Broadway

New Broadway Season Commencing to Begin

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Even with several closings announced recently, including the Addams Family, the coming of fall generally marks the opening of a new Broadway season.  And there are several things upcoming that I’m looking forward to.

First and foremost the new production of Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell at the Circle on the Square Theatre.  One of my all-time favorite musicals, the show, based on the gospel of Matthew features wonderful songs like Day By Day, By My Side, and Stand Back Oh Man.   It’ll be interesting to see how well it holds up, but for people like me it will if nothing else, be a wonderful blast from the past!  Opens Oct. 13.

Next up, Harry Connick Jr.  is back on the boards in a new production of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.  Reconceived by Tony-winning director Michael Mayer, with a new book by Peter Parnell, the musical will feature songs from Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner.  I loved the movie with Barbra Streisand and adore Mr. Connick.  He was fabulous in Pajama Game.  So I’ll be interested to hear more. Opens December 11 at the Saint James Theatre.

Also coming—Porgy and Bess with the amazing Audra McDonald and David Alan Grier (First preview Dec. 17, Richard Rogers Theatre).  Bonnie and Clyde (the musical) opening December 1st   at the Shoenfeld Theatre.  A new musical, Lysistrata Jones, at the Walter Kern Theatre, Nov. 12 about a losing basketball team and the players girlfriends who hold their favors waiting for a win.  Other Desert Cities, with Stockard Channing and Judith Light—Jon Robin Baitz’s drama about a wealthy Republican family attempting to kick sand over its past at the Booth Theatre Nov. 3. And a new production of Private Lives, with Kim Cattrell, one of my favorite Noel Coward plays (Nov. 17, Music Box Theatre).

And coming later this season, new musicals—Ghost, Big Fish, Nice Work if You Can Get it with Kelly O’Hara and Matthew Broderick, and Rebecca—the Daphne du Maurier classic (not sure how I feel about that exactly).  And also the return of Evita and  Funny Girl.

So lots of excitement over in Time Square.  Hopefully, I’ll be front and center at some of them—and of course I’ll be reporting back here!

The Importance of Being Earnest

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For most of the time I was growing up, we spent our summers in Creede.  An old mining town in southwestern Colorado, it is now days noted for its fly fishing, and somewhat surprisingly for its repertory theatre company.  And since I have loved the theatre from the time I could first recite a line, I was delighted whenever my parents took us to see a play there.

And of all the plays I saw over the years, by far my most favorite was a production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.  As the years have passed, my passion for the play has not diminished.  I have seen several other versions and always laughed just as loudly at the antics of Algernon, Jack, Cecily, Gwendolen and the inestimable, Lady Bracknell.

I even suffered through the movie (okay, Rupert Everett is in it, so there really wasn’t much suffering).  So you can imagine my joy when the Roundabout Theatre announced a new production of Earnest.  And to make it even juicer, internationally acclaimed actor Brian Bedford was slated to both direct and act—playing the part of Lady Bracknell.

Needless to say I was among the first in line to purchase tickets.  And when the reviews arrived—most of them stellar—I was even more excited.  There’s something wonderful about a favorite play. Seeing it again is like visiting old friends.  Sometimes with new faces, but nevertheless people you already know and love.  That said, there is also the anticipation that maybe this time somehow the magic will be lost.

Fortunately for me, the production at the American Airlines Theatre was superb.   And I fell in love with Wilde’s comedy of errors all over again.  Every word is brilliantly written (Wilde is one of my absolute favorite writers), and in the hands of this cast, they literally sing out across the stage.

Santino Fontana (most recently at the Roundabout in Sunday at the Park with George) played Algernon with just the right glint in his eye.  Although he lacked the suave sophistication that Everett brings to Wilde’s characters (he was also in a wonderful movie adaptation of the Ideal Husband) he still captures the essence of the character with a wry playfulness that endears him the audience.

David Furr playing the role of John/Earnest Worthington was spot on as the stick-in-the-mud dying to break out and totally infatuated with Gwendolen.  Both Jessie Austrian and Charlotte Parry playing the women with whom John and  Algernon besotted were well-cast.  The scene with the tea and sugar cubes was excellently choreographed and wonderfully played.  Especially when it finally culminates with the two women on the steps, arms linked, casting “the look” over their shoulders at their befuddled gentlemen friends.

And of course there’s Lady Bracknell.  I was honestly afraid that Mr. Bedford would overshadow the rest of the cast.  The character has that potential all by herself.  Add to that an actor of such superior caliber and the potential is there.  But instead, Bedford simply inhabits Bracknell, breathing life into her effortlessly. Although each and every word and gesture was letter perfect and there were definite moments when he stole the show, he was still very much part of the ensemble, which made for a wonderful performance overall.

The scenery was whimsical and yet accurate to period.  The costumes were fabulous.  Especially Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell’s.   And yet, it must be said that in the end—it was all about the writing.  And of course—The Importance of Being Earnest.

