Winter is traditionally a fairly quiet time for the Great White Way, but several new shows will be opening in recent weeks and months. Here's a partial list, courtesy of Playbill.com:
The first three shows of the season are star vehicles for some Big Name Hollywood talent: Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City fame will star in Wit, Margaret Edson's Pulitzer-winning play about a college professor's battle with cancer. (Note: Warn your clients that this play is very tough to watch, and people in the mood for a light comedy might want to look elsewhere.) The play has already begun previews, and will open on January 26. On the Ides of March, Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman will take on the iconic role of Willy Loman in the latest revival of Death of a Salesman. (Yes, the show was just revived a few years ago, and earned Brian Dennehy a Tony Award. We'll reserve judgment till we see it, of course, but maybe they could have waited a few years for another revival?) And taking a cue from Hugh Jackman, William Shatner will perform a one-man show about his life and career.
Once, an adaptation of the movie of the same name, was a major hit for the New York Theatre Workshop downtown, and the two-person tuner will transfer to the Jacobs theater in mid-March. A few days after that, the latest revival of Jesus Christ Superstar will return to the boards—and again, it's only been 12 years since the last revival. While the cast is full of some tried-and-true Broadway talent, do we need another production of the show every decade?
Some more revivals will follow, with the long-anticipated London production of Evita finally coming to Broadway in April (starring Argentine singer Elena Roger and recording pop star Ricky Martin, who appeared on Broadway in Les Miserables years ago…but we're most excited about Tony-winner Michael Cerveris, who will be playing Juan Peron). Another revival of Gore Vidal's political drama The Best Man will also open that month (again, last revival was 2001), starring some serious Hollywood and Broadway heavyweights (James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, Candice Bergen, John Larroquette, Michael McKean, Eric McCormack and Kerry Butler). And this makes two politically-themed shows opening within days of each other. Perfect for an election year, we say.
And finally, two new musicals based on cult-classic films will open in March and April, respectively. Newsies, based on the divisive Disney live-action musical, will come to Broadway after a successful run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse with a new book by Harvey Fierstein and a new score by Oscar-winner Alan Menken and Jack Feldman. And Ghost, an adaptation of the popular Patrick Swayze-Whoopi Goldberg romance, will open in late April. We expect the song "Molly, You in Danger, Girl," will become a breakaway pop hit. (We kid, we kid!)
Tickets to most of these shows will be available on Telecharge.com.