Little Bear, Ehrenreich, Salesman Win NYDCC Awards

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in
Little Bear Ridge Road.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Little Bear Ridge Road, Alden Ehrenreich of Becky Shaw, and the ensemble cast of Death of a Salesman were the winners of the 90th annual New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. The group opted to present no award for Best Musical. Costume designer Qween Jean, the playwright-director team of Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, and Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Ragtime were awarded special citations. The critics met on April 30 at the offices of Time Out New York to vote for their top choices of the 2025-26 NY theatrical season. The awards will be presented in a private ceremony on May 7 at 54 Below. 

Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road which had a run on Broadway earlier in the season starring Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, was the critics' choice for Best Play. (Metcalf also currently stars in Death of a Salesman and both shows were directed by Joe Mantello.) The play concerns a lonely gay young man connecting with his alienated aunt after the death of his father. Hunter previously won the Circle's award for Best Play in 2022 for A Case for the Existence of God. On the first ballot, Little Bear received the most votes, but not enough of a majority to be declared a winner by the group's by-laws. Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days and Talene Malone's Meet the Cartozians were the runners-up. After voting to give a Best Play award, the critics went to a third, weighted ballot with each member voting for their top three picks. With this ballot, the leading candidates were (in order) Little Bear Ridge Road, Meet the Cartozians, Robert Icke's adaptation of Oedipus, and Moth Days. There was scattered support for Giant, Prince Faggot, Mother Russia, The Balusters, Cold War Choir Practice, and Well, I'll Let You Go. But there were still not enough votes for a clear majority.

A fourth ballot was held with the group only voting for their top three choices of the four leaders on a weighted ballot. Little Bear emerged victorious. This award is accompanied by a cash prize of $2,500, made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Beau and Mexodus Top DD Noms List

Matt Rodin and Jeb Brown in Beau the Musical.
Credit: Valerie Terranova

Beau the Musical and Mexodus, two Off-Broadway musicals, topped the list of nominees for the 70th annual Drama Desk Awards with 10 nods each. Unlike the Broadway-only Tony Awards, the Drama Desks include on and Off-Broadway productions in all of its multiple categories. The only Broadway work in the Outstanding Play category is David Lindsay-Abaire's The Balusters. The nominees were announced on April 29 by Raul Esparza and Helen J Shen from the Lambs Club and streaming on Broadway.com's YouTube channel. 

The Lost Boys which received the most nominations from the Outer Critics Circle with 11, received only 5 noms from the DD in design categories and choreography (including flight choreography), but not for Outstanding Musical or any of the performances. Beaches, Dog Day Afternoon, Little Bear Ridge Road, Bug, Proof, Punch, Every Brilliant Thing, and Call Me Izzy were totally ignored.

The awards will be presented on May 17 at Town Hall in a ceremony hosted by Marla Mindelle, star and co-creator of Titanique which received nominations for its Off-Broadway run in 2023. This year’s awards will be produced by Drama Desk Awards Productions, a venture of Scene Partners in partnership with the Season. Chaired by the Martha Wade Steketee (UrbanExcavations.com), the 2026 nominating committee includes Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), Daniel Dinero (Theater Is Easy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance, Theatermania), Margaret Hall (Playbill.com) and Raven Snook (TDF).  Charles Wright and David Barbour are co-presidents. The Drama Desk considers Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway in each of its multiple categories. The acting categories are not gender-specific and the top two vote-getters are the winners. Multiple awards may be presented in the case of ties. The awards are voted on by about 100 DD members who are NY-based theater critics, reporters, and editors.

