Tomorrow evening (October 7), Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisyfinally makes its Broadway debut after first premiering Off-Broadway 23 years ago.
With David Esbjornson behind the wheel to steer the play, this production has already become a very hot ticket because of its three top-drawer, Tony-winning actors. Vanessa Redgrave will portray Daisy Werthan, James Earl Jones plays her chauffeur and friend Hoke Colburn and Boyd Gaines returns to Broadway as Daisy's son Boolie, who insists his mother's car keys be taken away.
A timeless American play, which inspired the beloved Academy Award-winning film, Driving Miss Daisy tells the affecting story of the decades-long relationship between a stubborn Southern matriarch and her compassionate chauffeur. Their iconic tale of pride, changing times and the transformative power of friendship has warmed the hearts of millions, and is being performed for the first time on a Broadway stage.
Before I ever saw that Oscar-winning film, I caught Driving Miss Daisy on a West End stage in 1988. I was fortunate to see the late Dame Wendy Hiller and a young Clarke Peters in the two primary roles. It didn't matter that the set design was incredibly spare because the two of them were simply magnificent. It remains one of the most memorable nights I've ever enjoyed at the theatre.
Previews for this new "strictly limited engagement" begin October 7 at the John Golden Theatre. The show opens October 25 and is only slated to run through January 29, 2011.
To see this trio of stage greats demonstrate their acting prowess, is it any wonder that many performances are already selling out?
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.
SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #7 - Gypsy(2008, St. James Theatre, New York City, NY)
Introduction: Hard as it is to comprehend that we're already 119 months into this "new" millennium, we are fast approaching the end of its first decade. While we have yet to agree on what exactly we should call the '00s, I'll take a cue from the fine folks at The Times of London and the BBC and henceforth refer to them at the Noughties. With that small introduction, I'm pleased to present my list of plays and musicals that wowed me the most during that time. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of shows I've seen over the last ten years, I give you my countdown of my 25 personal favorite shows of the Noughties.
Gangway world, get off of my superlatives! Suddenly, highfalutin' words like "excellent," "superb" and "top-notch" just didn't seem sufficient enough to adequately describe the unique experience of seeing the incredible Arthur Laurents-helmed revival of Gypsy that played Broadway last year.
Never had I enjoyed myself more or been so thoroughly entertained by a Rialto musical experience ... ever. This was most definitely a performance for the ages. To see it was to witness theatrical history being made (including the penultimate performance of the show earlier this year .... yes, I was there then, too).
The beauty of this fully-realized Broadway revival was that every breathtaking performance from start to finish matched that offered by the truly astonishing Patti LuPone, who made her Rose at once sympathetic, conniving, sexy, funny, tragic and repulsive all at the same time. Add to that poignant portrayals -- the stunning metamorphosis of Louise offered by Laura Benanti in her best performance yet, and the completely credible, quiet dignity in Boyd Gaines' sympathetic take on Herbie -- and those fortunate enough to see this incarnation saw the classic musical the way it was truly intended to be seen.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for these performances.
Despite incredible reviews, three Tony-winning performances and its rightful place as simply the best musical ever, Arthur Laurents' stunning Broadway revival of Gypsyhas posted its closing notice for March 1, 2009. That date coincides with the end of Patti LuPone's contract.
With timeless score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, LuPone has delivered a tour de force performance for the ages as Mama Rose that has practically been matched measure for measure by Boyd Gaines as Herbie and Laura Benanti in the title role.
At the box office, Gypsy enjoyed a slight increase last week over the week before, attracting a capacity of 63.2% and grossing $593,242. But since LuPone's name is firmly above the title, it's hard to imagine this production with anyone else filling her (sometimes Isotoned) shoes.
Personally, I'm thrilled that I not only had the rare opportunity to witness history being made when LuPone first performed as Rose three summers ago, but found myself transfixed and transported when I saw her perform at the St. James just two days after the revival opened.
So, all this begs the question of whether Patti LuPone might renew her consideration of recreating her triumph across the pond on the West End stage. If she goes, I just may go myself.
Gypsy (The SOB Review) - St. James Theatre, New York, NY
**** (out of ****)
Gangway world, get off of my superlatives!
Suddenly, highfalutin words like excellent, superb and top-notch just don't seem sufficient enough to adequately describe the unique experience of seeing the incredible Arthur Laurents-helmed revival of Gypsy that opened last week at the Great White Way's St. James Theatre.
