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Editor’s Notes: FALL BACK/SPRING FORWARD

 

                                  By Jeanne Lieberman

 

Hamilton heralded a spectacular Fall Season;

Can the new season match it?

 

 

The “Hamilton phenomenon”, as it is now called, has brought national attention to Broadway, opening the best Fall season in decades. Late fall openings: Noises Off, two outstanding revivals: The Color Purple and Fiddler, plus those rare occurrences 2 new musicals On Your Feet, School of Rock, are the icing on the cake.

The innovative revival of Arthur Miller’s View from the Bridge is still the talk of the town but almost all of those 22 shows will have closed by March, either by merit or contract.

 

The new season is hard to categorize opening with 3 productions from Off Broadway: Disaster, The Humans and  Eclipsed. After that a marvelous mélange of original productions and revered revivals.

 

See for yourself:

 

GUIDE TO THE NEW SHOWS

 Location, dates, cast and summary:

 

 

 

·         Theatre: Helen Hayes

·         Previews Begin: Jan. 23, 2016

·         Opening: Feb. 18, 2016

·         Written by Stephen Karam

·         Director: Joe Mantello

·         Cast: Cassie Beck, Reed Birney, Jayne Houdyshell, Lauren Klein, Arian Moayed and Sarah Steele

·         After a sleepless night, Mr. Blake has brought his family from Pennsylvania to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter's new apartment. As darkness falls outside the crumbling pre-war duplex, mysterious things start to go bump in the night and family tensions reach a boiling point.

·         Premiered Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre with the same cast.

 

·         Theatre: Booth 

·         First Preview: Feb. 8, 2016

·         Opening: Feb. 25, 2016

·         Written by Eugene O'Neill

·         Director: Michael Grandage

·         Cast: Forest Whitaker and Frank Wood

·         The Oscar-winning actor makes his Broadway debut in this O'Neill two-hander.

Eclipsed

ECLIPSED

·         Theatre: Golden

·         Previews Begin: February 23, 2016

·         Opening: March 6, 2016

·         Written by Danai Gurira

·         Director: Liesl Tommy

·         Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Saycon Sengbloh, Pascale Armand, Akosua Busia, Zainab Jah

·         A group of women are held captive in Liberia.

·         Premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater with the same cast.

Disaster!

 

·         Theatre: Nederlander

·         First Preview: Feb. 9, 2016

·         Opening: March 8, 2016

·         Written by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick

·         Director: Jack Plotnick

·         Cast: Roger Bart, Kerry Butler, Kevin Chamberlin, Adam Pascal, Faith Prince, Rachel York, Jennifer Simard, Max Crumm, Lacretta Nicole and Seth Rudetsky

·         Musical spoof of 1970's disaster movies, done previously Off-Broadway.

Blackbird

Blackbird

·         Theatre: Belasco

·         Previews Begin: February 5, 2016

·         Opening: March 10, 2016

·         Written by David Harrower

·         Director: Joe Mantello

·         Cast: Jeff Daniels, Michelle Williams

·         A woman tracks down and confronts the man who had a relationship with her when she was 12.

·         Premiered Off-Broadway with Daniels and Mantello.

She Loves Me

She Loves Me

Theatre: Studio 54

·         First Preview: February 19, 2016

·         Opening: March 17, 2016

·         Written by Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) and Joe Masteroff (book)

·         Director: Scott Ellis

·         Cast: Zachary Levi, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski

·         Georg (Levi) and Amalia (Benanti) are two parfumerie clerks who aren’t quite the best of friends. Constantly bumping heads while on the job, the sparring coworkers can’t seem to find common ground. But little do they know, the anonymous romantic pen pals they have both been falling for happen to be each other.

 

·         Theatre: Cort

·         Previews Begin: February 25, 2016

·         Opening: March 24, 2016

·         Written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell (music), Edie Brickell (lyrics), Steve Martin (book)

·         Director: Walter Bobbie

·         Cast: Carmen Cusack

·         In the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina between 1923 and 1945, Billy Cane, a young soldier just home from World War II, meets Alice Murphy, the brilliant editor of a southern literary journal. Together they discover a powerful secret that alters their lives.

·         Premiered at San Diego's Old Globe in fall 2014. The musical was being presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington Dec. 2, 2015-Jan. 10, 2016.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

·         Theatre: Walter Kerr

·         First Preview: February 29, 2016

·         Opening: April 7, 2016

·         Written by Arthur Miller

·         Director: Ivo van Hove

·         Cast: Ben Whishaw, Saoirse Ronan, Ciaran Hinds. Sophie Okonedo.

·         Arthur Miller's political allegory framed as a story about a man falsely charged with witchcraft in colonial, Salem, MA.