Complete List of the 2025-26 Drama Desk Award nominees:

Outstanding Play
Caroline, Preston Max Allen
Cold War Choir Practice, Ro Reddick
Meet the Cartozians, Talene Monahon
Prince Faggot, Jordan Tannahill
The Balusters, David Lindsay-Abaire
The Porch on Windy Hill, Sherry Stregnack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse & David M. Lutken
Well, I’ll Let You Go, Bubba Weiler

Outstanding Musical
Beau the Musical
Mexodus
Schmigadoon!
The Seat of Our Pants
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Outstanding Revival of a Play
Becky Shaw
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
Death of a Salesman
Los Soles Truncos
Titus Andronicus
You Got Older

Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Chess
Ragtime
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Baker’s Wife
The Rocky Horror Show

B'way Update: Montauk at MTC; Tony, DD, NYDCC News

Laura Linney

Tony nominee and Emmy winner Laura Linney (The Little Foxes, The Big C) will return to Broadway in the world premiere of Montauk by Tony nominee and Olivier winner David Hare (Plenty, Skylight, The Vertical Hour), presented by Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in spring 2027. Linney will be joining MTC in the new position of Artist-in-Residence, working on developing projects for upcoming seasons at MTC, as well as participating in MTC’s educational and community outreach programs. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan will direct, having worked with Linney at MTC before on Summer, 1976 and The Little Foxes.

Montauk is a visceral portrait of two artists with violently different approaches to art and life. Jared Speight is a stubborn titan of Long Island abstraction when star writer Roxy Margaux first becomes infatuated with his bravado. But over a decade of romantic and career entanglements, their different reasons for making art become painfully clear. The play was originally announced as a production by Scott Rudin with Laurie Metcalf to star.

“Laura Linney is one of the most versatile actors of our time,” said Artistic Director Nicki Hunter. “Her artistry, intelligence, and generosity make her the ideal partner for this brand-new initiative for MTC. We are thrilled to welcome her in this expanded capacity, cementing a commitment to working together in the future, and to collaborate on David Hare’s Montauk, directed by Daniel Sullivan. We’re proud to be giving this play its world premiere on Broadway.”
 
“I could not be more proud to be Manhattan Theatre Club’s first Artist-in-Residence,” Linney commented. “MTC has been my theatrical home for decades, and I feel very honored indeed to kick off this new position. Thank you, Nicki and Lynne!”

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: The Lost Boys, Beaches, Fallen Angels, The Adding Machine

Two musicals based on films from the late 1980s are among the plethora of openings as the 2025-26 New York theater season comes to a close—one is a surprise hit (The Lost Boys), the other a disappointment (Beaches). In addition, there are two plays from the 1920s (Fallen Angels and The Adding Machine) representing very different dramatic sensibilities, but both with their merits.

LJ Benet and Ali Louis Bourzgui in
The Lost Boys.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The Lost Boys had a lot going against before it premiered at the Palace. Broadway has had three previous vampire-themed tuners in recent memory—Dance of the Vampires, Lestat and Dracula. Each one deserved a stake through the heart and vanished into their graves after brief runs. But this latest venture into the horror genre is a genuinely scary, popcorn-crunching, Broadway equivalent of a hit summer movie. I was prepared to despise the show based on past bad bloodsucker experiences (I saw all three of the aforementioned bombs) and an overload of alienated-teen movies and TV shows, but I wound up loving The Lost Boys.

David Hornsby and Chris Hoch’s solid book adheres closely to Joel Schumacher’s cult 1987 film which spawned two direct-to-DVD sequels. One supporting character has been changed from a boy to a girl, a kindly grandpa is now deceased and resides in an urn of ashes, and another character’s possibly being gay is more explicitly addressed. But the main thrust of horror remains. Divorced mom Lucy Emerson (beautifully belting Shoshana Bean) and her two teen sons (properly sullen LJ Benet and spunky and funny Benjamin Pajak) relocate to her California beachside hometown to escape an abusive husband. Searching for community and attention, rebellious older offspring Michael falls in with with a punk rock band who just happen to be card-carrying members of the undead (led by charismatic, sexy Ali Louis Bourgui). 

LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui and cast in
The Lost Boys.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The librettists find room for character development and nuance while maintaining a humorous edge. The family and the vampires are not just sources for jokes or screams, but credible people—within the fantasy context. Even the vampires have motivations for their bloodcurdling actions. The powerful rock score by The Rescues (Kyler England, Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann) delineates and expresses emotions without descending to cliche. The group is also responsible for the gorgeous harmonies in their vocal arrangements and effective orchestrations along with Ethan Popp. Kudos to Adam Fisher whose sound design allows this to be one of the rare rock scores where the lyrics are intelligible throughout. 

