B'way Update: Death Becomes Her

Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in
Death Becomes Her in Chicago.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and
Evan Zimmerman

Death Becomes Her, the musical version of the 1992 film comedy starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as deadly frenemies, will be coming to Broadway after a run at Chicago's Cadillac Palace where it is playing until June 2. Previews begin Oct. 23 at the Lunt-Fontanne prior to a Nov. 12 opening. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her features a book by Marco Pennette, and an original score by Julia Mattison & Noel Carey. 

The cast will be headlined by Tony nominees Megan Hilty (Wicked, “Smash”), Jennifer Simard (Company, Disaster!), Christopher Sieber (Spamalot, Company), and Grammy® Award winner Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child, Chicago). 

Madeline Ashton is the most beautiful actress (just ask her) ever to grace the stage and screen. Helen Sharp is the long-suffering author (just ask her) who lives in her shadow. They have always been the best of frenemies… until Madeline steals Helen’s fiancé away. As Helen plots revenge and Madeline clings to her rapidly fading star, their world is suddenly turned upside down by Viola Van Horn, a mysterious woman with a secret that’s to die for. 

After one sip of Viola’s magical potion, Madeline and Helen begin a new era of life (and death) with their youth and beauty restored…and a grudge to last eternity.

 Life’s a bitch and then you die. Or not!

B'way Update: George Clooney, Sarah Snook, Darren Criss

George Clooney in the film version of
Good Night and Good Luck.
Credit: Warner Bros./Allstar

More film and TV stars including George Clooney, Sarah Snook and Darren Criss are announcing their Broadway debuts or returns. Oscar winner Clooney will make his first Broadway appearance in a stage version of Good Night and Good Luck, the 2005 film about pioneering TV journalist Edward R. Murrow and his crusade against the red-baiting tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. The script is by Clooney and Grant Heslov, based on their screenplay. Clooney directed the film and played Fred Friendly, the president of CBS News, and Murrow's boss. David Strathairn played Murrow in the film and was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. In the play Clooney will be playing Murrow and Tony winner David Cromer will direct.

In a statement, Mr. Cromer said, “Edward R. Murrow operated from a kind of moral clarity that feels vanishingly rare in today’s media landscape. There was an immediacy in those early live television broadcasts that today can only be effectively captured on stage, in front of a live audience.”

Mr. Clooney added, “I am honored, after all these years, to be coming back to the stage and especially, to Broadway, the art form and the venue that every actor aspires to.”

Good Night and Good Luck will open on Broadway at a Shubert house in Spring 2025.

Theater World Award Winners

A.J. Shively and David McElwee
in Philadelphia, Here I Come
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

Theater award season is in full swing. Yesterday, the Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Circle Award winners were announced. Today, the 78th annual Theater World Award winners for outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway debuts were announced. The awards will be presented on Mon. June 10 at 8:08pm at the Marquis Theater on the set of The Wiz. In addition to the honorees, A.J. Shively of Philadelphia, Here I Come will receive the 15th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater. As previously announced, Tony Award winner Len Cariou will receive the 11th Annual John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, and a 2024 TWA Special Award will be presented to theater journalist Peter Filichia, who has hosted the event for many years.

2024 Theatre World Award Honorees
For Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance
during the 2023-2024 theatrical season

Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Who’s Tommy
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
Brody Grant, The Outsiders
Michael Imperioli, Enemy of the People
Phillip Johnson Richardson, The Wiz
Will Keen, Patriots
Nichelle Lewis, The Wiz
Rachel McAdams, Mary Jane
Maleah Joi Moon, Hell’s Kitchen
Tom Pecinka, Stereophonic
Sarah Pidgeon, Stereophonic
Chris Stack, Stereophonic

The Theater World Awards will present a logistical problem for several of the honorees. The Drama Desk Awards will be held the same day at 6:10pm at the NYU Skirball Center in Greenwich Village. At the DDs, Cole Escola is receiving the Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award and Shively, Grant, Keen, McAdams, and Moon are nominees in the performance categories. In addition, Peckina, Pidgeon and Stack are part of the Outstanding Ensemble Award for Stereophonic. So if they plan to attend both events, they will need rapid transportation from downtown to Times Square.

Book Review: Ripley's Game

(Downloaded on my Kindle for $3): This is the third of Patricia Highsmith's five Ripley novels. Preferable to the second, Ripley Underground which had some extraneous characters and credulity-stretching incidents. This time, every moment and character is essential to the story and it all makes sense. The sociopathic Ripley toys with the fate of an innocent acquittance just because he was offended by the man's tone when they meet casually at a party. Murder on a moving train, the mafia, hit jobs, disposing of bodies, all are described with tension and detail. I couldn't put it down. Once again, Highsmith demonstrates how "ordinary" people can be slowly drawn into committing heinous crimes if the price is right.

