Mother Nature has her faux fur coat on the foot of her bed and she’s almost ready to step out for New York’s hottest shows. We are here to celebrate the eight shows that will open up on Broadway before October.
Marianne Elliott (Company, Angels in America, Warhorse) directs this critically-acclaimed West End Transfer
Tony Award Nominee and Multi-Olivier Award Winner Sharon D. Clarke, Wendell Pierce (HBO’s The Wire) and the incomparable André De Shields round out this powerhouse cast
The Black actors portraying the Loman family during the 1940s transcends the writing making an even harder hit for Willy, his wife and his boys
The 2017-2018 Broadway season reached 13,792,614 in attendance and grossed over $1.6 million. Despite these record setting numbers, discussion and debate broke out amongst fans as all four Tony nominated Best Musicals were stage adaptations of films; The Band’s Visit, SpongeBob SquarePants the Musical, Frozen, and Mean Girls.
The Broadway cast of Some Like It Hot
A major criticism of Broadway is the trend of stage adaptations of popular movies, which has been featured heavily in recent seasons. With this upcoming season having two announced adaptations, Almost Famous and Some Like It Hot, and even more rumored for the future including The Notebook, The Devil Wears Prada, and a transfer of the West End’s Back to the Future, there is an understandable interest in the creation and development of original stories on Broadway. What many theatergoers are unaware of is that this trend isn’t new to Broadway. In fact, Broadway has a long history of translating movies to the stage including some classic and fan favorite shows.
Little Shop Of Horrors
While some adaptations are more obvious, such as the Disney Broadway catalog including shows like Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, and The Lion King, many well known theater classics were inspired by movies. Sondheim and Wheeler’s A Little Night Music, which originally opened on Broadway in 1973 and ran for 601 performances, is based on the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night. The well-known Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon staple Sweet Charity, written by Neil SImon with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, is based on the 1957 screenplay Nights of Cabiria. Little Shop of Horrors, whose award winning Off-Broadway revival is currently running at the Westside Theatre, is based on the low budget 1960 dark comedy, The Little Shop of Horrors. Andrew Lloyd Webbers’ Sunset Boulevard, which broke advance sale records and sold over 1 million tickets with its original Broadway production, is based on the 1950 film of the same name. Some other classics include Nine, based on Frederico Fellini’s 1963 film 8½, On The 20th Century, based on the 1930s film of the same name, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair, and Promises, Promises, based on the 1960 film The Apartment.
Heathers The Musical on Roku
Beyond the classics, many fan favorites, such as Heathers which currently has a production on the West End, are based on films. The 2007 Legally Blonde, which has become a go-to for many community theaters and High Schools across the country, is heavily based heavily on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon as well as the Amanda Brown novel. The beloved Sara Bareilles musical Waitress, which ran on Broadway from 2016 to 2020 and returned in a limited engagement in 2021, is based on the 2007 film written by Adrienne Shelly. Other fan favorite adaptations include the currently running Beetlejuice, based on the Tim Burton horror comedy, 9 to 5, based on the 1980 film, Anastasia, based on the 1997 animated movie, and many more.
Billy Elliott the Musical
Some screen to stage adaptations have even garnered critical acclaim and gone on to win Tony Awards, such as Once, which won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical. Carnival, which won the 1962 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and an Outer Critics Circle Award, was based on the 1953 film Lili. The 2013 winner Kinky Boots, which ran on Broadway for 2,507 performances and is currently running Off-Broadway at Stage 42, is based on a 2005 British film of the same name. The 2021 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Moulin Rouge!, is based on the 2001 film starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Other Tony Award winning adaptations include Billy Elliot the Musical, Spamalot, Hairspray, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, and Passion.
The river flows both ways. While many musicals based on films have gone on to win awards and break records, Hollywood continues to turn out movies based on beloved Broadway shows. In the last 5 years alone, there have been a slew of film adaptations of Musicals including Jonathan Larsons’ Tick, Tick…Boom, directed by Lin Manuel Miranda starring Andrew Garfield, a remake of West Side Story directed by Stephen, In The Heights, 13, The Prom, Dear Evan Hansen, and The Last 5 Years (although this came out in 2014 and has yet to have a Broadway production). Coming to Netflix this December will be a movie adaptation of the acclaimed musical Matilda. The long-running Broadway musical Wicked, which has multiple national tours and international productions, has a film adaptation in the late stages of development starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and Jonathan Bailey.
While there should be a healthy mix of original stories and adaptations in commercial theater, the relationship between Broadway and the silver screen has an extensive history that shouldn’t be dismissed. If a screen to stage adaptation is done well, it has the potential to connect with audiences, set records, and become a staple in the theater canon.
It was a wonderful opportunity to explore Lillian Hellman’s classic play with such a dream cast as part of this series of online performances. The themes of liberal America and its imperative to combat fascism in all its manifestations feels all too pertinent to the needs of our present times. When Watch On The Rhine premiered in 1941 it served to bring to the theatre-going public a sense of the turmoil that was brewing in mainland Europe and its potential impact on the global stage.
I was first exposed to the epic dimensions of the American drama when I made my professional theatrical debut in a revival of Strange Interlude by Eugene O’Neill. Written in the shadow of the Great War, this Pulitzer Prize winning drama features the theatrical convention of characters speaking their innermost thoughts as asides. In deploying this classical device in a contemporary setting, O’Neil shows that despite the privileges of modern education, human beings still struggle to communicate directly and truthfully with one another. However, my lasting impression of this masterpiece is not as profound as I would wish. I was thirteen years old at the time and my hair had been bleached a platinum blonde to evoke the archetypal Golden Child. The abiding memory I have is of the cast, which included Glenda Jackson and my father Brian Cox, gently but firmly urging me to go easy on the gold hairspray that I had applied to my side parting when the dark roots began to show. Luckily, I don’t think my besmirching of the beautifully tailored 1920’s costumes could be glimpsed past the front row.
Thirty seven years later and one of the benefits of being involved in the remote capture of an online performance of a classic play is that this actor can transform himself without having to make a trip to the hairdresser.
Alan Cox recently played Uncle Vanya at the Hampstead Theatre in London and Claudius in Hamlet for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. He played David Frost in the national tour of Frost/Nixon, for which he received a Helen Hayes Award nomination. He made his Broadway debut in Translations. He made his motion picture debut as Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes. His film work includes Contagion, The Dictator, Mrs. Dalloway, and An Awfully Big Adventure. Alan’s television credits include The Good Wife, John Adams, and The Odyssey. He can be seen in Spotlight on Play’s Watch on the Rhine streaming this Thursday.
In 1981, I was in my last year of high school in the suburbs of Toronto. I’d done a bunch of musicals in theatre class (Godspell, Pippin, Fantasticks) but never worked professionally. I got a job bussing tables at a brand-new dinner theatre uptown, O’Neill’s. The opening show, starring six young actors in their mid-20’s, was a collection of songs (from other musicals) about making it in show biz. It was called, literally, One Big Break. Five nights a week, for months, I’d clear plates and glasses, then sit at the back, by the spotlight, and watch my new, slightly-older friends perform. After one show, I was washing dishes when I overheard the owners, in a kitchen corner, whispering their concerns about Stephen, one of the actors.
“He could barely sing tonight,” said Sandra O’Neill, the theatre’s namesake. “Well, we don’t have understudies, Sandra,” hissed the other owner, “what would you suggest?”
“I can do it,” I blurted.
They looked over at me, in my apron and my mullet. Sandra smiled, like I was an adorable puppy. “Aww,” she cooed, “thanks, hon. It’s Eric, right? We’ll figure it out, sweetheart.”
The next day, in history class, I got called to the front office. This had never happened in my life. The principal’s secretary handed me the phone. Sandra O’Neill was on the other end.
“Were you… serious?” she asked, with hesitation.
“Absolutely,” I replied, with none. The bravado of eighteen.
I met with the musical director at 4:00 and we ran the numbers. Once. When the actors got there, they looked ashen. Sure, I was their favorite busboy, but…this? We reviewed choreography for about half an hour…then we opened the place for dinner.
And I bussed tables.
