LOGOS: Man and Boy

A word of caution if you Google "man and boy": be sure to add either "Broadway" or "Roundabout" after it BEFORE you hit enter.  Otherwise you might find yourself in the midst of some rather, um, unsavory websites.

But looking at the logo for Terrance Rattigan's play, Man and Boy, which opens tomorrow at the American Airlines Theatre, there is no such confusion.  And even a cursory glance at the image tells you a lot about the play, even if you know nothing about it, like I didn't.

First, the grey sepia tone of the photo suggests a time past, and the smoking (on a public park bench, no less), the fedora and suit on the central figure suggests a specific time - the late 20's/early 30's, like The Untouchables or something.  Then there is the newspaper, being handed - or maybe an accusatory shove - to the figure.  If it were a modern play, The Wall Street Journal, might be seen on an iPad!

Of course, the details of the photo tell us specifics of the plot.  The figure is either the person involved in the news article, or is connected somehow to that person - his boss?  an investigator?  Hmm, the bit of news photo that you can see confirms that the man in the fedora is the man that made headlines. And the headline really tells the rest: "Financier Sought in Scandal."

Finally, that figure is easily recognizable.  He is, after all, a multi-Tony winner and an award winning film actor.  But just in case, you can't put a name to the face, some of the ads tell you that he is none other than Frank Langella.  With the title in a font that fairly reeks "film noir" you know that there is something serious, mysterious and dangerous, going on here.  But I have to admit, the meaning of the title itself remains an enigma to me.

But given the amount of information the excellent photo gives, as well as its style, maybe keeping the title a mystery is actually a selling point.  One thing is for sure, though.  The image and Frank Langella's presence in it pretty much rules out that Man and Boy has anything to do with those nasty sites you can find by Googling!


Rate this blog below and leave your comments here, or by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
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TheatreScene: September 26 - October 2

Here's the Theatre Scene in Picutres for September 26 - October 2: 

BROADWAY VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

• It may be a photo shoot that brought this all-star cast together for this behind-the scenes video, but there's a lot of great, interesting information about the brand new Broadway play Seminar, which begins previews later this month at thr Golden Theatre.  Written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Sam Gold, the cast is led by Alan Rickman and features Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, Hetienne Park, and Jerry O'Connell. 

BROADWAY BOX OFFICE (September 19 - 25):

Top Gross: Wicked ($1.5M)

Top Attendance: The Book of Mormon (102.4%)
Top Average Ticket Price: The Book of Mormon ($147.77)

Biggest Drop in Attendance: Man and Boy (-9.4%)

Now in previews:

• Man and Boy: Previews: September 9; Opens October 9
• Relatively Speaking: Previews: September 20; Opens October 20
• The Mountaintop: Previews: September 13; Opens October 13

BROADWAY SHOW NEWS

September 26:

• The 25th Annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction held on September 25th earned $547,658 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, it was announced today.  This represents an increase of over $70,000 from last year.
• A box office record was set for the week of September 19 - 25:  For the first time EVER, a Stephen Sondheim show grossed over $1M in a week.  Follies made $1,122,778 at the Marquis Theatre.

September 27:

• The Submission opened off-Broadway today.  The new play by Jeff Talbott opened the MCC season.  It stars Jonathan Groff, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Rutina Wesley and Will Rogers.

September 28:

• The producers of Broadway's War Horse announced that the Veteran's Day (November 11) performance's net proceeds will be donated to the USO.

Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo star

October 1:

• The special performances to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of London's The Phantom of the Opera began today at thr Royal Albert Hall.  The October 2 performance will be broadcast live around the world.

October 2:

• The National Tour of John Leguizamo's Ghetto Klown opened in LA today, after previews beginning September 30.

BROADWAY CASTING NEWS

• Jackie Burns and Chandra Lee Schwartz are Broadway's newest Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked.
• The casting directors of Broadway's The Book of Mormon and the Kennedy Center's Follies won this year's Artios Awards for theatre casting.

Jeff
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TheatreScene: September 19 - 25 in Pictures

Here is the TheatreScene for September 19 - 25, 2011!

BROADWAY BOX OFFICE (September 12 - 18):


Top Gross: Wicked: $1.479M
Photo by Joan Marcus



Top Attendance: The Book of Mormon: 102.4%
Top Average Ticket Price: The Book of Mormon: $147.58
Photo by Joan Marcus



Biggest Drop (Over previous week):
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark -3.3%
Photo by Jacob Cohl

Now in previews:

Man and Boy: Previews: September 9; Opens October 9

Relatively Speaking: Previews: September 20; Opens October 20

The Mountaintop: Previews: September 13; Opens October 13


BROADWAY SHOW NEWS:



Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit in High
Photo by Joan Marcus

8 included actors Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson
Photo by Joseph Marzullo

September 19:

• High didn't last but a week on Broadway last season, but Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit will be taking their troubled souls on the road for a national tour starting in Boston.


