as Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker. Sir Elton John wrote the music, lyrics are by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, the book is by James Graham who previously collaborated with Tammy Faye director Sam Goold on Graham's play Ink.

Sunset Boulevard will begin its NY performances on Sept. 28 at the St. James Theater with an opening set for Oct. 20. Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of Billy Wilder's classic film of the delusional silent film star Norma Desmond is directed by Jamie Lloyd and was nominated for 11 Olivier Awards during its London run. Repeating their Oliver-nominated performances are Nicole Scherzinger as Norma, Tom Francis as Joe Gillis, Grace Hodgett-Young as Betty Schaeffer and Oliver winner David Thaxton as Max von Meyerling.

B'way Update: Delia Ephron Memoir on Stage

Delia Ephron

Producer Daryl Roth announced that Delia Ephron (You've Got Mail) will make her Broadway playwriting debut with Left on Tenth, based on her best-selling memoir, to be directed by Tony winner Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact) and starring Emmy winner Juliana Margulies and SAG winner Peter Gallagher. The production is scheduled for fall 2024 with dates and a theater to be announced. Left on Tenth chronicles Ephron's second chance at love. When she least expects it, Delia Ephron, best-selling novelist and screenwriter of You've Got Mail, makes a surprising connection with a man from her past and falls into her own romantic comedy. As their immediate spark blossoms into a love story that seems to defy all odds, Delia’s life takes an unexpected turn. Left on Tenth tells the messy, beautiful truth about getting older while feeling young, as it celebrates two people with the courage to rewrite their futures and open their hearts again.

“I am grateful and thrilled to be working with these champions of theater – Susan Stroman and Daryl Roth,” said Delia Ephron. “Left on Tenth is about a perilous and wondrous time of my life. We invite you to join our team of warriors and become believers yourselves.”

Juliana Marguiles and Peter Gallagher

“When Delia first spoke to me about her manuscript of Left on Tenth, I felt that her story would make a magnificent play,” said Producer Daryl Roth. “It is heartfelt, deeply personal yet universal, and full of hope. But it is also a classic romantic comedy for a certain generation, showing us that we can all be blessed with a second chance at life and love.”

With her sister Nora, Ephron co-authored the Off-Broadway play, Love, Loss and What I Wore. Her many movie credits – often co-written with her sister Nora -- include You’ve Got Mail, Michael, and Hanging Up, based on her novel. 

B'way Update: Illinoise, Ben Platt, Stranger Things

The cast of Illinoise which will 
transfer to the St. James in time for the Tonys.
Credit: Stephanie Berger

As if this Broadway season couldn't get any more crowded or crazy, we have a last-minute entry in time for the Tony Awards. Illinoise, the dance-theater adaptation of Sufjan Stevens' concept album Illinois, will transfer from its run at the Park Avenue Armory to the St. James Theater, on April 24--just before the Tony cut-off of April 25. The show will open the same night as Lincoln Center Theater's all-star revival of Uncle Vanya. The St. James became available when Monty Python's Spamalot ended its limited run earlier than expected. Illinoise will play a limited engagement through Aug. 10.

"We're absolutely thrilled to bring Illinoise to the St. James Theatre on Broadway.  This project has been ruminating in my mind for nearly 20 years, which makes this moment even more sublime,” says director-choreographer Justin Peck. The audience response throughout our engagement at Fisher Center at Bard, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Park Avenue Armory has been extraordinary, and we feel lucky that we get to continue sharing this unique show with future audiences on Broadway. Illinoise is a coming-of-age story that takes the audience on a journey through the American heartland -- from campfire storytelling to the edges of the cosmos -- all told in through a unique blend of music, dance, and theater. On behalf of my team, we welcome this rare opportunity with full hearts."

Binging on John Ford: Part 3: St. Patrick's Day Irish Movies

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne in
The Quiet Man.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here's a continuation of my consideration of John Ford's cinematic oeuvre, focusing on his Gaelic efforts. The director had an affinity for his ancestral home and two of his Oscars were for pix set in the Emerald Isle. The Quiet Man (1952) is lushly beautiful, gorgeously capturing the colorful scenery. Winton Hoch rightfully also won an Oscar for his cinematography. However, it lost Best Picture to Cecil B. DeMille's extravagant and schmaltzy The Greatest Show on Earth, probably for CB's model train wreck (Steven Speilberg pays tribute to this sequence in his autobiographical pic The Fabelmans). But Ford was no slouch when it came to schmaltz. The New Yorker's critic Philip Hamburger sneered,  "If am to believe what I saw in John Ford's sentimental new film, The Quiet Man, practically everybody in Ireland is just as cute as a button....Mr. Ford's scenes of the Irish countryside are often breathtaking ... but the master who made The Informer appears to have fallen into a vat of treacle."

