2014 Fall Preview: The Musicals

Erin Davie and Emily Padgett are set to reprise their roles as conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton in the Broadway transfer of the acclaimed Kennedy Center production of the cult musical Side Show.

Although I am vehemently opposed to our nation's obsession with pumpkin everything and the attendant rush to have it be fall RIGHT NOW, there's no denying that the summer is coming to a close. The coming months will see a bevy of new Broadway productions begin performances, and since I've already examined the fall's crop of plays it's time to turn our attention to the type of theatre that is most synonymous with the Great White Way: the Broadway musical. While there aren't nearly as many musicals as plays premiering in the coming months, the industry seems to have collectively decided on a quality-over-quantity approach. (Almost) Every single musical, new or revived, sounds like an enticing evening at the theatre, and I am legitimately excited for them. So without further ado, here are the upcoming shows that will hopefully have us singing and dancing in the aisle this coming fall.

On the Town
Previews begin 9/20; Opening Night 10/16

While I'm not convinced the current Broadway economy can really support a big budget, old school song-and-dance fest like On the Town, I'm sure glad some producers have decided to give it a try. The Bernstein-Comden-Green musical perfectly fits my criteria for shows that merit a full scale revival (it's a well-liked musical that was a huge hit during its original run that isn't produced very often anymore), and it will be nice to see another dance musical on the Great White Way now that Newsies has ceased carrying the banner. I'm concerned On the Town has booked Spider-Man's old theatre (the freshly renamed Lyric), because I don't think the musical has the kind of drawing power to consistently sell a house that size, but hopefully the producers keep running costs low so it won't need to be a sell-out hit to survive.

The Last Ship
Previews begin 9/30; Opening Night 10/26

This is the one musical I am not interested in seeing, thanks mostly to the snooze-inducing preview performance on this year's Tony telecast. Multiple Grammy-winner Sting tries his hand at writing showtunes for this semi-autobiographical show about a shipbuilding town in England struggling to stave off financial ruin. As Bono and the Edge proved with their disastrous Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, success and acclaim in the recording industry doesn't always translate to the stage, and quite honestly the entire affair sounds dull and uninteresting. In fairness, The Last Ship received encouraging (but by no means stellar) reviews during its out of town tryout, but it's going to need really strong buzz to convince me I want to sit through 2 1/2 hours of the same type of low-key material showcased on the Tonys.

Side Show
Previews begin 10/28; Opening Night 11/17

It took longer than I initially expected, but the well-reviewed Kennedy Center production of this 1997 cult-musical is officially coming to Broadway, and I couldn't be more excited. While the original production of Side Show only ran for a couple of months, the musical's reputation has only grown since its premature closing thanks to an intriguing premise - it tells the story of real-life conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton - and a fantastic score. The show has been retooled, rethought, and rewritten by original authors Henry Krieger and Bill Russell along with the revival's director, Bill Condon (an Oscar winner who is also responsible for the fantastic film version of Krieger's Dreamgirls). I'm concerned about the show's financial prospects - dark musical dramas are a hard sell these days - but I will certainly be in attendance, and I hope this new production is the beginning of a long and prosperous second life for the ambitious property.

Honeymoon in Vegas
Previews begin 11/18; Opening Night 1/15/15

While I couldn't begin to tell you why a show The New York Times' Ben Brantley practically demanded transfer to Broadway has a two month preview period, the important thing is Honeymoon in Vegas is coming to bless us with another glorious Jason Robert Brown score. While this is the first full-fledged comedy the three-time Tony-winner has written, his previous works are rife with inventive lyrics and fun, uptempo melodies in songs like The Last 5 Year's "Summer in Ohio" or Songs for a New World's "Surabaya-Santa." It also marks the Broadway return of rising star Rob McClure, who will hopefully find a vehicle more worthy of his talents than the misguided Chaplin a few years back. If the show is as good as early buzz suggests, Honeymoon may give Brown his first commercial success, something that should help ease the sting of the criminally chilly reception his brilliant Bridges of Madison County received earlier this year. (Sidenote: both the show and leading lady Kelli O'Hara were *robbed* of Tony Awards this year!)