• 8, by Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black, had a star-filled benefit reading at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre directed by Tony Award-winning director Joe Mantello.



Reeve Carney and Diane Pagan (center) along with all
the Spider-Men at the announcement of the first Everyday Hero.
Photo by Krissie Fullerton

September 21:

• Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark's Reeve Carney announced that show's first honoree in their "Everyday Heroes" program.  Her name is Diane Pagan, honored for her work making house calls to home bound patients in an effort for them to avoid hospitalization.  She's been doing this important work for six years!

Follies at the Marquis Theatre through January 22, 2012
Photo by Joan Marcus

September 22:

• Follies has been extended for an additional 3 weeks at the Marquis Theatre.  The critically-acclaimed revival will now close January 22.

September 25:

• Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS held its 25th annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction today.

BROADWAY CASTING NEWS:

The Addams Family: A Portrait
Photo by Jeremy Daniel

• Roger Rees will continue in the role of Gomez Addams opposite the Morticia of Brooke Shields through the closing night of The Addams Family, December 31.



Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Sutton Foster, center) and her Angels
Photo by Joan Marcus

• Tony-winner Sutton Foster also extended her contract this week with Anything Goes.  This tap dancing phenom will now play Reno Sweeney through April 29, 2012.  Of course, this also means that the show will go on at least that long as well!

Bobby Steggert (left) in a scene from a previous production of Yank!

• Yank! will be getting a New York reading before heading off to the Old Globe Theatre, and, one hopes, then returning to Broadway.  The reading will star Bobby Steggert, Santino Fontana and Nellie McKay.



BROADWAY PICTURE/VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

PICTURES:

A Little Night Music's Hunter Ryan Herdlicka
in Dallas Theater Center's The Tempest
Photo by Karen Almond

The Submission as rendered by (left) Ken Fallin and (right) "Squigs"

Last week, Spider-Man, this week,  Assassins

and Cabaret  star Neil Patrick Harris

makes the cover of a magazine.  

VIDEO:

The making of the latest Roxie Hart, Kara DioGuardi:

Rate this blog below and leave your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
3.027

Star Power: The Plays

One of the up sides of recent seasons has been the abundance of well-known actors who have graced the Broadway stage.  In many, if not most, cases, this has been a great thing.  Film and television fans have gotten to see such "names" as Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Robin Williams, Ellen Barkin, Jim Parsons, Justin Bartha, the casts of God of Carnage and many others.  Stage fans have had their pick in recent years, too, including Angela Lansbury, Viola Davis, Cherry Jones, Jan Maxwell, Brian Bedford, James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave,  as well as new comers like Eddie Redmayne, Seth Numrich and Allison Pill.

This season is shaping nicely, too, for star-gazers and theatre fans, alike, not to mention those of us who are both!  Looking at the number of plays and play revivals scheduled for this season, there are a number of performers who should be of interest to everyone.  Here is a list of actors currently attached to projects scheduled to open in the 2011 - 2012 season, divided up by their medium of notoriety.  Most of them overlap, and since every actor in New York has appeared on the Law and Order series or The Good Wife, I only count "TV" actors as those known primarily for that, not the occasional appearance.

* Stage   @ TV    # Film

• Master Class: Tyne Daly@* (Cagney and Lacey, Gypsy), Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid, love Never Dies)


• Man and Boy: Frank Langella*# (Dracula, Frost/Nixon), Michael Siberry* (Spamalot, Death Takes a Holiday)


• Relatively Speaking: Mark Linn-Baker *@ (Perfect Strangers, Doonesbury: The Musical), Lisa Emery* (Rumors, The Smell of the Kill), Ari Graynor* (The Little Dog Laughed), Steve Guttenberg# (Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy) , Julie Kavner@ (Rhoda, The Simpsons), Grant Shaud@ (Murphy Brown), Marlo Thomas@ (That Girl)


• The Mountaintop: Samuel L. Jackson# (Star Wars), Angela Bassett (What's Love Got to Do with It)


• Other Desert Cities: Stockard Channing*# (Six Degrees of Separation, Grease), Rachel Griffiths@ (Six Feet Under, Brothers and Sisters), Judith Light @* (Who's the Boss?, One Life to Live, Lombardi), Stacy Keach*@# (NYSF, numerous films), Thomas Sadoski* (Reasons to Be Pretty, The House of Blue Leaves)

 

Master Class, Relatively Speaking, The Mountaintop

Stockard Channing, Other Desert Cities, Rachel Griffiths

• Venus in Fur: Nina Arianda* (Born Yesterday), Hugh Dancy*# (Black Hawk Down, Journey's End)


• Private Lives: Kim Catrall@# (Sex and the City)


• Seminar: Alan Rickman*# (Les Liaisons Dangerueses, Harry Potter...)