At 8:00, the waiters (to the surprise of the patrons) suddenly became the performers. One by one they’d put down their trays and start to sing the opening number. I was the last. The first lines out of my mouth, the first words I ever sang in a professional theatre…
“One good break is really all I need to make the world stand up and cheer…”
It was a pretty good night. I played the role for two more months. I will always have a special place in my heart for Sandra.
And for Stephen McMulkin.
Eric McCormack
Best known as Will Truman on TV’s Will & Grace, Eric McCormack made his Broadway debut in The Music Man. He appeared as a mystery guest star in The Play What I Wrote, starred off-Broadway in Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s) and returns to the Main Stem opposite James Earl Jones in the 2012 revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man.
This may come as a surprise to some, not so much to others, but Othello is a complex role to accept for the 21st century black actor. On one hand, he’s an incredibly deep, densely drawn character and one of the few that are built specifically for actors of color in the Elizabethan canon. On the other hand, he’s been reduced to some pretty nasty stereotyping. The character has a well documented history of blackface, and the optics of a white woman being strangled by a black man brings to mind the gut-dropping feeling we got in those last moments of Jordan Peele’s Get Out (Daniel Kaaluya hands wrapped around the neck of his captor/honeypot/devil in a white dress, Allison Williams, when suddenly red and blue lights wash the screen). So in my second year of graduate school, when I was called into my department chairs office to talk about playing Othello in the spring…I wasn’t sure what to do. I mean sure; in the name of the pedagogical experience, in the name of practice (because inevitably it wouldn’t be my last time playing the character) and well, the thing looks good on the resume, so why not? But does taking the part make me a sellout? Or worse…is it a full on soul sell?
Around this time, I was reckoning with myself, my artistry and this liquid prison I was attempting to construct. Growing inside me was this festering shadow of insecurity, imposter syndrome, and the ever present doom of letting everyone down, one I tried to bar up with Whiskey, Tequila and Rum. Little did I know, this shadow loved a drink, and despite my attempts to drown it, grew gills. I’ll spare you the rest of the bloody details but I can tell you with confidence that some people do indeed crack their skulls open on rock bottom. Others, however, bounce off stones of despair (it’s my band name, you cannot have it) and are given a chance to change direction.
I started writing letters to Othello in between classes, outpatient treatment, rehearsal and AA meetings on cold Sunday mornings (so much coffee and the squeaking of grey slush on the bottoms of winter boots). It’s not a ritual I had experienced before, but one of my Sunday Morning Crew was like “I write letters to myself and found xyz”. I thought that was a corny thing for a person to do, so I wrote letters to the characters I was cast as (a practice I still carry with me and yes, it is a far cornier endeavor).
We all “know” the play, and in that “knowledge” Othello is this larger than life character who looms over the canon/performer. If the past were to be prologue, he “should” be this gravitational force, the embodiment of strength and “manly-ness”. He’s jealous and angry or something along those lines. So rather than fall in lockstep with the mythic barnacles of the play, I re-read it with the fresh young eyes of a curious child at Disneyworld for the first time.
The first Act is the portrait of a man in love, a man with purpose, a man who has a grasp on what he wants the world to look like and how he can nudge the paradigm a bit closer to the shores of that promise. In my letters, I asked Othello to teach me what love was; specifically, to teach me what it was to be in love with oneself and one’s purpose (he later taught me that once you do that, falling in love is relatively easy). I asked him to remind me of what it means to see beyond what “is” into the realm of what “can be”. I asked him to demand my radical honesty. For a time it felt as though the letter went unheeded. Instead of waiting, I worked my ass off. I scanned and rescanned text, I battled tooth and nail for text to be re-entered into the cut, I linked arms with my castmates/peers to honor the work put in to tell the story as written. I fought for the story in the hopes that it would fight for me. And then, out of that big, looming shadow shrank there emerged a man. He looked a bit like me; a little stockier, a whole lot wiser and a generous smile. And we walked side by side through the play and he revealed things to me. Little secrets other people overlook.
Jealousy seems to be a trait oft associated with The Moor of Venice. I ask…where though? He’s one of the highest ranking generals in the nation, he’s got the hand of one of the most sought after bachelorettes in the nation, he talks business, pleasure and war with the Duke. Iago mentions jealousy, sure…but when does Othello? On the page, he wants to be the change he wants to see in the world. He chooses to partner with the only other human who sees him as such: who sees the sensitivity and the vulnerability in Othello, rather than upholding the expectations of manhood set upon him. With this realization, I felt a little hydrophobic daemon, resistant to my attempts to drown him, squeal away in a puff of brimstone and smoke. I dug deeper: when it is made known to him the possibility of deceit on the part of Desdemona, there is no time for jealousy when your heart is shattered. When you’ve been duped, hoodwinked, bamboozled, how can you blame anyone else but yourself? You can only perform the confusing task of picking up the shards of your heart and fighting through the wincing pain of putting it back together…even though you know it will not refract light the same way. Huh. That’s not jealousy. That’s good old fashioned world weary heartbreak and disappointment. In understanding a bit about him, I understood a bit more about myself. He wasn’t a monolith looming over me, he was right there, next to me, ensuring I honored every step in his shoes.
It’s a cliché to say that Theatre saved my life…so I won’t (it did though, *insert eyeroll*). I know that the characters aren’t actually leaping off the page to rescue me (I’m fully aware it’s my imagination+therapy+the work doing some heavy lifting). As much as I say that the characters are teaching me things, I know that ultimately it’s me, a room full of people, blood, sweat, tears, imagination, and ink on paper. Nor am I here to suggest that Theatre is a replacement to therapy, psychiatry, and/or AA/NA meetings (it isn’t, shout out to my therapist). But it can be a supplement (like B12). The gift and wisdom of the playwright is their ability to teach us lessons about what it means to be human. Sometimes those lessons are about success. They are often about failure; but always, there are lessons to be excavated, digested and shared. There are empathetic bridges to be built; within ourselves, to each other, and to the world into which we wake. And while that sounds like a gushy Barney sing along, the work is hard. It requires dedication, it requires an open mind and an open heart. Building empathetic bridges to truly see each other can be painful. Much like a journey to sobriety, it can feel pretty ugly (ha, I did one of those Shakespeare things). Much like nudging social norms and our existential paradigm towards a just and verdant society, you take it one day, one hour, one minute at a time.
It’s worth it.
Brandon Burton is a 2020 graduate of The Yale School of Drama Master of Fine Arts program. He can be seen in Spotlight on Play’s reading of The Baltimore Waltz streaming April 29th
When I first came to New York, with all those aspirations, I, through a fluke of a chance conversation between an actor I know and her agent, learned that Jerry Robbins, who was about to direct, off-Broadway, Arthur Kopit’s brilliant play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling so Sad, was having a terrible time casting the part of the young son in the play. I worked hard on the audition and waltzed in and knocked him out with the audition. So he asked me to come to a callback audition a few days later. At which I totally bombed. I’d never heard of a callback. It was a fiasco. Jerry called me the next day and asked me to come see him. He said. “what happened?!” He wasn’t angry, he was just bewildered. I told him that I had no idea, at that second audition, what I was doing. So he kept calling me back and calling me back, looking for the fire to return. Then finally, on, I think, the sixth audition, he had me read opposite the magnificent Barbara Harris. And we soared.
So my career was launched. Jerry was the launcher and Barbara was the rocket.
Luck. Pure, wild luck. This business is beyond capricious.
Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton is an actor and director who made his Broadway debut as the original Motel in Fiddler on the Roof. Other Broadway credits include Hail Scrawdyke!, The Little Foxes, An American Millionaire, Doubles, Grand Hotel, The Diary of Anne Frank and Choir Boy as an actor and Shelter, The Runner Stumbles, John Gabriel Borkman and Spoils of War as a director. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for The Little Foxes and most recently appeared on Broadway as Mr. Oldfield in The Minutes.
The sun is shining, cherry blossoms are blooming, and many world economies are opening up (slowly but surely). It seems like spring 2021 has finally arrived, bringing with it the seasonal sense of joy, promise, and new beginnings that has long been lauded by writers and artists throughout history. While many people may associate springtime with Shakespeare sonnets, Impressionist paintings, or even madrigals, spring has also been the focus of many Broadway composers and lyricists.
