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The Obie Awards, a scrappy but venerable annual competition honoring the best theater staged Off and Off Off Broadway, has chosen “Dark Disabled Stories,” Ryan J. Haddad’s autobiographical work inspired by his experiences navigating the city with cerebral palsy, as the best new American play. The prize was announced on Saturday night, both by news release and on Spectrum News NY1, as the American Theater Wing, which presents the Obies, decided to forgo a costly ceremony — in most nonpandemic years, the Obies have been handed out at a boozy and often boisterous party — and instead to give grants of $1,000 to $5,000 directly to the winning artists and arts institutions. “These are unprecedented times, and it’s extremely challenging for theater right now, so we absolutely want to celebrate the achievements of Off and Off Off Broadway, but in doing so we want to have the most impact by putting money directly in the pockets of the artists and the companies making the work,” said Heather A. Hitchens, the Wing’s president and chief executive. “Everybody likes a party, and maybe some day it will make sense to do that again, but we’re not made of money — we’re a nonprofit, so how can we use our resources to be the greatest force for good right now?”The Obies, created by the Village Voice in the mid 1950s, have been in flux for years as the Voice foundered and the pandemic battered the theater industry. The Wing, with a board led by artists, has kept the Obies afloat with a combination of in-person and streaming ceremonies.
Persons: ” Ryan J, , Heather A, Hitchens, , we’re, Organizations: Spectrum News NY1, American Theater, Village
Christopher Abbott was about halfway through a performance of “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” when he felt something go wrong. The 37-year-old actor had been sitting onstage — his character, a brutish trucker, proposing marriage to a tormented woman played by Aubrey Plaza — and as he went to get up, he couldn’t straighten his leg. That early December injury — he had a bucket handle meniscus tear — was followed in short order by a case of Covid and arthroscopic surgery. And then he returned to the stage, performing for several weeks on crutches, through the end of the show’s 11-week run on Saturday night. The run, staged Off Broadway at the 295-seat Lucille Lortel Theater, was unusually bumpy.
Persons: Christopher Abbott, “ Danny, Aubrey Plaza, , John Patrick Shanley, Lucille Lortel Organizations: Aubrey Plaza — Locations: Bronx
“The Heart of Rock and Roll,” a new musical powered by the songs of Huey Lewis and the News, is coming to Broadway in the spring. The show, which had an initial run in 2018 at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, is a comedy about a couple whose romance must navigate their rock band and corporate life aspirations. The musical is scheduled to begin previews March 29 and to open April 22 at the James Earl Jones Theater. Casting has not yet been announced. Marketed as a “feel-great musical,” the show features the upbeat songs of Huey Lewis and the News, a pop-rock band whose heyday was in the 1980s, and whose hit “The Power of Love” is also featured on Broadway in “Back to the Future: The Musical.”
Persons: Huey Lewis, James Earl Jones, Organizations: Broadway, Old Globe Theater Locations: San Diego
“Lempicka,” a new musical about the painter Tamara de Lempicka, will open on Broadway next spring after a decade in development. An Art Deco portraitist who was married and had female lovers, Lempicka was born in Poland in 1898 and lived in Russia, which she fled because of the Russian Revolution; France, which she fled because of World War II; and then the United States and Mexico. Though her art and her social life glittered for a period, she later faded from prominence, and died in 1980. In recent years, her art has sold strongly; contemporary collectors of her work include Madonna. The director is Rachel Chavkin, the Tony Award-winning director of “Hadestown,” and choreography is by Raja Feather Kelly.
Persons: , Tamara de Lempicka, Lempicka, glittered, Madonna, Matt Gould, Carson Kreitzer, Rachel Chavkin, Raja Feather Kelly Organizations: Broadway, Art, Longacre Locations: Poland, Russia, Russian, France, United States, Mexico
“Tommy” is returning to Broadway. A Chicago-born revival of the classic rock opera, which got strong reviews and sold well at Goodman Theater over the summer, will open at the Nederlander Theater in March. The musical, whose full title is “The Who’s Tommy,” began as a concept album in 1969, and the original stage production opened on Broadway in 1993. It won five Tony Awards, including for its score by Pete Townshend of the Who. Writing in The Chicago Tribune, the critic Chris Jones called the revival “truly a ready-for-prime-time stunner” and said “Broadway has nothing else like this wizardry going on.”
