B'way Update: Downstate and Blueberries

Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman
in Downstate at Playwrights Horizons.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Two plays which had critically acclaimed Off-Broadway runs, Bruce Norris' Downstate and Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich's Here There Are Blueberries, have announced Broadway engagements. Downstate will play the Booth Theater this fall (no specific dates have been posted), according to the Chicago Tribune, while Blueberries will start previews at the Barrymore Theater on Nov. 2 and open on Nov. 9. 

Downstate, Norris' play about four men convicted of sexual offenses living in a group home, opened at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater in 2018, played London in 2019, then opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2022, and Washington DC in 2025. The New York Drama Critics Circle voted it the Best Play of the 2022-23 season. This Broadway edition will be a new staging, directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello. (The previous productions were directed by Pam McKinnon.) The Tribune also reports that Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman, veterans of the Chicago, London, and NYC versions, will repeat their roles. 

During Downstate's DC run, conservative politicians slammed the play for its humanistic portrayal of sex offenders. Norris stated before the NYC run, “A depiction of something is not an endorsement. But, I do think that witnessing the lives of characters on stage encourages identification, and if you spend two hours in the company of a group of sex offenders, do you emerge from the experience with your certainty about them momentarily disrupted? The goal is not to forgive, but rather to complicate an easy and casually cruel response.”

Kathleen Chalfant, Nemuna Ceesay,
Jonathan Raviv, and Elizabeth Stahlmann in
Here There Are Blueberries at NYTW.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Blueberries is Tectonic Theater Project's documentary dramatization of the discovery of a book of photographs of Nazi officials and staff of a concentration camp enjoying themselves in leisure activities. The play opened at La Jolla Playhouse in 2022 and played Off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop in 2024. It subsequently was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won a Lortel Award for Best New Play. 

Says Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project Executive Director Matt Joslyn in a statement: “For Tectonic Theater Project, bringing Here There Are Blueberries to Broadway is the culmination of a remarkable journey. These photographs hold a mirror up to our humanity in the most intimate and unsettling way. We have to look at them—not to understand the people in the pictures, but to better understand ourselves.” 

Both shows deal with facing uncomfortable figures and show a trend towards mining Off-Broadway for Broadway dramatic productions. There are only four totally new plays planned for the Main Stem this season and 12 play revivals.

B'way Review: Paranormal Activity

Travis A. Knight and Cher Alvarez
in Paranormal Activity.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

It’s rare that the sound designer is the star of a production, but that is the case with Paranormal Activity, the play based on the popular horror film franchise, now at the August Wilson Theater after a London run and an American tour. Gareth Fry’s ultra creepy soundscape perfectly sets the mood for this scarefest. Before the show even begins, we are assaulted with seemingly innocent radio chatter as we find our seats. As the lights dim, the volume menacingly increases until it feels as if our eardrums will shatter. The curtain raises and we find ourselves in what appears to be a perfectly mundane London house (Fly Davis designed the deceptively ordinary two-story setting.) Everyday transactions take up most of the first act (including one actor simulating using the toilet), but Fry’s ominous combination of creepy music and foreboding sounds puts the chill up the audience’s collective spine.

Cher Alvarez and Travis A. Knight in
Paranormal Activity.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Horror is not a genre that has fared well on Broadway. There have been long-running thrillers such as Deathtrap and Sleuth. But the only genuine horror plays to achieve significant runs that come to mind are the original Dracula from 1927 and the Frank Langella 1977 revival, the still-running Stranger Things prequel and Lost Boys musical. (Three previous vampire-themed musicals flopped resoundingly.) I wouldn’t call the Harry Potter play a horror genre piece though it does contain scary elements. But the recent trend of immersive, supernatural experiences Off-Broadway such as Sleep No More and Viola’s Room shows there is a market for spooky spectacle. Felix Barrett who directed both those productions does an admirable job here of maintaining and building a frightening atmosphere and author Levi Holloway’s structure is much stronger than his mystical misfire Grey House from 2023. 

There isn’t much point in recapping the plot. Holloway’s script is standard haunt fare and this critic does not want to reveal any spoilers. It’s the shocks and effects that make the show, thanks to Chris Fisher’s astonishing illusions and Anna Watson’s spectral shadowy lighting. Luke Halls’ video and projection design also induces several shutter-worthy moments. There’s one particular effect towards the end of the first act that sends screams through the theater and prompts an epic ovation. 

Cher Alvarez in Paranormal Activity.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

But to deliver the bare essentials of the story: Young marrieds Lou (Cher Alvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight) have recently moved to London. Through an obvious expositional video phone call with James’ religious mother (Shannon Cochran) in Florida, we learn the couple has been through a series of unspecified traumatizing events in their former home of Chicago. As the pair goes about setting up housekeeping, odd and upsetting occurrences mount up. Doors open and close by themselves, the lights flicker, the security alarm suddenly blares, the doorbell rings and there’s no one there. The true source of the pair’s growing anxiety and fear is gradually revealed and a paranormal investigator and podcaster (Eva Kaminsky) is called in to investigate. Secrets are revealed and the horrors build in intensity to a shattering twist ending.