Michael Arden’s impressive direction makes full use of Dane Laffrey’s massive set, incorporating the full depth and height of the Palace stage. Two-story houses, creepy lairs, beachside boardwalks, treacherous train trestles fly in, out, up and down as do the demonic rockers thanks to the aerial design by Gwyneth Larsen and Billy Mulholland and aerial choreography by Lauren Yatango-Grant and Christopher Cree-Grant. Arden also stages several ingenious fantasy sequences with chorus members dressed as movie stereotypes of vampires and superheroes (the amusing costumes are by Ryan Park) zooming in and out of the background. There’s also an exciting, realistic motorcycle race. Arden is a magician, pulling impressive rabbit after rabbit out of his directorial hat, along with special effects designer Markus Maurette.

B'way Update: Cat and Yankees, etc.

Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in
Cat of a Hot Tin Roof.

A new production of Tennessee Williams' Cat of a Hot Tin Roof is headed for Broadway, scheduled to open sometime in the spring of 2027. Tony winner Sam Gold (Fun Home, A Doll's House, Part 2) will direct and Seaview will produce. Cat first opened on Broadway in 1955, winning the Pulitzer Prize. Barbara Bel Geddes, Ben Gazzara and Burl Ives starred as Maggie the Cat, her closeted husband Brick and Big Daddy. Ives repeated his performance in the 1958 movie version with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Subsequent Broadway productions have starred Elizabeth Ashley and Keir Dullea (1974), Kathleen Turner and Daniel Hugh Kelly (1990), Ashley Judd and Jason Patric (2003), Anika Noni Rose and Terrence Howard (2008), and Scarlett Johanssen and Benjamin Walker (2013). TV versions have been headlined by Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, and Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones. I saw Sandy Dennis and David Selby play the leads in summer stock. Cast and creative staff will be announced at a later date.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the pinnacle of what the theatre can do," says Gold in a statement. "Two of the greatest roles for actors in the cannon, delivered to us by the world’s most original playwright, at the very height of his poetic powers, exploring themes that feel as shockingly honest and blood boiling today as they did 70 years ago. I couldn't be more excited to bring this masterpiece back to New York next season."

"It's been such a gift to be making work with Sam Gold over the last four years,” adds Seaview co-founder and CEO Greg Nobile. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will mark our fifth production together, and I am certain Sam's vision to bring Tennessee's extraordinary and timeless characters to life next season will once again thrill and delight audiences."

 

B'way Review: The Balusters

Richard Thomas and Anika Noni Rose in
The Balusters.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

In The Balusters, David Lindsay-Abaire’s scorching and stinging new comedy from Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman, the titular “vertical molded shafts or posts used to support a handrail on staircases, balconies or railings” are the seemingly inconsequential catalyst in an outrageous war of cultures, values, and identity. The central focus is on a homeowners association’s meetings where nine diverse individuals clash over traffic signs, renovations, and aforementioned balusters. (The tenth character is the housekeeper of one of the board members and she’s vitally important to the story.) But their subtextual squabbles are over defending what each character regards as their way of life and what community means. Kenny Leon stages the action with a precise sense of timing and pace, letting the barely-buried resentments simmer just long enough and then boil over at the right moment.

Lindsay-Abaire, whose previous insightful and moving works include Kimberly Akimbo (both play and musical), Good People and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole, builds a solid template with small details planted like time bombs ready to go off for maximum impact. The observations on cultural norms and political correctness are sharp and painfully true. They elicit riotous laughter and leave a painful ache as you realize their Swiftian conclusions on the pettiness of humans attempting to live together.

