Two New Shows Announced for Next Season

Broadway.com has announced two new shows for the 2011-2012 season, with speculation about casting and creative teams for both. The first is William Inge's classic play, Picnic. The other is a musical adaptation of the Tim Burton film Big Fish. Check out the articles below, quoted directly from Broadway.com, for more details.



Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and Hayden Panettiere (TV's Heroes) recently participated in a reading of William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Picnic, according to The New York Times. Producer Darren Bagert revealed he is planning a Broadway run for the show, but no casting is official. Sam Gold (Kin, Circle Mirror Transformation) is attached to direct.

In addition to Leo and Panettiere, Laura Innes (ER), Seth Numrich (War Horse) and The Illusion's Lois Smith and Finn Wittrock participated in the reading. Innes read the role of the schoolteacher Rosemary, which producers had previously approached Allison Janney to play.

"Mr. Inge is definitely a playwright that is undervalued still," Bagert said, "and there is a subtle strength in Sam Gold's direction that, I think, makes him a perfect match for Inge."

Picnic first opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on February 19, 1953, and ran for 477 performances. The original production starred Peggy Conklin as Flo and featured Paul Newman in his Broadway debut as Alan. A 1994 revival starred Ashley Judd, Tate Donovan, Kyle Chandler, Debra Monk and Polly Holliday.




In other news:

A musical adaptation of the novel and movie drama Big Fish is set to open on Broadway in the spring of 2012. Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys, The Producers) has signed on as director and choreographer. The show will feature music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa (The Addams Family) and a book by John August, who also wrote the screenplay. Casting and design team will be announced shortly.

A reading of the musical recently took place with Tony winners Hugh Jackman and Laura Benanti in the cast.

"John August and Andrew Lippa have taken inspiration from Daniel Walllace's book and Tim Burton's movie and completely re-imagined this ambitious story for the stage," producer Dan Jinks said in a statement. "They have created a musical that is enormously entertaining, hilariously funny and spectacularly moving."

"We are ecstatic to be working with this generation’s pre-eminent director/choreographer, launching Big Fish on the eve of her double Tony nominations for The Scottsboro Boys," said Bruce Cohen, who will join with Jinks to produce the new musical.

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Tony Awards But Were Afraid to Ask

With the Tony Awards coming up, I thought this article from Broadway.com was particularly timely. This article pretty well answers most of the major questions anyone may have about the upcoming awards, scheduling, hosts, performers ... you name it!

When are the 2011 Tony Awards happening?
Sunday, June 12, 2011, at 8pm.

Where will the Tony Awards ceremony be held?
The Beacon Theatre, which is located in New York City at 2124 Broadway between 74th and 75th Streets on the Upper West Side.

Why did the Tony ceremony move from Radio City Music Hall?
Radio City was been booked by Cirque du Soleil for its latest show, Zarkana, which began performances on June 9.

Who is hosting the 2011 Tony Awards?
Neil Patrick Harris. The How I Met Your Mother actor is no stranger to Broadway; he appeared in Proof in 2002, Cabaret in 2003 and Assassins in 2004. He also hosted the Tonys in 2009 and won an Emmy Award for his efforts.

How can I watch the Tony Awards ceremony?
Tune into CBS from 8-11pm EST to see the presentation of the major awards and performances from current Broadway shows. Or if you’re in New York City, head to Times Square, where they will be broadcast on the Jumbotron.

Who is nominated for the 2011 Tony Awards?
Check out this article to find out! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tony_Awards

What Broadway shows will be performing during the Tony Awards ceremony?
The ceremony will feature performances from nominated shows Anything Goes, Catch Me If You Can, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sister Act, The Book of Mormon and The Scottsboro Boys, as well as Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark, Ghetto Klown, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Memphis. There will also be a performance from the all-star cast of Company, including host Neil Patrick Harris.

What are the Creative Arts Tony Awards?
The Creative Arts Tony Awards honor the people behind the scenes of Broadway productions. Awards included in this portion of the ceremony often include Best Score, Best Choreography and Best Lighting Design.

How can I see the Creative Arts Tony Awards?
Laura Benanti and Katie Finneran will host a 30-minute ceremony prior to the televised broadcast. No word yet if this presentation will be streamed online, but it is likely clips will be incorporated into the telecast.