The acting is perfectly serviceable with Alvarez and Knight incrementally conveying the terror engulfing Lou and James. Alvarez is particularly effective in slowly revealing Lou’s growing dread. Cochran and Kaminsky subtly display multiple aspects of their characters, shifting subtly from believable reality to Twilight Zone territory.

The audience has a ball getting scared to death. The screams and shreiks are often followed by delighted laughter and at the curtain call, the cast sported broad smiles as if to say “You really got you, didn’t we?” Paranormal is the theatrical equivalent of a four-star-screamer, a summertime spooky movie. In fact, one could argue that horror is more effective in the theater than on screen. Film has all sorts of special effects at its disposal while on stage, the illusion is more mystifying and inexplicable and therefore more frightening. So for a bone-chilling night out, creep over to the August Wilson. 

Aug. 25—Jan. 3, 2027. August Wilson Theater, 245 W. 52nd St., NYC. Running time: two hours including intermission. atgtickets.com.

Book Reviews: Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them and Other Political Plays; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

(Borrowed from NY Public Library at 40th St.): After reading some other Christopher Durang plays, I found these two books at the public library on 40th Street in Manhattan. Why Torture Is Wrong exhibits Durang's savage dark humor and Vanya, probably his best work, is gentler in its satire but just as funny. The first play was written at the height of George W. Bush's war on terror when torture was deemed justifiable if it meant protecting the US from terrorist attacks. Durang viciously parodies the American position, but also mercilessly mocks extremism on the other side. No one is safe from his satirical sword (OK, I stole that phrase from the Dick Van Dyke Show). I remember seeing the play at the Public Theater and laughing in shock and disbelief. The Torture volume also contains excerpts from Durang's Sex and Longing which played Broadway in 1995. The author was unsatisfied with the play overall and it has not been published in its entirety. But he did like some of the scenes and there are reprinted here in keeping with the theme of political plays. In Sex and Longing, Durang's drama school classmate Sigourney Weaver starred as the sexually addicted Lulu, modeled on the character from the opera. The religious right's obsession with censorship and sexuality comes in for a beating. Dana Ivey was brilliant as a repressed Senator's wife. I don't remember how the play ended but I do recall laughing. The collection also included several short plays also published in Naomi in the Living Room and Other Short Plays.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike combines dark humor with a more humane tone. Durang called this play "Chekhov in a blender." Elements of all four major Chekhov plays combine in this wild comedy which also contains pathos and tragedy. The play opened at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse and then transferred to Broadway, winning every major award including the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle Award. This is Durang's most successful play because the characters are more than just bizarre cartoons. I'm happy that he had a big hit.

Rereading Durang led me to find my old paperback copy of Christopher Durang Explains It All for You from 1982 which I bought for $2.95. (It was in my storage bin) This volume contains six of his shorter plays and was printed when his Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You was a hit Off-Broadway. These are all pretty dark and include murder, dismemberment, and abuse. But they're all funny.

L.I. Who Con 2026

Long Island Who 2026, the annual Doctor Who convention held in Holtsville at the Holiday Inn, was a bittersweet experience. Not only is Doctor Who currently in limbo, but the organizers of this annual celebration of all things Who have run out of money and have no plans to continue. I first attended in 2024, had to miss 2025 (I forget what my conflict was), and booked this year, looking forward to many more. I learned during the con that this would be the last one for a while. This hiatus coincided with the suspension of production on the series itself. Disney Plus dropped its option, leading man Ncuti Gatwa left, and the BBC put the Doctor "out to tender." This is a new show-biz phrase to me. It means they are sending the property out into the universe for any interested producer to sign on and make new episodes. In addition, there are no plans that I know of for the spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea to air in the US.

Despite these setbacks, I did have a great time meeting fellow Whovians and stars and personnel from the series I first fell in love with about 50 years ago when the local Philadelphia PBS channel would show Tom Baker episodes with Howard Da Silva narration on Saturday afternoons. 

Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse
and Janet Fielding in the Black Orchid
episode of Dr. Who.

Friday Aug. 14 had only a few events. The highlight was a screening of the 5th Doctor episode, Black Orchid, with Peter Davison (5th Doctor) and his wife Elizabeth Morton offering comments like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 riff. The audience was invited to make jokes too. Davison said he thought the writer had a country-house-weekend mystery tucked away in his drawer and refashioned it slightly as a Doctor Who script.

There was an hour of clips of Dr. Who-related material including Katy Manning (Jo Grant from the Dr. #3 era) introducing the top ten favorite episodes, Peter Davison in a coffee commercial, Davison on a chat show throwing a chair in imitation of a Doctor maneuver, etc. Katy did a panel with her friend Jane Goddard who voiced an alien character on an audio adventure and is married to a Dr. Who writer. Both were delightful and we learned that Katy was good friends with Liza Minnelli. She had gone to boarding school with her and she told stories of visiting with Judy Garland and Sid Luft, Garland's husband at the time.

Peter Davison and Elizabeth
Morton watching Black Orchid at
LI Who.

The hotel where the convention was being held was way too expensive, so I stayed in a cheap motel in nearby Ronkonkoma. The smoke detector in my room was chirping and I had to get the janitor to remove it from the wall.

