B'way Update: The Fear of 13 with Adrien Brody, Tessa Thompson

Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13 in London.

Double Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist, The Brutalist) will make his Broadway debut in The Far of 13 by Olivier nominee Lindsay Ferrentino (The Queen of Versailles), following a run at London's Donmar Warehouse. The play, based on the documentary by David Sington, focuses on the true story of Nick Yarris who spent more than two decades on Death Row for a murder he insists he did not commit. Yarris was the first person to be sentenced to death in Pennsylvania to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Co-starring is Golden Globe nominee Tessa Thompson (Hedda), also making her Broadway debut. Tony winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit) directs in a staging different from that of the London production. This is Cromer's third show this season after Caroline and Meet the Cartozians Off-Broadway. Fear of 13 begins previews at the James Earl Jones Theater on March 19 prior to an April 15 opening. 

Brody lost the Olivier Award to John Lithgow of Giant which will also be opening on Broadway this spring. So we will likely see a rematch at the Tony Awards.

NYFCC Names The Brutalist Best

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones in
The Brutalist.

Film award season has begun. The New York Film Critics Circle, the earliest of the reviewers' organization and the oldest--this is their 90th awards--met on Dec. 3 to vote for their choices for the best work of 2024. The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's epic film about a Hungarian-Jewish architect fleeing post-World War II Europe for America, was named Best Picture and won Best Actor for Adrien Brody. 

Marianne Jean-Bapiste was voted Best Actress for her performance as a woman suffering from depression and anger issues in Mike Leigh's Hard Truths. Carol Kane won Best Supporting Actress as a retired music teacher studying for her long-denied Bat Mitzvah and developing an attraction for a troubled cantor who was her former student in Between the Temples. Kieran Culkin was named Best Supporting Actor as a man touring Poland with his cousin to reconnect with their roots in A Real Pain.

Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, won for Best Director and Cinematography. Annie Baker's Janet Planet was elected Best First Film. The awards will be presented at a dinner on Jan. 8.

The group did not announce runners-up. Many of the winning films have not be released commercially yet.