If ever there was a Broadway show worth taking in, this is it. Never have I enjoyed myself more or been so thoroughly entertained by a Rialto musical experience ever. This is most definitely a performance for the ages. To see it is to witness theatrical history being made.
Granted, I'm a little biased when it comes to the masterpiece tuner created in 1959 by Laurents (book), Jule Styne (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics). Ever since first seeing it performed over 30 years ago, it has ranked as my all-time favorite musical. I've never resisted taking in a staging, whether on Broadway or as presented by local theatrical companies or even in high schools.
The timeless music, buttressed by the extraordinarily well-told story suggested by the memoirs of the 20th Century's most famous ecdysiastGypsy Rose Lee, makes for one of the most entertaining evenings one could possibly hope for in live theatre -- if only it's done right. I've now seen it enough times to tell the good from the bad, but nothing prepared me for the new, unsurpassed heights which Mr. Laurents and his exceptional cast have successfully achieved.
Not even my 2006 visit to Chicagoland's Ravinia where Patti LuPone first triumphed as Mama Rose. At the time, I enthusiastically cheered:
Instead of an over-the-top Mama that's all too easy to do, LuPone proffered an exquisitely nuanced performance that simultaneously excited and repulsed, making one of Broadway’s most memorable roles hers for keeps. * * * Near the end, LuPone took her devastated Rose to new heights with an unforgettable, heart-wrenched rendering of “Rose’s Turn,” which proved to be, quite literally, a showstopper of the first order. * * * But when (not if) the time comes to bring Gypsy back to the Great White Way, savvy producers should do everything they can to lure Patti LuPone back to the role she was born to play.
Many said it would never happen. That it was too soon after the last revival. That Arthur Laurents would never allow LuPone to take on his single greatest creation. And so on.
Thankfully, the naysayers had it all wrong.
While I stand by my earlier review, the beauty of this fully-realized Broadway revival is that every breathtaking performance from start to finish matches LuPone, who has only intensified her portrayal of the stage mother from hell, making her Rose at once sympathetic, conniving, sexy, funny, tragic and repulsive all at the same time.
But the revelation in Laurents' brilliantly directed revival is how careful he is in drawing out every character, lovingly shaping them well beyond the caricatures other productions have let suffice. To be honest, I don't know which portrayal I found more poignant -- the stunning metamorphosis of Louise offered by Laura Benanti in her best performance yet, or the completely credible, quiet dignity in Boyd Gaines' sympathetic take on Herbie.
As Louise, Benanti begins as a doe-eyed innocent, always eager to please, never fathoming her hidden talents or beauty. To watch her transition to the world's most famous stripper is to witness a major star claiming her rightful place in the spotlight. (For me, personally, it was also one of those "only in live theatre" moments when Benanti locked eyes with mine as I sat in Row B Seat 101 and then seductively asked whether I knew what an ecdysiast is. Oh, Laura, do I ever.)
Gaines' Herbie rates as the best I've ever seen as well, commencing from a man who was clearly charmed by Rose's tenacity long before she even knew who he was and deftly takes him through the range of emotions of a man who will always love her, but yearns for a new life as a family man before his personal shelf-life expiration date arrives.
Then there's the amazingly unholy trinity found in Lenora Nemetz's Chita Riveraesque Mazeppa (also doubling as the hilarious Miss Cratchitt), Marilyn Caskey's nearly immobile and slyly non-electrifying Electra, and Alison Fraser's tiptoeing Tessie Tura. Again, never before have I seen such distinguishing depth in this triumvirate of characters. And to play them as relics as opposed to fresher faces further isolates Louise's ingenue.
Special mention must also be given to Leigh Ann Larkin for making her June so real, as well as to Tony Yazbeck for adding a debonair dash to Jerome Robbins' stylish choreography all these years later. And bravo to Laurents for showcasing the 25-piece orchestra up on the stage. Thanks to Patrick Vaccariello, Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler's orchestrations never sounded better.
While the 90 year old Laurents' skill could easily have been a career capper, he's already prepared to do for West Side Storywhat he's done for Gypsy. I for one can't wait.
If you ever wanted to see a classic musical the way it was truly intended to be seen, get to Broadway's St. James Theatre. Make no mistake, come June, everything (with the possible exception of Best Director of a Musical for reasons explained by Michael Riedel) should be coming up Tonys for the best musical ever, period.
