San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
San Diego seen on Broadway
Shows that originated locally, and artists who live or have worked here, will be represented on the Great White Way this season
And suddenly, Broadway is packed again. After an autumn that wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with openings, spring is looking absolutely jammed. Starting with Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s jazzy new musical “Days of Wine and Roses,” opening tonight, 19 productions are set to open between now and the deadline for Tony Awards eligibility in late April.
A whole flock of musicals is on the horizon: fresh takes on proven hits like “The Who’s Tommy” and “The Wiz,” with Wayne Brady; new shows with boldface names attached, such as Alicia Keys’ “Hell’s Kitchen” and Shaina Taub’s “Suffs,” a show whose producers include Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousufzai; and London imports including the immersive “Cabaret,” with Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee.
Stars are coming out in force in straight plays, too: Tyne Daly and Liev Schreiber in a revival of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt”; Jessica Lange in the premiere of Paula Vogel’s “Mother Play”; Jeremy Strong in a new version of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People”; and Steve Carell in Heidi Schreck’s new translation of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”
Also, fresh from a sizzling-hot off-broadway run, David Adjmi’s play “Stereophonic,” with songs by Will Butler, has joined the spring lineup.
Many of the shows opening this spring, or the artists behind them, have a San Diego connection. “The Outsiders,” for example, was born last spring at La Jolla Playhouse, and the Playhouse presented the pre-broadway tryout of “Lempicka” in 2022. And “The Heart of Rock & Roll” made its premiere in 2018 at the Old Globe.
“The Who’s Tommy” also originated at the Playhouse in 1992, and the revival of “The Wiz” just visited San Diego in its final pre-broadway tour stops.
Here’s a planning guide.
Musicals to leave you humming
“Cabaret”: Eddie Redmayne was a sensation as the Emcee when Rebecca Frecknall’s darkly seductive take on the Kander and Ebb classic made it a nearly impossible ticket in London’s West End. Now he reprises the role for Broadway, where Tom Scutt’s design for the immersive production turns the ordinarily staid August Wilson Theater into the Weimarera Kit Kat Club. With Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles, the cast also includes Bebe Neuwirth as Fräulein Schneider, Ato Blanksonwood as Clifford Bradshaw and Steven Skybell as Herr Schultz. (Starts previews April 1 at the August Wilson Theater; opens April 21.)
“Days of Wine and Roses”: Kelli O’hara and Brian d’arcy James star as glamorous 1950s New Yorkers who fall hard for each other, and at least as hard for alcohol, in Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s new musical adaptation of JP Miller’s classic film and teleplay. A hit in its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company last year, the show follows its sozzled lovers into the fog of addiction as they make a family, then come close to destroying it. Michael Greif directs. (In previews at Studio 54; opens Jan. 28. Limited run ends April 28.)
“The Heart of Rock and Roll”: Huey Lewis and the News have been a presence on Broadway lately, ever since a couple of the band’s infectious ’80s singles emerged as highlights of the musical “Back to the Future.” Now comes a jukebox musical comedy of their own. Long in the making, and built around hits like “Do You Believe in Love,” “Hip to Be Square” and “If This Is It,” it’s the story of two 20something co-workers in 1987, at least one of whom has rock ’n’ roll dreams. (Starts previews March 29 at the James Earl Jones Theater; opens April 22.)
“Hell’s Kitchen”: Alicia Keys, who owns a home in
La Jolla, wrote this comingof-age jukebox musical that’s stocked with her songs. It played to packed houses during its worldpremiere production last fall at the Public Theater. Studded with musical numbers including “Girl on Fire,” “If I Ain’t Got You” and “Empire State of Mind,” it’s the story of a 17-year-old girl in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, growing into an artist. Directed by former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Michael Greif, the show has a book by Kristoffer Diaz and choreography by Camille A. Brown. (Starts previews March 28 at the Shubert Theater; opens April 20.)
“Lempicka”: Tamara de Lempicka, the Polish-born bisexual art deco painter, is the enchanting and voracious historical figure at the center of this biomusical by Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould, starring Eden Espinosa in the title role. Directed by Rachel Chavkin, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, it had a prebroadway tryout at La Jolla Playhouse where The San Diego Union-tribune’s theater critic described it as “visually ravishing” musical with a “fierce and formidable” lead performance by Espinosa. (Starts previews March 19 at the Longacre Theater; opens April 14.)
“The Notebook”: Twenty years after Nicholas Sparks’ debut novel became a silverscreen romance, its latest incarnation is this musical. The story of a couple, Allie and Noah, it spans the decades from their adolescence to old age, when she has dementia and he reads to her, hoping to rouse her memory. Directed by Michael Greif and Schele Williams, with a book by Bekah Brunstetter (“This Is Us”) and a score by the singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, it surprised critics in Chicago who had expected a show less accomplished and moving. (Starts previews Feb. 10 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater; opens March 14.)