Who are the presenters at the 2011 Tony Awards?
On the bill to present at the 2011 Tonys is Alec Baldwin, Christie Brinkley, Matthew Broderick, Harry Connick Jr., Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Kelsey Grammer, Joel Grey, Marg Helgenberger, Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, Robert Morse, Jim Parsons, David Hyde Pierce, Daniel Radcliffe, Vanessa Redgrave, Chris Rock, Brooke Shields, Robin Williams, Patrick Wilson and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Third Tony Predictions

As the Tony's approach this Sunday night, I thought it would be good to update my predictions again, and I will probably update once or twice more before the day of the event.

Best Play:
Will Win: War Horse
Should Win: Good People
Dark Horse: Good People

Best Musical:
Will Win: The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Scottsboro Boys
Dark Horse: Scottsboro Boys

Book of a Musical:
Will Win: Book of Mormon
Should Win: Book of Mormon
Dark Horse: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson


Score:
Will Win: The Book of Mormon
Should Win: The Book of Mormon
Dark Horse: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Revival of a Play:
Will Win: The Normal Heart
Should Win: Merchant of Venice
Dark Horse: The Importance of Being Earnest

Revival of a Musical:
Will Win: Anything Goes
Should Win: Anything Goes
Dark Horse: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Lead Actor in a Play:
Will Win: Bobby Cannavale, The Motherfucker With the Hat
Should Win: Mark Rylance, Jerusalem
Dark Horse: Joe Mantello, The Normal Heart

Lead Actress in a Play:
Will Win: Frances McDormand, Good People
Should Win: Lily Rabe, The Merchant of Venice
Dark Horse: Hannah Yelland, Brief Encounter

Lead Actor in a Musical:
Will Win: Josh Gad, The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Tony Sheldon, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Dark Horse: Norbert Leo Butz, Catch Me If You Can

Lead Actress in a Musical:
Will Win: Sutton Foster, Anything Goes
Should Win: Sutton Foster, Anything Goes
Dark Horse: Patina Miller, Sister Act

Featured Actor in a Play:
Will Win: Mackenzie Crook, Jerusalem
Should Win: Arian Moayed, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Dark Horse: John Benjamin Hickey, The Normal Heart

Featured Actress in a Play:
Will Win: Edie Falco, The House of Blue Leaves
Should Win: Judith Light, Lombardi
Dark Horse: Ellen Barkin, The Normal Heart

Featured Actor in a Musical:
Will Win: Coleman Domingo for The Scottsboro Boys
Should Win: Coleman Domingo, The Scottsboro Boys
Dark Horse: John Larroquette, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Featured Actress in a Musical:
Will Win: Nikki James, The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Laura Benanti, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Dark Horse: Patti LuPone, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Scenic Design of a Play:
Will Win: War Horse
Should Win: War Horse
Dark Horse: The Merchant of Venice

Scenic Design of a Musical:
Will Win: The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Scottsboro Boys
Dark Horse: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Costume Design of a Play:
Will Win: Born Yesterday
Should Win: Born Yesterday
Dark Horse: The Importance of Being Earnest

Costume Design of a Musical:
Will Win: Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Should Win: Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Dark Horse: The Book of Mormon

Lighting Design of a Play:
Will Win: War Horse
Should Win: War Horse
Dark Horse: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

Lighting Design of a Musical:
Will Win: The Book of Mormon
Should Win: The Scottsboro Boys
Dark Horse: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Sound Design of a Play:
Will Win: Jerusalem
Should Win: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Dark Horse: Brief Encounter

Sound Design of a Musical:
Will Win: The Book of Mormon
Should Win: The Book of Mormon
Dark Horse: Catch Me if You Can

Director of a Play:
Will Win: Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe, The Normal Heart
Should Win: Anna D. Shapiro, The Motherfucker With the Hat
Dark Horse: Anna D. Shapiro, The Motherfucker With the Hat

Director of a Musical:
Will Win: Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon
Dark Horse: Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys

Choreography:
Will Win: Casey Nicholaw, The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Casey Nicholaw, The Book of Mormon
Dark Horse: Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes

Orchestrations:
Will Win: The Book of Mormon
Should Win: Anything Goes
Dark Horse: Catch Me if You Can

Creative Arts Tony Hosts Announced

The Creative Arts Tony Awards, usually handed out in the hour before the televised part of the show in a segment that people in the building don't usually see, now has its hosts. Tony winners Katie Finneran, who won a supporting actress Tony in 2002 for the revival of Noises Off and another last year for the musical Promises, Promises, and Laura Benanti, herself a supporting actress winner in 2008 for Gypsy, will host the portion of the awards in which the design, directing, choreography, and book and score of a musical, awards are given out.

Champion Season Becomes a Champ

The Broadway revival of Jason Miller's That Championship Season, starring Mr. Miller's son, Jason Patrick, 24's Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Noth, Brian Cox, and Jim Gaffifan, has become a champion to the production's producers. Even though the show received relatively poor reviews overall and considering the current economy's tough implications on Broadway's profitability, the production did manage to recoup the show's $2.75 million initial investment. The show's producers credit this speedy recovery to the high-profile cast's willingness to promote the heck out of it in a number of publicity stunts.

Brian Bedford and A Moroccan Rug

Brian Bedford recently spoke with Broadway.com about his experience performing in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest -- one he compares to acting under a Moroccan Rug. Read on to see what that's all about!

http://www.broadway.com/shows/importance-being-earnest/buzz/156639/the-lady-of-earnest-brian-bedford-on-why-his-tony-nominated-drag-role-is-like-acting-under-a-moroccan-rug/

Interactive Set Design

Though this article is a few months old, I just came across this collection of videos on the New York Times website that talks through the process of putting together the physical production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and its rather atmospheric design that extended beyond the proscenium arch.


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/10/10/theater/20101010-bloody.html?ref=theaterspecial

Producer Phillip Rose Dead at 89

This article appeared on playbill.com about the death of Phillip Rose, a Broadway producer known for his groundbreaking work and championship of black actors and playwrights. The article was written by Robert Simonson and is titled "Philip Rose, Daredevil Broadway Producer Who Advanced Liberal Causes, Dies at 89".



Philip Rose, a Broadway producer who bet—and sometimes won—on unlikely theatrical projects, including several works that advanced the cause of African-American stage artists—most famously the original production of Raisin in the Sun—died May 31 in Englewood, NJ. He was 89.

Small, scrappy and politically courageous, Mr. Rose's producing ethos was aptly captured by the title of his memoir, "You Can't Do That on Broadway." Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun made history in 1959 as the first Broadway drama written by, directed by and mainly starring African-American artists. It astounded the theatre community by becoming a hit and running more than a year.

He went on to produce Purlie Victorious, a comedy by actor Ossie Davis, about a black Southern preacher in the Jim Crow South who wants to build a church for his congregation; The Owl and the Pussycat, a romantic comedy by Bill Manhoff that daringly starred the interracial couple of Alan Alda and Diana Sands; Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, a drama that introduced a young Al Pacino to theatre audiences; Purlie, a musical version of Davis' play; and Shenandoah, a Civil War-set musical that starring John Cullum that ran for more than 1,000 performances.

Short and slight, Mr. Rose was nevertheless a man of driving confidence. "He never thought of himself as diminutive either in size or in ambition," said Merle Debuskey, his publicist of many ventures, including Raisin. "He would play tennis as if he were Pancho Gonzales and shoot pool with the confidence of Willie Hoppe." A gambler in outlook and in practice, he would have his stage manager call him at his weekly poker game with playwright Neil Simon to read off the grosses of whatever show he was producing at the time.

Mr. Rose was a music publisher with no track record as a producer when he attended a casual reading of Raisin in the Sun in the Greenwich Village apartment of Hansberry and instantly insisted on bringing the play to Broadway. He had one ace in the hole; he knew actor Sidney Portier, who agreed to take the lead role. Portier recommended an old acting school friend, Lloyd Richards, to direct. The cast was filled with actors who would become stars later on: Claudia McNeil, Louis Gossett, Diana Sands, Douglas Turner, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.