And there you have it! Those are all 16 productions scheduled to premiere on Broadway this fall. Which shows are you most excited about? Don't be afraid to let me know in the comments!

And in case you missed it, here are the previous two parts of my Fall Preview:

2014 Fall Preview: Play Revivals
2014 Fall Preview: New Plays

2014 Fall Preview: New Plays

A scene from the London production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time, one of several new works making the journey across the pond for the Fall season.

This past Monday saw the first preview performance of This Is Our Youth, meaning the Fall 2014 Broadway season is officially upon us. I've already taken a look at the many star-driven revivals coming to the Great White Way in the next few months; thankfully, unlike last fall's dismal showing of new plays (critical and commercial flops The Snow Geese and A Time to Kill), this fall has a few promising new works to balance out all those revivals. Hell, at least one of these plays is virtually guaranteed to be a sell-out hit, and given strong productions a couple of the others could also be at least critical if not necessarily commercial hits. So what's on deck for the fall? Find out below.

The Country House
Previews begin 9/9; Opening Night 10/2

One thing Manhattan Theatre Club can always be counted on for is attracting name talent to new works. I personally feel MTC's new plays trend a little too upper class and cerebral for their own good, but every once and a while the famed not-for-profit produces a daringly original and energetic piece like Venus in Fur. Unfortunately, The Country House sounds like par for the course at MTC (re: well-done but a little boring). Blythe Danner stars in this Donald Margulies play about a group of established and aspiring artists in a summer home in the Berkshires, with the explicit promise of "romantic outbursts" and "passionate soul-searching" along with an implicit promise of weighty discussions about art and culture. I actually enjoyed MTC's production of Margulies' Time Stands Still several seasons back, but this new work just sounds ponderous. I'm predicting respectable reviews and a respectable run, although it would take something unexpected for this play to take off and become a true hit.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time
Previews begin 9/10; Opening Night 10/5

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time is the latest in a long, mostly distinguished line of new works originating in the West End. A hit oversees, the play centers on an incredibly intelligent but socially awkward teenage boy who is accused of killing his neighbor's dog, and his attempts to uncover the real killer. Coming to Broadway from London's prestigious National Theatre, this Olivier-winning play sounds a good deal more interesting and inventive than a lot of our home grown theatre, probably because England's government subsidized arts scene is a little more embracing of theatricality and invention (see War Horse). That said, some of these West End transfers lose something in the journey across the Atlantic, failing to live up to the hype generated by their reputations (see War Horse again). The reviews will probably dictate how well this does. If the critics embrace it, I expect it to settle in for a healthy run and potential Tony Awards; if they are lukewarm, it will probably close with relatively little fanfare. I am certainly curious, and just glad to see a high-minded drama that isn't solely concerned with the problems of upper class white people.

Disgraced
Previews begin 9/27; Opening Night 10/23

Like far too many plays, Disgraced concerns a group of upper class New Yorkers. But in this case, two of them are Muslim-American, and the play comes to Broadway having already won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Which is certainly enough to make anyone sit up and take notice, and of all the new plays scheduled for fall this is the one I am most interested in seeing. A contemporary take on a contemporary subject (the place of practicing Muslims in post 9/11 America), Disgraced sounds fresh and provocative, unlike the staid dramas that have taken over Broadway in the past few years. Barring some kind of creative implosion in the production, I expect this to be one of the more buzzed about works of the fall, and a clear early contender for Tony consideration come spring.