The most obvious example of springtime making its way into the Broadway canon is the song “Younger Than Springtime” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Sung right after Lieutenant Cable and Liat first meet (and make love), “Younger Than Springtime” has all the classic markers of a spring love song. Cable compares Liat to spring – favorably – saying she is “younger than springtime,” “gayer than laughter,” “sweeter than music,” and “warmer than the winds of June.” But the song also has a great “turn” – certainly one of the reasons it’s still so well-known today. While Cable begins the song by saying that Liat is like springtime, halfway through, he implies that she is also transformative: “when your youth/and joy invade my arms/and fill my heart as now they do/then younger than springtime/am I.” Through Liat’s love, Cable argues that he becomes someone who is “gayer than laughter,” “softer than starlight,” and “younger than springtime,” too.
Another well-known use of spring in the lyrics, title, and imagery of a Broadway song can be found in “It Might As Well Be Spring” from State Fair, another Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration. The song plays with some of the springtime tropes and patterns used in “Younger Than Springtime.” The singer, Margy, makes clear that she hasn’t seen any of the typical, physical signs of oncoming spring. In fact, it’s decidedly not spring: “I haven’t seen a crocus or a rosebud/or a robin on the wing,” Margy sings, “But…it might as well be spring.” This is a prime example of Oscar Hammerstein’s genius use of conditional thinking. In the same way Hammerstein implies in Carousel that Julie Jordan is madly in love with Billy Bigelow using the conditional “IF I loved you,” and that Laurie and Curly in Oklahoma! are similarly destined to mate with the conditional “people will SAY we’re in love,” Hammerstein is able to write a spring love song that’s not actually sung during springtime.
The song grows even more rich and complex in its associations with the season. While the characteristics of springtime that Cable lists in “Younger Than Springtime” are all positive, for Margy “it might as well be spring” not only because she’s “starry-eyed,” “giddy,” and “gay,” but also because she feels “restless,” “jumpy,” and “vaguely discontented.” In “It Might As Well Be Spring” you get both sides of the coin: the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, perhaps best summed up by the lyric: “But I feel so gay/in a melancholy way/that it might as well be spring.” Here, spring is being used as a metaphor for the “nameless” discontent Margy feels with her life at the moment – a vague restlessness which sets up most of the action of the play: while Margy is dating Harry, who wants to marry her, she “keep[s] wishing [she] were somewhere else,/Walking down a strange new street./Hearing words that [she’s]…never heard/ From a man [she’s] yet to meet.” These lyrics foreshadow her meeting, and falling in love with, Pat at the (titular) state fair. It’s also hard not to read these lyrics without picking up something of a sexual edge. When Margy starts the song, she sings of “want[ing] a lot of…things/[she’s] never had before.” Given the traditional associations of birth, new beginnings, love, and even sexuality, with springtime, “It Might As Well Be Spring” could easily speak to Margy’s desires as a newly minted young woman.
Many Broadway songs focus on this deeper side of spring’s transitions. In Rodgers and Hart’s I Married an Angel, for example, Willy sings “Spring Is Here” when things with his angel-wife (yes, you read that correctly) have gone sour. “Spring is here/why doesn’t my heart go dancing?/spring is here/why isn’t the waltz entrancing?…Maybe it’s because nobody needs me…Maybe it’s because nobody loves me,” he sings. It’s another clever inversion of the springtime myth: spring may be here, with its gentle “breezes,” and “lads and girls…drinking May wine,” but because Willy has fallen out of love, he can no longer enjoy it. It’s a springtime love song that depends on negative space rather than positive space: without “love,” “desire,” or “ambition,” there can be no spring.
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf’s 1955 tune which was then incorporated into the 1959 musical The Nervous Set, similarly focuses on the “have-nots” of spring rather than the “haves.” A send-up of the first lines of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” (“April is the cruelest month…”), “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” implies that spring can actually be the worst time of the year – if you’re single, that is. “Spring this year has got me feeling like a horse that never left the post;/I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling/Spring can really hang you up the most!” the lyrics read. The song reverses traditional springtime psychology and implies that the singer was happy and in love in the winter, and now, during the joyful spring season of rebirth, is experiencing loneliness. “Love seemed sure around the New Year,” she sings, “Now it’s April, love is just a ghost;/ Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear?” It should be noted that this song, as well as “It Might As Well Be Spring,” became jazz standards, covered by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The season’s failure to deliver on its promise is clearly a recurring theme on Broadway and beyond.
But no discussion of spring on Broadway would be complete without “Springtime for Hitler” from Mel Brooks’ The Producers. The major song in the musical’s show-within-a-show, a favorable retelling of WWII from the perspective of a disgruntled Nazi, “Springtime for Hitler” shows Brooks’ thoughtful understanding – and appreciation – of spring’s metaphorical function in Golden Age musicals. As the tap-dancing, sausage-wearing Nazis sing lines like “And now it’s springtime for Hitler and Germany/Deutschland is happy and gay,” Brooks is sending up the positive traits associated with springtime in musicals like South Pacific and State Fair. And to the Nazis represented in the show, “springtime for Hitler” is indeed positive: it encapsulates their military campaign to take over the world. Brooks makes clear, however, that this seasonal rebirth is actually extremely dark. Peppered in with the image of a “happy and gay” Germany are lyrics about “U-boats…sailing once more.” In the song, springtime equals gaiety, but it also happens to equal “bombs falling from the skies again.” Combined with the schmaltzy musical style, movie-musical tap-dancing, over-the-top costumes, and of course the late, great Gary Beach’s acting, springtime in “Springtime for Hitler,” repeated over 20 times in the eight-minute song, becomes an absurd (and incredibly funny) dramatic irony.
Brooks’ hilarious treatment of springtime is similar to the season’s representation in a lesser known E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy song, “Springtime Cometh” from the 1951 flop Flahooley. Like “Springtime for Hitler,” “Springtime Cometh” relies on and leans into the audience’s positive associations with spring and its traditional representation in Golden Age musicals. Sandy/Penny and her genie (truly – don’t ask) sing about “lilacs growing on the clothesline,” “roses growing in the ashcan,” “hummingbird[s],” “merry maidens,” and repeat the word “springtime” six times in the short song. Harburg went one step further and even wrote the lyrics in a sort of faux Olde English: “Springtime cometh,” the characters sing. “Hummingbird hummeth,/little brook rusheth,/merry maiden blusheth…springtime cometh for love of thee.” Harburg pushes this construction even further for comedic effect with “Sugarplum plummeth,/Heart, it humpty-dummeth,/And to summeth up,/The Springtime cometh for the love of thee.” The faux Olde English language reaches its zenith with Harburg’s tongue-and-cheek reference’s to spring’s inherent sexuality: “Lad and lass/In tall green grass/Gaily skippeth,/Nylon rippeth,/Zipper zippeth…which is to say/Spring cometh.” Harburg’s ironic send-up of springtime is sexual, funny, self-aware, and, most importantly, irreverent.
Broadway clearly has a long-time fascination – and infatuation – with all things spring. From the huge number of songs with “spring” in their title (and chorus) – to ones that rely on springtime imagery like the lilac trees in My Fair Lady’s “On the Street Where You Live” – lyricists have used the season to convey and inspire romance, joy, lust, restlessness, loneliness, humor, and personal transformation in equal parts. So in this close-to-post-pandemic moment: crank up the Broadway show tunes, smell the flowers, and look forward to a new (and hopefully, better) day. As they say: “springtime cometh!”
Katie Birenboim is a NYC-based actor, director, and writer. She’s performed and directed at Classic Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Barrington Stage, City Center Encores!, The Davenport Theatre, and Ancram Opera House, to name a few. She is a proud graduate of Princeton University, member of Actors’ Equity, and hosts a weekly interview show on YouTube with theatre’s best and brightest entitled “Call Time with Katie Birenboim.”