Persons: Tommy ”, Tommy, , Tony, Pete Townshend, Townshend, Des McAnuff, Chris Jones Organizations: Broadway, Goodman Theater, The Chicago Tribune Locations: Chicago, London
She has been a first lady, a United States senator, a secretary of state, a Democratic nominee for president, and, most recently, a podcaster and a Columbia University professor. Now Hillary Rodham Clinton is adding some razzle-dazzle to her résumé: She’s becoming a Broadway producer. Clinton has joined the team backing “Suffs,” a new musical about the women’s suffrage movement, as has Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner. The producing team announced Wednesday that the show, which had an Off Broadway run last year at the Public Theater, will transfer to Broadway in the spring, opening at the Music Box Theater on April 18. “Suffs” explores the early-20th-century struggle for women’s voting rights in the United States; the dramatic tension involves an intergenerational struggle over how best to hasten political change.
Persons: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Clinton, “ Suffs, , , Shaina Taub, Taub Organizations: United, Democratic, Columbia University, Public, Broadway Locations: United States, Pakistani
“What the Constitution Means to Me,” a challenging exploration of American legal history sparked by a student oratory competition, will be the most produced play at U.S. theaters this season, according to a survey released on Wednesday. The play, written by Heidi Schreck, will have at least 16 productions around the country, according to a count by American Theater magazine. The survey covers theaters that are members of the Theater Communications Group, the national nonprofit organization that publishes the magazine. “What the Constitution Means to Me” was staged on Broadway in 2019, with Schreck starring, and it was filmed for Amazon. (The play has a three-person cast, including a young person who debates the lead actress about the merits of the Constitution.)
Persons: Heidi Schreck, Carol ”, Shakespeare, , Schreck Organizations: American Theater, Theater Communications Group, Broadway, Amazon
The book, on the other hand, has been revised since Sondheim’s death by its writer, David Ives, and director, Joe Mantello. Mozart’s Requiem, Puccini’s “Turandot” and Berg’s “Lulu” were all left unfinished when their composers died and are now considered classics. “The work that David and Stephen did should absolutely be seen,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, which was working with Sondheim to develop the show until a few years ago. “I really trust David and Joe, and don’t think they would be putting up something they didn’t feel was finished — not on this scale,” he said. “They’re smart cookies, and if they wanted to do a workshop because it wasn’t finished, they could.
Persons: David Ives, Joe Mantello, Mozart’s, Puccini’s, , Lulu ”, David, Stephen, Oskar Eustis, Sondheim, ” James Lapine, George, , Joe, wasn’t, Steve Organizations: Public
On Wednesday, Carole Rothman, the president and artistic director of Second Stage Theater, said that after 45 years she would be leaving that institution, which she co-founded; Second Stage operates the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway. And Roundabout Theater Company currently has an interim artistic director following the death in April of Todd Haimes, who led that organization for four decades; Roundabout operates three Broadway houses, including the American Airlines, the Stephen Sondheim and Studio 54. Lincoln Center Theater, which is a resident organization at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, has three stages of varying sizes, and has produced a wide variety of work. The company currently has an annual budget of $34.5 million and 55 full-time employees; Bishop received $783,191 in total compensation during fiscal 2022, according to an I.R.S. Lincoln Center Theater’s other Tony-winning productions during Bishop’s tenure include “Carousel,” “The Heiress,” “A Delicate Balance,” “Contact,” “Henry IV,” “Awake and Sing,” “South Pacific,” “War Horse,” “The King and I” and “Oslo.”
Persons: Carole Rothman, Helen Hayes, Todd Haimes, Stephen Sondheim, Bishop, Vivian Beaumont, , Tom Stoppard’s, Tony, ” “ Henry IV Organizations: Broadway, Nonprofit, Lincoln Center, Helen Hayes Theater, Roundabout Theater Company, American Airlines, Lincoln Center Theater, Performing Arts, Vivian Beaumont Theater, Radio City Music Hall, Metropolitan Opera Locations: New York, Utopia, “ Oslo
“Days of Wine and Roses” began its life as a teleplay in 1958; it was then adapted into a film in 1962. The musical features a score by Adam Guettel and a book by Craig Lucas; they previously collaborated on the 2005 musical “The Light in the Piazza,” and both of them have spoken about their own struggles with substance abuse. Guettel said he’s not sure when he first encountered the film, but that it immediately resonated. “It seemed like the right role for her, even then, in terms of the tenderness and the strength,” he said. James joined the project in the earliest days as well; he and O’Hara are friends who performed together in “Sweet Smell of Success.”
