Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Blog is Back!

As the 2010-2011 season is gearing back up, I wanted to start up my blog again with a preview of the shows we can expect to see this year, as far as current news reports have told us.  Here's an article from Tonyawards.com about the upcoming season and what shows will be hoping for Tony Awards in 2011.



The New Season – A Sneak Preview

By Gerard Raymond

An American President as a rock star; coal miners who paint; a legendary football coach; Pee Wee Herman; a classic movie tear-jerker; the Beatles revisited; a boy and his horse; and a pound of flesh - that's just a small taste of the theatrical smorgasbord that makes up the list of productions set to open on Broadway in the 2010-2011 season. These and other shows will be hoping to be mentioned when nominations for the American Theatre Wing's 65th annual Tony Awards® are announced in the spring.



Broadway fans love to make Tony predictions even before the curtain goes up on a new production. To help you out, here's a sneak preview of the shows, arranged chronologically in order of their currently announced preview start dates. Of course, nothing is set in stone, and there are sure to be changes along the way. Certainly additional shows will be announced. Check back frequently--we'll add new productions to the list as they are confirmed.



You can click on a title to visit the show's official website.



Mrs. Warren's Profession

Previews begin September 3, Roundabout Theatre Company/American Airlines Theatre

Two-time Tony Award-winner Cherry Jones returns to Broadway in the 1893 play by George Bernard Shaw that tells the story of Kitty Warren, a mother who makes a terrible sacrifice for her daughter Vivie's independence. The play was shut down by the police on its original Broadway premiere in 1905 because of its clear-eyed view of prostitution.



Brief Encounter

Previews begin September 10, Roundabout Theater Company/Studio 54

Noël Coward's story about unexpected romance on a railway station platform is recreated with songs, dance and video-projections using elements from David Lean's classic 1945 movie and the original Coward one-act play on which it was based.



The Pitmen Painters

Previews begin September 14, Manhattan Theater Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

The Live Theatre Newcastle and the National Theatre of Great Britain production of a new play by past Tony-winner Lee Hall about a group of coal miners from a town in northeast England in the 1930s, whose paintings were celebrated by the British art world.



Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Previews begin September 20, Bernard Jacobs Theatre

The controversial populist seventh President of the United States, who invented the Democratic Party and ruthlessly removed native tribes from their homelands, is reconceived as an emo-rock star in a gleefully outrageous musical by writer/director Alex Timbers and composer/lyricist Michael Friedman, which was originally presented Off Broadway at the Public Theater.



A Life in the Theatre

Previews begin September 21, Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre

Patrick Stewart and T. R. Knight star in David Mamet's 1997 two-character drama about the relationship between an older actor and a newcomer, which is inspired by the playwright's observations of backstage life and his own short-lived stint as an actor.



La Bête

Previews begin September 23, Music Box Theatre

Backstage hijinks feature prominently in David Hirson's 1991 Molière-inspired verse comedy set in 17th-century France about a theatre troupe forced to make artistic comprises by their royal patron. This revival stars past Tony-winners Mark Rylance and David Hyde Pierce, along with Joanna Lumley.



Lombardi

Previews begin September 23, Circle in the Square Theatre

Dan Luria (of The Wonder Years) portrays the beloved Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi in a new play by Eric Simonson, based on the best-selling biography When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss. Also starring Judith Light.



Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Previews begin October 2, Lincoln Center Theater/Belasco Theatre

Pedro Almadóvar's 1988 Oscar-nominated film comedy about a bunch of high strung Madrid women and the men in their lives is now a new Broadway musical with a score by David Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane (the team responsible for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). The cast is headed by Sheri Rene Scott and past Tony-winners Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Brian Stokes Mitchell.



Driving Miss Daisy

Previews begin October 7, Golden Theatre

Past Tony-winners Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones star as a 72-year widowed Atlanta Jewish woman and her African-American chauffer in the 1987 play by past Tony-winner Alfred Uhry. Four-time Tony winner Boyd Gaines rounds out the cast



The Scottsboro Boys

Previews begin October 7, Lyceum Theatre

A new musical from multiple Tony-winners John Kander and the late Fred Ebb based on the notorious 1930s case about nine African-American men unjustly accused of rape. A transfer from Off Broadway's Vineyard Theatre, the musical is presented in the format of a minstrel show. Past-winner John Collum is among the cast.



