B'way Update: Parsons and Spinella in 'Autumn'

Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella in The Velocity of Autumn at Arena Stage
Credit: Teresa Wood

The long-delayed production of The Velocity of Autumn is finally coming to Broadway. The two-character play by Eric Coble about an elderly woman threatening to blow up her Brooklyn brownstone if she can't stay there, has been on the "upcoming" list for what seems like decades now. Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella will repeat their performances from the original Arena Stage, Washington DC production when the show begins previews at the Booth Theater (currently home to The Glass Menagerie) on April 1 in advance of an April 21 opening. Spinella plays her son who tries to negotiate with her not to light the match. BTW, Spinella will be appearing the CSC production of Brecht's A Man's a Man opening Jan. 30 for a limited run through Feb. 16. Parsons leaps to the head of the list of frontrunners for the Best Actress in a Play Tony since she is 86 and has never won one before, though she's been nominated four times (The Seven Descents of Myrtle, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Miss Margarida's Way, Morning's at Seven.) Her biggest competition are two other "mothers": Tyne Daly in Mothers and Sons and Diahann Carroll in A Raisin in the Sun.That means the only announced Broadway show without a theater is The Realistic Joneses which will probably go into the Cort once Waiting for Godot/No Man's Land ends its limited run. So I updated the my Broadway/Off-Broadway calendar and added a few new shows: