Around The Town

Broadway Update

Broadway Update: Woods Extends, Piano Moves, Etc.

By: David Sheward

July 29, 2022: Into the Woods is now officially extending its limited run at the St. James through Oct. 16. The acclaimed revival of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine fairy-tale musical was originally intended to play only till Aug. 21 after its sold-out City Center run. The announcement came one day after producers of The Piano Lesson revealed they were moving the August Wilson production to the Barrymore rather than the previously announced St. James. New casting for later in the Woods run will be announced in the coming days. What’s surprising is the extension is only for another two months. Perhaps there will be another extension if the box office continues to hold strong. Woods pulled in a whopping near $2 million last week. Maybe the show could become like another Encores transfer, Chicago which is still running and holds the record as the longest-playing American musical in Broadway history. Chicago boosted its epic run with some interesting big names in replacement casting including most recently Pamela Anderson. With so many juicy roles, Woods could become star-bait and attract new audiences with each new cast.

Joshua Henry and Gavin Creel in “Into the Woods”. Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

Broadway Update: Woods Extends, Piano Moves, Etc.

By: David Sheward

July 29, 2022: Into the Woods is now officially extending its limited run at the St. James through Oct. 16. The acclaimed revival of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine fairy-tale musical was originally intended to play only till Aug. 21 after its sold-out City Center run. The announcement came one day after producers of The Piano Lesson revealed they were moving the August Wilson production to the Barrymore rather than the previously announced St. James. New casting for later in the Woods run will be announced in the coming days. What’s surprising is the extension is only for another two months. Perhaps there will be another extension if the box office continues to hold strong. Woods pulled in a whopping near $2 million last week. Maybe the show could become like another Encores transfer, Chicago which is still running and holds the record as the longest-playing American musical in Broadway history. Chicago boosted its epic run with some interesting big names in replacement casting including most recently Pamela Anderson. With so many juicy roles, Woods could become star-bait and attract new audiences with each new cast.

Meanwhile, The Piano Lesson, August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winner will begin preview performances at the Barrymore on Sept. 19 with no opening date announced as of yet.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson will be making her Broadway directorial debut and is the first woman to stage a Wilson play on Broadway. She will be directing her husband Samuel L. Jackson as well as John David Washington and Danielle Brooks. The Barrymore is the site of her Tony-nominated performance as Lena Younger in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun (opposite Denzel Washington, John David’s father.) She also acted in a Broadway revival of Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. In another example of such theatrical serendipity, the Barrymore was the home for original productions of both Raisin (1959) and Joe Turner (1988).

Denzel Washington and LaTanya Richardson Jackson in A Raisin in the Sun at the Barrymore. Credit: Brigitte Lacombe

Bye, Bye, Mockingbird

While Woods is extending, To Kill a Mockingbird will not be flying back to Broadway. According to emails obtained by the New York Times, the stage version of Harper Lee’s beloved classic will not be reopening on Broadway. The play closed in March 2020 along withe the rest of Broadway, due to the COVID pandemic. It returned Oct. 2021 and played the Shubert until Jan. 16, 2022. It was announced Mockingbird would fly to the Belasco in June, but the slot was taken by Girl from the North Country for a limited run and then by Ain’t No Mo for the fall. Rumors had it the show would take up residence at the Music Box in November, but producer Scott Rudin who had stepped away from the production due to reports of creating a toxic work environment, re-inserted himself and pulled the plug. Rudin stated in emails to director Barlett Sher and playwright Aaron Sorkin that the economic prospects for straight plays did not look good enough for a remounting. Mockingbird continues to tour with Richard Thomas and recently opened in London.

Jeff Daniels in To Kill a Mockingbird. Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Cost of Living Dates and Casting

In other Broadway news, another Pulitzer Prize winning play has announced dates and further casting. Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living will begin previews on Sept. 12 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater as part of Manhattan Theater Club’s 2022-23 Broadway season with an Oct. 2 opening date (October is beginning to look pretty crowded with five B’way openings and probably a sixth with Piano Lesson.) Tony nominee Kara Young (Clyde’s) and David Zayas (Dexter on Showtime) will join Gregg Mozgala (just completed Richard III in Central Park) and Katy Sullivan from the original 2017 Off-Broadway production. 

Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in High Noon.