B'way Update: 10 Things I Hate About You; Invalid Casting

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in
10 Things I Hate About You.
Credit: Touchstone Pictures/Allstar

A year from today, 10 Things I Hate About You, a new musical based on the 1999 film comedy, will begin performances on Broadway. Cast, a theater, and an opening date have not yet been set. The show which set Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew in a modern high school will feature  a book by eight-time Emmy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award-winner Lena Dunham and award-winning playwright Jessica Huang, music and lyrics by Grammy Award nominee Carly Rae Jepsen and Grammy Award-winner Ethan Gruska, direction and choreography by two-time Tony-winner Christopher Wheeldon, and music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations by two-time Tony and Grammy Award-winner Tom Kitt. 

In other news, Roundabout Theater Company has announced the complete cast and dates for its revival of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, adapted by and starring Tony winner Bill Iwin. The classic comedy of a hypochondriac will begin previews Sept. 25 at the Todd Haimes Theater and open on Oct. 22. Irwin will be joined by Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Tony nominee Dylan Baker (La Bete), Tony nominee and Drama Desk winner Brooks Ashmanskas (Martin Short: Fame Become Me, Smash), Theater World Award winner Crystal A. Dickinson, Hiram Delgado, Daniel Croix Henderson, and Ava Lalezarzadeh. Tony nominee Brandon J. Dirden (The Piano Lesson, Waiting for Godot) will make his Broadway directorial debut.

Off-B'way Review: The Winter's Tale

Lily Rabe and Raul Esparza
in The Winter's Tale.
Credit: Joan Marcus

After a radical reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet, the Public Theater’s summer Shakespeare in the Park returns with a traditional and highly engaging production of The Winter’s Tale, one of the Bard’s lesser-known romances. This has always been one of the more difficult Shakespearean plays to bring off because of its fractured structure. The first half is a florid tragedy of jealousy destroying the peace of the kingdom of Sicilia while the second half is a comic frolic in the countryside of Bohemia. Director Daniel Sullivan balances the two halves perfectly by staging it straightforwardly without “concepts” or gimmicks and simply allowing the fantastic tale to unfold. Even the infamously ridiculous stage direction “exit, pursued by a bear” is cleverly and quickly conveyed the aide of Bradley King’s atmospheric lighting design. Maruti Evans’ imaginative set places the action on a giant clock, denoting the change of seasons and passage of time. The first half is set in wintry ice, suggesting the frigid environment of Sicilia’s court while the second becomes a lush spring garden, evoking the thawing of enmities.

The convoluted, fairy-tale-like storyline is set in motion by the Othello-like madness of King Leontes (an intense Raul Esparza) who suspects his faithful wife Hermione (a magnificent Lily Rabe) of cheating on him with his best friend, the visiting Polixenes, King of Bohemia (charismatic Gilbert Owuor). While imprisoned for her alleged infidelity, Hermione gives birth to a baby girl whom Leontes banishes. The queen dies of grief (or does she?), the child resurfaces in Bohemia sixteen years later, and after many machinations, all ends well.

Chuck Cooper (l.) and cast in
The Winter's Tale.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Sullivan treats the Bard’s fanciful devices as perfectly plausible and focuses on the human emotions generated by the not-quite-believable story. The cast creates credible people caught up in incredible circumstances. The standout is Rabe as the besieged Hermione. In previous productions, this pitiable heroine is played as a weak, defenseless victim, shrinking from her spouse’s unjustified wrath. Rabe is a tigress, railing against her wrongful accusations. Her physical life is startlingly realistic. In the trial scene, where Leontes is set to sentence his wife to death, Rabe as Hermione remembers that she has just given birth and is physically weak and exhausted. She is also dirty and disheveled (Linda Cho created the fanciful costumes). The actress plays against this condition to give full vent to Hermione’s rage and proves herself a roaring advocate for her defense.

Marsha Stephanie Blake, Lily Rabe,
and Raul Esparza in The Winter's Tale.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Esparza takes us on a roller-coaster of emotions from unreasoning jealousy to ragged regret. Marsha Stephanie Blake provides sturdy support as the sage councillor Paulina. Chuck Cooper gives unexpected depth to the comic role of the Old Shepherd who takes in the lost child Perdita (enchanting Isabela Ferrer). Steven Skybell ably doubles in two very different roles as Paulina’s put-upon husband Antigonus and the outrageously rascally theif Autolycus. Michael Khalid Karadsheh, Matthew Eby, Teagle F. Bougere, and Daniel Kyri also have moments to shine in this delightful summer romance spanning winter’s frost and spring’s flowering.

Aug. 11-23. Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater, Central Park at W. 81 St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 50 mins. including intermission. publictheater.org.