Persons: , Adam Guettel, Craig Lucas, Guettel, he’s, , James Locations:
Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican firebrand from Colorado, was ejected from a touring production of the “Beetlejuice” musical in Denver last weekend, making her the latest case study in an evolving debate over how theaters should respond to raucous audience behavior. Ms. Boebert was accused of “causing a disturbance” at the show, according to an incident report from the city of Denver. The accusation is not an unfamiliar one for Ms. Boebert — last year she heckled President Biden during the State of the Union, and the previous year she refused a search of her bag by Capitol security. The incident in Denver, which was previously reported by The Denver Post, occurred during a performance of “Beetlejuice,” which, like the film on which it is based, is about a gleefully devious ghost haunting a suburban home. The musical had a rocky run on Broadway, but became a fan favorite, and has been enjoying a strong tour around the country.
Persons: Lauren Boebert, Boebert, Boebert —, Biden, , Organizations: Union, Capitol, The Denver Post, Denver Center, Performing Arts, Buell Theater Locations: Colorado, Denver
Jessica Lange, Jim Parsons and Celia Keenan-Bolger will return to Broadway next spring to star in a new family drama by the acclaimed playwright Paula Vogel. The show, called “Mother Play,” begins outside Washington in 1962, and is about a strong-willed mother raising two children as the family relocates. Lange, 74, will play the mother. She is a two-time Oscar winner (for “Tootsie” and “Blue Sky”) who won a Tony Award in 2016 for playing another difficult mother — Mary Tyrone in a revival of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”Keenan-Bolger, 45, is a four-time Tony nominee who won the prize in 2019 for “To Kill a Mockingbird”; she will play the daughter. Parsons, 50, who last appeared on Broadway in a 2018 production of “The Boys in the Band,” will play the son.
Persons: Jessica Lange, Jim Parsons, Celia Keenan, Bolger, Paula Vogel, , Lange, — Mary Tyrone, , ” Keenan, Tony, Parsons Organizations: Broadway Locations: Washington
On Broadway, Off Broadway, in special events and out of town, living authors are collaborating with dead ones. Some otherwise viable shows, like “Annie Get Your Gun,” need surgery because their racial or gender assumptions are now unacceptable. Others, like “Show Boat,” are merely falling out of copyright, with heirs eager to find a way to remonetize their property. And some — well one — are “Here We Are,” the musical Stephen Sondheim was working on when he died in November 2021. Directed by Joe Mantello and with a book by the comic playwright David Ives, it will reflect a very unusual collaboration indeed.
Persons: Amber Ruffin, Oz, Richard LaGravenese, Daniel Koa Beaty, John O’Hara’s, “ Pal Joey ”, Rodgers, Hart, John Weidman’s revisal, Annie, Stephen Sondheim, Michael Paulson, Sondheim, Luis Buñuel, , Joe Mantello, David Ives
The Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” starring Lea Michele is now officially a hit: It has recouped its capitalization costs, completing a remarkable box office turnaround of the sort rarely seen in the commercial theater. The show’s lead producers, Sonia Friedman, Scott Landis and David Babani, announced on Monday that the production had made back the $16.5 million it cost to mount. That milestone not only gives the production bragging rights, but also means that “Funny Girl” can generate a profit during the last few weeks of its run, which ends on Sept. 3. Only a handful of Broadway productions have announced the recoupment of their capitalization costs since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, as higher expenses and smaller audiences have made the always challenging economics of Broadway even more difficult. Critics were underwhelmed; the show won no Tony Awards (it was only nominated for one); and by summer its sales had drooped.
Persons: Lea Michele, Sonia Friedman, Scott Landis, David Babani, Barbra Streisand —, Beanie Feldstein, Critics Organizations: Wilson Theater
Fewer productions. Fewer performances. Cal Shakes, a Bay Area favorite that staged Shakespeare in an outdoor amphitheater, is producing no shows this year. The Williamstown Theater Festival, known for its star-studded summer shows, has no fully staged productions at its Western Massachusetts home this season. Philadelphia’s Arden Theater Company expects to give 363 performances next season, down from 503 performances the season before the pandemic.