• The Road to Mecca: Rosemary Harris*# (The Royal Family, A Delicate Balance, An Inspector Calls, Spider-Man), Jim Dale* (Joe Egg, Barnum), Carla Gugino#* (Spy Kids, After the Fall, Desire Under the Elms)


• W;t: Cynthia Nixon@#* (Sex and the City, Rabbit Hole)

Brian Murray, Philip Seymour Hoffman,

Andrew Garfield,

John Lithgow,

James Earl Jones, Jonathan Groff,

Rutina Wesley

• The Old Masters: Brian Murray* (The Crucible, Mary Stuart, The Importance of Being Earnest), Sam Waterston@* (Law and Order, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, A Walk in the Woods)


• Death of a Salesman: Philip Seymour Hoffman*@ (True West, Twister, Capote), Andrew Garfield# (Spider-Man), Linda Emond* (Life x 3, 1776)


• The Columnist: John Lithgow*@# (Sweet Smell of Success, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Third Rock from the Sun, Dexter, The World According to Garp, Footloose)


• Streetcar Named Desire: Blair Underwood@# (Sex and the City, L.A. Law, The Event, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Deep Impact)


• The Best Man: James Earl Jones*# (Driving Miss Daisy, Star Wars, Field of Dreams)


• The Submission (Off-Broadway): Jonathan Groff *@ (Spring Awakening, Deathtrap, Glee), Rutina Wesley@ (True Blood), Eddie Kaye Thomas #* (American Pie, Dog Sees God)

RUMOR: A 5-time Tony winner is rumored to be joining James Earl Jones in The Best Man.

I'm sure this list is only the tip of the iceberg. And, of course, it is subject to change.

Who are you excited to see onstage this season?

Rate this blog below and leave your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
2.355

1951: 60 Years Ago on Broadway

Recently, a good friend of mine celebrated her 60th birthday.  Together, we have seen a number of Broadway shows, and we frequently chat about shows that were all the rage in the 15 year gap between our births.  (I know...we are weird that way...)  Anyway, I got to thinking about her milestone birthday and her love of Broadway.

Here is a sample of the shows that were playing on the Great White Way 60 years ago this week!

• The great Ethel Merman was at the Imperial Theatre in Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam.  A satire about a woman ambassador to a small fictional country and America's constant pumping of millions of dollars to every needy country but never spending it at home.  How timely, even today.


• It was the last weeks of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the Ziegfeld Theatre.  The show made a star out of Carol Channing and the Jule Styne score featured the famous "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend."


• Robert Alda and Vivian Blaine were starring in the original production of Guys and Dolls at the 46th Street Theatre.  Today, it is a classic, but back then people were just getting to know the Frank Loesser score that includes such standards as "Luck Be a Lady," "If I Were a Bell, " "Adelaide's Lament," and "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat."

• Audiences were delighting to the exotic world of Siam and the intoxicating romance between The King and I at the St. James Theatre, and starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brenner.  "Shall We Dance?" was a hit, and Jerome Robbins' dazzling staging of "Small House of Uncle Thomas" was the talk of Broadway.


• The title says it all: Judy Garland at the Palace: "Two A-Day".

• The Wizard of Oz fans could also take in Bert Lahr (and Delores Gray) in Two on the Aisle the Mark Hellinger Theatre.  Talk about a creative team: Abe Burrows directed, Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book and lyrics for Jule Styne's score.


• Theatre legend Shirley Booth was playing the Alvin Theatre in the musical version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, with a book and direction by George Abbott.

• Playgoers had many dramas and comedies to choose from, too, including the Tony Award-winning Best Play of 1951, Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo.  Stars Eli Wallach and Maureen Stapleton both won Tonys for their work as well.


• Jose Ferrer directed the war drama Stalag 17, written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinsky, both prisoners of the actual prison camp in Austria.  The show ran an impressive 427 performances at the 48th Street Theatre.

60 years from now, I wonder what shows people will write about.  Probably The Phantom of the Opera, and maybe about stars like Bernadette Peters.  And probably the record setting budget of Spider-Man:Turn Off the Dark.  Oh, who knows?  Only time will tell.

 

 

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Jeff
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