Off-B'way Reviews: An American Daughter; Disruption

Dakin Matthews and Mary Beth Peil in
An American Daughter.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Two Broadway veterans and incisive character actors, Dakin Matthews and Mary Beth Peil, deliver fascinating and detailed performances as a conservative Republican senator and his fourth wife, a seemingly flighty but actually canny socialite, in La Femme Theater Productions’ revival of Wendy Wasserstein’s 1997 play An American Daughter at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The trouble is these two wonderful actors are playing supporting characters and are not the center of the play. That role is Lyssa Dent Hughes, the senator’s daughter and nominee for Surgeon General whose appointment is in trouble. Lyssa is played by Jean Lichty, the executive producer of La Femme, who also starred in the company’s previous Off-Broadway revivals including Night of the Iguana and A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur. You have to admire Lichty for mounting a gorgeous production of a rarely-done play (Sarna Lapine smoothly directs and Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams designed the handsome Georgetown living room set). She wisely surrounds herself with a cast of Tony winners and nominees, but she lacks the acting heft to carry Daughter’s dramatic weight.

Montego Glover and Jean Lichty in
An American Daughter.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Wasserstein wrote the play in response to President Bill Clinton’s controversial appointments of two successive women for Attorney General, both of whom were lambasted and eventually withdrew because they did not pay Social Security taxes on wages for their nannies. Wasserstein used the incident to examine how women in public life were judged by unfair standards never applied to their male counterparts. Clinton’s wife Hillary would later find herself in similar sexist traps during her 2016 Presidential campaign. In Wasserstein’s fictional treatment, her candidate is a highly qualified doctor and descendent of President Ulysses S. Grant, tripped up by blowing off a jury summons and criticizing her mother for being a housewife. Wasserstein exhibited her customary wit and generated keen observations on women’s struggles to balance personal and political issues. It’s an entertaining and insightful work, but Daughter received mixed reviews and had a limited run of 89 performances.

Book Review: Turning Off the Morning News; Naomi in the Living Room and Other Short Plays

John Pankow, Kristine Nielsen, Rachel Nicks
and Robert Sella in Turning Off the
Morning News at McCarter Theater (2018).
Credit: T. Charles Erickson

(Borrowed from Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts): Christopher Durang is one of my favorite playwrights. His plays were marked with an insanely dark humor and veered awfully close to comedy sketches. He passed away in 2024 at 75 after being diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's Disease and I was thinking of him when I finished Julie Salomon's Wendy Wasserstein bio. They were close friends. His last full-length play Turning Off the Morning News, has yet to be produced in NYC so I was curious about it. It was produced at the McCarter Theater in 2018. In typical Durang fashion, he combines a tragic trend with wild satire. Like too many Americans, Jimmy is deeply depressed and fully armed. He threatens to kill himself and others in a mass shooting. His wife and son attempt to ignore and minimize his dangerous behavior. The neighbors Clifford and Salena aren't much better off. Both are recovering from personal tragedies and live together but are not married or romantically involved. The sixth character Rosalind suffers from multiple skin cancers and walks around with a pillow over her head to avoid exposure to the sun. Darkly funny and scary. Durang's Author's Note is deeply moving as he explains his reaction to our national epidemic of violence. I wish I had seen this production, particularly since Kristine Nielsen who has appeared in several of Durang's plays was in it. I still remember her inspired performance as Mrs. Sizemagraff in Betty's Summer Vacation. 

When I found this play at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, I also came across a collection of equally hilarious short Durang plays Naomi in the Living Room and Other Short Plays. These shorter pieces run no more than a few pages each and include contributions to revues, play festivals, TV shows and even a sketch for Carol Burnett and Robin Williams. As with Morning News, Durang's comments are as entertaining as the plays themselves. Among the mad playlets is a funny meeting between the Madwoman of Chaillot and Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan who each justify their questionable morals.

Off-B'way Update: Julianne Moore in Faydra

Julianne Moore will star in
Faydra for MTC.

Oscar winner Julianne Moore (The Vertical Hour on Broadway) returns to the New York stage in Faydra, Tony nominee Sarah Ruhl's modern adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy Phedre, a tale of a woman whose passion for her stepson leads to disaster. Tony nominee Les Waters (Dana H.) directs. Manhattan Theater Club presents the play at its Off-Broadway space at City Center Stage I with previews beginning Feb. 2, 2027 with an opening scheduled for Feb. 25. 

“There’s nothing like watching a homegrown Manhattan Theatre Club commission become a magnet for talent,” said MTC Artistic Director Nicki Hunter. “Sarah Ruhl’s bold, funny, and devastating reimagining of this classic tale will draw the immensely gifted Julianne Moore back to the stage, and mark Les Waters’ return to MTC after three decades. We look forward to announcing additions to this exciting company in the months ahead.”

Additional casting and another MTC production will be announced at a later date.

Off-B'way Review: The Saviors

Julius Rinzel and Ivan Howe in
The Saviors. Credit: Ahron R. Foster

Bubba Weiler emerges as a major playwriting talent with The Saviors, his second major Off-Broadway production, now at the Atlantic Theater Company. Apart from joining the American company of the Harry Potter play on Broadway, Weiner has appeared on the New York scene as an actor in Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State, portraying an ex-con barely holding on to a grinding truck delivery job. His sensitive performance of a desperate young man earned him nominations for Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Lortel Awards. He made his NY debut as a dramatist with last season’s multi-leveled and moving Well, I’ll Let You Go, a compassionate chronicle of a recent widow coming to terms with her loss and the varying reactions of her community. Weiler demonstrates he is no one-track pony with this new play, an equally probing examination of the painful search for faith in a confusing world.