In 1997 I did a one man play about a drunken Irish theatre critic at the Bush theater in London. St Nicholas! Written by Conor McPherson, which I subsequently performed the following year at Primary Stages in New York on 45th street, and for which I was honored with ‘The Lucille Lortel Award’!
But the previous year the play was premiered at the Bush Theatre in London. The Bush was a small intimate theatre with the audience on three sides. This particular night was a sellout performance. The audience were packed to the rafters.
Now St Nicholas is an extremely intricate complicated and fantastical text. With a sinewy comic thread! It demands an incredible level of Concentrated attention from the player. That evening started well.
But…About 6 minutes into the evening I noticed that sitting on front row…in…the middle…to my right was my ex girlfriend. Who I had recently broken up with. I was a little thrown by this …and wondered why on earth she had chosen that particular, really, quite prominent, seat.
I recovered from this slight ‘hiccup’ and continued, feeling proud of myself that I was not thrown by this ‘obstacle’. So I proceeded with renewed confidence.
After a few minutes, I’d just gotten back in stride when I turned to address my audience stage left and there sitting…in the middle of the left front row was…my ex ex girlfriend. The girl friend previous…to the girl friend…now sitting stage right. In fact these two young ladies were actually sitting…facing…each other. I didn’t panic… but, my anxiety…was, shall we say…mounting.
What on earth was going on? And of course various scenarios began to play out in my mind!
Had they come together?
And as some bizarre joke decided to sit opposite each other?
Or??….were they there by pure coincidence?
My brain became occupied with, what seemed endless permutations on these shifting scenarios. The text of the play, the main purpose of my attention, was drifting in my consciousness. And..ten minutes into the evening….the inevitable happened. I went up! Dried stone dead.
I struggled like a drowning man seeking a life raft. But after..a beat..which seemed a lifetime. I stopped turned to the audience, and said “Ladies and Gentlemen I’m afraid for reasons I can’t entirely explain, I need to start the evening over again! Apologies!” And so indeed I did…and it was truly scary!
“Will I get over the point where concentration abandoned me.”
And…”Will I indeed get through the entire evening….”
The moment where I had lost my way, was looming like one of those huge fences at the English Grand national horse race. Would I get over the fence? The moment arrived… and I lept the fence.. and..proceeded obsessively to the finish. After it was over, I left the stage exhausted!
I sat in my dressing room. There was a knock on my door. It was my ex-girlfriend. “Brian that was wonderful, what an incredible evening.” I was about to answer when there was another knock at the door. Enter my ex-ex-girlfriend “Brian that was wonderful, what an amaz….Oh hello, blank!
I was about to answer when there was another knock at the door. Enter my ex-ex-girlfriend “Brian that was wonderful, what an amaz….Oh hello, blank! Were you in?”
Ex-girl friend, “Yes, were you, wasn’t it wonderful
Ex-ex-girlfriend “Amazing!”
I sat there in a state of stupefaction! Me “But weren’t you?… didn’t you? ..Um..ah…see..?”
Both, “What?
Me, “Oh…Nothing…”
Ex girlfriend “ I was absolutely caught from the moment you came on!
I was in a sauna with my husband and 3 year old son on the Dingel peninsula when I received a phone call from Joe Papp asking me to start a multicultural Shakespeare company for him to play for the New York City school system.
Why me? He had seen a multicultural-multilingual production of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA that I had directed at the Womens’ Interart Theater on 52nd Street. I put together a company: 5 Blacks, 6 Hispanics, 3 Japanese, 2 Whites and 1 Turk.
We played in the Anspacher theater at 425 Lafayette Street for one year and then moved to the Belasco Theater on West 44th Street as SHAKESPEARE ON BROADWAY. It was Joe Papp’s dream.
We played daytimes during the school week for high school and junior high school students. On Friday and Saturdays they could bring their families from great grandparents to babes-in-arms. It was all free.
I TOOK FIVE MONTHS TO DEVELOP THE COMPANY
First an hour of relaxation and physical work led by a member of the company who was a dancer.
Then an hour of vocal work led by another member of the company. Then, five hours of free form work to find out who these actors were.
The reason for these five months?
Commercial actors of whatever culture or race learned to “act white” back in the 80s. I wanted to know who these people really were, their customs, their talk, their heritage, themselves. That stuff is the bedrock of compelling theater and fine acting.
One day Rene Moreno, an Hispanic, was showing us something of his heritage when Vince Williams, a big black guy from a family of musicians in New Orleans, sitting near me watching in the audience, piped up with “My heritage is some guys standing on a beach waiting to be brought here to be slaves”. Necessary talk this. Five months of it.
What do high school students like? Sports teams, oh, yes!
We put sweats on the actors and we had a sports team. (Ruth Morley of ANNIE HALL fame did the costumes). THE NEW YORK SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL PLAYERS
AFTER 5 MONTHS, HERE’S THE DRILL!
The actors came out to introduce themselves “Hello. I’m . . .”
But-hold it! Is that theater? What is your moniker, what is your “John Hancock”?
What is yourself? Show me your essence!
Not easy. Maybe impossible. Try.
One actor was really good at juggling. One could do backflips. One had been trained at New York City Ballet. Got it? Too big a challenge? Yes. Try!
By now the kids were into it.
Bess Myerson, a former Miss America, now part of the city government saw just this much of the performance and gave us a big donation.
BLACKOUT. LIGHTS UP. AS YOU LIKE IT.
Natsuko was Rosalind. Celia was Regina Taylor—with a live boa constrictor around her neck. 25 pounds. Had his own dressing room.
“I can’t rehearse all day with this thing around my neck.” Of course not—but it had been her idea.
One matinee, lights came up and a big girl in the front row shot to the back of the house – faster than any animal I had ever seen run.
The snake was still on Regina’s shoulders.
We alternated AS YOU LIKE IT and ROMEO AND JULIET.
We played the Anspacher, the Mobile Unit in the parks all summer, and then added the Scottish play when we became SHAKESPEARE ON BROADWAY. Ching Valez played Lady M.
Oh, but she could.
After the students had seen the productions, the actors, as themselves, visited the schools and “played Shakespeare” with them.
At the end of our second season, I went, as a wife, to Gracie Mansion for dinner with the Mayor. My husband worked in the city government.
Bobby Wagner, head of the school board, was there. He told a story.
“I was in a school elevator and asked a teacher how her year had been. She said ‘Estelle Parsons’ Shakespeare program was the only good thing that happened all year.”
Estelle Parsons received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Rachel, Rachel. She is well known for playing Beverly Harris, on the sitcom “Roseanne”, and its spinoff “The Conners”. She has been nominated five times for the Tony Award (four times for Lead Actress of a Play and once for Featured Actress) for her work in The Seven Descents of Myrtle, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Miss Margarida’s Way, Morning’s at Seven, and The Velocity ofAutumn.
Beverly Jenkins is not afraid of a cut show. That’s a performance where there are more actors calling out than there are understudies or swings to replace them, and it requires a last-minute reconfiguration of everything from blocking to costuming to the placement of props.
For many people, this would be terrifying, but for Jenkins, who’s been a Broadway stage manager since the early 90s, it’s an opportunity.
“It’s a challenge I actually enjoy,” she says. “I know it’s a crazy thing to enjoy. It’s not something you wish for, but if you need to make it happen and you have the right people, you can make it happen.”
Case in point: At one performance of Broadway’s A Bronx Tale The Musical, she only had one Black actress available, even though there was a scene that required two. “I had to decide,” she recalls. “‘Do I have one Black female on stage, or do I have a Black female and a Black male in that other track?’ I’d planned for that, because you have to plan for that, even if it never happens. So I made the decision to have a Black male on stage, because otherwise it would have thrown some things off [to just have one person]. I spoke to some people; we made a few changes, and it worked. No problem.”
That solution indicates what a distinct style of stage management Jenkins has developed over her career, which includes landmark productions like Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk; the original Miss Saigon; and her current gig as the production stage manager for Hadestown.
