We're rejoicing over Broadway's Return
Thursday, May 13, 2021 at 11:35AM by Nathaniel R
Patti Lupone in "Company"
When Broadway was shut down on March 12th, 2020 the official story was "until April 12th, 2020". That one month time frame is hilariously optimistic in retrospect (and even raised some eyebrows at the time). Cut to mid May 2021 and Broadway is still closed but with notice that theaters can reopen at full capacity in September.
But what gives with the Tony Awards? They announced a strange set of nominees after the Broadway closing culled from a very limited pool of shows since a lot hadn't yet opened (Broadway is typically busiest in the spring). Seven months later they still haven't uttered a peep about when those awards will take place. Aaron Tveit, the only nominee for Best Actor in a Musical, still doesn't know whether or not he won. All three of the current nominees in the marquee Tony category of Best Musical (i.e. the one that gets all the headlines and makes the box office difference) will be reopened by late October...
If a show has an asterisk by it, it will be eligible for the 2022 Tony season...provided these openings actually happen.
BROADWAY IN THE FALL
- Chicago: The Musical The 1997 Best Musical Revival winner, the longest running revival of all time, returns on September 14th for its 9,693rd performance
- Hamilton - the 2016 Best Musical winner resumes on September 14th
- Wicked - The 2004 blockbuster resumes on September 14th
- Come From Away the 2017 hit resumes on Tues September 21st
- Six* resumes previews on September 21st
- Aladdin - The 2014 musical resumes on September 28th
- Caroline or Change* the revival of the undervalued 2004 musical begins previews on October 8th
- Tina: The Tina Turner Musical resumes on October 8th (current best musical nominee)
- Trouble in Mind* a new play by Alice Childress begins previews on October 9th
- Aint Too Proud to Beg resumes on October 16th
- Jagged Little Pill resumes on October 21st (current best musical nominee)
- Mrs Doubtfire: The Musical* resumes previews on October 21st
- Phantom of the Opera The 1988 Best Musical winner, the longest running show of all time (sigh) resumes on October 22nd for its 13,371st performance. Even COVID couldn't kill it 30+ years into its run
Tony Yazbeck, one of our favourite Broadway stars, will be playing Cary Grant in the new musical "Flying Over Sunset"
- Flying Over Sunset* a new fictional musical about real life famous writers and actors experimenting with LSD begins previews on November 4th (it was scheduled to due start previews just as the shutdown began)
- Diana The Musical* about Princess Di begins previews on December 1st
- Dear Evan Hansen - The 2017 Best Musical winner resumes on December 11th
- Company* the buzzy gender-swapped revival of Sondheim's classic resumes previews on Monday, December 20th though only two of the 2020 cast (Katrina Lenk and Patti Lupone) are confirmed to continue on thus far
NO WORD YET
- Book of Mormon - The 2011 Best Musical winner
- Hadestown - the 2019 Best Musical winner
- The Lion King - The 1998 Best Musical winner
- Plaza Suite* - a revival of the comedy to star Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker was pushed back a year but that date came and went and still no Broadway
- A Soldiers Play - (current best revival nominee) but we suspect it was nearing the end of its run so its return seems unlikely
- West Side Story* - The show had just gotten started so we can't imagine they won't reopen with the new movie version opening at Christmas time that will only add to the fervor for this beloved property
BROADWAY IN EARLY 2022
The Take Me Out revival originally scheduled for spring 2020 will now be spring 2022
- Birthday Candles* a play starring Debra Messing begins previews March 18th (originally intended for spring 2020)
- Romeo & Bernadette* an Off Broadway hit musical comedy transfers to Broadway in the spring. Dates TBA
- Sing Street* - a musical adaptation. Dates TBA (originally intended for spring 2020)
- Take Me Out* - a revival of the 2003 gay athlete Tony-winning play with that infamous super long nude shower scene. Jesse Williams and Jesse Tyler Ferguson were signed to play the roles that resulted in a Tony win and Tony nomination for Denis O'Hare and Daniel Sunjata, respectively, in the original production. But since the production was pushed back two years there is no word on if that cast is still intact.
NEW SHOWS THAT WILL NOT BE RESUMING PREVIEWS
- Hangmen - Martin McDonagh play starring Dan Stevens
- The Inheritance - (current best play nominee) had already scheduled a closing date but COVID closed it earlier than that
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - revival starring Laurie Metcalf and Rupert Everett
OLDER SHOWS THAT WILL NOT REOPEN
- Beetlejuice the Musical - the musical had been playing for a year but was already scheduled to lose its theater
- Frozen -Disney was the first to announce an official cancellation during the shutdown when all shows were forced to close "temporarily". The show had run for two years but Disney felt the market for Broadway's return would be too shaky for all three Disney productions (and Aladdin and The Lion King were far more popular)
- Mean Girls the Musical - the adaptation will not return after a two year run
OFF BROADWAY SIDE NOTE
Off Broadway is too enormous to get a bead on yet. There can only ever be 41 Broadway shows at any given time given the limited amount of theaters that size but there are hundreds of Off Broadway productions. One production we wanted to alert you to is that there is a new operatic adaptation of Intimate Apparel scheduled for January 2022. If the name sounds vaguely familiar it's because it was already playing right before the shutdown and, more famously, it was an Off Broadway hit in 2004 that was an early breakout for two rising actors: Viola Davis & Corey Stoll. Viola was already a Tony winner via King Hedley II but only just starting to get supporting film roles. She became a Triple Crown superstar over the following dozen years and Corey broke out by 2011 via an attention grabbing small role in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and is consistently in demand now. Just rewards for two totally brilliant actors.