“Suffs”: Shaina Taub is nothing if not a politically minded artist, so it’s apt that she is making her Broadway debut during a presidential election year, with a musical about American women’s fight for the right to vote. With a cast that includes Jenn Colella, Nikki M. James, Grace Mclean and Emily Skinner, the show has a book, music and lyrics by Taub, who reprises her role as suffragist leader Alice Paul, whom she portrayed in the 2022 premiere at the Public Theater. Joined by a new choreographer, Mayte Natalio, and a new design team, Leigh Silverman directs. (Starts previews March 26 at the Music Box Theater; opens April 18.)
“Water for Elephants”: The world of the circus springs into three dimensions in this musical adaptation of Sara Gruen’s bestselling 2006 novel about a young man who joins a traveling circus during the Great Depression and bonds with an elephant named Rosie. Directed by Jessica Stone (“Kimberly Akimbo”), who has called it a memory play, this is a spectacle, incorporating circus design by Shana Carroll of the 7 Fingers and circus performers among the cast. With a book by Rick Elice (“Peter and the Starcatcher,” “Jersey Boys”) and a score by Pigpen Theater Co., it has puppet design by Camille Labarre. (Starts previews Feb. 24 at the Imperial Theater; opens March 21.)
“The Who’s Tommy”: The plot of Pete Townshend’s 1969 rock opera has always been peculiar, but the director, La Jolla Playhouse Artistic Director Emeritus Des Mcanuff, who wrote the book of this musical adaptation with Townshend, describes the story as a fable: traumatized child stops seeing, hearing and speaking, becomes pinball wizard, leads cult. The show was a smash on Broadway three decades ago, winning Tonys for Mcanuff ’s direction and Townshend’s thrilling score, including Who songs like “See Me, Feel Me” and “I’m Free.” This new production, with choreography by Lorin Latarro (“Waitress”), wowed in Chicago last summer. (Starts previews March 8 at the Nederlander Theater; opens March 28.)
“The Wiz”: This musical re-envisioning of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was a juggernaut of Black fabulousness when it opened on Broadway in 1975, won a clutch of Tonys and stayed
for four years. In Schele Williams’ new production, Wayne Brady plays the title role and Nichelle Lewis makes her Broadway debut as Dorothy. Amber Ruffin contributes additional material to the script, which has a book by William F. Brown and score by Charlie Smalls. (Starts previews March 29 at the Marquis Theater; opens April 17. Limited run ends Aug. 18.)
Classics revisited “An Enemy of the People”:
Jeremy Strong, known for his Method-like acting on the HBO series “Succession,” slips into a role once played by Stanislavsky himself: Thomas Stockmann, a doctor whose effort to warn his hometown about a poison in its midst gets him branded an enemy. With Michael Imperioli (“The White Lotus”) as Thomas’ rivalrous brother, this new version of Ibsen’s 19th-century drama is written by Amy Herzog, author of last season’s stellar spin on “A Doll’s House,” and directed by Sam Gold, her Tony Award-winning husband. (Starts previews Feb. 27 at Circle in the Square Theater; opens March 18. Limited run ends June 16.)
“The Great Gatsby”: Eva Noblezada, who was such a captivating Eurydice in “Hadestown,” stars as Daisy opposite Jeremy Jordan (“Newsies”) as Gatsby in this musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age novel. Transferring from its worldpremiere run at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, it has a book by Kait Kerrigan (“The Mad Ones”), with music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Nathan Tysen. Marc Bruni directs. (Starts previews March 29 at the Broadway Theater; opens April 25.)
“Uncle Vanya”: In this new Chekhov adaptation by Heidi Schreck (“What the Constitution Means to Me”), Steve Carell makes his Broadway debut as a man who has squandered his life, dutifully working to support his pampered brother-inlaw (Alfred Molina). Also starring Alison Pill as Sonya, Vanya’s niece; William Jackson Harper as Astrov, the house-call-making doctor she loves; and Anika Noni Rose as Yelena, the married beauty he adores, it’s directed by Lila Neugebauer. (Starts previews April 2 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater; opens April 24. Limited run ends June 16.)
Grown-up dramas
“Appropriate”: Branden Jacobs-jenkins (“An Octoroon”) has long been one of the most provocative and exciting playwrights around, so it’s about time he has an original play on Broadway. In this decade-old ensemble drama, Sarah Paulson and Corey Stoll star as siblings in a White family returning to clean out their dead father’s house on a former plantation in Arkansas, where they find an album filled with photos of Black people who have been lynched. Lila Neugebauer directs. (Through March 3 at the Helen Hayes Theater.)