Ivan Howe and Julius Rinzel in The Saviours.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

The setting is a Catholic church in a suburban neighborhood, possibly in the Midwest where middle schoolers and best pals Michael and Paul serve as altar boys. Devout Michael eagerly prepares for his upcoming confirmation while Paul is doubting the very existence of God. Their friendship and Christian belief is tested when homeless drifter Julian enters seeking shelter during a snowstorm. Conventional Michael bristles at allowing Julian to stay, but Paul secretly grants him access after hours by leaving the side door unlocked. Meanwhile, Michael seeks advice from Judy, the adult advisor of the church’s youth group. Unfortunately, Michael is the only kid that shows up for the first meeting and Judy is experiencing hidden struggles of her own involving her son whom she says is heading a mission in Africa.

Book Review: Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy

(Bought at Time and Space Limited Used Bookstore in Hudson, NY for $7): Charles Busch's wildly entertaining memoir is as funny as his dozens of stage comedies (I've seen 13 of them as well as two musicals for which he wrote the book, his cabaret act and two of his movie screenplays.) He alternates a straightforward narrative of his career from childhood, college and stage and film triumphs with amusing later encounters with the likes of Joan Rivers, Valerie Harper, Linda Lavin, Beatrice Arthur, Patrick Swayze, Liza Minnelli, Milton Berle, Esther Williams, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller, and many others. Busch came to prominence with Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, which he wrote and starred in and which ran for over 2,000 performances Off-Broadway. (The long run is attributed to the salacious title which brought in curious theatergoers.) Rather than relying on waiting for a big break that might never come, he created his own vehicles. He realized his strength and passion was for playing female roles in tribute to great stars like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. He wrote his own plays to star himself. The book joyfully chronicles his self-made journey to cult-goddess status.

I recently encountered Busch at the Broadway Flea Market. We chatted about a Bette Davis film I caught on TCM called Payment on Demand, one of the few screen appearances by Broadway star Jane Cowl. I loved that he knew who I was talking about and that he celebrates classic film divas. 

Book Review: Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein

(Bought at the Little Red Book Shack in Hudson, NY for $1):  Julie Salamon's well-researched biography of Pulitzer and Tony winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein reveals a complicated woman. Wasserstein became the voice of a generation of women who were underrepresented in media, advocating for fulfilling identities outside of male protection and dominance. In her personal life, she gravitated to gay men, and attempted to have a child with many of them. Her "husbands" included playwrights Christopher Durang and Terrence McNally, director Gerald Guitterez, artistic director Andre Bishop and costume designer William Ivey Long. She recreated her relationships with her family in plays like Isn't It Romantic and The Sisters Rosensweig and the real-life connections were even more complex. 

The book also provides a social history of changing women's roles in American society and the theater from the 60s into the early 2000s when Wendy passed away at the age of 55. 

I interviewed her once for a book I was writing on long-running on and Off-Broadway shows. My cousin went to college with her. I was an usher for the Off-Broadway run of Isn't Romantic at the Lucille Lortel Theater, so I saw the play many times. So it was fascinating to get to know the real Wendy, funny, smart, maternal, and complex.

B'way Update: Purple Rain

Prince in Purple Rain (1984)

A stage version of Prince's Purple Rain film and album will open on Broadway next spring at the Majestic Theater. Previews begin March 12, 2027 prior to an April 12 opening. The opening will coincide with the 42nd anniversary of the film's debut in 1984. A previous version opened at Minnesota's State Theater last year, but this edition will feature some new creative staffing. Saheem Ali (Buena Vista Social Club) takes over the directing reins from Lileana Blain-Cruz and Peter Duchan takes over as book writer from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The score features songs from the film by Prince who also starred in the movie. These songs include the title track, "When Doves Cry," "I Would Die 4 U," plus songs from Prince's oeuvre. The story follows an up-and-coming Minneapolis-based rock musician known as The Kid, struggling with his past and his rivalry with another scrappy rocker.

“Prince was an icon, and Purple Rain is iconic, one of the best musical films of my generation. I watched it as a teenager in Kenya, and though I was appropriately scandalized, it never left me, especially the music,” says Ali in a statement. “I am honored to join the Purple Rain family and help carry this story forward. Our aim is not only to honor the legacy that Prince built, but to make his timeless music feel urgent and alive, passing it on to the next generation of fans who will make it their own.”

Off-B'way Review: The Whoopi Monologues

Kecia Lewis (center) and cast of
The Whoopi Monologues.
Credit: Angela Marie Orellana

Back in 1984, the comedienne-actress Whoopi Goldberg seemed to come out of nowhere, bursting onto Broadway with an eponymous, self-written one-woman show presenting a quartet of characters rarely seen on what was then universally known as the Great White Way. She presented a sharp-edged, female, African-American perspective on our society. Her material was skewed in a comic way yet also achingly real and somewhat tragic. Goldberg went on to EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) status and now is best-known as a political commentator/talk-show host on ABC’s The View. She did headline a revival of her breakthrough piece in 2004 called simply Whoopi, adding a fifth segment addressing then-current concerns. 