 

·         Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman

·         First Preview: March 22, 2016

·         Opening: April 14, 2016

·         Written by Florian Zeller

·         Director: Doug Hughes

·         Cast: Frank Langella, Kathryn Erbe

·         A look inside the mind of Andre (Langella), a retired dancer living with his adult daughter Anne and her husband. Or is he a retired engineer receiving a visit from Anne who has moved away with her boyfriend? Why do strangers keep turning up in his room? And where has he left his watch?

·         Produced previously in Paris and London.

American Psycho

American Psycho

 

Theatre: Gerald Schoenfeld

·         First Preview: March 24, 2016

·         Opening: April 20, 2016

·         Written by Duncan Sheik (music & lyrics), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (book)

·         Director: Rupert Goold

·         Cast: Benjamin Walker, Alice Ripley, Jennifer Damiano

·         "Direct from a highly acclaimed, sold-out run in London, American Psycho brings its designer brand of style, sex and synthesizers to Broadway. Set in the excess of 1980s Manhattan, American Psycho tells the story of Patrick Bateman, a young and handsome Wall Street banker who pursues his darkest American dreams. Patrick and his elite group of friends spend their days in exclusive restaurants, hot clubs and luxury labels. But at night, Patrick takes part in a more sinful indulgence, and his mask of sanity is starting to slip...."

·         Made its world premiere in London at the Almeida Theatre January 2014, starring Matt Smith. Act 4 is partnering with Jeffrey Richards to bring the show to Broadway.

Nerds, A Musical Dot-Comedy

Nerds, A Musical Dot-Comedy

NERDS

·         Theatre: Longacre

·         First Preview: March 31, 2016

·         Opening: April 21, 2016

·         Written by Hal Goldberg (music), Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner (book and lyrics)

·         Director: Casey Hushion

·         Cast: TBA

·         "Before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were the undisputed titans of technology, they were Nerds. Join America’s favorite garage inventors on a hilarious musical journey from the floppy disc era to the iPhone phenomenon, and the epic competition in between, that would revolutionize modern culture as we know it."

·         First presented by the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2007. Then played a limited engagement at North Carolina Theatre in 2013. A concert was presented at 54 Below in June 2014. 

Waitress

·         Theatre: Brooks Atkinson

·         First Preview: March 25, 2016

·         Opening: April 24, 2016

·         Written by Sara Bareilles (music & lyrics), Jessie Nelson (book), Adrienne Shelly (original screenplay)

·         Director: Diane Paulus

·         Cast: Jessie Mueller

·         Based on the 2007 film of the same name, which follows a pregnant waitress named Jenna who is unhappily married in the Deep South. She meets a newcomer to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness.

·         In development since June 2013 with producers Barry and Fran Weissler, director Diane Paulus and songwriter Sara Bareilles. The show had its first full production at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA in summer 2015.

FULLY COMMITTED

·         Theatre: Lyceum  

·         First Preview: April 2, 2016

·         Opening: April 25, 2016

·         Written by Becky Mode

·         Director: Jason Moore

·         Cast: Jesse Tyler Ferguson

·         Broadway premiere of the hit 1999 comedy about a harried reservations clerk at a hot restaurant with a mob of crazy guests...all played by one actor.

·         Theatre: Broadhurst 

·         First Preview: March 31, 2016

·         Opening: April 26, 2016

·         Written by Nathan Tysen (lyrics), Chris Miller (music), Claudia Shear and Tim Federle (book)

·         Director: Casey Nicholaw

·         Cast: Sarah Charles Lewis, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Carolee Carmello, Michael Park, Terrence Mann

·         Good girl Winnie Foster’s world has been safely contained behind the picket fence that surrounds the house she shares with her mother and grandmother. Yearning to break free, Winnie runs deep into the woods behind their house where she discovers the Tuck family and the secret they’ve been keeping.

 

·         Theatre: American Airlines 

·         First Preview: March 31, 2016

·         Opening: April 27, 2016

·         Written by Eugene O'Neill

·         Director: Jonathan Kent

Cast: Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Shannon

O'Neill's tale of an ordinary summer’s day with extraordinary consequences. Roundabout revives the story of the Tyrone family and their battle to unearth — and conceal — a lifetime of secrets.

Shuffle Along Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed

Shuffle Along Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed

·         Theatre: Music Box

·         First Preview: March 15, 2016

·         Opening: April 28, 2016

·         Written by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle (music), George C. Wolfe (book)

·         Director: George C. Wolfe

·         Choreographer: Savion Glover

·         Cast: Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon, Joshua Henry

·         A backstage musical about the events that led to the creation of the groundbreaking Eubie Blake-Noble Sissle musical Shuffle Along.

·         Theatre: Lyric

·         First Preview: April 16, 2016

·         Opening: May 25, 2016

·         Written by "Bob & Bill" (Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard).

·         Director: Philippe Decouflé

·         Cast: Ruby Lewis

·         New musical that will represent the first Cirque du Soleil show assembled expressly for Broadway. Although it is scheduled to open in the 2015-16 season, it won't be eligible for the Tony Awards until 2017.

                           Above information subject to change – it is, after all, theater!