The cast and crew of Hadestown
Crucially, she sees a cut show as a chance to connect. “It’s a community event,” she says. “You check with wardrobe, and they’ll make adjustments. The music department and the dance captains are involved. I always reach out to the director or the AD to make sure my choices are okay. And I take the personal trip to tell people what’s happening. I get a couple of extra steps in on my FitBit, and I’m good. I want to make sure I’m personally letting people know what’s going on before they step on stage.”
Those steps — up and down stairs, into the green room, into the wings — set Jenkins apart “Beverly runs a building, and she doesn’t have to open her computer to do it,” says Michael Rico Cohen, a fellow stage manager who has worked alongside her on A Bronx Tale The Musical, Amazing Grace, and Fully Committed.
“She is the person-to-person contact. She’s the problem solver. She’s the empathy master.”
Or to borrow a phrase Jenkins uses to describe herself, she’s a mom of many. “I’m fine with the tech,” she says. “It’s all good. I’m very calm, and I can call a cue just as well as the next person, but I believe my speciality is about being hands-on with the people. I put a lot of thought and care into everyone — not just the actors, but everyone — coming into that theatre.”
On every show, then, a big part of her job is figuring out exactly what this particular group of people needs. For instance, on Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, the 1996 dance musical that uses tap to trace Black history in the United States, Jenkins worked with performers who were more familiar with the dance world than with Broadway. “Sorry Equity, but I had to bend the rules for this group of young men,” she says. “I had to assess the rules and see what they needed. Like, ‘I know this is half hour, and if you’re not here at half hour, then I need you to call me and tell me how far away you are. And as Iong as I know you’re coming, you get a five-minute grace period.’ And that’s something I still do, the five-minute grace period.”
On Noise/Funk, she also turned her office into an occasional daycare center, so that parents in the company could bring their children with them when there were no other options. She recalls, “I had Barney tapes. I had a playpen. I was like, ‘You’re not going to be forced to miss work because you’re doing the right thing with your child.’ I have to get my show up, no matter what. I have to figure out how to get the best show on stage today. And on that show, watching kids was part of it.”
For Amazing Grace, the 2015 Broadway musical that explores how the British slave trade inspired the titular hymn, Jenkins knew her job required extra compassion. She says, “Amazing Grace was important to me because of what was happening on stage. How hard is it that the first time you see Black people on stage, they are stuffed in a crate, and then they get pulled out, thrown on the ground, and shot in the back? So when the actors come off stage, how can they not carry that off stage? How do we make sure that these people are not carrying the feelings of trauma off stage with them?
“We had company morale-building events. We had t-shirt day. We made sure the dressing rooms were mixed, and that we weren’t keeping the Puritans over here and the Africans over here. It was good to see everyone put thought into how to make this a harmonious backstage area and still tell that particular story.”
It no doubt helped that Jenkins herself was spearheading the backstage culture. “She is wildly good at creating fellowship and community,” says Rachel Chavkin, the director of Hadestown.
“She exudes exuberance, but also doesn’t beat around the bush when she’s got a problem to work through. And she’s not precious, because she’s focused on problem-solving at every turn.”
Jenkins asserts that small touches help a company avoid bigger problems, particularly when they’re together for a lengthy run. That’s one reasons she runs a “turkey hand” contest for Thanksgiving, getting everyone in the building to trace their hand on construction paper and then turn it into a decorated turkey drawing. “And believe me, there are prizes, honey,” she says.
Cohen confirms, “There’s nobody that loves a turkey hand competition more than Beverly Jenkins. But it’s more than just turkey hands or door decorating contests or the Father’s Day barbecue. She’s a master of the casual-but-meaningful interaction. It creates a camaraderie and an immediate trust. It’s these little things that really make the building a happy place over a period of years. All of those things are just as important — and sometimes more — than announcing what we’re doing in understudy rehearsal on Friday.”
Mark Blankenship is the founder and editor of The Flashpaper and the host of The Showtune Countdown on iHeartRadio Broadway.
Shoshana Bean has been a Broadway lovers’ household name for about two decades now. While she’s currently appearing in “Hell’s Kitchen” in a role for which she earned her second Tony nomination, here’s a breakdown of the Broadway roles that got her there:
Hairspray (2002)
Bean made her Broadway debut in the original company of Hairspray as Shelly, one of Corny Collins’ Council Members. Bean also served as the understudy for Tracy Turnblad, Prudy Pingleton, and Velma Von Tussle in this musical based on John Waters’ classic film.
Wicked (2004)
Bean was next on Broadway in Wicked as a replacement standby for Elphaba, taking over the role full time following Idina Menzel’s departure from the production. Due to Bean’s powerhouse vocals and dynamic onstage presence, theatre aficionados often rank Bean as one of the best Elphabas appearing in Wicked throughout its Broadway run.
Waitress (2019)
In 2019, Bean joined the cast of Waitress as Jenna, a woman who finds solace from her abusive marriage in baking. Bean starred opposite Jeremy Jordan as Dr. Pomatter, together performing the music of Sara Bareilles.
Mr. Saturday Night (2022)
Bean next appeared on Broadway in Mr. Saturday Night, a musical that follows an older comedian making a last ditch effort at fame. Playing opposite Billy Crystal and Randy Graff, Bean starred as the comedian’s estranged daughter Susan. For her performance in the role, Bean garnered her first Tony nomination.
Hell’s Kitchen (2024)
Bean is currently on Broadway opposite Maleah Joi Moon and Brandon Victor Dixon in Hell’s Kitchen, an original musical inspired by the life of Alicia Keys. In this coming-of-age musical , Bean plays Jersey, the overprotective mother of a young artist growing up in Hell’s Kitchen in the 90s. For her feisty presence and unforgettable vocals, Bean earned her second Tony nomination.
Throughout the history of Broadway, the school setting has been a very popular background for stories about young people to thrive. Shows with kid characters, such as School of Rock and Matilda, have hit Broadway and been major successes, and others that focus on slightly older students and take place within the chaos of high school are exceedingly popular as well. Catching the attention of many younger viewers, these shows have captured the hearts of many as they reflect universal themes of growing up and finding your way among your peers. Let’s take a look at some of Broadway’s Best Shows that take place in high school.
Joan Marcus
Mean Girls
Mean Girls opened on Broadway in 2017. Written by Tina Fey based on her 2005 movie of the same name, the plot follows a young girl when she moves from Africa, having to navigate American high school and finding herself when she joins the mean girls clique. Originally starring Erika Henningsen as Cady, Taylor Louderman as Regina, and Barrett Wilbert Weed as Janis, the show was nominated for twelve Tonys.In 2024, a movie musical adaptation was made starring Angourie Rice, Renee Rapp and Auli’i Cravalho.
Paul Kolnik
Hairspray
Hairspray opened in 2002, written by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Based on the 1988 John Waters movie, the show follows Tracy Turnblad, a highschooler in Baltimore in the 1960s, as she works to achieve her dream of being on the Corny Collins Show. Starring Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy (who won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical), Laura Bell Bundy as Amber, Kerry Butler as Penny, Harvey Fierstein as Mrs. Turnblad (Best Actor in a Musical winner), Matthew Morrison as Link and Dick Latessa as Mr. Turnblad (Best Featured Actor in a Musical winner). The new musical won eight Tonys in total that year, including Best Musical. A 2007 movie musical starred John Travolta, Nikki Blonsky and Zack Effron. In 2016, NBC broadcasted Hairspray Live, which starred Ariana Grande, Harvey Fierstein, Maddie Baillis, Dove Cameron, Garett Clayton and Kristin Chenoweth. Hairspray is enduring as a modern classic musical over two decades later!
Grease
Grease opened on Broadway in 1972. Written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, the show, taking place in the 1950s, follows Sandy, an Australian exchange student and Danny, as their romance causes issues amongst the high school cliques. Starring Barry Bostwick and Carole Demas, the show had seven Tony nominations. In 1978, the creators made the movie Grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, which is the iconic version known best to audiences around the world. The musical has had two Broadway revivals, the most recent in 2007, starring Max Crumm and Laura Osnes.