A revival of Goldberg’s show, with five different performers enacting each monologue, has been given an imaginative and vital staging by Whitney White at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Though several of the allusions are dated (a commercial promoting Jamaican tourism, The Love Boat, dearth of racial minority representation on TV), the basic themes of political oppression of women, a lack of abortion access and little compassion for addiction are sadly still relevant. Divvying up the material diffuses the impact slightly and exposes the thinness of much of the material. Goldberg impressed with her versatility and comic timing (HBO filmed the event as a comedy special if you want to see Whoopi’s original performance). Fortunately, the current cast deliver complex, deep characterizations and encourage vocal audience reactions. In addition, White provides a varied staging with the aide of Studio Bent’s backstage-style set, Cha See’s versatile lighting, Hana S. Kim’s off-kilter videos and Fan Zhang’s edgy sound and original music. Qween Jean’s costumes combine street reality with individual style.

Saturday Morning Memories: Part 6

Lately out of sheer boredom, I watched two DVD cartoon collections from Mill Creek Productions I bought years ago at the upstate NY Walmart. They included several animated series I had totally forgotten. Some were hidden gems, others were so bad they were actually trainwreck watchable. Not all were on Saturday mornings. A few were syndicated and broadcast on our Philadelphia UHF channels (17, 29 or 48) while some were shown on local daily kiddie shows like Sally Starr or Adam Android which aired after school and after Dark Shadows (which played at 3:30pm on Channel 6, our ABC affiliate) and before the Mike Douglas Show. You notice there are no more kiddie shows with hosts and puppets showing cartoons? MeTV's Toon in with Me is a satire/parody and probably the only one. They've gone the way of Saturday morning cartoons in general since streaming and animated cable networks are available for adult and kid cartoon fixes 24/7. Here are some the rediscovered shows and a few others that resurfaced in my memory as a result.

Hoppity Hooper (1964-67): This amusing follow-up to Rocky and Bullwinkle from Jay Ward Productions

Waldo Wigglesworth, Hoppity Hooper
and Filmore the Bear

and Total Television was almost as clever as R&B. Like the flying squirrel and moose, it took place in a tiny Midwestern town (Foggy Bog, Wisconsin rather than Frostbite Falls, Minnesota) and follows the bizarre adventures of a diminutive hero (frog Hoppity) and a big, lumbering sidekick (Filmore the Bear whose voice was supplied by Bullwinkle's Bill Scott). The third recurring character was con man Professor Waldo Wigglesworth (Hans Conreid, who also voiced Snidley Whiplash in the Dudley Do-Right cartoons and played Danny Thomas' uncle on Make Room for Daddy) who claimed to be a fox but looked more like a wolf. Waldo's get-rich-quick schemes supplied the engine for the plots of the four-part stories. There were also occasional appearances by Waldo's girlfriend, the delightfully named Susan Swivlehips, who resembled a sluttier version of Underdog's Sweet Polly Purebread. Two segments began and ended each episode with the middle filled with repeats of Rocky and Bullwinkle features such as Fractured Fairy Tales, Aesop's Fables, Peabody's Improbable History and Total TV's Commander McBragg, The Hunter or Tooter the Turtle.

Hoppity's voice was done by actress Chris Allen. Back in the 1980s, I remember she gave voice-over classes in NYC. A friend took her class and Chris did Hoppity's voice for them.

I hadn't watched these stories in over 50 years, but they hold up. One particularly amusing sequence satirized the Twilight Zone with narrator Paul Frees imitating Rod Serling. The spoof was called The Traffic Zone and when Hoppity, Waldo and Filmore enter it, they are transformed into vegetables. To solve their dilemma, they, along with a female avocado, go off to see the Grand Asparagus rather than the Wizard of Oz. Another fun sequence had Hoppity in a blonde wig become a singing sensation as Baby Jane with The Croak. But then Susan knocks him off the charts with her own song, The Boing! (Come and do the Boing/It's not hard to loin.)

Off-B'way Update: Atlantic Season

The family musical Finn at Kennedy Center
before Trump (or his minions) pulled the plug.
Credit: Teresa Wood

Atlantic Theater Company has announced its 2026-27 season schedule which includes world premieres by Lucas Hnath (Dana H., A Doll's House, Part 2), Clare Barron (You Got Older), Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview), and Mona Pirnot (I Assume You Know David Greenspan). The company is currently presenting Bubba Weiler's The Saviors. Their fall season opens with Pirnot's I Became We (Oct. 16--Nov. 15) with music by Jack D. Coen and lyrics by Pirnot and Coen. This is a one-person monologue performed by a 30-person choir. 

Atlantic will also present children's theater with Finn, a family musical whose Kennedy Center tour was cancelled when Trump took over the venue, supposedly because it promoted tolerance of those who are different from you. (Dec. 12-Jan. 31 at Atlantic Theater Stage 2).

Deirdre O'Connell in Dana H.
Credit: Carol Rosegg

Next is Clare Barron's Too Bad for Her (Jan. 9-Feb. 14) about a 30-year affair. Anne Kauffman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window) directs. Lucas Hnath's Old Actress follows (March 18--April 25) reuniting him with his Dana H. star Deirdre O'Connell and director Les Waters. O'Connell won a Tony Award for playing a version of Hnath's mother. The play is described as a meta-threatrical experience about learning lines for a show.