Return to 2022 Oscar Nominees

Ana de Armas in Blonde
Credit: Netflix

Now that the 2024 Oscars are over, I can return to catching up on nominated films from previous years. Recently viewed on Netflix were Blonde, the bizarre adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' massive novel based on the turbulent life and career of Marilyn Monroe which earned Ana de Armas a Best Actress nomination and Animated Featured nominee Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Ironically, Blonde also won Worst Picture and Screenplay from the Golden Raspberry Awards. It was also nominated for Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor for  Evan Williams and Xavier Samuels who played Charlie Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. Robinson Jr. The film switched from black and white to color. The cinematography was beautiful, creating the look of black and white photography of the 1950s and the super saturated color of the era. de Armas gives a heartfelt performance, but the film is exploitative while condemning the exploitation of Marilyn. There are numerous gratuitous topless scenes.

Marcel was cute as the dickens and very sweet. Mixing animation and live action, Marcel depicts the relationship between a documentary filmmaker and a one-inch shell whose family has disappeared. Sentimental without being cloying.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on
Credit: A24

Book Review: Thank You, Mr. Nixon

(Downloaded from my Kindle for $5.95. Read mostly on my I-phone) I was intrigued by the first story in this collection where a Chinese girl writes a letter to the late president who opened up relations between her country and the US. In the first line she says she's sorry he's in hell while she's in heaven. That's a grabber. What follows is a series of interconnected tales of Chinese people in China, America, and Hong Kong and how they deal with cultural displacement. "No politics, just make money," says Tina Ko whose three daughters each react differently to China's authoritarian regime. That advice reverberates through the stories as the characters' choices have great impact. "Rothko, Rothko" was probably my favorite. As a side hustle, an English Literature professor in NYC commissions an artist to create an imitation Rothko for Tina and her husband Johnson. Meanwhile he has to report a favorite student for using AI on her paper on Middlemarch. When is it best to be totally honest? He tries to help the artist whose mother is sick in China and relies on her daughter for financial help but must report the student who will certainly be suspended. The conflict are fascinating.

Book Review: My Name Is Barbra

(A Christmas present. Finally finished two and a half months later) As I was reading this door-stopper of an autobiography on the subway, a woman said to me as she was exiting, "I admire you, sir." I was startled and said, "Why, because I'm reading this huge book?" She laughed and nodded her head. The sheer size of Streisand's enormous tome is not surprising when you start reading it and how she relies every detail of every experience she's every had. Some would call her obsessed or controlling. If she were a man, she would be labelled commanding and thorough. But despite the meticulousness, My Name Is Barbra is an engrossing account of one of the most unique and talented entertainers of her time, certainly the best singer and among the best actresses. 

From the decoration of her dressing rooms to the sound mixing of her albums to directorial decisions, Streisand leaves nothing out. If you want to know how to launch a career, put together a TV special, mount a concert tour, deal with difficult studio heads, furnish a home, or process an insanely jealous mother--Babs will let you know how. We learn so much about Broadway, Hollywood, political activism and the music biz, it's like a college seminar. The personal side is not neglected with honest appraisals of her two marriages (to Elliot Gould--they were both too young--and James Brolin--he arrived in her life at exactly the right time) as well her many extended relationships and dalliances. There are also the tragic might-have-been projects such as The Normal Heart, a remake of Gypsy and a sequel to The Way We Were. A fat, juicy lovefest for Streisand fans--of which I am one.

Final Oscar Predictions

Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Lily Gladstone,
Cillian Murphy

With the viewing of The Color Purple on Max, I've seen all the Oscar acting nominees, plus the Best Picture candidates and almost all those in the running for the major categories. (I tried to watch Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning on Paramount +, but I was bored out of my mind after 30 minutes. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of these people.) Here are my predictions for the winners which will be handed out tomorrow night.