Be More Chill
Written by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, Be More Chill premiered off Broadway in 2018 and opened on Broadway in 2019. Based on the 2004 Novel by Ned Vizzini, the show follows a high school outcast, Jeremy Heere as he signs up for the school play in order to be with his crush. Wanting to be cooler to gain her attention, he takes a SQUIP pill. This show starred Will Roland, Stephanie Hsu, Jason Tam, George Salazar and Gerard Canonico, and was a catalyst for welcoming young audiences into the theatre.
Deen van Meer
The Prom
Written by Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin, The Prom premiered on Broadway in 2018. The musical follows four Broadway actors as they make it their mission to help a high school girl in Indiana bring her girlfriend to prom, after same sex coupling at the event is banned. Starring Brooks Ashmanskas, Beth Leavel, Angie Schworer, Caitlin Kinnunen and Christopher Sieber, the show was nominated for six Tony awards and won the Drama Desk award for Outstanding Musical. A starry Netflix film adaptation featuring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Ariana DeBose, and Andrew Rannells was released in 2020 following the show’s Broadway run.
Matthew Murphy
Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen opened on Broadway in 2016. With a book by Steven Levenson and music & lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, the show follows a high school boy, Evan Hansen, as he struggles with what to do when a letter he wrote to himself is found in the hands of a couple who have just lost their son due to him taking his own life. Starring Ben Platt as Evan, who won a Tony Award for the performance, Will Roland, Mike Feist, Laura Dreyfuss and Rachel Bay Jones, who also won a Tony for her role. The show won a total of six Tonys including Best Musical and in 2021 it was made into a movie musical with Ben Platt reprising his role as Evan.
Monique Carboni
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening opened on Broadway in 2006. Written by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik as an adaptation of the original German play, it’s a coming of age rock musical that takes place in 1800s Germany, following a group of students and their journey to find themselves. It starred Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, Skylar Astin, Lilli Cooper, John Gallagher,. The show won eight Tonys including Best Musical. It was revived in 2015 in a new production directed by Michael Arden, which featured both Deaf and hearing actors.
Heathers
Written by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy, Heathers premiered off Broadway in 2014 and has yet to make its Broadway debut. Based on the 1989 cult classic movie by the same name, it follows high school student Veronica when she is invited to join the Heathers, the most popular girls in the school, but with a dark twist. The show starred Barrett Wilbert Weed as Veronica, Ryan McCarten as JD, and Alice Lee, Jessica Keenen Wynn and Elle McLemore as the Heathers. The Original Cast Recording became wildly popular amongst younger viewers, and the musical has been staged several times across the pond in London.
When many people think of Broadway, they think of bold, brash productions where a large ensemble or supporting cast is necessary to create onstage spectacle. In recent years, however, New York theatre has seen an uptick in more intimate shows with smaller casts.
This season, there’s a flurry of one-person plays coming like The Picture of Dorian Grey and Sugar Daddy, two-handers including The Roommate, Job, and N/A, and other fewer-actor shows including Maybe Happy Ending, Left on Tenth, and Oh, Mary! To highlight this growing trend in contemporary theatre, let’s take a look at some notable Broadway two-handers from years past and the one ahead.
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune opened off-Broadway in 1987. A comedy written by Terrence McNally, the play tells the story of two coworkers who after a one-night stand feel their connection may be blossoming into something more. The play has since been revived twice on Broadway, in 2002 and 2019, with the most recent production starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon.
Love Letters
Written by A.R. Gurney, Love Letters premiered on Broadway in 1989. Through a written correspondence of over 50 years, the play follows two childhood friends who maintain a romantic relationship despite being in marriages of their own. Love Letters was revived in 2014 with Brian Dennehy and Mia Farrow in the first cast and Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, and Candice Bergen in following casts.
The Last Five Years
The Last Five Years premiered off-Broadway in 2001. Written by Jason Robert Brown, the musical follows the five year relationship between Jamie, a rising novelist and Cathy, a struggling actress. Unusual as a musical written for just two actors, it is notable for portraying the couple’s perspectives in alternating timelines, with Jamie’s side of the story being told sequentially and Cathy’s in reverse chronological order. The musical, which was also adapted into a 2014 feature film, will come to Broadway for the first time in spring 2025 starring Nick Jonas as Jamie and Adrienne Warren as Cathy.
Topdog/Underdog
Topdog/Underdog opened on Broadway in 2002 starring Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright. Written by Suzan-Lori Parks, the play focuses on Lincoln and Booth, two brothers who live together after Lincoln’s wife kicked him out. Over games of three-card monte, Lincoln and Booth grapple with their shared history of adversity and their current struggles as adults whose parents deserted them when they were teenagers. Twenty years after its Broadway premiere, Topdog/Underdog was revived in 2022, with Corey Hawkins as Lincoln and Yahya Abdul Mateen II as Booth, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play that season.
The Gin Game
Donald L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize winner premiered on Broadway in 1978. Dubbed a tragicomedy, it follows two elderly residents of a nursing home whose games of Gin Rummy mirror their intensifying conversations in a tussle for control and understanding. Jessica Tandy won a Tony Award for her performance in the original Broadway production, and it was most recently on Broadway in 2005 with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson in the two roles. A television production had also premiered in 2003 starring Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.
Red
Written by John Logan, Red opened on Broadway in 2010. The play takes place in New York City in the 1950s and tells the true story of Mark Rothko and his commission to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurants. Red hones in on the relationship between Rothko and his assistant Ken, who questions Rothko’s motivations for embarking on such a commercial project. The original Broadway production starred Alfred Molina as Rothko and Eddie Redmayne, who won a Tony Award for his performance as Ken.
Venus in Fur
Based on the novelby Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Fur premiered on Broadway in 2011. Written by David Ives, the play focuses on Thomas, a writer-director who is trying to cast an actress for his upcoming play, and Vanda, an unlikely actress for the role who convinces Thomas to let her audition. The original Broadway production starred Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Vanda.
The Mountaintop
Written by Katori Hall, The Mountaintop opened on Broadway in 2011. A fictional account of Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s last night alive, the play is set in King’s room at the Lorraine Motel, where he was assassinated in 1968. The Mountaintop’s catalyst is Camae, an angel who reveals to Dr. King that he will be killed the following day. Samuel L. Jackson made his Broadway debut in the original production opposite Angela Bassett as Camae.
Constellations
Written by Nick Payne, Constellations premiered on Broadway in 2015. The play follows the relationship between Marianne and Roland, whose conversations about string theory and multiple universes are mirrored in the structure of the play, where certain scenes are repeated with different outcomes. The original Broadway cast starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Roland and Ruth Wilson as Marianne.
A Life in the Theatre
A Life in the Theatre premiered off Broadway in 1977 and made its Broadway debut in 2010, starring Patrick Stewart as Robert and T.R. Knight as John. Written by David Mamet, the play delves into the relationship between two actors as they work together on multiple projects. Robert, the older and more experienced of the pair takes John under his wing. In 1993, a television film adaptation was produced starring Matthew Broderick and Jack Lemmon.
The Roommate
A dark comedy written by Jen Silverman, The Roommate first premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2015. The play tells the story of Sharon, a recently divorced woman who needs a roommate to share her home. After inviting Robyn into her home, Sharon begins to discover her roommate’s secrets, encouraging her to explore outside of her comfort zone. The play will have its Broadway premiere this summer at the Booth Theatre starring Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow, with performances beginning August 29th.
Job
Written by Max Wolf Friedlich, Job opened off Broadway at Soho Playhouse in 2023. A psychological thriller, the play explores the relationship between Jane, a young woman who has a breakdown at her job, and Loyd, a therapist Jane must see to get approved to return to work. Sydney Lemmon and Peter Friedman, who starred in the off-Broadway production, are set to reprise their roles at the Hayes Theater, with performances beginning July 15th.
This theatrical season, theatre lovers are experiencing a rarity: two musicals adapted from the same novel premiering within months of each other. The first, TheGreat Gatsby: A New Musical, is currently running at the Broadway Theatre, while another adaptation, Gatsby, is having its world premiere run at the ART in Cambridge, MA and aiming for a Broadway run. It makes sense that theater makers are seizing the opportunity to create Broadway magic from The Great Gatsby, as the novel only recently entered the public domain. In light of the dueling Gatsby adaptations, let’s take a look at some noteworthy musicals that were based on works in the public domain.