High Noon and Frida

There has also been news of new shows on the far Broadway horizon including a stage adaptation of High Noon, the classic 1952 Western starring Gary Cooper as principled marshall defending his town against a gang of outlaws even though everyone else has deserted him including his new bride. The play will take place in real time over two hours as the lonely hero awaits the arrival of the villains on the noon train. The script is by six-time Oscar nominee Eric Roth who won the Adapted Screenplay Award for Forrest Gump. Michael Arden (Once Upon This Island, Spring Awakening) will direct and the plans are for a 2023 opening. The original film, produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by Fred Zinnemann starred Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, Thomas Mitchell, Katy Jurado and Lee Van Cleef. Carl Foreman, a victim of the Hollywood Blacklist, wrote the screenplay. The original 1952 film is regarded as one of the classic westerns and was registered with the National Film Registry in 1989 for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” 

Ricardo Herrera and Catalina Cuervo in Frida, the Opera at Michigan State Opera.

Then in 2024, a new musical based in the life of revolutionary painter Frida Kahlo is scheduled for Broadway after regional workshops in 2023. Frida, the Musical, is sanctioned by the Kahlo estate and is based in part on the book Intimate Frida, by the artist’s niece Isolda P. Kahlo. Mexican composer Jaime Lozano is responsible for the music and playwright Neena Beber will pen the lyrics. Julie Taymor directed a 2004 film bio of Kahlo starring Salma Hayek which won two Academy Awards and six nominations. Frida, an opera based on Kahlo’s life, debuted in 1991 and later played the Brooklyn Academy of Music. 

A synopsis of the new production reads, “Grounded by the rollercoaster romance between the artist and her great love, Diego Rivera, Frida will be a full-throated celebration of Kahlo’s joyous spirit of creativity and her unmatched gift for transforming physical and emotional pain into breathtaking beauty.”

2022-23 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule

Aug. 25–Kinky Boots (Stage 42)

Aug. 28–Two Jews, Talking (Theater at St. Clement’s)

Aug. 30–As You Like It (Delacorte)

Sept. 19–The Piano Lesson (Barrymore) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 22–Sesame Street: The Musical (Theater Row)

Sept. 24–Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 27–A Raisin in the Sun (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Oct. 2–Leopoldstadt (Longacre)

Oct. 3–Cost of Living (MTC/Friedman)

Oct. 6–1776 (Roundabout/AA)

Oct. 9–Death of a Salesman (Hudson) 

Oct. 20–Topdog/Underdog (Golden)

Oct. 26–Straight Line Crazy (The Shed/Griffin)

Oct. 28–Where We Belong (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Oct. 30–A Man of No Importance (CSC)

October–Catch as Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons); Downstate (Playwrights Horizons)

Nov. 2–Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (MTC/City Center Stage I)

Nov. 3–Almost Famous (Bernard Jacobs)

Nov. 4–Plays for the Plague Year (Public Theater) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Nov. 10–Kimberly Akimbo (Booth)

Nov. 13–Fiddler on the Roof (New World Stages)

Nov. 17–& Juliet (Sondheim)

Nov. 20–KPOP (Circle in the Square)

Nov. 21–Becky Nurse of Salem (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Dec. 1–Ain’t No Mo (Belasco)

Dec. 4–A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical (Broadhurst)

Dec. 11–Some Like It Hot (Shubert)

Dec. 20–The Collaboration (MTC/Freidman)

February–The Trees (Playwrights Horizons)

March–Regretfully So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons)

April 13–Camelot (Lincoln Center/Vivian Beaumont)

May–Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons)

Fall 2022 (no dates yet)

Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)

the bandaged place (Roundabout/Underground)

Camp Siegfried (Second Stage/Tony Kiser)

Summer, 1976 (MTC/City Center Stage II)

2022-23 (no dates or theaters yet)

Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, Black Orpheus, Cinderella, Come Fall in Love–The DDLJ Musical, Dancin’, The Ohio State Murders, Pal Joey, Square One

Winter 2022-23

Dark Disabled Stories (Public)

The Wanderers (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Spring 2023 

Prime Facie (a Shubert theater TBA)

The Thanksgiving Play (Second Stage/Hayes)

Good Bones (Public)

Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC/City Center Stage II)

Shadow/Land (Public)

2023, 2024 and Beyond

Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby, Frida, the Musical, High Noon

Future--Good Night, Oscar; The Devil Wears Prada; The Griswolds’ Family Vacation; The Karate Kid; Back to the Future; Our Town; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Sing Street; Smash; Soul Train; The Who’s Tommy