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

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

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

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

Directors Double--and Triple--Dip

Scott Ellis is one of three directors
 to have more than one show on Broadway this season

A former editor of mine used to say "Three times and it's a trend." So we officially have a new Broadway trend: directors having more than one show on in the same season. Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County, Of Mice and Men) staged the revival of This Is Our Youth which opened last night at the Cort to great reviews (here's my review roundup for NewYork.com) and will be helming Larry David's new comedy Fish in the Dark. Youth premiered at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company earlier this year so Shapiro has time to start planning for the Larry David piece. Pam McKinnon won a Tony for Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and gives her spin to the playwright's A Delicate Balance. She'll also be directing another revival this spring: Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles. Scott Ellis is staging You Can't Take It With You and The Elephant Man this fall, which played the Williamstown Theatre Festival two summers ago so Ellis had breathing room to work on the Kaufman and Hart classic starring James Earl Jones, Rose Bryne, Elizabeth Ashley and the always-hilarious Kristine Nielsen and Julie Halston. Ellis will be pulling triple duty this season since he'll also be directing Roundabout's revival of On the Twentieth Century opening in January 2015. It will be interesting to see who gets nominated for Tonys and for which show and if anyone will be competing against him or herself.

News for This Week: Of Cats, Moose, and Supermen

There will be a casting call for the role of "Cat" in the upcoming production of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Send your cat's headshot and owner contact info to kittygolightly@oandmco.com This reminded me that the last live real cat to star on Broadway was the feline who played opposite Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage. I'll never forget her acceptance speech when she won the Tony Award. "My friends said I should thank the cat," Dame Maggie archly said. "And I do thank the cat, but it had better behave itself, because it's getting entirely out of hand." 

At the opening of Moose Murders.
Yes, it has come to this.

I had reviews for Moose Murders  Women of Will and Clive at the Backstage website this week. Moose Murders is one of the biggest flops in Broadway history and this tiny company called Beautiful Soup Theatre Collective decided to revive it. The playwright had "shamelessly revised" his script, but it was still awful. Opening night was also the first night they invited critics and everyone was there including John Simon who brought his Playbill from the original production. Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Jackie Hoffman were also in the audience which was not a smart move. It led me to think how much better the production would be with these funny people in it. At least they would know how to camp it up and make this script so bad it would be a riot, as it was it was just bad. They actually had the celebrities--me included--pose with a guy dressed as a moose. Hanging around in the lobby was more fun than watching the show.