West Side Story
Based on Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story brings Shakespeare’s tragic romance to life in 1950s New York. Premiering on Broadway in 1957, this beloved musical portrays the animosity between two rival gangs and the love story that blossoms between Tony and Maria, young people with ties to the opposing gangs. With a score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, West SideStory features several Broadway classics, including “Maria” and “I Feel Pretty.” Following a 1961 film adaptation and a series of Broadway revivals (most recently running in early 2020), West Side Story was adapted into a 2021Steven Spielberg film starring Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort.
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964. Based on Sholem Alecheim’s play Tevye and His Daughters, the musical tells the story of Tevye, a milkman who tries to maintain Jewish traditions against outside influences. The musical, which includes favorites such as “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Tradition,” has been revived on Broadway five times, mostly recently starring Danny Burstein as Tevye and Jessica Hecht as Golde.
Chicago
A splashy musical featuring the choreography of Bob Fosse, Chicago premiered on Broadway in 1975. Based on the play of the same name by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Chicago explores the relationship between criminal behavior and celebrity through Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, two murderers vying for the spotlight. The 1975 Broadway cast featured theater legends such as Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera, who originated the roles of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, respectively. Revived in 1996, Chicago holds the record for longest-running musical revival in Broadway history as its historic run continues at the Ambassador Theatre.
Big River
Big River opened on Broadway in 1985. Based on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the musical features country and bluegrass to recreate the environment of Mark Twain’s classic. The original Broadway cast featured Daniel Jenkins and Ron Richardson, who won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Jim. The 2003 revival, co-produced by Deaf West and Roundabout Theatre Company, is notable for including both deaf and hearing actors.
Les Misérables
Based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name, Les Misérables opened on Broadway in 1987. Set in 19th-century France, this epic musical focuses on a group of characters as they struggle with personal hardships amid the mounting tide of the French Revolution. The original Broadway production starred Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean and Terrence Mann as Javert. Les Misérables has since been revived twice, mostly recently in 2014 starring Ramin Karimloo and Will Swenson.
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway in 1988. Adapted from Gaston Leroux’s novel, this dark musical explores the relationship between soprano Christine Daaé and The Phantom, a masked figure who lives below the Paris Opéra House. The original Broadway production starred Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford, who won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of The Phantom. The musical holds the record for longest-running Broadway musical, having closed in 2023 after a more than 35-year-long run.
Rent
Rent, which is based on Puccini’s La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, opened on Broadway in 1996. Bringing Puccini’s opera from 1830s Paris to New York City during the AIDS crisis, the musical focuses on a group of young artists trying to get by and make lives for themselves in the East Village. The original Broadway production featured Daphne Rubin Vega, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, and Anthony Rapp, many of whom also starred in the 2005 film adaptation.
Following his stint in the 2022 revival of American Buffalo, Darren Criss is returning to Broadway in the new musical Maybe Happy Ending, coming to the Belasco Theatre in September. Written by Will Aronson and Hue Park, this one-act original musical tells the story of Oliver, an obsolete life-like robot living out the rest of his days in the suburbs of Seoul. A romantic comedy, the musical follows Oliver’s unexpected relationship with robot neighbor Claire as it blossoms from a friendship into something more.
Maybe Happy Ending originally premiered in South Korea in 2016 at the Daemyung Cultural Factory in its original Korean-language form. It has since been revived in Seoul four times, receiving six Korean Musical Awards including Musical of the Year and Best Composer. Maybe Happy Ending made its English-language premiere in 2020 at Atlanta’s Alliance Theater, where it was directed by Michael Arden, who is set to direct the upcoming Broadway production. New York Times theater critic Jesse Green praised the production, calling Maybe Happy Ending “a charming, Broadway-ready new musical about robots in love.”
Helen J. Shen, most recently seen on the New York stage in MCC’s The Lonely Few, will be making her Broadway debut as Claire alongside Criss. Dez Duron will be reprising the role of Gil, which he played in the Atlanta production.
Ahead of Maybe Happy Ending’s Broadway beginning, Criss has provided sneak peeks from the production on social media, including a cover of the title song ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ and a music video with Shen of the number ‘When You’re in Love.’
On Sunday June 16th, The Outsiders was announced Best Musical at the 77th Tony Awards. To celebrate this win, let’s take a look at the current Broadway productions that have won this coveted award in the past.
Cabaret (1967)
Fred and Kander’s beloved musical Cabaret originally opened on Broadway in 1967. Based on the novel Goodbye Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, the musical tells the story of Sally Bowles, a cabaret performer living in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, and follows her relationship with writer Clifford Bradhaw. Cabaret’s Tony-winning score by John Kander and Fred Ebb includes Broadway classic hits such as “Maybe This Time” and “Cabaret.” The musical was revived in 1998 and then again in 2014 with Alan Cumming in a Tony-winning turn as the Emcee. The current revival, Cabaret at the Kit Cat Club, stars Eddie Redmayne as The Emcee and Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles, and is playing at the August Wilson Theatre, refurbished to resemble a Berlin nightclub.
The Wiz (1975)
Bringing 70s flair to The Yellow Brick Road, The Wiz opened on Broadway in 1975. A contemporary retelling of The Wizard of Oz in the context of Black culture, the musical features classics such as “A Brand New Day” and “Home,” made famous by Stephanie Mills, who originated the role of Dorothy in the adaptation. The original production went on to win seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score for composer Charlie Ross. Now running at the Marquis Theatre, the musical’s 2024 revival stars Broadway newcomer Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy and Wayne Brady as The Wizard.
The Lion King (1997)
Based on the 1994 film of the same name, The Lion King premiered on Broadway in 1997. With a score by Elton John and Tim Rice, The Lion King features Broadway favorites such as “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” The production went on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Julie Taymor, who became the first woman to win the award. Still on Broadway after almost 27 years, The Lion King continues to attract Disney and theatre lovers from around the world.
The Book of Mormon (2011)
The Book of Mormon opened on Broadway in 2011. A musical comedy written by the creators of South Park, the musical tells the story of two LDS missionaries as they preach Mormonism to people living in a village in Uganda. The original production, which starred Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Featured Actress in A Musical for Nikki M. James.
Hamilton (2015)
When Hamilton premiered on Broadway in 2015, it transformed the story of a Founding Father into a cultural phenomenon. Inspired by the 2004 biography by Ron Chernow, the musical follows the life of Alexander Hamilton and his participation in the American Revolution. In addition to creating the musical, Lin Manuel Miranda starred in the title role alongside Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr and Philipa Soo as Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. Hamilton went on to win 11 Tony Awards in 2016, including Best Musical and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Odom Jr. It is one of only ten musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Hadestown (2019)
Inspired by Anaïs Mitchell’s concept album of the same name, Hadestown opened on Broadway in 2019. A contemporary re-telling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the original production of this steampunk musical starred Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, and André DeShields. At the 2019 Tonys, Hadestown took home eight awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score for Anaïs Mitchell and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for André DeShields.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical (2019)
Based on the 2001 movie by Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge! The Musical opened on Broadway in 2019. Set in Belle Èpoque Paris, the show tells the story of a poet who falls in love with cabaret performer Satine. A jukebox musical, Moulin Rouge! features both original songs as well as popular music such as “Your Song” by Elton John and “Chandelier” by Sia. The original production won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Aaron Tveit, and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for Danny Burstein.
The Outsiders (2024)
The Outsiders premiered on Broadway in 2024. Based on the beloved 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton, the musical follows the rivalry between two gangs in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960s and features a score by Jonathan Clay and Zachary Chance, members of the folk-rock band Jamestown Revival, and a book by Adam Rapp. The Outsiders won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Danya Taymor.
On June 16, 2024, the 77th Annual Tony Awards will be held at the David H. Koch Theater, celebrating the best and brightest of this year’s Broadway season! The nominees include those onstage and off, mainstays and newcomers alike. In celebration, Broadway’s Best Shows is highlighting some of the Broadway perennials recognized with Tony nods in this incredibly fruitful year.
