B'way Update: Rudin's Return Official

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in
Little Bear Ridge Road at Steppenwolf.
Credit: Michael Brosilaw

Formerly exiled producer Scott Rudin will officially make his return to Broadway with the premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road, beginning previews at the Booth Theater Oct. 7 ahead of an Oct. 30 opening. The play about an alienated aunt and nephew reconnecting while sorting out to estate of their late brother and father takes place in Idaho (as all of Hunter's plays do, such as The Whale, A Case for the Existence of God, Pocatello, and Grangeville). Tony and Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf (A Doll's House Part 2, The Conners) and Micah Stock (It's Only a Play) will recreate their roles from the Steppenwolf Theater production in Chicago. Tony winner Joe Mantello (Wicked, Take Me Out, Assassins) who has collaborated with Metcalf on Grey House, Hillary and Clinton, Three Tall Women and many other plays, directs as he did in Chicago. Fellow Steppenwolf cast members John Drea and Meighan Gerachis will also appear in the NY transfer. Rudin will co-produce with Barry Diller. Steppenwolf is not involved in the Broadway production.

Rudin "stepped back" from producing in 2021 when allegations of bullying behavior in the workplace surfaced. In a recent NY Times article, the producer stated he has made apologies to some former employees and he has been in therapy. Actors Equity has also strengthened its anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies.  

B'way Update: The Return of Scott Rudin

Banished producer Scott Rudin says 
he's gone through therapy, made apologies,
 and plans toreturn to Broadway.

According to the New York Times, producer Scott Rudin is planning a return to Broadway following a long absence due to his abusive behavior with subordinates. Rudin stepped away from producing on stage and film in 2021 after articles in the Hollywood Reporter and New York magazine alleged his verbal abuse, bullying, throwing objects, pushing assts. from a moving car, smashing a computer on an assistant's hand and firing an assistant for bringing him the wrong kind of muffin. He also resigned from the Broadway League and withdrew from the Broadway revival of The Music Man as well as from five A24 films including Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once, and  Alex Garland's Men. He has won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and 18 Tony Awards. Rudin states he has undergone therapy and apologized publicly and to certain individuals. 

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
in Little Bear Ridge Road at Steppenwolf.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

In the Times article, Rudin states he plans to produce Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale, Grangeville) in the fall. The play will star Laurie Metcalf, following the play's premiere last year at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello. The play, set as most of Hunter's works are in Idaho, centers on an estranged aunt and nephew settling the estate of their brother and father at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic. In the spring, Rudin will reunite Metcalf and Mantello as star and director for David Hare's new play Montauk. A revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is planned for the 2026-27 season to star Nathan Lane and Metcalf with Mantello directing. Such a production with Lane, Metcalf and Mantello was announced in 2020, but the pandemic shut down theaters and another Salesman with Wendell Pierce came to Broadway from London after the theaters re-opened. (Presumably, Metcalf will have more time for the stage now that The Conners is ending its seven-season run on ABC.)

Rudin also intends to present Cottonfield by Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park, Downstate) and directed by Robert O'Hara (Shit. Meet. Fan.) on Broadway in the fall of 2025. (Side note: The New York magazine article from 2021 says that Rudin pulled out of the Broadway production of Clybourne Park and two other Norris plays when the actor-playwright withdrew from a Rudin-produced HBO pilot.) There will also be an Off-Broadway production of Wallace Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days, directed by Andre Gregory, Shawn's co-star from My Dinner With Andre.

Critical Shrinking; Broadway Update

Elysa Gardner, no longer with USA Today,
now freelances

The NYC community of theater critics continues to shrink. We're like some rare endangered species in a seldom-visited jungle and nobody seems to care as our numbers diminish. (We don't even get a late-night commercial with sad music pleading for funds to save us.) It was barely noticed that Elysa Gardner left USA Today where she was the theater and rock critic since 2000. There has been no announcement as to whether she was let go or departed voluntarily. She briefly tweeted the information that she was no longer with the nationwide publication on Aug. 1. Worse, there was no mention of it in any of the chat boards or on any of the theater-related websites (Not that I could find anyway.) USA Today has apparently dropped theater coverage altogether. They did not assign anyone to review the first two Broadway openings of the fall--The Encounter and Holiday Inn.