B'way Update: Second Stage Season

The 2026-27 theater season continues to take shape. Second Stage has announced its schedule for both its Broadway (at the Hayes Theater) and Off-Broadway (at the Signature Center) platforms. The company's Broadway shows will include a two productions of shows seen previously seen Off-Broadway: a revised version of the long-running favorite The Fantasticks and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Pulitzer Prize finalist Gloria. So far there are only four new plays planned for the upcoming Broadway season with eight play revivals. This is a growing trend of Broadway companies reviving relatively recent Off-Broadway shows and marketing them as Broadway debuts (which they are). Examples include Lobby Hero, Mary Jane, Eureka Day, Becky Shaw, and Marjorie Prime. 

Neil McCaffrey and Jeremiah Porter
in the revised version of The Fantasticks
at Flint Repertory Theater
Credit: Mike Naddeo

The new edition of Fantasticks will feature young lovers Matt and Louis rather than Matt and Luisa. Their scheming fathers will be replaced by two scheming mothers. The late Tom Jones revised his own book and lyrics (to Harvey Schmidt's music) before he passed away in 2023. Christopher Gattelli (Schmigadoon) directs and choregraphs. The adaptation was presented in 2022 at Flint Repertory Theatre in Flint, MI, and was developed in subsequent productions at the Provincetown Theater in Provincetown, MA, and Coachella Valley Repertory in Cathedral City, CA. Previews begin at the Hayes on Oct. 22 prior to a Nov. 16 opening. The Fantasticks holds the record for the world's longest-running musical at 42 years and is a favorite of community and high-school productions. (I appeared as The Old Actor in a Brooklyn church production directed by Jeffrey Seller, who later produced Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton.) 

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. 

Off-B'way Reviews: Lunar Eclipse; Bus Stop

Lisa Emery and Reed Birney in
Lunar Eclipse.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Donald Margulies’ tender and moving new play Lunar Eclipse from Second Stage at the Signature Theater Center, is a simple, direct depiction of a long marriage, the elusiveness of memory, and the endurance of love. George and Em, an elderly couple, are sitting up in a field in the middle of the night on their farm in Western Kentucky, to obverse the titular astronomical event. As the seven stages of the eclipse progress, we gradually learn the intricacies, compromises, joys and pitfalls of their decades-long union. George is going through a deep depression after the loss of his beloved dog (the last in a long line of cherished canines) and his growing frustration with the futility of life in general. “We’re taught that good triumphs over evil. Right? And love and generosity triumph over hate and greed. But, what if it turns out we’re wrong. The bad guys won the battle?,” he moans, without specifically naming any political figures or movements. Even Em’s cheerfulness drives him to distraction. 

Em attempts to lighten the mood, but, after a couple of shots of bourbon, she lets her smiley-face mask slip and reveals a long-term sadness, largely over the death of their adopted son Tim from a drug overdose. (We eventually learn Tim’s birth mother was an addict.) Margulies subtly reveals the couple’s inner conflicts through realistic details such as the fate of a telescope and attempts to bring failing crops to fruition.

At times, his language is bit too writerly and on-the-nose as when Em compares her melancholy to an eclipse or when George contrasts his blighted efforts at connecting with Tim with raising a non-productive batch of sugar beets. But this is a minor flaw in an otherwise endearing and heartbreaking play with a physically beautiful production under Kate Whoriskey’s sensitive, nearly invisible direction and a pair of veterans actors bringing two everyday people to vibrant life. 

B'way/Off-B'way Update: Second Stage Season; Beetlejuice

Noah Bean and Lois Smith in 
Playwrights Horizons' production of
Marjorie Prime (2015).
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

Second Stage has announced its 2025-26 season which will feature the Broadway debuts of two Pulitzer Prize finalists previously seen Off-Broadway. Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime will begin previews at the Second Stage's Hayes Theater on Nov. 20 with an opening set for Dec. 8. Originally presented by Playwrights Horizons in 2015, this intimate drama focuses on the elusiveness of memory and the encroachment of technology. Set in the near future, the play concerns the elderly Marjorie and a living computer who is a duplicate of her late husband. Anne Kaufman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window) directs. 

Emily Bergl and David Wilson Barnes in
Second Stage's production of Becky Shaw (2008).

Spring 2026 will see the Broadway debut of Gina Gionfriddo with her 2008 comedy Becky Shaw which played Second Stage's Off-Broadway Terry Kiser Theater. Directed by Trip Cullman, previews at the Hayes begin March 18 and the play opens April 8. The comedy starts when a blind date goes spectacularly wrong and sets off a chain of disastrous events. 

Second Stage's Off-Broadway season commences with Talene Monahan's Meet the Cardozians at the Signature Theater Center. Tony winner David Cromer directs this new play about two sets of Armenian-Americans, one in 1920 and the other a century later. Previews Oct. 29, opens Nov. 18.

Aya Ogawa wrote and directs Meat Suit or the shitshow of motherhood at the Signature Center, previews Feb. 11, 2026 and opens Feb. 25. The play is described as a raw, hilarious examination of motherhood.