The final attraction will be Push from Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury (May 27-July 3) with direction from Justin Peck and choreography by Peck and Patricia Degado, about the American premiere of a Russian defecting dancer and the American choreographer creating a piece for him. Set in 1976, it sounds a bit like it could be modeled on Mikhail Baryshnikov and Twyla Tharp.

Book Review: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!

(Borrowed from a friend) I have a lot more respect and sympathy for Liza Minnelli after reading this memoir, "as told to Michael Feinstein with Josh Getlin and Heidi Evans." (The writing process must have been interesting. I suspect Liza would have long tape-recored conversations with the singer and cabaret artist Feinstein, her best friend. Then Getlin and Evans would fashion the transcribed talks into the book.) Regardless of how the book was written, it does come across as Minnelli speaking to the reader like a close chum (hence the title.) In the latter part of her career, she was reported to be frequently drunk, high, in and out of rehab and detox programs (not just Betty Ford), and involved in a scandalous fourth marriage to a crook who stole almost all of her money. She was repeating the pattern of her famous mother Judy Garland who succumbed to her various addictions at 47. 

Here Liza explains, but doesn't justify, her numerous falls from grace with humor and humility, also the tremendous highs of performing live. Her addiction was inherited from her mom and so was her enormous talent. But she has overcome the former and tried to use the latter as best she can. I've seen her live twice on Broadway in her concerts Minnelli on Minnelli and Liza at the Palace. Both were electric experiences. She also details her many love affairs with everyone from Mikhail Baryshnikov to Ben Vereen. The book concluded with a furious backstage account of her wheelchair appearance to the 2022 Oscars. Apparently according to Liza, it was all Lady Gaga's fault. Maybe. A fast read from a fabulous lady I understand better now.

Off-B'way Review: Dad Don't Read This

Sophie Rossman, Kayta Thomas, Amalia Yoo, 
and Renee-Nicole Powell
in Dad Don't Read This.
Credit: Valerie Terranova

“You can’t be bad at this game. It’s like life but on the computer,” says one of the four young girls comprising the character list in Eliya Smith’s compelling and insightful play Dad Don’t Read This at the Greenwich House Theater after a run at St. Luke’s Theater. That line sums up her young characters’ conflicts between living real life and in the digital realm. As she did with her previous play on adolescent angst Grief Camp, Smith’s intense script is jagged, funny, painful, messy and very real. Dad follows a quartet of teen girlfriends obsessively playing the computer game SIMS where they create artificial worlds rather than cope with the actual one. The play begins with Mal reading a warning to her father, quoting the title, and pleading with him to stay away from her computer. The action takes place in Mal’s bedroom (Forest Entsminger designed the accurately chaotic set) as she negotiates the rocky path of adolescence and yearns to break out of her central Ohio town. Her friends Noelle, Sophie and Lida bicker, share secrets, and sleep over as they go through similar identity crises.

Smith compassionately documents the young ladies’ attempts at forging their own life stories and being kind to each other while surrounded by gossip and peer pressure. Director Chloe Claudel smoothly stages the action so the scenes flow into each other as Mal deals with her warring parents, creating homes and activities for her SIMS creations, fighting feuds and making up with her pals. Choreographer Lena Engelstein devises expressive dance moves to interpret the girls’ frustrations and eagerness to become grown-up. Mitchell Polonsky’s sound design provides an evocative aural environment including the muffled offstage voices of Mal’s mom and dad. Abigail Sage and Finn Bamber’s lighting design reflects the violently shifting moods from a dreamy starscape to harsh reality when one of the girls switches on an unforgiving overhead bulb in the middle of a sleepover. Costume designer Olivia Vaughn Hern dresses them in character-defining casual wear. 

At the performance attended, director Chloe Claudel covered for Amalia Yoo as Mal and was movingly convincing in conveying her struggles to find self-actualization outside of Ohio and the SIMS world. Sophie Rossman is especially touching as Sophie, particularly in a frightening monologue in which she describes a sleazy encounter with a predatory adult in a family restaurant. You can see the conflicting emotions play across her face as Lida expresses revulsion and then guilty excitement and finally shame. Katya Thomas captures the clingy neediness of Lida who shyly hides her empathy for fear of appearing weak. Renee-Nicole Powell displays the athletic Noelle’s seeming confidence, actually a shield for her insecurity. 

Recent plays like John Proctor Is the Villain, Grief Camp, Indian Princesses, and this striking one are dealing with the pain and challenge of being young in the 21st century. Let’s hope more playwrights emerge to address this relevant topic.

June 23—July 18. Try for Baby Productions and The Goat Exchange at Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow St., NYC. Running time: 95 mins. with no intermission. daddontreadthis.com.

Off-B'way Update: All-Star View from the Bridge; Irish Rep

Sam Rockwell, Marin Ireland, and 
Alfred Molina will star in an Off'B'way
production of A View from the Bridge
at LaMaMa.