“Doubt: A Parable”: John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2004 drama returns to Broadway with Tyne Daly as a Roman Catholic nun running a parochial school in the Bronx in 1964 and Liev Schreiber as the priest whom she suspects of preying on its one Black student. Directed by Scott Ellis, the powerhouse cast includes the dependably excellent Quincy Tyler Bernstine as the boy’s mother and Zoe Kazan as a subordinate nun. (Starts previews Feb. 2 at the American Airlines Theater; opens Feb. 29. Limited run ends April 14.)
“Mary Jane”: Rachel Mcadams makes her Broadway debut in the title role of Amy Herzog’s anxietyshadowed drama about the determined mother of a small child whose health has been precarious all his life. Anne Kauffman, who staged an acclaimed off-broadway production of the play several seasons ago, directs here as well. (Starts previews April 2 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater; opens April 23. Limited run ends June 2.)
“Mother Play”: This new Paula Vogel play, set in 1962 near Washington, where she grew up, is about a matriarch, Phyllis (Jessica Lange), who shares a name with Vogel’s mother, and her two adolescent children: Carl (Jim Parsons) and Martha (Celia Keenan-bolger). Tina Landau directs. (Starts previews April 2 at the Helen Hayes Theater; opens April 25. Limited run ends June 16.)
“Stereophonic”: David Adjmi’s riveting rock drama with songs by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire, was the hands-down golden ticket this fall during its off-broadway run at Playwrights Horizons. Set in the mid-1970s inside a pair of California recording studios, it follows a British American band on the cusp of fame through the delicate, drawnout, drug- and sex-fueled process of making their new album. At just over three hours, the play is practically epic length, but every moment of Daniel Aukin’s drum-tight production, transferring with its impeccable original cast, is worth the time. (Starts previews April 3 at the John Golden Theater; opens April 19. Limited run ends July 7.)
“My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)”:
Based on the home-video evidence, Rob Madge was mad for theater even as a child. Old VHS tapes show Madge, a nonbinary artist, as a pint-size performerimpresario in the making. This solo show, which Madge has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and on London’s West End, uses those tapes to help tell the story of their life, and of their family’s embrace of Madge’s queer identity. Luke Sheppard (“& Juliet”) directs. (Starts previews Feb. 27 at the Lyceum Theater; opens March 12. Limited run ends June 16.)
Silver-screen favorites, refashioned
“Back to the Future: The Musical”: The Delorean is the star attraction in this Olivier Award-winning adaptation of the 1985 comedy movie about a teenager who time-travels to the 1950s and meets his parents when they were his age. With the Tony winner Roger Bart as the eccentric inventor Doc Brown — aka the Christopher Lloyd role — and Casey Likes (star of the Old Globe-born Broadway musical “Almost Famous”) in the Michael J. Fox role of Marty Mcfly, John Rando’s production boasts scenic design by Tim Hatley, one of the Tony-winning wowfactor wizards responsible for the recent Broadway show “Life of Pi.” (Onstage at the Winter Garden Theater.)
“The Outsiders”: Born at La Jolla Playhouse last spring, this musical got a quick route to Broadway, in part thanks to its co-producer, Angelina Jolie. Rival gangs in a musical who aren’t the Sharks and the Jets? Here they’re the Greasers and the Socs, driven by class enmity just as they were in S.E. Hinton’s 1967 young adult novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film. Set in a version of Tulsa, Okla., where guys have names like Ponyboy and Sodapop, this new adaptation has a book by Adam Rapp with Justin Levine, and music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Levine. Danya Taymor directs. San Diego Union-tribune theater critic Pam Kragen said of the musical: “It successfully blends the best of the book and the movie in a richly detailed story for teen and adult audiences. It reveals its characters’ thoughts through song lyrics that feel authentic to the book, while still delivering a cinematicstyle visual punch, with muscular choreography and, yes, a dazzling rumble in the rain.” (Starts previews March 16 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater; opens April 11.)
“Spamalot”: Clip-clop, Python faithful — your revival awaits. Based on the screenplay for the 1975 “Camelot” spoof “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” Eric Idle and John Du Prez’s musical is willfully giddy, and the cast is full of comic virtuosos, including Alex Brightman as Sir Lancelot, James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake and Ethan Slater as the Historian. A hit in the original 2005 Broadway production, the show is directed this time around by Josh Rhodes, who also choreographs. (Onstage at the St. James Theater.)