Stereophonic, Dead Outlaw Top NYDCC Awards

Dead Outlaw was voted Best Musical
by the New York Drama Critics Circle
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Stereophonic and Dead Outlaw were named Best Play and Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle during its 88th annual meeting on May 13 to chose the top productions of the season. The awards, which will be presented during a private ceremony on Tuesday, May 21, include a cash prize of $2,500 for best play, made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

A joint special citation was awarded to the revivals of Merrily We Roll Along and Purlie Victorious. A joint special citation was also awarded to married actors Maryann Plunkett and Jay O. Sanders for lifetime achievement; Ms. Plunkett appeared this season in The Notebook and Deep Blue Sound, Mr. Sanders in Primary Trust and Purlie Victorious. They also appeared in Richard Nelson's Rhinebeck Panorama cycle of plays at the Public Theater and on Zoom during the COVID pandemic. A third special citation was awarded to writer-composer Heather Christian, whose Terce: A Practical Breviary premiered this season.

Jay O. Sanders and Maryann Plunkett
seen here in What Happened: The Michaels Abroad
will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award
Credit: Jason Ardizzone-West

Stereophonic Leads Outer Critics Circle Awards

Stereophonic continues to dominate the 2023-24 theater award season. David Adjmi's play about a Fleetwood Mac-like group won four categories from the Outer Critics Circle. In addition to Outstanding New Broadway Play, Stereophonic won for Outstanding Director of a Play (Daniel Aukin), Scenic Design (David Zinn in a tie with Paul Tate dePoo III, for The Great Gatsby) and Sound Design (Ryan Rumery). Suffs, the musical chronicling the Women's Suffrage Movement received three awards including Outstanding Broadway Musical, Book and Score (both by Shaina Taub). Off-Broadway’s Dead Outlaw and Primary Trust also scored three wins each, and the 2024 John Gassner Award for New American Play went to Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! Escola also won Outstanding Lead Performance in an Off-Broadway Play in a tie with William Jackson Harper of Primary Trust. Winners were announced on Mon. May 13 and the awards will be presented on May 23 in a ceremony at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the Lincoln Center NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. 

Later the same day, the New York Drama Critics Circle voted Stereophonic Best Play and Dead Outlaw Best Musical (those awards will be covered in a separate blog post.)

The Outer Critics Circle is composed of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers and national publications. The OCC has separate awards for on and Off-Broadway in some categories and considers both venues together in others. Last year, the performance categories were made gender-neutral. 

Stereophonic is now the leading contender for Best Play at the Drama Desks and Tonys. Suffs may have a leg-up for the Tonys, but Hell's Kitchen, The Outsiders and Illinoise still look strong. 

Founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season by respected theater journalist John Gassner, The Outer Critics Circle is an esteemed association with members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online news organizations, in America and abroad. Led by its current President David Gordon, the OCC Board of Directors also includes Vice President Richard Ridge, Recording Secretary Joseph Cervelli, Corresponding Secretary Patrick Hoffman, Treasurer David Roberts, Cynthia Allen, Harry Haun, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson and Doug Strassler. Simon Saltzman is President Emeritus & Board Member (Non-nominating) and Stanley L. Cohen serves as Financial Consultant & Board Member (Non-nominating). Lauren Yarger serves as the Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony executive producer.

Here's a list of the winners:

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

Off-B'way Update: Holland Taylor, Ana Villafane in N/A

Holland Taylor and Ana Villafane
will co-star in N/A.

Emmy winner and Tony nominee Holland Taylor (The Practice, Ann) and Theater World Award winner Ana Villafane (On Your Feet) will co-star in N/A, a new play by Mario Correa (Dark Waters, TAIL! SPIN!), chronicling the conflict between the first woman Speaker of the House and the youngest one ever elected to Congress. Tony winner Diane Paulus (Jagged Little Pill, Pippin, Waitress) directs this two-hander at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater with previews beginning June 11 ahead of a June 23 opening. (Note: this is not a Lincoln Center Theater production).

The play is described as based on real events, but does not specify who the characters are modeled on. So probably, the N is Nancy Pelosi, twice Speaker of the House, and the A is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes, the representative from Queens and the Bronx, NY who defied Pelosi as she and her colleagues (known as the Squad) pursued an ultra-liberal agenda and Pelosi sought the middle ground in order to get legislation passed. Taylor previously played another powerful political woman in the one-woman play Ann about Texas governor Ann Richards. Full disclosure: Ocasio-Cortez is my Congressperson in Jackson Heights, Queens. It had been Ocasio-Cortez when she was first elected. Then redistricting switched it to Grace Meng. Now after another round of changing boundaries, we have Ocasio-Cortez again.

Off-B'way Update: Public Theater 2024-25 Season

Cara Ricketts, Joel Ashur, and Johnny Ramey
in Good Bones at the Studio Theater
in Washington, DC.
Credit: Margot Schulman

Yet another Gatsby, a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames, four short pieces by Caryl Churchill, and the reopening of the Delacorte in Central Park are among the offerings in the Public Theater's 2024-25 season. 

The season opens with the North American premiere of Belvoir St Theater's Counting and Cracking by S. Shakthidharan about a Sri Lakan-Australian family from 1964-2004. Sept. 6-22 (opening Sept. 12) at the NYU Skirball Center.