An unusually starry production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge will play the legendary Off-Broadway La MaMa Theater this fall with preview performances beginning Nov. 27 before a Dec. 13 opening. Oscar winner Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) stars as Eddie Carbone, Obie winner and Tony nominee Marin Ireland (Queens) plays his wife Beatrice and Tony winner Alfred Molina (Art) will be Alfieri the narrator and Greek chorus. Neil Pepe of Atlantic Theater Company will direct. (Side note: Ireland's play Pre-Existing Condition will return for a run at the Greenwich House Theater opening Sept. 14.)

“Some of my earliest theatre memories are of coming to La MaMa as a kid and hanging out backstage while my mom was doing experimental theatre of the day. To now return to the Ellen Stewart Theatre with Arthur Miller's masterpiece with these remarkable collaborators feels like coming full circle," says Rockwell in a statement. "I started my own career downtown, and institutions like La MaMa have always inspired me—as an artist and as an audience member. They're the lifeblood of our culture, championing bold new voices and reminding us why the theatre matters. I've always considered myself incredibly lucky, and this opportunity feels like kismet.”

View concerns the longshoreman Eddie Carbone who comes to tragedy because of his unspoken passion for his teenaged niece. The play began life on Broadway as a one-act play on a double bill with Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays in 1955. He later expanded it to full length and an Off-Broadway revival starring Robert Duvall and Jon Voight ran for 780 performances. Subsequent Broadway productions starred Tony LoBianco (1983), Anthony LaPaglia (1997), Liev Schreiber (2010), and Mark Strong (2015). 

Off-B'way Review: Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo

Jennifer Nettles and company in 
Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo.
Credit: Andy Henderson

You really have to admire author-actress Jennifer Nettles. In addition to playing the title role, the Grammy-winning vocalist of the duo Sugarland wrote the songs and book for the new musical Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, now at the Perelman Performing Arts Center. She (or the producers) enlisted Tony-winner Mary Zimmerman to direct. Plus the basic idea is intriguing. The plot is based on a true story of a 17th-century Italian female apothecary who aided the women of her community by poisoning several abusive husbands including her own. Nettles creates a proto-feminist heroine, sort of a socially progressive Sweeney Todd. 

Unfortunately, while there are several entertaining elements, Giulia doesn’t quite come together for a satisfying whole. Nettles’ book is earnest in its desire to create a plucky protagonist challenging an oppressive patriarchy represented by a hypocritical cardinal (powerful Quentin Earl Darrington) and a villainous civil governor (mustache-twirling Christopher M. Ramirez). But Nettles doesn’t seem to be able to make up her mind as to what kind of show this is. The tone is mostly deadly serious, but switches to dark humor halfway through the first act, but then switches to girl-power tract as Giulia gleefully massacres all the nasty men who assault their spouses and sets up a women’s talk therapy session in her shop. The show opens like Pippin with a commedia dell’arte troupe performing a scene-setting intro number led by an overplaying Bre Jackson. But then the play-within-a-play concept is dropped. 

B'way Update: Dolly Parton Musical

Carrie St. Louis, Katie Rose Clarke and
Quinn Titcomb in
Dolly: A True Original Musical in Nashville.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

That Dolly Parton musical is coming to Broadway after all. After receiving mostly negative reviews for its world premiere in Nashville last year, the show's future appeared uncertain. But it has just been announced Dolly: A True Original Musical will begin preview performances at the St. James Theater on Dec. 7 and open on Parton's 81st birthday on Jan. 19, 2027. The score will be composed of Parton's past hits and new tunes she has written especially for the show. Parton also collaborated on the book with Emmy winner Maria S. Schlatter (Parton's Christmas on the Square TV movie). Tony winner Barlett Sher (The King and I, South Pacific) directs. No word on casting as of yet. In Nashville, the lead role was played by three actresses, enacting different phases in the 11-time Grammy winner's life. Bio musicals on Cher and Donna Summer were similarly split three ways. Parton previously wrote the score to the musical version of 9 to 5, based on the movie in which she co-starred with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.

“My whole life has been a musical. A grand ole opera really and I can’t wait to present it to you on Broadway," says Parton in a statement. "I hope you enjoy watching as much as I’ve enjoyed livin’ it.”

“During our world premiere in Nashville, I was overwhelmed by the deep connection audiences have with Dolly. You mention her name and people light up and share a time that she has inspired them and brought them joy," says Sher. "But despite all of that genuine love, Dolly has never really shared her story before. She’s offered glimpses and peeks, but this musical allows her to reveal the unfiltered story in her own words. As we prepare to come to Broadway, we’re thrilled to show that rhinestones were never her whole story.”

Book Review: Stone Mattress

(Bought at the Little Red Book Shack in Hudson, NY for 50 cents.) In an afterword, Margaret Atwood explains the difference between tales and stories. She labels these "nine wicked tales" as influenced by folk lore and are less likely to require the verisimilitude of "stories." Atwood brilliantly takes elements of speculative futuristic fiction, fantasy, murder mystery and horror and weaves them into realistic settings. Each tale was totally absorbing. I especially enjoyed The Dead Hand Loves You, Torching the Dusties and the title story. In the Dead Hand, she satirizes the horror genre as an author seeks revenge on his former roommates. Torching the Dusties imagines a future where senior citizens are terrorized by entitled youngsters who feel they've been cheated of a decent planet by their elders. Stone Mattress details the perfect murder scenario. Atwood is such a master.