(Back row) Ricardo Chavira, Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Richard Thomas, (seated) Anika Noni Rose,
Kayli Carter, Jeena Yi and Marylouise Burke
in The Balusters.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

The meetings are held in the well-appointed home of Kyra Marshall (assured Anika Noni Rose), an African-American professional (Derek McLane designed the handsome set).  She has just moved in and wants to make a good impression, having allowed her passions to get the better of her in her previous neighborhood. Her principal antagonist is older white real estate agent Elliot Emerson (Richard Thomas using smiles and joviality to hide the character’s deviousness.) Elliot who serves as the association’s long-time president and appears to be open to new ideas and people (“I’m a lifelong Democrat,” he protests), reacts with stony inflexibility at any change to his beloved historically-designated block. Thomas’ casting is resonant since he is most famous for playing John-Boy on The Waltons, which featured a sentimental view of the past shared by Elliot.

Lost Boys Finds the Most OCC Noms

OCC president David Gordon with Isa Briones
and Sepideh Moafi announcing the
Outer Critic Circle nominees.

The Lost Boys, the musical based on the 1987 vampire film, now in previews and set to open on April 26, received the most nominations for the 2026 Outer Critics Circle Awards with 11. Mexodus, the Off-Broadway two-character historical musical, was next with 10 and Schmigadoon!, based on the Apple TV + series garnered 8.  The revival of Death of a Salesman was the most-nominated play with 6. The nominations were announced on April 20 at the Museum of Broadway by The Pitt stars Isa Briones (currently in Just in Time) and Sepideh Moafi (soon to appear in New Born at the Minetta Lane).

This year's nominees will be honored with a cocktail reception at West Bank Café April 27, with winners to be revealed May 11. An awards ceremony will be held May 21 at MMAC Theater.

The Outer Critics Circle was found in Founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season by theater journalist John Gassner. The group recognizes on and Off-Broadway excellence, with both separate and combined categories. The Outer Critics Circle is an 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 (1940-2026), 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). 

LJ Bennet and Ali Louis Bourzgui in
The Lost Boys.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

2026 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD NOMINATIONS

Outstanding New Broadway Musical
The Lost Boys
Schmigadoon!
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
 
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
Beau the Musical
Goddess
Mexodus
Oratorio for Living Things
Saturday Church
 
Outstanding New Broadway Play
The Balusters
Giant
Little Bear Ridge Road
Oedipus
Punch

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Angry Alan
Meet the Cartozians
The Monsters
Prince Faggot
The Reservoir
 
John Gassner Award (for a new American play preferably by a new playwright)
Call Me Izzy by Jamie Wax
Caroline by Preston Max Allen
Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick
Data by Matthew Libby
Well, I'll Let You Go by Bubba Weiler

B'way Review: Schmigadoon!

Sara Chase, Alex Brightman, and cast in
Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman 
for MurphyMade

You don’t have to have seen Schmigadoon!, the Apple TV + series, or even any musicals at all in order to enjoy—or be totally enraptured by, as I was—Schmigadoon!, the Broadway show. In fact, it helps if you haven’t seen the series because you’ll be surprised by songwriter-librettist Cinco Paul’s magnificent wit and deep affection for the genre he’s parodying. Paul has pared down the six episodes of the first season, keeping the majority of songs and plot elements while adding a few new ones. All of his changes and reserves work. So does the expert, integrated direction and choreography of Christopher Gattelli. The team has created a smart, hilariously funny masterpiece which simultaneously satirizes and pays tribute to the conventions and values of the major midcentury musicals we’ve seen on stages from the Main Stem to our high schools. You don’t even have to like musicals to love this show, because that viewpoint—musicals are artificial, nobody sings and dances out of the blue—is also represented.

Sara Chase and Max Clayton in
Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
for MurphyMade 

The ingenious premise from the series remains basically the same. Dating doctors Josh and Melissa have relationship issues—not just that she loves tuners and he hates them. She’s ready to take their live-in, unmarried status to the next level and he’s happy with things as they are. On a couples retreat, they get lost in the woods and happen upon the titular, secluded burg (first musical reference: Brigadoon) where the rustic citizens launch into a production number at the drop of a hat. The wrinkle is Josh and Melissa are prevented from leaving by magical forces until they discover “true love.” It seems they don’t have it together—yet. 