Best Picture: Oppenheimer

Best Actor: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Best Actress: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer

Best Supporting Actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Best Original Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall (Though I would vote for Past Lives)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Barbie (a consolation prize from Greta Gerwig being snubbed in the Director Category)

Best International Feature: The Zone of Interest

Best Documentary Feature: 20 Days in Mariupol

Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (I would go with The Boy and the Heron, but Spidey is getting more buzz including winning at the Annie Awards)

Best Editing, Sound, Cinematography, Original Score: Oppenheimer

Best Costume Design, Production Design: Barbie

Best Original Song: "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie

Best Make-up and Hairstyling: Maestro

Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One (This is the only one in the category I haven't seen yet--apart from the remaining two hours and ten mins. of Mission Impossible. But everyone seems to be predicting the Japanese monster to roll over the competition.)

Best Live-Action Short: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Best Animated Short: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (My preference is Ninety-Five Senses but this cloying pacifist message short won at the Annie Awards.) 

Best Documentary Short: The ABCs of Book Banning (This one sends the proper liberal message, but it's kinda dull. If I were voting, I'd go with The Last Repair Shop or Nai Nai and Wai Po)

B'way Update: Washington and Gyllenhaal to Star in Othello

Denzel Washington

Get ready for the highest-profile star casting in several years, if not decades. Oscar and Tony winner Denzel Washington (Training Day, Fences) and Tony and Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Sea Wall/A Life, Brokeback Mountain) will co-star in a revival of Shakespeare's Othello, set to open in Spring 2025. To add to the marquee value, the play will be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun) who will also be staging a new production of Our Town during the same 2024-25 season. Leon directed Washington in The Iceman Cometh, Raisin, and Fences. Further casting is to be announced.

This will be the 22nd production of Othello on Broadway. The most recent was in 1982 with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. The most famous was probably in 1943 with Paul Robeson, Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Recent Off-Broadway productions have starred Raul Julia and Christopher Walken, David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig, John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier have played the jealousy-ridden Moor on screen.

Estelle Parsons' Weird Semi-Exit from The Conners

Laurie Metcalf and Estelle Parsons 
in The Conners

Episode 3 of Season 6 of The Conners (aired Feb. 21) featured a weird semi-exit from the series for 96-year-old Estelle Parsons. Her character Bev (mother of the late Roseanne and her sister Jackie) was on an experimental drug trial that improved her cognitive functions, lessened her dementia and brightened her mood. In this new state of being, Bev proposes she and Jackie (the brilliant Laurie Metcalf) spend a day together in Chicago for some long overdue mother-daughter bonding. 

At Union Station in the Windy City, Bev reveals she plans to go on a "great adventure" while she still has her wits about her and to board a train headed eastwards. She has no specific destination in mind and only one small bag of her belongings. She hugs Jackie and apologizes for her belittling behavior. (She wanted to have one perfect day with her daughter before losing her mind.) Jackie protests but lets her go. If only real life could be this simple--letting your nearly century-old mother on a train with no clear plan or means of support. You say goodbye and go on about your life.

B'way Update: Forbidden B'way Finally Makes It to B'way

The cast of the London edition of
Forbidden Broadway.
Credit: Alistair Muir

Forbidden Broadway is finally making it to Broadway. The latest iteration of the long-running parody series--Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song will begin previews at the Hayes Theater on July 29 with an opening set for Aug. 15. The limited engagement will play through Nov. 1. The five-person cast (including an onstage pianist) will be announced at a later date. There will also be special weekly guest stars appearing throughout the run.

The first edition of Forbidden Broadway opened in 1982 at Palsson's Supper Club and ran for 2,332 performances. Various editions have played over 200 US cities as well as in London, Tokyo, Singapore, and Sydney. Titles of the Off-Broadway versions include Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back, FB Goes to Rehab, FB 2001: A Spoof Odyssey, FB: Special Victims Unit, and FB: The Next Generation. 

Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging
(2014)

The show’s creator and director Gerard Alessandrini said, “I’d never have believed that Forbidden Broadway would end up on the street that we love - and love to lampoon.” For his work on the various versions of Forbidden Broadway, Alessandrini has won a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater, an Obie Award and two Drama Desk Awards for his lyrics. The show has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue three times.

Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song will be created around the current and recent seasons of Broadway and will include spoofs of the new and upcoming Broadway musicals and plays like The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, Hell’s Kitchen and Back to the Future, as well as current and recent Sondheim revivals like Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Company and Merrily We Roll Along.