The River
Previews begin 10/31; Opening Night 11/16

The producers of Jez Butterworth's The River have scored the biggest casting coup of the fall: they somehow convinced box office magnet Hugh Jackman to star in this new play by a decidedly off-beat English playwright. Add in the fact that the Circle in the Square is one of Broadway's smallest houses and you have what is sure to be one of the hottest tickets in town. While The River's box office success is virtually assured - audiences have repeatedly proven they will turn up to see Jackman in just about anything - artistically the play is another story. I personally was underwhelmed by Butterworth's 2011 Tony-nominee Jerusalem (without the incomparable Mark Rylance that would have been a wasted 3 hours in the theatre), but many critics enjoyed the show and may again be charmed by Butterworth's work. I personally have no interest to see this play, which I suspect will be remembered much more as a financial success than an artistic one.

Constellations
Previews begin 12/16; Opening Night 1/13

Not much is known about this Manhattan Theatre Club production, other than the fact it will mark Oscar-nominee Jake Gyllenhaal's long-awaited Broadway debut. Something about the play must have enticed the notoriously choosey Gyllenhaal to Broadway, and it certainly wasn't MTC's not-for-profit pay scale. The official plot description of this West End transfer sounds heady - it is described as a "mind-bending" work that "defies the boundaries of the world we think we know" on MTC's website - which means it could either be an adventurous, inventive new work or a pretentious quagmire too caught up in its own premise to actually work. And while Gyllenhaal isn't a particular draw for me, he likely will be to a lot of other people, so hopefully this play turns out well.


And there you have the five new plays scheduled to open on Broadway in the next few months.  Check back soon for the final instalment of my Fall Preview series, which will focus on the musicals coming to Broadway between now and Christmas.  In the meantime, don't forget to catch up with part 1 of the series:

2014 Fall Preview: Play Revivals

2014 Fall Preview: The Play Revivals

Tony winners Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane are 2 of the many, many celebrities coming to Broadway this fall in limited run revivals.

The 2014-2015 Broadway stealthily began the week after the Tony Awards with the premiere of the ill-fated musical Holler If You Hear Me, something that already seems like a non-event in the grand scheme of things.  But we are getting ready to start the season proper, with several new productions beginning previews this month and many more scheduled from now until the lucrative holiday season.  And so I will be writing a three-part series previewing the upcoming season, examining all of the announced productions and giving a brief assessment of the probable level of success, both artistic and commercial.

We start with the plays, and like last year this coming season is jam packed with celebrity-led revivals.  Not everyone appreciates these shameless cash grabs (which can sometimes be of dubious artistic merit), although enough of them turn out well that I'm not about to dismiss the trend out of hand.  The productions also have a pretty good track record of making money, which the producers will hopefully pour back into riskier projects and not solely into more celebrity-led revivals.  So what revivals can star-struck theatregoers who need a break from singing and dancing look forward to this coming fall?  Find out below.

This Is Our Youth
Previews begin 8/17; Opening Night 9/11

This is one of those awkward situations where producers seem to think they've booked name talent but actually haven't.  Michael Cera is the biggest "name" here, and even in his home medium of film he has never been a consistent draw (the one-note screen persona he's cultivated probably doesn't help matters).  Cera and costars Kieran Culkin (younger brother of Home Alone's Mucauley Culkin) and Tavi Gevinson don't have nearly the drawing power as a Denzel Washington, Neil Patrick Harris or even a James Franco, which means that director Anna D. Shapiro better work the same kind of magic she did with August: Osage County if the show's to be successful.  The play, which explores themes of adolescence and maturity, sounds promising, but I'm taking a wait-and-see approach to this work.  If the buzz is good, I'm more likely to give it a chance.

You Can't Take It With You
Previews begin 8/26; Opening Night 9/28

This revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy has a much starrier cast than This Is Our Youth, headlined by the always engaging James Earl Jones.  Jones plays the head of the eccentric and slightly unhinged Sycamore clan as they entertain the more conventional family of their daughter's boyfriend.  The play, with a premise ripe for scene-stealing supporting turns by a cast of theatrical veterans, certainly has my interest, although it lacks the "it factor" which makes me feel compelled to buy a ticket.  Unless something goes horribly wrong, I expect this play to do good business and win decent reviews, although it remains to be seen if it will have the kind of legs to merit an extension and/or any serious Tony talk.