Drama League Nominations

Natalie Venetia Belcon and Corbin Bleu
announced the 2026 Drama League nominees

The nominations for the 2026 Drama League Awards were announced on April 20 by Tony winner Natalie Venetia Belcon (Buena Vista Social Club) and Corbin Bleu (The Great Gatsby) at Lincoln Center's NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. The awards will be presented on May 15 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in a ceremony hosted by NY-1's Frank DiLella. Tickets and tables to the star-studded luncheon are available for purchase at dramaleague.org/2026awards or by calling The Drama League event office at 212.625.1025.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.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY

THE BALUSTERS
CAROLINE
COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
GIANT

KYOTO

LIBERATION

MARCEL ON THE TRAIN
THE MONSTERS

PRINCE FAGGOT

RHEOLOGY

SPREAD

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL

BEACHES, A NEW MUSICAL

BEAU THE MUSICAL

BIGFOOT

THE LOST BOYS
MEXODUS

MY JOY IS HEAVY

NIGHT SIDE SONGS

SATURDAY CHURCH

SCHMIDGADOON!

THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS

TITANIQUE

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY
ANNA CHRISTIE

BECKY SHAW

THE BROTHERS SIZE
BUG

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

EVERY BRILLIANT THING

FALLEN ANGELS

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES
JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE

PROOF

TWELFTH NIGHT

YOU GOT OLDER

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLNG BEE
BAT BOY THE MUSICAL

CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

CHESS
THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS

HEATHERS THE MUSICAL:

MASQUERADE

ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS

RAGTIME

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

THE WILD PARTY

B'way/Off-Bway Update: Roundabout 2026-27 Season

Bill Irwin will star
in The Imaginary Invalid for
Roundabout.

Under the new leadership of incoming artistic director Christopher Ashley, Roundabout Theater Company has announced its schedule for the 2026-27 season. The productions will include revivals of classics and musicals as well as new plays.

“As we welcome Christopher Ashley into artistic leadership, this season is a bridge, grounded in what [the late] Todd [Haimes, previous artistic director] built, and intentionally making space for Chris to shape what’s next,” said Scott Ellis, Interim Artistic Director.   
 
“The season Scott and I have shaped builds on what Roundabout has always believed: that theatre can hold the classic and the urgent side by side. We’re proud to have new work anchoring our season, even as we revisit a landmark comedy with fresh eyes and make room for a big, unabashedly entertaining musical,” added Christopher Ashley, Incoming Artistic Director. 

The line-up begins with Tony winner Bill Irwin (Largely New York, Fool Moon) returning to Broadway starring in his own adaptation of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, directed by Brandon J. Dirden (Waiting for Godot). Irwin plays Argon, a wealthy hypochondriac who schemes to marry off his daughter to a doctor to save on medical bills. Performance begin in the fall at the Todd Haimes Theater. 

Also in the fall, The Heart, a new musical, will premiere at the Off-Broadway Laura Pels. A young surfer’s life is cut short. A stranger suddenly has a second chance. And the life-force of one beating heart drives two families and a medical team through 24 hours that couldn’t matter more. Playwright Kait Kerrigan (The Great Gatsby) and Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath (of KPop Demon Hunters) join forces with Tony Award-winning director Christopher Ashley (Roundabout’s incoming artistic director) and choreographer Mandy Moore (Taylor Swift’s Eras tour) to adapt Maylis de Kerangal's 2014 novel Réparer les vivants, in the company's first new Off Broadway musical in years. 

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: The Fear of 13; Becky Shaw; You Got Older; My Joy Is Heavy

Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson in
The Fear of 13.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

The fear of the number 13 is triskaidekaphobia. But you wouldn’t learn that from Lindsey Ferrentino’s play The Fear of 13 now at the James Earl Jones after a London run. That’s because the definition is brought up in the documentary film directed by David Sington but not in the play which is based on the doc. Both works focus on Nick Yarris, wrongfully accused of murder. While awaiting execution in a Pennsylvania prison, Yarris labored to improve his vocabulary. The rare fear of the unlucky number was one of the many new definitions he acquired. In her otherwise moving and proficient adaptation, the playwright omits this detail leaving playgoers who have not seen the doc, now airing on Netflix, scratching their heads as to the title’s meaning. Perhaps the irrational phobia has to do with hero’s fear of being fated to wind up on Death Row with no hope of reprieve?

