Broadway Update: Theatre Responds to Trump
By: David Sheward
Donald Trump has only been President two weeks, but theater is already responding to his controversial (to put it mildly) regime. Many have compared Donald and his spokespeople Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer’s offering “Alternative facts” as truth to the doublespeak of the tyrannical dictator Big Brother in George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984 which is enjoyed a resurgence lately (I wonder why.) A stage version of Orwell’s classic will be presented on Broadway in a limited production, opening on June 22 at the Hudson Theatre, now home to the also limited engagement of Sunday in the Park with George (more on that production and its decision to stay out of the Tony race in a future blog.) This British production of 1984, originally presented by the Headlong and Almeida will arrive with an American cast under the auspices of producers Sonia Freedman and Scott Rudin. A previous stage version played the Joyce Theater Off-Broadway in the 1990s as part of a regional American theater festival. There have been two movie adaptations. Edmond O’Brien, Jan Sterling and Michael Redgrave starred in the 1956 version and John Hurt (who just passed away) and Richard Burton headlined an even starker edition released in year of the title. With claims of fake news and imaginary terrorist attacks coming from the Trump administration, Orwell’s prophetic work is more relevant than ever.
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way, Hacksaw Ridge) has written a more direct response to the Trumpian junta with Building the Wall, a new play set in near future. The playwright told the New York Times he churned out the script in a “white hot fury” over the course of a single week just prior to the election of 2016. It received a developmental reading at NYC’s Lark Theater shortly after its was finished and is now on the roster of four regional theaters. The first production will be at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles from March 18–May 21. The press release describes the play thus: “It’s the very near future, and the Trump administration has carried out his campaign promise to round up and detain millions of immigrants. Now, a writer interviews the supervisor of a private prison as he awaits sentencing for carrying out the federal policy that has escalated into the unimaginable. This riveting, harrowing and illuminating drama delivers a powerful warning and puts a human face on the inhuman, revealing how when personal accountability is denied, what seems inconceivable becomes inevitable.”
Other productions will be presented at the Curious Theatre in Denver (April 4-19), the Forum Theatre in Silver Spring, MD; the Borderlands Theatre in Tuscon, AZ; and the Adobe Rose Theatre, Santa Fe, NM. Hopefully, New York audiences will get to sample this relevant work.
As usual, here is an updated rundown of upcoming Broadway and Off-Broadway openings for the remainder of the 2016-17 season and beyond:
Feb. 15–Man from Nebraska (Second Stage)
Feb. 16–Evening at the Talk House (New Group/Signature Theatre)
Feb. 21–Everybody (Signature)
Feb. 22–If I Forget (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
Feb. 22–Kid Victory (Vineyard)
Feb. 23–Sunday in the Park with George (Hudson)
Feb. 23–Linda (MTC/City Center)
Feb. 27–The Penitent (Atlantic Theatre Co.)
Feb. 27–Wakey Wakey (Signature)
March 1–Sweeney Todd (Barrow Street)
March 1–All the Fine Boys (New Group/Signature)
March 2–Significant Other (Booth)
March 9–The Glass Menagerie (Golden)
March 13–The Light Years (Playwrights Horizons)
March 15–Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (Public)
March 20–How to Transcend a Happy Marriage (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
March 26–Sweat (Studio 54)
March 26–Come Back, Little Sheba/Picnic (Transport Group/The Gym at Judson)
April 2–The Play That Goes Wrong (Lyceum)
April 3–Amelie (Walter Kerr)
April 5–Gently Down the Stream (Public)
April 17–Groundhog Day (August Wilson)
April 18–Indecent (Cort)
April 25–Six Degrees of Separation (Barrymore)
April 26–The Bandstand (Bernard Jacobs)
April 26–Pacific Overtures (CSC)
June 22–1984 (Hudson)
June 29–Marvin’s Room (Roundabout/AA)
Aug. 24–Prince of Broadway (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
Oct 12–Junk (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)
Oct. 26–M. Butterfly (Theater TBA)
March 1, 2018–Amy and the Orphans (Laura Pels/Roundabout)
Future–The Cher Show, The Devil Wears Prada
2016-17 Broadway Season
The Encounter
Indecent
The Play That Goes Wrong
Sweat
The Bandstand
Groundhog Day
War Paint
Present Laughter
Six Degrees of Separation
Sunday in the Park with George
Sunset Boulevard
Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway
Oh Hello on Broadway