As one of Gypsy's original creators -- a half century ago, he wrote the show's book alongside Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, who together wrote the score -- he now takes the helm in this fourth Rialto revival that stars Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines. The praise was mostly unequivocal, yet there were at least a couple dissents.
Raving that this Gypsy is "this one that has definitive written all over it," Bloomberg's John Simon, who has seen each Broadway incarnation including the original could not be more effusive: "No matter how many times you've seen Gypsy, you arguably haven't experienced it as fully as you may now on Broadway at the St. James Theatre.... As director, Laurents has made some fussy changes of no great import, at least not lessening the overall impact. His not uninteresting effort is to heighten realism into expressionism.... But then how deftly LuPone makes Rose exude vulgarity without jeopardizing our basic sympathy; how touchingly Gaines underplays his leading-man dazzle for the most likable Herbie ever; how compellingly Benanti handles shy duckling Louise's transfiguration into Gypsy's preening swan."
Almost gleefully admitting "that quiet crunching sound you hear is me eating my hat," The New York Times' Ben Brantley offers a flat-out rave: "[W]hen Ms. LuPone is truly focused, she’s a laser, she incinerates. Especially when she’s playing someone as dangerously obsessed as Momma Rose in the wallop-packing revival of the musical Gypsy.... its raw power should be enough to silence any naysayers (myself included).... The 90-year-old Mr. Laurents, who directed two earlier revivals of Gypsy...has had nearly half a century to ponder characters he helped bring to life. The accumulation of decades seems only to have sharpened his vision of the fractured family at the show’s center.”
Essentially admitting that only a critic could complain, New York Post's Clive Barnes offers three and a half out of four stars: "In truth, no one was ever born to do anything -- except bawl their lungs out -- but Patti LuPone comes pretty damn close as Momma Rose in Jule Styne's Gypsy.... In her case, that 'gimmick' is an unassailable talent and showbiz genius. She brought both to the St. James Theatre last night.... And though this essentially modest production has the lingering scent of a summer stockpot, its virtues are such that few will care.... What's special about LuPone is the unexpected shading and nuance -- brassy one moment, grotesque the next, then pathetic, even tragic."
Concluding that LuPone is "beyond sturdy, she's beyond dreams," Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's Daily News also showers laurels on the musical: "The show is sharper since then and seeing it again reinforces what we already know -- the score by Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne is tuneful beyond belief and the story by Arthur Laurents is word-perfect.... LuPone, with her big personality, broad background ... and dynamic voice, is a natural to play the human bulldozer who drives daughters June and Louise toward vaudeville stardom at any cost. Under Laurents' savvy direction, she captures Rose's monstrous ferocity (body-checking Uncle Jocko, bullying everybody, even beating up on drapes) and her vulnerability, which peeks out humorously in 'Small World' and gushes poignantly in her finale, 'Rose's Turn.'"
Calling this revival "campy and clamorous, by turns brighter and less buoyant" than its summer 2007 precursor, USA Today's Elysa Gardner offers a three-star review: "In that production, LuPone lent a disarming tenderness to Mama Rose, disappointing some critics who view the role as a test for an actress's drama-queen aptitude.... Her epiphany, 'Rose's Turn,' is staged as a musical nervous breakdown, at once over-the-top and frighteningly convincing. Other performances also blend high-octane razzle-dazzle with a sort of hyper-naturalism."
Proving to be the party-pooper, asking "If only everyone would relax," Newsday's Linda Winer offers a mixed review: "What defined her Rose last summer, however, was a marvelous new vulnerability and charm.... Missing now, inexplicably, is that sense of fun, an allure that went a long way toward explaining why Herbie and all the unpaid kids in her pathetic act would put up with her. We still get the ferocity of Rose's restless hunger, but LuPone has toughened her earlier uninhibited sexuality into something harder and less interesting."
Noting that LuPone "gives and gives and gives until the only sensible response is to beg for no more," Eric Grode of The New York Sun also pooh-poohs: "In one of the more puzzling and dispiriting developments to reach Broadway in some time, Arthur Laurents's staging of the acid-etched 1959 valentine to show business has managed to shed nearly everything that made its previous iteration -- a keenly anticipated three-week run last summer at City Center -- so cherished. That production, notable for finally unleashing Patti LuPone in the role of the comparably formidable Mama Rose, has grown in every possible direction -- and not in a good way.