Persons: Shakespeare, Chicago’s, Mary Zimmerman’s, , Philadelphia’s Organizations: Cal, Area, Broadway, Williamstown Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Philadelphia’s Arden Theater Locations: America, Western Massachusetts, New York City, Los Angeles
Stevie Ray Dallimore, an actor and teacher, had been running the theater program for a private boys’ school in Chattanooga for a decade, but he never faced a school year like this one. A proposed production of “She Kills Monsters” at a neighboring girls’ school that would have included his students was rejected for gay content, he said. A “Shakespeare in Love” at the girls’ school that would have featured his boys was rejected because of cross-dressing. His school’s production of “Three Sisters,” the Chekhov classic, was rejected because it deals with adultery and there were concerns that some boys might play women, as they had in the past, he said. School plays — long an important element of arts education and a formative experience for creative adolescents — have become the latest battleground at a moment when America’s political and cultural divisions have led to a spike in book bans, conflicts over how race and sexuality are taught in schools, and efforts by some politicians to restrict drag performances and transgender health care for children and teenagers.
Persons: Stevie Ray Dallimore, Love, , Chekhov, Locations: Chattanooga
When Victoria Bailey assumed the leadership of the nonprofit Theater Development Fund in 2001, she was told that the organization’s marquee program, the TKTS discount ticket booth, had not missed a day in nearly three decades of operation. So much for that. A few months after she took the job, the booth was shut down because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and in the time since it has been closed by a blackout, a hurricane, a strike and a pandemic. It’s been an eventful 22 years for Bailey, and on Friday, the day she turns 67, she is stepping down as the executive director of the organization, which sold 615,000 tickets at its TKTS booths this fiscal year and which works to make theater accessible — to those who find the cost of tickets prohibitive as well as to students, veterans and people with disabilities. Bailey, who received a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater earlier this month in recognition of her service to the industry, will be succeeded on Aug. 7 by Deeksha Gaur, a co-founder of the theater reviews platform Show-Score.
Persons: Victoria Bailey, It’s, Bailey, Deeksha Gaur Organizations: Theater Development Fund
The musical, written by Scott Brown and Anthony King, began its life in the comedy world, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, where King was the artistic director, and then was further developed at the New York Musical Festival. The director will be Alex Timbers, who also directed the 2006 Off Broadway production; Timbers later won a Tony Award for directing “Moulin Rouge!,” and he has also worked in comedy, including as the director of “Oh, Hello” on Broadway. “I love this show, and it gets seen and performed all over the world, but isn’t really known in New York,” Timbers said. “Broadway is rebounding, and it is due for an even bigger rebound,” Gad said. And more than anything, I think that people miss laughing.”
Persons: Scott Brown, Anthony King, King, Brown, , , James Earl Jones, Alex Timbers, Gad, “ Gutenberg, ” Gad, Tony Awards Organizations: Upright Citizens Brigade, New, Broadway, James Earl Jones Theater, Timbers, ” Timbers, Locations: London, Australia, France, Korea, Spain, U.S, Moulin Rouge, New York
“Kimberly Akimbo,” a small-scale, big-hearted show about a teenage girl coping with a life-shortening genetic condition and a comically dysfunctional family, won the coveted Tony Award for best musical Sunday night. The award came at the close of an unusual Tony Awards ceremony that almost didn’t happen because of the ongoing screenwriters’ strike. Only an intervention by a group of playwrights who also work in film and television saved the show: they persuaded the Writers Guild of America that it would be a mistake to make the struggling theater industry collateral damage in a Hollywood-centered dispute, and in the end the telecast aired without pickets, without scripted banter and without a hitch. “I’m live and unscripted,” the ceremony’s returning host, Ariana DeBose said at the start of the show, after an opening number that began with her backstage, paging through a binder labeled “Script” filled with blank pages, and then dancing wordlessly through the theater and onto the stage. She then pointed out the absence of teleprompters, offered her support for the strikers’ cause, and declared, “To anyone who thought last year was a bit unhinged, to them I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up!’”
Persons: “ Kimberly Akimbo, Tony, , Ariana DeBose, , Organizations: Writers Guild of America Locations: Hollywood
J. Harrison Ghee, whose portrayal of a gender-questioning musician fleeing the mob in “Some Like It Hot” has charmed critics and audiences, won a Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical Sunday night, becoming the first out nonbinary actor to win that award. Ghee’s victory came shortly after Alex Newell, who is also nonbinary, won a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical, becoming the first out nonbinary performer to win a Tony. The wins come at a time when gender identity has become a central element of America’s culture wars, as conservatives in multiple states press for legislation on a variety of L.G.B.T.Q.-related issues, including gender-affirming medical care for transgender children and teenagers, bathroom access, sports participation and, in some states, performances. The Tony Awards, like the Oscars, have only gendered categories for performers, and Ghee and Newell agreed to be considered eligible for awards as actors. (Another nonbinary performer this season, Justin David Sullivan of “& Juliet,” opted not to be considered for awards rather than compete in a gendered category.)