The play turned opera is about a lingerie seamstress in 1905 who falls into a letter writing romance with a mysterious suitor. Kearstin Piper Brown stars in the new opera as the seamstress.
Reader Comments (17)
I saw PLAZA SUITE during its Boston run right before the pandemic and, while the play itself isn't exactly top-tier Neil Simon (and even top tier Simon can be kind of middling), the star power of Parker and Broderick is pretty irresistible. I can't fathom it doesn't make it to Broadway at some point.
I imagine the return of Broadway to New Yorkers feels like a whole TFE front page of nothing but Claudio articles to us less privileged folks living in the sticks.
I just heard that The Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster is supposed to preview in Dec and open in Jan 2022.
Birthday Candles also stars Andre Braugher, so that really seems worth checking out. It's his broadway debut, and he's both dependable and has a ton of range (from Homicide to Gideon's Crossing to 911).
I've read several comments online saying that the Broadway League has been quite inoperative during the pandemic. Thoughts?
I hope they recast Take Me Out
Nathaniel, please grab a Tony and handed it to Lois Smith before it's too late.
Peggy Sue: The Broadway League (and Equity, the actors union) has been the focus of a LOT of controversy during the pandemic...mainly about racial equity and bullying (Rudin) in the industry. Many theater professionals are shocked that shows are opening all at once without a true reckoning and rethinking of how the industry works given they've had all this time to think about things and not just "same old, same old."
Carlos: Maybe I'm Pollyanna but i try to use Broadway news to remind me that some of the most vibrant, daring, and exciting work is happening in regional theaters all over. Broadway is the corporate end result; go to the SOURCE! They need your help more than Hamilton does.
This is actually a revival of a 1955 play (about racism in the theater) that was produced Off Broadway.
A friend in the cast (one of the Sharks) says they'll be back in rehearsal and probably previews in October.
and the tickets are as pricey as usual
I already bought tickets to see SIX in October and will purchase MOULIN ROUGE asap. I've been putting off doing the latter during its run then the pandemic hit. Lesson learned! See stuff you want to see as soon as possible!
As for the Tony Awards, I do think they'll announce whatever they'll be doing soon. They were always going to wait until Broadway is back open and then use the show to hype up the return, maybe a fundraising/charity thing for Broadway Cares or something similar. I would think a late August/early September airing would be perfect with 9/14 as the date the first shows will be opening.
I swoon at the news that there is a female-lead Company. Also, Corey Stoll first got notices in TV for his part as a murdering politician in House of Cards. And Andre Braugher was wonderful as police captain in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (for those not into police procedurals).
While I'm happy Broadway is returning, I'm so sad we won't see the gift of Laurie Metcalf & Rupert Everett (two actors I've adored since childhood) performing WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. My boyfriend and I had tickets for the play last spring, which of course, never took place.
rrich7 -- house of cards was after MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. that's the one that raised his profile enough to nab good roles therafter.
orwell -- that's a bummer
I received an email from Disney yesterday that announced THE LION KING would resume September 14 (as well as ALADDIN on September 28, as you mentioned).
For me that Tonys are interesting due to the fact that Laura Linney can finally win and then she will only need an Oscar to achieve Triple Crown of Acting. She certainly has a goodwill to win one with the right role like Allison Janney or Laura Dern.
"While I'm happy Broadway is returning, I'm so sad we won't see the gift of Laurie Metcalf & Rupert Everett (two actors I've adored since childhood) performing WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF."
That one stings like a bee, Orwell. I heard marvelous things about this production, and what a disappointment for the cast and crew to put all that work into something very few people got to see.
Broadway has also been Laurie Metcalf's only source of quality material post-'Lady Bird,' so I hope she gets another plum stage role soon.
I saw the London production of Company, which was pretty good but not great (same review applied to Patti LuPone, unfortunately). It's a shame the Broadway production cast Katrina Lenk as Bobbie because I don't think her voice is quite strong enough for Being Alive (the same problem London had with Rosalie Craig). Still, there were interesting aspects to it.
I'm most curious about Flying Over Sunset and The Music Man but I think I'll probably hold off on Broadway until 2022.
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