So there you have it folks -- mostly raves from the critics whose notices typically mean the most and a couple mixed-to-negative reviews. After foregoing last summer's City Center Encores! presentation (I magnanimously decided to give others a chance to see LuPone after catching her original Chicagoland Ravinia turn), I'll be in the audience in a couple days and will offer my SOB Review shortly thereafter.
Gypsy certainly ranks at the top of my all-time favorite musicals -- after I see this Sunday's performance, it will be among the stage shows I've seen the most. And for good reason.
Based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, features a hallowed score by none other than Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim to match Laurents' masterpiece of a book. And despite the fact that the 702 performance run of original 1959 production with Ethel Merman and Jack Klugman failed to win a single Tony Award (it was nominated for eight), it has become synonymous with Broadway itself.
Now in its fifth Main Stem incarnation, the legendary tuner with LuPone also stars Laura Benanti as Louise and Boyd Gaines as Herbie.
Will this become the revival to end all revivals? Find out tomorrow as I provide my critics' capsule.
Patti Preview: "Brought Down The Roof" .... Literally?
For any LuPone-phile (yes! It's a word! Look it up!), this morning's Barbara Hoffman piece in the New York Post is a must read, as she celebrates The Great One.
Patti LuPone, of course, began previews for the Broadway berth of Gypsylast evening at the St. James Theatre.
Hoffman writes:
And in case you're thinking Gypsy, again? -- Bernadette Peters having had her turn a few years back -- you weren't at City Center this summer, when LuPone's ballsy Momma Rose brought down the roof.
That Encores! production that The Post's Frank Scheck called "galvanizing" started previews yesterday at the St. James, where LuPone's name looms as large as the title.
Apparently, as officially deputized SOB Special Correspondent Sarah B. noted late last evening on Adventures in the Endless Pursuit of Entertainment, LuPone is quite literally bringing down the roof of the St. James:
However, the real drama happened during the dressing room scene just before Rose's Turn, some sort of accident happened. We couldn't see it from the orchestra, but it was loud enough to make 1/2 of the audience turn and look up. There was a loud crash and immediate crying. Somebody shouted, "Are you okay?" The person proceeded to cry very loudly. I don't know how Patti managed to go on with "Rose's Turn," but as Rose says, "That's show business." There was an ambulance parked in front of the St. James. I heard that a piece of metal air vent fell from the ceiling and hit a patron.
Ouch!
UPDATE (3/4/08 4:20 p.m. EST): New York Times blogger Tara Parker-Pope (a health blogger, of all people) wrote about her friendwho was one of two people hit by the 30 inch-diameter piece of metal that fell from the ceiling of the St. James. Fortunately, neither individual was seriously injured.
Sarah goes on to say of The Great One:
Patti is literally knockin' 'em to the aisles and bringing down the house. Maybe there should be an ambulance permanently parked at the St. James.
She also goes on to tell us how one patron got, er, choked up, quite literally!
I trust she'll provide a perfect report tomorrow that is sure to make me completely jealous as I've made no secret that this show ranks as one of my two all-time favorite musicals.
Gypsy features a brilliant score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, along with one of the best musical books ever by Arthur Laurents, who at the spry young age of 90 is helming this fourth Great White Way revival. Patti LuPone, of course, headlines as Rose, while Laura Benanti stars in the title role alongside the ubiquitous Broadway baby Boyd Gaines as Herbie.
Opening night is slated for March 27, and I'll be in the audience just days later.
Having seen LuPone's first-ever turn as Mama Rose during the acclaimed and extremely limited "concert" run at Chicagoland's Ravinia two summers ago, you can bet I'm champing at the bit to see what magic Arthur Laurents has conjured up for the Rialto run that many said would never happen. This is the kind of live theatre I live for. I can't wait!
I'm not prone to carrying around my camera, but I happened to have mine the other day as I was strolling by Broadway's St. James Theatre.
There, the load-in was in progress for the revival of one of my two all-time favorite musicals. Since I've seen more different versions of this classic by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents than any other tuner, I thought I'd take a couple shots.
As you can see from the photos, everything's coming up Gypsy on West 44th Street, this time with Laura Benanti as Louise, Boyd Gaines as Herbie, and of course, Patti LuPone as Rose.