Still, theatre owners and backers wouldn't touch the property. The only African-American shows to succeed at the box office until then had been musicals. With no theatre to put his play in, Mr. Rose took Raisin out of town. New Haven reviews were positive, and weekend sales were strong, particularly within the black community. A four-week stand in Philadelphia followed, again with great notices and strong box office. Yet, Broadway was silent. Finally, the Shubert Organization sent down a emissary, a man named Jack Small, to check the show out. Backstage, after the show, Small offered Mr. Rose the Barrymore Theatre, but only after another run at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago. Mr. Rose jumped on the chance. The drama was later nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play.

Bringing in the longest of long shots, Mr. Rose was thereafter addicted to taking chances. Often this resulted in a flop. His follow-up to Raisin, a play called Semi-Detached, ran less than a week in 1960. Also quickly forgotten were 1963's The Heroine and 1964's Nobody Loves an Albatross. But when he hit his mark, the results could be memorable. In the late '60s, he decided Purlie Victorious, the Ossie Davis play he had produced in 1961, would make a good musical. He tried to get Frank Loesser to write the score, but eventually hired one of Loesser's proteges, Peter Udell, and Gary Geld, with whom Udell had written the pop hit "Sealed With a Kiss." The show opened in 1970, ran for 688 performances, and made stars of Cleavon Little and Melba Moore, both of whom won Tony Awards.

Geld and Udell also wrote the score for Shenandoah, which opened in 1974 and was an even bigger success. Mr. Rose's decidedly liberal bent shown through in most of his productions—many of which he also directed—and the musical was no exception. Though set in the Civil War, many critics identified its subject as the Vietnam War. John Cullum played a pacifist Virginian who wants no part of the conflict. Nonetheless, the war tears apart his family. Cullum won a Tony Award for his portrayal, as did James Lee Barrett, Udell and Rose for the book, which was based on the 1965 film written by Barrett.

Shenandoah was Mr. Rose's last great success. Kings, The Trip Back Down, Angel, My Old Friends, and Comin' Uptown, all produced in the 1970s, failed to find an audience. Mr. Rose fared no better in the next decade, with Amen Corner, Late Nite Comic and Checkmates all closing quickly. In 1989, he revived Shenandoah, but it ran only a month. After Truly Blessed and The Cemetery Club in 1990, Mr. Rose's Broadway activity ceased.

Philip Rosenberg was born Jul 4, 1921, on the Lower East Side of New York to Russian Jewish parents. His family moved to Washington, D.C. during the Great Depression. There, he began working for many of the local stores in the area, and became acquainted with the black neighborhoods of Washington.

"I was only 16 with no skills and took this job of collecting 50 cents or a dollar a week for the credit department stores. They sold to the black community who lived in slums just blocks from the capitol," he later recalled. "So I ended up going into people's homes. Where I was born, I never had occasion to meet black people. In Washington, I was scared, but after a while I was accepted by some of the families and made many friends. I was from a poor background, too—one of five children—and we had discussions about our lives. I learned so much from them about gospel music and jazz. Washington was a very segregated city, but we found ways to go out together. That experience changed my life."

The experience would later inform which plays he chose to back. "Both in the theatre and in real life, Phil fought for what he believed in and believed what he fought for," said Steven Suskin, a theatre historian who worked as a stage manager on several of Mr. Rose's Broadway productions. "He was at the same time a fighter and a gentle man."

He moved to New York in 1945. While acting in a Gilbert & Sullivan company, he met actress Doris Belack, who became his wife. She survives him.

NYLONS and the Theater?

NYLONS -- people who cross the pond between New York (NY --) and London (--LON) frequently -- have many unique traits. One of them (and the most relevant here) is the ability to compare New York versus London theater goers. This article on Playbill.com explains many of these differences and I thought you'd enjoy reading it!

http://www.playbill.com/features/article/151334-A-LETTER-FROM-LONDON-The-Brits-Vs-The-Yanks-Different-Approaches-to-the-Same-Passion-for-Theatre

A Record Year on Broadway

Broadway grosses were up 6% this year over last year's tally, according to the Broadway League, the New York Times reports. Shows grossed $1.08 billion this year abd played to over 12.5 million people -- a 5.4% increase over last year's number.