Jayne Houdyshell in
The Receptionist
at MTC (2007)
Credit: Joan Marcus

Adam Bock's black comedy The Receptionist follows in April. Originally presented in 2007 at Manhattan Theatre Club, this Obie-winning play depicts what seems to be a perfectly ordinary office with colleagues gossiping, answering phones, and drinking coffee. But the shocking true nature of the business being conducted there is revealed when a mysterious visitor arrives.

In other news: Beetlejuice is headed back to scare Broadway. The national tour of the musical based on the 1988 supernatural film comedy will start haunting the Palace Theater Oct. 8 for a limited rune through Jan. 3, 2026. The tuner opened on Broadway in 2019 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. It closed as a result of the 2020 COVID pandemic and reopened at the Marquis in 2022. 

Will Burton, Megan McGinnis, Madison Mosley,
and Justine Collette in the tour of Beetlejuice.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Off-B'way Update: A Sale, a Strike and a Scary Balance Sheet

Seaview has bought the
Tony Kiser Theater

Off-Broadway theater companies are in trouble. Following the COVID pandemic, audiences have been slow to return and as a result, companies are presenting fewer shows with smaller casts. Financial woes have contributed to several concerning developments. Second Stage has sold its Off-Broadway theater, the Tony Kiser (formerly a bank on W. 43rd Street) to Seaview, a principal producer of such Off-Broadway shows as Hold On to Me Darling, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and the Barrow Street revival of Sweeney Todd. The 296-seat venue will be rebranded as Studio Seaview to present commercial Off-Broadway productions. The first production will be directed by Sam Gold (currently represented on Broadway by Romeo and Juliet) and will open in Spring 2025. This season Seaview is represented on Broadway by Stereophonic, Romeo and Juliet, All In, Once Upon a Mattress, Good Night and Good Luck, The Last Five Years, and in London by Slave Play and My Master Builder. 

Atlantic Theater Company

Atlantic Theater Company is suffering economic troubles of a different kind. The stage hands' union IATSE, recently went out on strike against the company. Atlantic's two current shows Grief Camp and I'm Assuming You Know David Greenspan, have been postponed indefinitely. A strike was called when negotiations between the union and the theater broke down. Negotiations started almost a year ago when Atlantic crew members voted to join the union which represents all Broadway shows and the Off-Broadway shows Titanique and Little Shop of Horrors as well as the Public and Vineyard Theaters. 

Signature's Pershing Center

Signature Theater Company is also experiencing fiscal and other struggles. Oscar winner Brendan Fraser has withdrawn for the company's upcoming production of Samuel D. Hunter's Grangeville (Fraser's Oscar win was for the film adaptation of Hunter's The Whale), "due to unforeseen circumstances." He will be replaced by six-time Drama Desk nominee Paul Sparks (At Home at the Zoo) who will play opposite Brian J. Smith (The Matrix Resurrections). In addition, Philip Boroff of Broadway Journal reports that Signature's auditors, Lutz and Carr, have "substantial doubt about the organization's ability to continue as a going concern." Lutz and Carr reports that Signature's net assets dropped $6.6 million or 17 percent in 2022-23. The company is presenting only three plays this season--Grangeville, Dominique Morriseau's Bad Kreyol (in a co-production with Manhattan Theater Club), and Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice. That's down from eight shows ten years ago.

According to Boroff, Signature will bolster its bottom line by renting out its stages to another company--Second Stage (see the first paragraph) which will present D.A. Mindel's On the Evolutionary Function of Shame at Signature's Irene Diamond Stage beginning Feb. 12 and Donald Marguiles' Lunar Eclipse there in May. The New Group also rents space from Signature. Such collaboration between companies may be the wave of the future for Off-Broadway theaters and their best bet to survive.

B'way/Film Reviews: Cult of Love; Hard Truths

The cast of Cult of Love.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Here we go again. It’s time for yet another dysfunctional family reunion. Cult of Love, presented by Second Stage at the Hayes Theater after a production at Berkeley Repertory Theater, is the third play this season (following The Hills of California and The Blood Quilt) to dissect the familial ties that bind. Once again estranged siblings gather and squabble over past hurts and present estrangements. The difference between Cult and the previous two is the parents are still living and providing an additional source of conflict. Despite the familiarity of the territory, Leslye Headland’s solid script avoids melodramatic cliches, Trip Cullman’s direction admirably juggles several storylines simultaneously while building suspense, and the cast couldn’t be better.

It’s Christmas Eve at the Dahl house. The family name is not insignificant given that John Lee Beatty’s comfy-cozy-Christmas-crazy set resembles a domicile for domestic playthings or dolls. One of the adult children’s spouses even sarcastically refers to the family manse as “Santa’s workshop.” Like Nora in Ibsen’s similarly named A Doll’s House, the Dahl house kids are struggling to grow up. As Bill the near-senile father (David Rasche skillfully navigating the cognition waters) relates, he and his wife Ginny (Mare Winningham beautifully balancing affection and manipulation) both came from abusive backgrounds and have vowed to be different. But as a result, they have created a “cult of love” (hence the title) where their offspring are suffocated and unable to completely stand on their own. Religion, a topic rarely addressed in modern American drama, is also on the table with the senior Dahls’ unquestioning embrace of rigid Christianity causing problems for the second generation.