Persons: Harrison, Ghee’s, Alex Newell, Tony, Newell, Justin David Sullivan, ,
How to Watch the Tony Awards
  + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Michael Paulson | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
Lea Michele is going to lead a number from the revival of “Funny Girl” that opened a year ago. And Joaquina Kalukango, one of last year’s Tony winners, will sing a song to accompany the In Memoriam segment. Broadway is still struggling to recover from the lengthy coronavirus shutdown — attendance remains 17 percent below prepandemic levels — and producers view the Tony Awards as an important way to introduce a large audience to the newest shows. Also, the Tonys are a way to lift up theater as an art form, often boosting the careers of the artists involved. Wins and nominations help plays get staged at regional theaters and taught in colleges, and telecast performances help musicals sell tickets and tour.
Persons: Ariana DeBose, Steven Spielberg’s “, Donna Summer, Julianne Hough, Skylar Astin, , ” “ Kimberly Akimbo, , “ Sweeney Todd, Lea Michele, Neil Diamond, Tony Locations: ” “ New York , New York
What do you get when you toss together a brassy grifter, an Elvish-speaking anagrammist, a show choir and, oh yes, a teenager with a life-threatening genetic condition? This year, it seems, you get a Tony-winning musical. “Kimberly Akimbo,” a small show with a huge heart, is likely to win the most coveted prize at the 76th Tony Awards ceremony on Sunday, according to my annual survey of Tony voters. Over the last week, I have connected, by email or telephone, with 158 voters who generously agreed to discuss their picks (and, often, their concerns about, and hopes for, the theater business); they are distributing their votes widely among the nominees after a season with few consensus favorites. There are a total of 769 Tony voters, and they are mostly industry insiders — producers, investors, actors, writers, directors, designers, and many others with theater-connected lives and livelihoods.
Persons: Tony, “ Kimberly Akimbo
Fires are burning across the breadth of Canada, blanketing parts of the eastern United States with choking, orange-gray smoke. So much wildfire smoke pushed through the border that in Buffalo, schools canceled outdoor activities. The average global temperatures today are more than 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in the preindustrial era. The trees and grasses of eastern Canada turned to tinder. “We should expect a stunning year of global extremes,” he wrote.
Persons: It’s, El Niño, Justin Trudeau, , Alexandra Paige Fischer, Park Williams, Wiliams, Brendan Rogers, haven’t, La, Jeff Berardelli, El, Ada Monzón Organizations: Northern, University of Michigan, Stanford, University of California, Climate Research, El, Twitter Locations: Canada, United States, Puerto Rico, North America, El, Buffalo, Detroit, Los Angeles, Alberta, Vietnam, China, Siberia, WFLA, Tampa Bay, Fla, WAPA
“A thousand people, in a room, quiet, sometimes the quietest room I’ve ever been in, and we have a real experience with each other, audience and performers. It’s magic. There’s nothing like it.” — Arian Moayed“My grandmother took me, when I was 7, to go see a production of ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ in Sacramento. I was a little bit of a troubled kid, so she was trying to find an outlet for me. And then the play started, and there was a little girl onstage narrating, and it was just this aha moment of like, ‘Oh, this is what I am.’” — Jessica Chastain
Persons: , , ‘ Joseph, Jessica Chastain Locations: Sacramento
Joshua Harmon’s “Prayer for the French Republic,” a play about a family grappling with contemporary and historical antisemitism in France, will transfer to Broadway this winter. The play will be produced by the nonprofit Manhattan Theater Club, which last year presented the play's first run Off Broadway. The production comes as concerns about antisemitism have been on the rise in the United States and beyond. “Prayer for the French Republic” will be Harmon’s second play on Broadway; his poignant singleness comedy, “Significant Other,” had a run in 2017 at the Booth Theater. But Harmon is probably best known for another comedy, “Bad Jews,” which was widely staged around the country.
Persons: Joshua Harmon’s, , David Cromer, Samuel J, Georgia —, Tony, Republic ”, Harmon Organizations: Broadway, Manhattan Theater Club, Friedman, Booth Locations: French Republic, France, United States, Georgia, Republic
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