As for me, I'll be in the audience late next month. And that's no gimmick.
Proclaiming that it "has plenty of class," Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's Daily News offers one of the most positive reviews: "[B]y George, it's always compelling and often delicious, even if it does feel a tad claustrophobic. Claire Danes, making her stage debut as Eliza Doolittle, beams confidence as the Cockney flower girl made into a society lady. Funny and feisty, she turns a scene in which Eliza makes polite conversation about the weather into something with gale-force hilarity....Mays plays the part as a prickly mama's boy prone to tantrums and bad behavior. It's daring. And it works....Pygmalion all but sings without any music. I could have watched all night."
Dazzled by the "beguiling time" he had, Michael Sommers of Newark's Star Ledger is similarly positive: "[I]t's a pleasure to see how nicely the 95-year-old play can still tickle viewers in Roundabout's first-class revival, which opened yesterday at American Airlines Theatre. The subject for Shaw's social satire -- the superficial nature of class distinctions -- is long outdated. Yet his 1912 story about the unlikely association of a phonetics expert with a Cockney flower girl remains entertaining....Making a lovely Broadway debut, Claire Danes ably traces the heroine's flowering from a 'quashed cabbage leaf' of Covent Garden into a cultivated beauty who enchants an embassy party. Initially performing with a Cockney yowl that sounds as authentic as her later elegant tones -- as well as a consistently graceful physicality -- Danes is a spirited yet sensitive Eliza."
Saying this Pygmalion is "enjoyable enough," Bloomberg's John Simon is mostly upbeat: "This being a comedy of manners and ideas, as well as a period piece and British, it requires a good deal from American actors, yet, by George (or Bernard), it pretty much gets it. Only in one place does it fall down seriously: in the casting of Jefferson Mays as Higgins....There is, however, compensation in a very pleasant surprise: the Eliza of movie actress Claire Danes, who, contrary to preceding malevolent rumors, is a marvelous heroine....She even achieves that elegantly elongated English-rose look."
Despite his awe for the "dazzling Claire Danes" New York Post's Clive Barnes gives the show two stars: "David Grindley's sober, somber, dark reading of the text, joined by Jonathan Fensom's meager sets and costumes and Jason Taylor's dimmish lighting, does the playwright few favors....Jefferson Mays, who plays Higgins here, seems more like a shopkeeper than a professor. He is shrill, abrasive and totally sexless."
Citing what he calls a "mothbally, duty-bound heft," Eric Grode of the New York Sun mostly pans: "Mr. Grindley likes to give audiences something to chew on — even choke on — as they leave the theater. And Pygmalion has always encouraged a director's impulse to tinker, particularly in its final moments....This newly melancholy interpretation runs completely afoul of Shaw's printed directions, and yet it could be psychologically defensible....Mr. Grindley has fallen prey to the frequent habit of defanging Colonel Pickering, Higgins's genteel but only marginally less thoughtless co-conspirator; the poised decency that comes so naturally to Boyd Gaines actually diminishes the role slightly....Ms. Danes lacks the tonal versatility to rise above this static conception of the role."
Linda Winer of Newsday laments: "(Danes) has done herself no favors by making her stage debut as Eliza Doolittle....She likes to lunge during excited moments, but her pounce always seems a beat off the narrative....We appreciate Mays' determination to escape the shadow of Rex Harrison by re-imagining Higgins as a far less dashing fellow. But Mays turns him into a Richie Rich of a mama's boy, a busy and obnoxious twit with crazy eyes and exaggerated nervous habits, whose feet don't touch the floor when he sits on tables, which he does a lot. Of course, despite the happy end in My Fair Lady, Shaw never meant this to be a romantic comedy. But without any chemical buzz between teacher and student, Grindley's decision to tack a sentimental spasm on Shaw's clear-eyed final moment feels especially contrived."
Calling it a "misfired revival," Ben Brantley of The New York Times apparently was hoping to dance all night, failing to remember that this non-musical was not about love: "For there is not a whisper of mutual attraction between this production’s Eliza and Henry....(Danes') game, conscientious portrayal doesn’t make much of an impression here. The main event, the performance that’s most likely to provoke heated after-theater discussion, is Mr. Mays’s epicene Henry Higgins. Looking like a cross between the 1930s child star Freddie Bartholomew and Nathan Lane at his most impish, the smooth-faced Mr. Mays shatters the cranky-but-sexy mold of Henry Higginses past....Maybe I’m just one of those sentimental fools Shaw held in such contempt."