Shailene Woodley, Christopher Sears, 
Rebecca Henderson, and Zachary Quinto
in Cult of Love.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The eldest child Mark (Zachary Quinto, expert at suppressing inner turmoil) is conflicted about his faith, legal career, and marriage to sharp-tongued Rachel (spiky, funny Molly Bernard) who happens to be Jewish. Lesbian daughter Evie (equally edgy Rebecca Henderson) still bristles at her deeply religious family’s qualified acceptance of her marriage to Pippa (Roberta Colindrez, strongly supportive). Johnny (a buoyant Christopher Sears) uses jolly energy to deal with his drug addiction and has brought his sponsor, the hip Loren (Barbie Ferreira, making the most of a small role) along for the holidays. Youngest child Diana (Shailene Woodley in a shattering portrayal of mental short-circuiting) is pregnant with her second child and together with her husband James, an Episcopal priest (Christopher Lowell, a keenly observed liming of confused weakness) is trying to start a new church. But Diana appears to be suffering from delusions of divine visitations. 

B'way Update: Second Stage Season

Leslye Headland

Second Stage has announced its fall and winter openings for the 2024-25 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. Cult of Love by Emmy nominee Leslye Headland will premiere at Second Stage's Broadway Theatre the Hayes with previews commencing on Nov. 20 and opening Dec. 12. Off-Broadway, Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Marguiles' Lunar Eclipse will play the Kiser Theater starting previews Oct. 9 and an opening set for Oct. 30.

“I’m excited and proud to be working with these incredible artists next season,” said Interim Artistic Director Bennett Leak.  “I have had the opportunity to collaborate with several of them at Second Stage and I look forward to joining forces once again. We will welcome audiences back for Season 46, where they can expect another year of innovative artists and bold plays by living American writers.” 

Cult of Love focuses on the Dahl Family and their calamitous holiday season. The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. 

Leslye Heartland returns to Second Stage which produced her play, Bachelorette, in its Uptown Series, and her play, The Layover, off-Broadway at the Kiser Theater. She recently completed “Star Wars: The Acolyte” for the Disney+ streaming platform. She served as writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner. Headland served as writer, producing director and showrunner for Netflix’s acclaimed series “Russian Doll.” The series was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Drama League nominee Trip Cullman (I Can Get It For You Wholesale) directs.

B'way Update: Cabaret, Purlie, Second Stage, Cats, etc.

Eddie Redmayne in the
London revival of Cabaret which
may be transferring to Broadway in 2024.
Credit: Marc Brenner

It's not official, but according to a report by Philip Boroff in Broadway Journal, the hit London revival of Cabaret will transfer to Broadway with previews beginning in March of 2024 ahead of an April opening. According to Boroff, Oscar, Tony and Olivier winner Eddie Redmayne is slated to repeat his award-winning performance as the Emcee in this immersive staging. Rebecca Franknell will repeat her staging which included an immersive experience in the world of the Kit Kat Klub in 1930s Berlin. This will be the fifth Broadway production of the musical based on John Van Druten's I Am a Camera which was in turn derived from Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories about the reckless Sally Bowles in the decadent German capital before the rise of the Third Reich. Harold Prince's original 1966 production starred Jill Haworth, Joel Grey, Jack Gilford, Lotte Lenya and ran for 1,165 performances. The 1972 movie version directed by Bob Fosse won 8 Oscars including Best Actress for Liza Minnelli and Best Supporting Actor for Grey. Grey returned to the Emcee role for a 1987 revival. Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson headlined a 1998 revival which also originated in London and ran for 2,377 performances. This staging was revived in 2014 also with Cumming and ran for 388 performances.

B'way Update: Second Stage Announces Dates

Dame Jasmine Hughes and Reza Salazar
in the Guthrie Theater’s production of “Floyd’s” 
which will open as "Clyde's" on Broadway
Credit: T. Charles Erickson

Second Stage has announced dates for its 2021-22 on and Off-Broadway season, bringing the NYC post-COVID theater schedule into sharper focus. The company will open with two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's Clyde's premiering at the Hayes Theater with previews beginning Nov. 3 and an opening set for Nov. 22. The play, previously titled Floyd's appeared at the Guthrie Theater in 2019 and is set in a truck stop diner where the tough-talking female owner hires ex-convicts. The title was changed, presumably to avoid confusion with George Floyd, the African-American man who was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Nottage will also be represented this season by MJ, the Michael Jackson bio musical for which she wrote the book, and an operatic adaptation of her New York Drama Critics Circle Award winning play Intimate Apparel. In related news, Tony nominee Ephraim Skyes will be replaced in the title role of MJ by newcomer Myles Frost. Skyes cited scheduling conflicts as the reason for departing the show which has been delayed many times, not just by the COVID pandemic. 

Patrick J. Adams, Jesse Williams, and 
Jesse Tyler Ferguson will star in
Take Me Out
Credit: Catherine Wessel