Apart from this annoying omission, some overlong speeches and sequences, Fear is a powerful indictment of our justice system and a chilling examination of one prisoner caught up in it. Ferrentino adapted another documentary earlier this season, the musical The Queen of Versailles. In that misguided effort, it wasn’t clear how we were supposed to feel about the protagonist, Jackie Siegel. Did Ferrentino want us to admire Jackie for her determination to rise from her middle-class origins and attempt to build the largest private home in the USA or should we have disdained her for her materialistic values? 

Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Yarris (a multileveled, appealing Adrien Brody) is a stronger, clearer central figure. The playwright reveals his character and backstory slowly through his jailhouse romance with prisoner-rights advocate Jacki Miles (compassionate Tessa Thompson). At first Nick comes across as a fabulist spinning incredible tales of petty crimes and outwitting the law. But we gradually learn his complete story though flashbacks, fluidly staged by David Cromer, aided by Arnulfo Maldonado’s ingenious set and Heather Gilbert’s scene-shifting lighting.

A few words on Moldanado’s versatile set: At first it appears to be just a dark, forbidding, multi-storied prison, but other environments magically emerge as in a pop-up book. Suddenly we’re in a Florida pawnshop or a cozy suburban living room with Cheers on the TV. The setting facilitates the flow of the narrative.

Oscar winner Brody makes an auspicious Broadway debut. He presents Nick as a charmer who could be a lying con man or an incredibly unlucky schlub. As his layers of cockiness are peeled away, he reveals the suffering, wounded child at Nick’s core. It’s entirely believable that the empathetic Jacki (played with warmth and tenderness and just the slightest bit of neurotic self-doubt by Thompson) would fall in love with him. A large, mostly male supporting cast ably fills in the remainder of the roles, with Ephraim Sykes standing out as a lovesick gay inmate and Nick’s crafty accomplice in a series of teen heists. 

B'way Update: Billy Crystal in 860

Billy Crystal

Tony and Emmy winner Billy Crystal will return to Broadway in 860, a new solo show which he also wrote. Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis directs. Performance begin in the fall at a Shubert theater to be announced. 

"I am thrilled to return to Broadway this fall with this challenging new show," says Crystal in a statement. "860 was the address of the home we lost in the Palisades fires. We lived there for 46 years. I invite you to come inside 860 and I’ll tell you all the funny and touching things that happened there, not only in my career but to our family. It’s a joyous and heartfelt visit, about how with the love of family and friends and your inner strength, you can get through tough times. I look forward to returning to Broadway and welcoming audiences to 860."

Crystal previously appeared on Broadway in 700 Sundays in which he recounted stories of his childhood and his relationship with his father. He won a Tony Award for the show for Best Special Theatrical Event as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for Outstanding Solo Performance. In 2022, he starred in a musical version of Mr. Saturday Night, based on the 1992 film in which he starred. Crystal also co-authored the book with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.

B'way Review: Titanique; Cats: The Jellicle Ball

The cast of Titanique.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman for
MurphyMade.

“This is where the story gets kooky crazy,” announces Marla Mindelle as a kooky crazy version of Canadian songstress and power-ballad queen Celine Dion halfway through Titanique, the zany and wildly entertaining parody musical now at the St. James after long runs Off-Broadway and around the world. The show has been pretty nuts up to the point when Mindelle, who also collaborated on the book with co-star Constantine Rousouli and director Tye Blue, issues that warning and it gets even nuttier from then on. It’s a fun, wacky ride stuffed with enough pop-culture references to keep a crowd full of Broadway, TV and movie fans howling. The question is can this niche show fill a large Main Stem house for a profitable run? Well, it kept me guffawing for most of its 100 minutes. There were only a few lulls (indicated later in the review) amid a tidal wave of hilarity. 