This season, Kara Young is nominated for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for her performance in “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch.” Here’s a breakdown of the Broadway roles that got her there:
Clyde’s (2022)
Young’s Broadway career began with her breakout performance as Letitia in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s. This performance earned her a Tony Award and Drama Desk nomination, as well as a Theatre World Award.
Cost of Living (2023)
The following season, Young went on to portray the role of Jess in Cost of Living, earning her a second Tony Award and Drama Desk nomination. Young’s journey epitomizes the essence of a rising star. Critics lauded her ability to seamlessly transition between comedic and dramatic roles, captivating audiences with her authenticity and depth.
Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch (2023)
For a third season in a row, she graced Broadway by portraying the role of Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins in the acclaimed revival of Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through The Cotton Patch. This role earned her her third Tony Award nomination, as well as Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations. She has already won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Play for Purlie Victorious. Young has made history for being the first Black performer nominated in three consecutive seasons in the same category, Best Featured Actress in a Play, at the Tony Awards. With each performance, she deftly navigates complex characters, leaving an indelible mark on the theater landscape. Young’s Broadway career serves as a testament to her passion for storytelling and her unwavering dedication to her craft, ensuring her place among the brightest talents of her generation.
On June 16, 2024, the 77th Annual Tony Awards will be held at the David H. Koch Theater, celebrating the best and brightest of this year’s Broadway season! The nominees include those onstage and off, mainstays and newcomers alike. In celebration, Broadway’s Best Shows is highlighting some of the Broadway perennials recognized with Tony nods in this incredibly fruitful year.
This season, Amy Herzog is nominated for Best Play for her poignant work in “Mary Jane” and Best Revival of a Play for her adaptation of “An Enemy of the People.” Here’s a breakdown of the Broadway productions that got her there:
A Doll’s House (2023)
In this revival of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, Herzog’s adaptation breathed new life into the story of Nora Helmer, a woman struggling to break free from the confines of a suffocating marriage starring Jessica Chastain. The production, helmed by Jamie Lloyd, was critically acclaimed and earned Herzog a Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Play.
Mary Jane (2023)
Herzog’s poignant play, “Mary Jane,” centers on a single mother, played by Rachel McAdams, navigating the challenges of caring for a chronically ill child. The play is a testament to Herzog’s ability to craft deeply human and relatable stories, earning her a Tony nomination for Best Play.
An Enemy of the People (2024)
Herzog’s latest work, an adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” tackles themes of political corruption and environmental crisis. This timely and powerful play has garnered Herzog another Tony nomination for Best Play this season.
On June 16, 2024, the 77th Annual Tony Awards will be held at the David H. Koch Theater, celebrating the best and brightest of this year’s Broadway season! The nominees include those onstage and off, mainstays and newcomers alike. In celebration, Broadway’s Best Shows is highlighting some of the Broadway perennials recognized with Tony nods in this incredibly fruitful year.
This season, five-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif achieved the rare feat of directing three Broadway productions in a single season: “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Notebook” (co-directed with Schele Williams), and “Hell’s Kitchen.” Greif is nominated for Best Direction of a Musical for his work on “Hell’s Kitchen.” Here’s a breakdown of the Broadway productions that got him here!
Rent (1996)
Greif’s breakout moment came with Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent, a modern adaptation of Puccini’s “La Bohème” set in New York City’s East Village. This production, with its raw portrayal of artists struggling with love, life, and AIDS, won the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Greif’s direction was pivotal in capturing the spirit of the era, blending gritty realism with hopeful idealism, and introducing a new, diverse audience to Broadway.
Never Gonna Dance (2003)
The musical, featuring the music of Jerome Kern, marked the return of Greif to Broadway after the success of Rent. Based on the 1936 film Swing Time, the musical had a short run at the Broadhurst theater and featured choreography by Broadway legend Jerry Mitchell.
Grey Gardens (2006)
Greif received his second Tony Award nomination for his Direction of this musical adaptation of the 1975 documentary. With book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, Grey Gardens starred Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, and earned critical acclaim for its intimate portrayal of eccentricity and decline. Greif’s sensitive direction highlighted the nuanced performances, helping Ebersole and Wilson win Tony Awards for their roles.
Next to Normal (2009)
A staple in the musical theater canon, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next to Normal was Greif’s third Tony Award nomination for Best Direction. The rock musical which explores mental illness and its impact on a suburban family. Greif’s ability to navigate the show’s emotional intensity and complex subject matter resulted in a powerful, empathetic production that resonated deeply with audiences and critics alike.
If/Then (2014)
The 2014 musical marked Greif’s second Broadway production with writing team Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Starring Idina Menzel, If/Then played a total of 401 performances and 19 previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, closing on March 22, 2015. The musical also features Broadway regulars LaChanze, Anthony Rapp, and Jen Colella.
Dear Evan Hansen (2016)
Greif earned his fourth Tony Award nomination for his work on Dear Evan Hansen. The musical, with book by Steven Levenson, music by Justin Paul, and lyrics by Benj Pasek, follows the life of a socially anxious teenager caught in a web of lies, struck a chord with its contemporary themes of social media and mental health. Under Greif’s direction, the production received six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. His sensitive handling of the material and the compelling performances he drew from the cast, particularly Ben Platt, played a significant role in the show’s success.
War Paint (2017)
Starring Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, War Paint told the story of two pioneering women in the beauty industry: Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. The musical explored themes of rivalry, ambition, and empowerment. Greif’s direction brought out the competitive spirit and underlying respect between the two characters. War Paint concluded its Broadway run on November 5th, 2017, after 269 performances.
Days of Wine and Roses (2024)
Greif’s first musical of the 2023-2024 Broadway season was the Broadway transfer of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’ Days of Wine and Roses. Starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, the musical adaptation of the 1962 film following a young couple and their decent into alcoholism. The musical earned critical acclaim for its score and handle of the intense subject matter, and the production ended its Broadway engagement at Studio 54 on March 31st.
The Notebook (2024)
The Ingrid Michaelson and Bekah Brunstetter adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel marks Greifs second production of the 2023-2024 Broadway season. Co-directed by Greif and Schele Williams, the musical follows the harrowing love story of a young couple at three stages of their life and opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in March following its world premiere in Chicago.
Hell’s Kitchen (2024)
Hell’s Kitchen is Greif’s third production of the 2023-2024 Broadway season and his fifth Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical. Currently playing at the Shubert Theatre, Hell’s Kitchen features the music of Alicia Keys and is a semi-autobiographical story of her childhood in central Manhattan. The show has earned 13 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.
On June 16, 2024, the 77th Annual Tony Awards will be held at the David H. Koch Theater, celebrating the best and brightest of this year’s Broadway season! The nominees include those onstage and off, mainstays and newcomers alike. In celebration, Broadway’s Best Shows is highlighting some of the Broadway perennials recognized with Tony nods in this incredibly fruitful year.
This season, Leslie Odom Jr. is nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his performance in “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch.” Here’s a breakdown of the Broadway roles that got him there:
Rent (1998)
Odom Jr. made his Broadway debut in Rent at the age of 17. As Paul, the leader of a support group, Odom Jr. was part of the group number “Life Support,” a song where characters affected by HIV/AIDS express their fears about living with the condition.
Leap of Faith (2012)
In 2012, Odom Jr. returned to Broadway in Leap of Faith, a musical about a con artist who poses as a reverend and a healer. Odom Jr. played bible college student Isaiah Sturdevant opposite Raúl Esparza and Jessica Phillips, together singing the music of Alan Menken and Glenn Slater.
Hamilton (2015)
Odom Jr. made his big break in Hamilton opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo. Odom Jr. starred as Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s political rival who ultimately kills him in a duel. For his villainous portrayal of the Founding Father, Odom Jr. won his first Tony Award, gaining widespread recognition for his role in this musical juggernaut.
Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch (2023)
Odom Jr. most recently appeared in the Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious as Reverend Purlie Victorious Judson, a traveling preacher who comes back to his hometown in Georgia to save his church. In the production, Odom Jr. once again showcased his abilities as a leading man, embodying the titular role with charisma and intensity. For his inspired performance, Odom Jr. earned his second Tony nomination.
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