It's Only a Play
Previews begin 8/28; Opening Night 10/9

Terrance McNally's last Broadway outing Mothers and Sons left me cold, but the upcoming revival of his 1982 comedy It's Only a Play is one of my most anticipated productions of the fall season.  The cast assembled by the producers and director Jack O'Brien is stacked with name talent, most of whom have at least one Tony nomination (if not a win) to their name.  The idea of seeing such noted clowns as Nathan Lane, Megan Mullaly, and Matthew Broderick ham it up in the farcical-sounding work (about a Broadway producer anxiously awaiting the reviews for his latest play) is exactly the kind of thing I and a lot of people would be willing to pay big bucks for.  Unless it gets absolutely terrible reviews, I suspect this will be one of the theatrical events of the fall.

Love Letters
Previews begin 9/13; Opening Night 9/18

An last minute addition to the fall season, this revival of the A.R. Gurney drama about the lifelong friendship between an artist and a politician sounds like a complete snoozefest.  The entire play is told via a series of letters the pair exchange, meaning it is essentially a series of monologues read aloud to the audience.  I have never enjoyed Gurney's work; he focuses so specifically on the concerns of upper class whites it can be hard to relate to his plays if you don't come from a similar background.  The gimmick of this revival is that it will feature a rotating cast of name actors, starting with Brain Dennehy and Mia Farrow and eventually including the likes to Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, and Diana Rigg.  I personally think this revival is ill-advised (the rotating guest stars didn't do much to help After Midnight's sales, and these stars have even shorter runs that will be almost impossible to properly advertise) and likely doomed to failure.  I will certainly be skipping it.

The Real Thing
Previews begin 10/2; Opening Night 10/30

Roundabout's productions have been incredibly hit or miss over the past several seasons, so without more information it is impossible to know where this revival of Tom Stoppard's heady drama will land on the quality spectrum.  It does have the appealing prospect of Ewan McGreggor in his Broadway debut, with a supporting cast that includes Maggie Gyllenhall and Cynthia Nixon to give it both theatrical credibility and even more Hollywood sheen.  I'm expecting a competently staged and acted evening at the theatre, although I will admit that it isn't very high up on my list of things to see.

A Delicate Balance
Previews begin 10/20; Opening Night 11/20

Along with It's Only a Play, A Delicate Balance looks poised to become one of the more buzzed about Broadway productions of the fall.  Featuring Glenn Close's first Broadway appearance in 20 years, Tony-winner and multiple Oscar-nominee Close is joined by Tony- and Emmy-winner John Lithgow in this Edward Albee drama.  Directed by Pam MacKinnon, who worked wonders with the 2012 revival of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this production contains great actors tackling a great script under the helm of a great director.  Assuming the stars are available and willing, I can easily see this extending for a month or two past its planned February closing date (which will give me more time to actually go see it).

The Elephant Man
Previews begin 11/7; Opening Night 12/7

This production is a wildcard for me.  On one hand, Bradley Cooper has racked up multiple Oscar nominations over the past couple of years, proving he is a much more versatile actor than his lowbrow performance in The Hangover would lead you to believe.  The Elephant Man is a respected property in the theatrical world that is a major showcase for its star, who plays the deformed John Merrick without the benefit of prosthetics or makeup.  But I wonder if director Scott Ellis, who is also directing You Can't Take It With You and On the Twentieth Century next season, is perhaps stretching himself too thin to really give this project the level of focus it deserves.  Cooper's name is probably enough to ensure good box office, but I am very curious to see what the verdict is on the artistic merits of this production.


And those are all the play revivals you can look forward to between now and Christmas.  Check back soon to see my take on this fall's upcoming new plays.