The premise is Cuckoo-for-Coco-Coco-Puffs and ingenious. It’s like an extended SNL sketch. Fortunately, just when you think Mindelle, Rousouli and Blue have run out of ideas, they tap another vein of goofiness and comic gold pours out. The terrifically inventive authors imagine what would happen if Dion actually were on the Titanic just because she sang the theme song from James Cameron’s 1997 Oscar-winning film about the fatal shipwreck. Mindelle as a mindlessly manic version of the singer inserts herself into the story which also includes meta allusions to Broadway musicals, reality TV and pop music. Even the purposely tacky set by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Launcher for Iron Bloom Creative Production is a tribute to flashy game shows and TV specials.

Constantine Rousouli and Melissa Barrera
in Titanique.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Employing Dion’s top hits as the score (Nicholas James Connell expertly provides music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements), this satiric looney tune retells Cameron’s screenplay through a show-biz-queer-angle lens. Rose and Jack (delightfully dopey Melissa Barrera and Rousoluli, parodying Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio) are still star-crossed lovers from radically different social strata, but there are significant alterations elsewhere. Rose’s domineering mother is played in drag by an outrageously outraged Jim Parsons who appears to be having the time of his life stepping out of the Sheldon Cooper persona from The Big Bang Theory. (Watch him go to town in a diva fit, threatening the orchestra and kicking cut-outs of Patti LuPone and Carol Channing.) 

Book Review: The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir; The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper

(Borrowed from a friend): Griffin Dunne's memoir of his storied family is a fast, fascinating read. Everyone from Sean Connery to Buddy Hackett makes an appearance. Dunne's father Dominick was a TV and movie producer who reveled in friendships with big Hollywood names, throwing parties and dropping names. But it all came crashing down when his alcoholism, drug abuse, and closeted homosexuality caught up with him and destroyed his marriage and his career. The family was further devastated when Griffin's sister Dominique was strangled by her boyfriend. This launched Dominick's second career as a novelist and crime reporter for Vanity Fair. Griffin grew up amid movie stars and studio execs. HIs aunt and uncle were the screenwriting team John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion who also became one of the country's foremost essayists and cultural observers. Griffin recounts his roller-coaster ride as actor and producer with wit and compassionate. The anecdotes of his friendship with Carrie Fisher are riotous and his recount of the ordeal of Dominique's murder are gut-wrenching. I had a hard time reading that section because I knew the unjust outcome.

After reading Griffin's memoir, I dug out Dunne's earlier book The Way We Lived Then. I had bought it several years ago for the pictures of movie stars enjoying themselves at Dunne family gatherings and soirees but never read the text. The son's work is more revealing. Dominick's subtitle Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper is accurate. The emphasis is on Dunne Sr.'s acquittances with the rich and famous and his Hollywood days before he was booted out of the industry. He does not even mention his gay connections. Dominique's death is included in an afterword. Perhaps it was too painful for him to fully recount. The pictures are fun to look at.

B'way Review: Death of a Salesman

Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane in
Death of a Salesman.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

The most fascinating element of Joe Mantello’s innovative and powerful production of Death of a Salesman, is the deceptively simple set by Chloe Lamford. When the show was first announced, it seemed the cavernous Winter Garden Theater was all wrong for the intimate drama of Willy Loman’s descent into disillusion yet Bamford’s stark set works perfectly. When the audience first files in, Lamford’s environment appears to be nothing but a bare stage with only a card table and some metal chairs for furnishings. But once Jack Knowles’ evocative lighting illuminates the stage and Nathan Lane drives Willy’s 1940s Studebaker onto the stage, we see that we’re in an abandoned factory or warehouse. The onstage automobile becomes a symbol of Willy’s lost dreams and his impending death. A bare brick wall is interrupted by a sliding garage gate and a metallic door. Piles of dust spread across the floor. Light barely shines through a wall of dirty windows. Huge industrial-looking columns reach to the flies. The set is a metaphor for Miller’s vision of the blighted American Dream. Willy and his family have nothing left after investing their energy and passion in a false promise of prosperity. It’s a perfect visual means of expressing Miller’s critique of rampant, thoughtless capitalism and the essential platform for Mantello’s brilliant staging.

