Book Review: The Outsiders

(Downloaded on my Kindle for $7): SE Hinton's best-selling novel of Oklahoma JDs gets under your skin. I decided to read it after seeing the musical version now on Broadway, plus it's on PBS's list of 100 favorite books. At less than 200 pages, I figured it would be a quick, easy read. It was and very deep. The narrator Ponyboy Curtis hangs out with a makeshift family/gang known as Greasers in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are preyed upon by the upper-middle-class Socs (for Socials). Ponyboy likes to read and draw and gets good grades in school, but his world is beset by senseless violence. A lot of bad stuff goes down, but the plot is not as important as Ponyboy's reflections on his dead-end life. Hinton gets inside the characters. You feel know you them by the end of the book.

B'way Update: Patti LuPone, Mia Farrow, Tom Holland

Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow will return to
Broadway in The Roommate.

According to the New York Post, three-time Tony winner Patti PuPone and Mia Farrow will return to Broadway in a two-person play called The Roommate by Jen Silverman. Directed by Tony winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), the play will begin preview performances at the Booth Theater in late August and open in September. After her last Broadway appearance in the revival of Company, LuPone announced she was turning in her Equity card. Guess she will be renewing it now. Farrow last appeared on Broadway for a week of performances in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. 

The Roommate which premiered in 2015 at the Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, deals with two Iowa women in their mid-50s sharing a house and discovering each other’s secrets as they start their lives over.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and Tom Holland
will star in Romeo and Juliet in London
and possibly Broadway afterwards.
Credit: Jamie Lloyd Company

In other unconfirmed news, the UK Mirror reports that the West End production of Romeo and Juliet starring the latest screen Spider-Man Tom Holland will transfer to Broadway when it completes its London run. The show sold out its entire limited run which begins at the Duke of York Theater in May in two hours. The production directed by Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard) has been embroiled in a controversy ever since it was announced that Juliet would be played by black actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. Racist comments have flooded the actress's social media, forcing her to shut down the comments section.

The Jamie Lloyd company has issued this statement: "Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment. We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported."

A 2013 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet starred actors of different races--Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad and there was no racist outcry. What could explain this disgusting change? I could speculate about the proliferation of hate speech and social media, the election of certain figures who tolerate such vile speech, but this development is a certainly an ugly one.

B'way Update: MTC Season Includes Sondheim, Vladimir, Eureka

Lea Salonga and Bernadette Peters
in Old Friends, transferring to
Broadway in 2025.
Credit: Danny Kaan

Manhattan Theater Club has announced plans for its 2024-25 season on and Off-Broadway, which will include the Broadway premieres of Eureka Day and the London Sondheim revue, Old Friends starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga who will repeat their London performances. The Stephen Sondheim tribute ran in London's West End in 2023 and will begin previews at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theater on March 25, 2025 with an opening date TBA. The show will have a pre-Broadway run at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater from Feb. 8--March 9. The production was devised by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie. Additional cast members will be announced. 

Book Review: Letter to My Daughter

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library): Another essay collection from Maya Angelou. A quick read with lasting, valuable wisdom. These brief pieces focus on life lessons written to the daughter Angelou never had and to the women she had treated like daughters throughout her eventful life. We get advice on cultural sensitivity, never giving up, and social etiquette. There are also reflections on Celia Cruz, activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and Coretta Scott King. The most striking piece details a gruesome encounter with with an abusive, jealous boyfriend--it's harrowing and brutal--and fills in some gaps in her six autobiographical books. I'd like to read a bio that takes up where her memoirs leave off.

Wet Brain Dominates 39th Lortel Award Noms

Wet Brain from Playwrights Horizons
and MCC Theater, received the most
Lortel nominations.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Wet Brain, John J. Caswell's Jr.'s play about a Hispanic family dealing with the father's alcoholism and delusions of being kidnapped by aliens, co-produced by Playwrights Horizons and MCC Theater, received the most nominations for the 39th annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Off-Broadway excellence, with 8. The nominations were announced April 4 by Amber Iman and George Abud, stars of the Broadway musical Lempicka. The Lortels, named for the legendary Off-Broadway producer, will be presented on May 5 at the NYU Skirball Hall. The event is open to the public and tickets are available starting April 11 at tickets.edu.nyu or at the NYU box office, Tues.-Sat., 12-6PM. 

Other productions with strong showings include Stereophonic with 7 and (pray) and Dead Outlaw with 6 each.

Book Review: Even the Stars Look Lonesome

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library) In between longer books, I took out three short volumes by two favorite authors: Joan Didion and Maya Angelou. I have read all of Angelou's autobiographies and most of her poetry, but not her essays. (I met her once when I was in high school. She was promoting one of her books at a Philadelphia bookstore. I had written her a letter and enclosed a copy of an essay I had written about her which won a prize. She sent me back an autographed copy of a book of her poetry. She was delightful to me at the bookstore.) At less than 150 pages, this is an easy but powerful read, full of Angelou's personal experiences and observations derived from a rich and varied life. Her relationship to the South is particularly fascinating and the piece on a slavery folk museum in Baton Rogue, LA is poignant. I disagreed with her views on supporting the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. She felt that having an African-American voice on the court outweighted his deplorable record on Civil Rights, that he could be persuaded to see the light. (She doesn't even mention the Anita Hill controversy.) Now decades later, we see the damage Thomas and his wife have done to the country. But her eloquent writing defending her position is wroth reading.

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.