Well of course you are, Mr. Brantley! At least you hold no pretense about that.
For the record, I liked it much more than many of the critics.
And while Jefferson Mays as Professor Henry Higgins is delivering yet another flawlessly superb performance, it's film actress Claire Danes who's a revelation in her Broadway debut. With amazing aplomb and grace, Danes portrays the gutter snipe named Eliza Doolittle, first devouring the common street girl's accent and then morphing into the classy dame who unwittingly helps Higgins win a bet.
At that moment when the indefatigably clueless and rude professor deigns to utter the line, "Silly people don't know their own silly business," to an equally compelling Boyd Gaines (as his fellow confirmed bachelor, the genteel Colonel Pickering) -- particularly as the former pats Eliza's head as if she were a pet -- Shaw neatly underscores his overarching point that class ain't all it's cracked up to be. It's also the type of delicious Edwardian irony that makes this play such a classic.
Through the boorish and overbearing Professor Higgins -- nicely counterbalanced by the earthy philosophy of Eliza's undeserving poor father Alfred (Jay O. Saunders in a humorous spot-on performance) -- Shaw not only demonstrates that human decency has little to do with class distinctions, but also that intellectualism and common sense don't necessarily go hand in hand.
And speaking of class, Helen Carey as Mrs. Higgins is the epitome of noblesse oblige, as she ponders early on what is to become of poor Eliza, long before the flower girl herself realizes that there's no turning back to the life she once had. She serves as a strong moral compass, trying to redirect her errant son.
I adore this show and its genuine blissful humanity that echoes in the music of its lyrical spoken word. Concerns among its characters over swear words like "devil," let alone "buggery," remain quaint chestnuts, reminding us how far we've come or gone.
Thanks to Grindley's sharp direction, accentuated quite literally by Majella Hurley's dialect coaching, this Pymalion moves swiftly with focus. Helping the five acts roll is the exquisite scenic design by Jonathan Fensom that magically transports us from a rainy evening at London's Covent Garden to the professor's study to Mrs. Higgins' parlor with the ease of his zigzagging sets (Fensom also does the honors with his costume designs).
Pygmalion is one period piece that seems timeless and well-worth revisiting. I strongly recommend this show.
First produced on a Broadway stage almost exactly 93 years ago, George Bernard Shaw's much beloved Pygmalioncomes to life on the Great White Way for the sixth time at the American Airlines Theatre. Most notable is the casting of Jefferson Mays as Professor Henry Higgins and film actress Claire Danes as Eliza Doolittle.
So who exactly was Pygmalion? Why, he was a mythical sculptor king of Cyprus who fell in love with a statue of his own making, of course.
All totaled, prior to the new 2007 revival, Pygmalion has enjoyed 561 regular performances on Broadway, a feat that has, of course, been significantly upstaged by the play's musical progeny: My Fair Lady, which has been produced four times on the Great White Way. In fact, the original run of the tuner alone enjoyed 2,717 regular performances!
Beginning Of The End: "Journey's" Opens On Broadway
It's been 68 years since R.C. Sheriff's World War I play, Journey's End, was last revived on Broadway. Back then, World War I was still referred to as the "Great War" or "The War to End All Wars."
But now, many wars and conflicts later, the hopes of achieving lasting global peace seem as elusive as ever. It's against that backdrop that David Grindley is helming a new revival of this wartime play that opens this evening at the Belasco Theatre.
Grindley also directed the celebrated 2004 revival of Journey's End in London. That production received an Olivier nomination for Best Revival in 2005.
Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles Limited run extended through May 31, 2011 (Show will go on hiatus starting January 15 and reopen at Brooks Atkinson Theatre on February 8)
Rock Of Ages - Open-ended run (Show will go on hiatus starting January 9 and reopen at Helen Hayes Theatre in March)
As someone who has been involved in both politics and public relations, it's no wonder I love watching theatre. Good or bad, it's the raw energy of seeing a live performance that gets my adrenaline pumping. From the moment I saw my very first Broadway show ("Annie" in London in 1979), I was hooked. Now I see as many as 70 shows each year ranging from soaring musicals to two-hander plays. And these eyes just may be in an audience near you!