This is the sixth version of Miller’s classic I’ve seen—the previous viewed iterations starred Lee J. Cobb and Dustin Hoffman on TV, Brian Dennehy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Wendell Pierce on Broadway. There is always something new to be found in this timeless drama of fractured family and crushing economic reality. Mantello’s vision is a bleak one set in this industrial wasteland, but it blazingly highlights the fraught relationships within the Loman family.

B'way Update: Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia

Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia.
Credit: Manuel Harlan

Emmy and Golden Globe winner Rosamund Pike (I Care a Lot, State of the Union) will repeat her Olivier-nominated performance in Suzie Miller's play Inter Alia on Broadway this fall. The one-character play will begin previews at the Music Box Theater on Nov. 10 prior to a Dec. 1 opening. This will be her Broadway debut. Like Miller's previous play Prima Facie, Inter Alia is a solo show abut the British legal system. Pike plays Jessica Parker, a London Crown Court judge determined to reform a system that isn't always just.

Playwright Suzie Miller said in a statement, "I am so excited to be returning to Broadway alongside my Prima Facie director, the brilliant Justin Martin, with my new play Inter Alia. This National Theatre production is currently playing on London's West End, featuring Rosamund Pike who is nothing short of magnificent in the lead role. Inter Alia was commissioned, supported and produced at the National Theatre, who alongside our extraordinary producing partners are bringing the show across the pond. We are all thrilled to have this opportunity to engage in a contemporary conversation with NYC audiences."

Ms. Pike added, "What surprises me night after night performing this play is how audience members tell me they recognise themselves on stage. Men find themselves moved and confronted, women declare themselves seen, and parents and children tell me the story has led them to vital conversations. People recount how they laugh and cry with us, and that's all I can hope for. Suzie Miller has an indelible way of putting women's experiences on stage in a way that touches, excites, moves, and blindsides. Justin Martin's direction fuels my imagination constantly. I am thrilled and humbled to make my Broadway Debut with this role, in a theatre that is beyond my wildest dreams"

Ecuadorean Adventure: Part 2

At the hot springs spa in
the Andes Mountain
while NYC is blanketed with snow.

The day after I got back from the Galapagos, I got a bad case of traveller's stomach. Fortunately, I did not allow it to ruin the rest of the trip. Our hosts arranged for a friend of theirs to drive us to a hot-water spa in the Andes Mountains. For $25, you can bathe in many different hot-water spring pools. They had a nice restaurant where I had a ceviche for lunch. A few days later, we spent a day at the Botanical Gardens which were lovely. 

After I returned, we decided to move to a hotel. I was still suffering from bathroom issues and we asked the hotel reception staff if there were a doctor we could contact. They called a Guest Medical service and a doctor, with a nurse, actually came to our hotel and prescribed a shelfful of medications. He also hooked me up to an IV and gave me fluids because he said I was dehydrated. In the US, the hotel probably would have told me to go wait in an emergency room and no one would have even looked at me for hours.

We had several nice meals in excellent restaurants. Our final days we went shopping at a mall and a market. At the latter while trying on belts, we were standing next to a group of Australian young people who were debating the proper use of the "c**t" word. Over all, I liked Quito more than Mexico City which is too big and crowded. The Ecuadorians were very friendly. One our last morning the news announced Trump was sending the US military to Ecuador to route out drug trafficking. "We're getting out of here just in time," I said.

On the flight back, we had a layover in Bogota, Colombia. The plane from Quito landed so far away from the terminal, we had to take a bus to get there. Then we had go through customs (AGAIN) and race to the gate for our flight to NYC. The Avianca flight was five hours. No movies or entertainment unless you could figure out how to get the Avianca app on your phone (which I could not). One tiny sandwich. If you wanted more, you had to pay for it.