The Spring 2025 Broadway theater season, in all its costly glory

The Spring 2025 Broadway season, the most expensive season ever, is in full swing!

Some very big, very famous movie stars light up Broadway this spring, bringing big prices and big grosses with them. They declare their love for theater, and audiences, whose dreams have come true, declare their love for stars by opening their wallets and going for the gusto buying seats.

In spite of so-so reviews, Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal's take on Othello is commanding ticket prices north of $900 for some seats. That makes for great grosses.

A-lister George Clooney's much-anticipated Good Night and Good Luck is also asking high prices for the best seats. Each of these shows has had $3M weeks.

Where do we go from here?

All over the place! Superstars Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren give us The Last Five Years, a 2001 Jason Robert Brown musical getting its first Broadway outing. Kieran Culkin, fresh off his Best Supporting Oscar, is in a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. The powerhouse Idina Menzel, of course, in Redwood. A new take on Gilbert and Sullivan -- Pirates!, a jazzy/bluesy version of the original, starring David Hyde Pierce. At long last, Smash, the Broadway musical about making a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, based on the TV series and directed by Susan Stroman.

Would a Broadway season be complete without some Sondheim? Spring 2025 offers up Old Friends, a celebration of Sondheim's work; Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga give a starry glow to the cast.

Most of these shows will have some more-affordable seats. Come to the theater this spring for something hot and new and starry and fresh!

See you at the theater!

-- Jeanne Lieberman, Editor, Theaterscene.com

Linda Lavin: 1937-2024

We are sorry to report that the funny, caustic, delightful, Tony-winning Linda Lavin, who had a long career in theater and television, died on Sunday, December 29. She had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Lavin was a frequent performer, on and off-Broadway. Career moments included originating Sondheim's "The Boy From." in The Mad Show in 1966, through starring as Mama Rose in Gypsy in 1990, to You Will Get Sick, in 2022. Of her five Tony nominations, she received the win for her performance in in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound.

Lavin worked extensively in television, where she had the title role in the sitcom Alice; she also sang the show's theme song, "There's a New Girl in Town," each season. Her eclectic TV career spanned everything from The Muppets to Barney Miller to The Sopranos, and at the time of her death, she was still working, shooting the upcoming Hulu sitcom Mid-Century Modern, opposite Nathan Lane.

Lavin's third husband, Steve Bakunas, survives her. Theaterscene sends our sympathy and condolences.

Theaterscene is sad to report that Sandi Durell, the founder and longtime publisher and editor of Theaterpizzazz, has passed after a long, courageous battle with cancer. Many in the theater and cabaret community loved Sandi; she was special, vibrant, and delightful. We send our condolences to her friends and particularly, her family: her husband, Dr. Robert Durell; her daughter, Cooper Lawrence; and her son-in-law, critic and Drama Desk member JK Clarke.

A celebration of life was held on Sunday, October 27.

Theater Loses Two Beloved Stars: Maggie Smith and Gavin Creel

Maggie Smith (Photo: the Everett Collection)

Gavin Creel (Photo: Deadline.com)

Within a single week, the theater world lost Maggie Smith, 89, and Gavin Creel, 48. These beloved actors were extraordinary talented members of the theater community. Smith was a legend, with a long run that spanned decades and garnered multiple awards for her work in film and television as well as on the stage. The other, Creel, had a shorter, but stellar, theater career.

Tributes from those who knew her speak of Maggie Smith's intellect, of how sharp, funny, and clever she was and yet did not suffer fools lightly. Gavin Creel's friends and colleagues talk about his kindness, his huge and singular talent, how he had made Broadway brighter. Gone too soon, yet still had so much greatness still to come.

Obituaries, courtesy of Theatermania, say it all; click photos for links.