A Lovely Night

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Okay, one of my favorite things about living in Manhattan is being able to come out of a late running play or movie and still be able to find a great place for a drink or bite to eat.   Recently, after seeing the fabulous Million Dollar Quartet, my husband and I stopped by a restaurant on west 44th called Osteria al Doge.   Billed as featuring Venetian cuisine, the restaurant offers a quiet, spacious ambiance that’s perfect for winding down after a night at the theatre.

We opted for space at the bar and initially were planning only to have a late-night drink but after being seated and seeing other couples around us with mouthwatering food, we decided to give the food a try.   The people next to us had some fabulous looking bruschetta, and there were other delicious sounding appetizers like rosemary focaccia,  carpaccio, and a spinach salad with goat cheese and walnuts.  But in the end we opted for the Pizza Margarita.  Now one would think that pizza with basil, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes would be a no brainer for any chef, but I have to say that I find that often times it’s not as good as it should or could be.

So you can imagine our delight to find that the pizza delivered to up was to quote Mary Poppins “Practically perfect in every way.”   The crust was both crisp and tender, a must for me.  The cheese freshly melted, with the basil and tomatoes adding bright, fresh flavor.  To complement the food, I had a glass of excellent cabernet and my husband had an Italian beer.  And the service was superb!  When we came in they cleared a place for us at the bar,  offered our drinks immediately, and then when the pizza came, divided it ahead of time onto two plates to make eating at the bar easier (and to keep my husband from eating more than his fair share.)

And then as the perfect topper for the evening, the bartender brought us a plate of biscotti, sugared nuts and little meringues.  The biscotti—almond vanilla—was amazingly delicious, and my husband made short work of the meringues.  It was a delightful surprise.

All in all it was a lovely night.  Million Dollar Quartet was great fun.  The renditions of songs by Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Cark Perkins were spot on, and the thinly woven plot was fresh and interesting.  And then the food and charm of Osteria al Doge provided the perfect setting for a little after theatre magic.

If you’re over on 44th check out Osteria al Doge:

142 w 44th street between 6th Ave. & Broadway, 212 944-3643

I promise you won’t regret it!  What’s your idea of a perfect evening out?

Arcadia

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So our latest venture on the boards involved the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, home to among others, A Streetcar Named Desire and an Ideal Husband, and Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.  I confess that we probably wouldn’t have seen the play at all if it hadn’t been for a friend who raved about it.  And am I ever glad she did.

Two stories in one, Arcadia is a masterpiece in storytelling.  “In  April 1809, … a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory well beyond her comprehension.  Two hundred years later, two academic adversaries are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809.”  Now first off, as
 indicated by my three time travel novels, I’m a sucker for stories spanning time.  And this one is so beautifully done that at times it literally took my breath away.


The play first opened in London in 1993 directed by Trevor Nunn.   This outing the director is David Leveaux, a five-time tony nominee, including Fiddler in the Roof and Nine.  And he does a superb job, the choreography of past and present ever growing closer as the two stories intertwine.

photo: Carol Rosegg

Bel Powley and Tom Riley are especially wonderful as the gifted student Thomasina and her tutor Septimus.  Septimus in particular captured my heart, with his seemingly stoic take on life and the simmering heat just below the surface.  And his pivotal role in the drama/comedy is the lynch pin that holds everything together.  A lesser actor than Riley would have been a disappointment.    Margaret Colin (who for me will always be Jeff Goldblum’s girlfriend in Independence Day) was solid as Thomasina’s mother.  And the rest of the seventeenth century players provided pertinent background characters.

In the present day (1993 actually), the two battling historians played by Billy Crudup (immortalized for me in Big Fish) and Lia Williams also performed admirably.  Crudup as a blustering overly zealous academic was a delight.  And Lia as a woman looking for her next story rang true for me as a writer.  And playing off of each other they were wonderful.  But the real highlight of the modern day cast was the amazing Raul Esparza (whom I discovered last year in Mamet’s Speed the Plow).  Playing an aristocratic math geek he was so good you almost wanted to hear the lines again.  And in a wonderful surprise, I was treated to Meryl Streep’s daughter Grace Gummer, whose older sister Mamie I fell in love with this spring watching Off the Map.   I predict great things for both girls.

Photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage

The setting was simple, but deceptively so.  In a drawing room at the country estate of the Coverlys, bits and pieces of the past slowly begin to occupy the same space—a turtle, an apple, a computer, and even a journal, with pages being turned simultaneously in both time periods with a synchronicity that was truly amazing.  I don’t want to spoil the story, because that’s half the fun.   But believe me when I tell you that the ending is so bittersweet and beautiful that if even if you aren’t one to cry easily, you’ll be tempted.

Eight more weeks.  I urge you to go.  Go.  GO!