Good Bones by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames (Fat Ham) follows Sept. 19-Oct. 13 (opens Oct. 1).  A work opportunity to revitalize the blighted neighborhood she grew up in has led Aisha and her chef husband Travis to buy and renovate a charming old house. But as everyone knows, renovation is expensive and stressful—both for buildings and the communities that surround them. Aisha's young contractor Earl grew up in the area too, but his memories are of more than just dangerous streets and hollowed-out homes. The Public's Associate Artistic Director Saheem Ali directs this New York premiere play about community, change, and the soul of our cities.

Australian playwright David Finnigan will star in his solo play Deep History combining 75,000 years of human history and his personal experience with the deadly brush fires which consumed his home town of Camberra. (Oct. 5-27, opens Oct. 10).

B'way Update: Robert Downey, Jr. To Make B'way Debut in MCNEAL

Oscar winner Robert Downey, Jr.
will make his B'way debut in MCNEAL.

Robert Downey, Jr., who recently won the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Critics' Choice Awards for Oppenheimer, will make his Broadway debut in MCNEAL, a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced). Performances begin Sept. 2 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater as part of Lincoln Center Theater's 40th season, with a Sept. 30 opening for a limited run through Nov. 24. Tony winner Bartlett Sher (LCT's The King and I, South Pacific, My Fair Lady). 

Downey will play the title role, Jacob McNeal, a world-famous novelist contending with his alienated son, his latest work, grudges and axes to grind, and the looming specter of Artificial Intelligence. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Primary Trust Wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Jay O. Sanders and William Jackson Harper in
Primary Trust, Pulitzer Prize winner for 2024.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Primary Trust, Eboni Booth's drama of a bookstore clerk dealing with losing his job and childhood trauma, has won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The runners-up are Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich (currently playing at New York Theater Workshop) and Public Obscenities by Shayok Misha Chowdhury. Primary Trust played last summer at Roundabout Theater Company's Off-Broadway Laura Pels stage. The cast included William Jackson Harper, Eric Berryman, Jay O. Sanders, April Mathis, and Luke Wygodny. The play was directed by Knud Adams who also directed last year's Pulitzer winner, English. 

The citation reads "A simple and elegantly crafted story of an emotionally damaged man who finds a new job, new friends and a new sense of worth, illustrating how small acts of kindness can change a person’s life and enrich an entire community."

The jury members for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama included Janice Simpson (chair), Lisa Fung, Lily Janiak, Chay Yew, and Tracy Letts.

(pray), Comeuppance Win Big at 39th Lortels

(pray) won 3 Lortel Awards
Credit: Ben Arons

(pray), the musical on faith presented by Ars Nova and National Black Theater, and The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, were the big winners at the 39th Lortel Awards, winning Outstanding Musical and Play respectively. (pray) won the most awards with 3, also taking Outstanding Director and Ensemble. The awards for outstanding Off-Broadway theater and named for the legendary producer Lucille Lortel were presented on May 5 at the NYU Skirball Center. 

Hosts included Rosalind Chao (Atlantic Theater Company’s “What Became of Us”), Jenn Colella (“SUFFS”), Michael Esper (The Creator, Drama Desk Award nominee, “Appropriate”), Eden Espinosa (Tony Award nominee, “Lempicka”), Nikki M. James (Tony & Lortel Award nominee, “SUFFS”), and BD Wong (Atlantic Theater Company’s “What Became of Us”). 

Special honorees this year included Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Ruben Santiago-Hudson, presented by Phylicia Rashad; Playwrights’ Sidewalk inductee Dominique Morisseau, presented by Kamilah Forbes; and Ars Nova, honored for their Outstanding Body of Work with a presentation by award-winning director Anne Kauffman.

The Lortels are the first theater awards to be presented this season, the Outer Critics, New York Drama Critics Circle, Theater World, Drama Desk and finally the Tonys will follow in the next weeks.

The Comeuppance was named 
Outstanding Play at the Lortels
Credit: Monique Carboni

A list of winners and nominees follows:

Book Review: Ripley Underground

(Downloaded on my Kindle for $3.) After watching Netflix's Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley,  I discovered there were five Ripley novels and started reading this one, the second in the series, published in 1970, several years after the initial one. These books are not whodunits, but who-will-get-murdered? and how-will-Ripley-get-away-with-it. In the first book, Ripley takes over the identity of Dickie Greenleaf, a trust-fund spoiled brat living in beautiful Italy. In Ripley Underground, the bisexual sociopath is living comfortably in the South of France with a gorgeous wife, a beautiful house with a housekeeper and enough money to live a life of leisure. But he can't keep away from the sleazy side, involving himself with a ring of art forgers. Highsmith is expert at depicting how seemingly everyday, moral people can be drawn into crime and murder. I had problems with the latter half of the book which I can't go into without revealing spoilers. (I didn't believe certain Ripley's machinations or his getting away with certain acts.) But the series was intriguing enough to make me start the next book as soon as I finished this one.