RAIN - A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway

Previews begin October 19, Neil Simon Theatre

A multi-media concert starring the band RAIN that brings to life the Fab Four, covering the Beatles' early days, including the "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance in 1964, through to their final performance prior to the release of Abbey Road in 1969.



The Merchant of Venice

Previews begin October 19, Broadhurst Theatre

A transfer from Central Park of the Public Theater's acclaimed production of Shakespeare's uncomfortable tragic-comedy that mixes romance and revenge, set in a sharply polarized Venetian society of Christians and Jews. Past Tony-winner Al Pacino plays Shylock.



A Free Man of Color

Previews begin October 21, Lincoln Center Theater/Vivian Beaumont

Playwright John Guare's take on the Louisiana Purchase. In a freewheeling epic set in 1802 New Orleans the title character (played by past-winner Jeffrey Wright), is a new-world Don Juan and the wealthiest inhabitant of this sexually charged and racially progressive city.



The Pee-wee Herman Show

Previews begin October 26, Stephen Sondheim Theatre

A stage show based on the Saturday morning children's TV series features Paul Ruebens as the genially innocent, yet slyly campy and subversive host, along with the much-loved members of his idiosyncratic Playhouse gang.



Elf - The Musical

Previews begin November 2, Al Hirschfeld Theatre

A musical adapted from the 2003 Will Farrell hit movie about a human raised by Santa's helpers in the North Pole, who comes to New York City to discover his identity. Music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin and book by past-winners Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin.



Spider-man Turn off the Dark

Previews begin November 14, Foxwoods Theatre

A new musical about the Marvel comics teen-age hero from Queens who suddenly finds himself endowed with super-powers. Music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge.



The Importance of Being Earnest

Previews begin December 20, Roundabout Theater Company/American Airlines Theatre

Past Tony-winner Brian Bedford both directs and performs the plum role of the formidable Lady Bracknell in a revival of Oscar Wilde's effervescent and perennially witty comedy of manners.



How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Previews begin February 26, Al Hirschfeld Theatre

Daniel Radcliffe stars in a new revival of the 1962 Tony-winning musical with a score by Frank Loesser about a young window cleaner who follows the advice of a self-help book to launch a meteoric rise from mail-room to Vice-President of Advertising in a large corporation.



Good People

Previews begin February 8, Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Frances McDormand and Tate Donovan star in David Lindsay Abaire's play set in an impoverished Boston neighborhood, where people's paychecks don't cover their bills.



Anything Goes

Previews begin March 10, Roundabout Theatre Company/Stephen Sondheim Theatre

Past-winner Sutton Foster plays Reno Sweeney in a new revival of the musical romp from Cole Porter that takes place on an ocean liner steaming across the Atlantic.



War Horse

Previews begin March 17, Lincoln Center Theater/Vivian Beaumont Theatre

London transfer of a play adapted by Nick Stafford from the novel by Michael Morpurgo that relates the extraordinary adventures a boy and his horse, after the beloved animal was sold to the cavalry upon the outbreak of the First World War.



Wonderland

Previews begin March 21, theatre TBA

A new musical from Frank Wildhorn which offers a contemporary take on the Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories: A grown woman discovers a whole other world lying underneath modern-day Manhattan.





And There's More…



Several other new shows are heading towards Broadway and hoping to debut during the upcoming season. While theatres and preview dates are still up in the air, it's definitely worth keeping them on your radar. The following are all musicals:



The Book of Mormon - from creators of Avenue Q and the TV series South Park

Catch Me If You Can - a stage adaptation of the Steven Spielberg movie

Love Never Dies- continuing the story of The Phantom of the Opera

Priscilla Queen of the Desert - based on the Australian movie hit

Sister Act - an adaptation of the film comedy about singing nuns, with a score by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater

Unchain My Heart, The Ray Charles Musical - a musical biography of the soul-music giant

Yank! - transfer of the York Theatre's Off Broadway musical about a gay romance in the armed services during World War II.

Plays on the horizon include:



Elling - two psychiatric patients who have to prove that they are capable of being normal, adapted by Simon Bent from the 2001 Norwegian film.

Other shows will be announced as the season gets underway, and we'll add those titles as information is confirmed.



See you at the theatre!



Note: All determinations of eligibility for the Tony Awards are made exclusively by the Tony Awards Administration Committee.

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