Author: Jim Glaub

By Patrick Jones

Although it is no longer President’s Day, there are so many shows with Presidents that we had to keep the celebration going. Here are 7 more plays and musicals that feature POTUS.  

In 2010, composer Michael Friedman and librettist-director Alex Timbers headbanged their way to Broadway with the hard rocker of a musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a satirical examination of the seventh President. Imagining Jackson as the rock star of his day, the musical follows his life and career, both in and out of the Oval Office. Highlighted throughout are the rise of populism, his relationship with his wife, and the signing of the Indian Removal Act, just to name a few. There are also some other U.S. Presidents who pop up throughout the show, including George Washington, Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, and James Monroe. 

A one-man show proved to be an effective vehicle for James Whitmore, who played President Harry S. Truman in the biographical play Give ‘em Hell, Harry! The title comes from a remark one of Truman’s supporters made while he was giving a speech as part of his victorious 1948 Presidential campaign. Written by Samuel Gallu, Give ‘em Hell, Harry! premiered at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. in 1975. 

Stephen Sondheim got in on the Presidential act with 1990’s Assassins. Utilizing the framing device of a sinister carnival game, the tuner looks at a group of deranged individuals who attempted — successful or not — to kill various U.S. Presidents, a list that includes John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Though very few Presidents are actual characters in Assassins, the musical tells audiences a lot about them, and how they became the target of the various assassins singing and being sung about. It took 14 years for Assassins to finally reach Broadway, opening in a stacked 2003-04 season yet winning five Tonys, including best musical revival. More recently, John Doyle directed an acclaimed Off-Broadway production at Classic Stage Company, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 shutdown and finally ran towards the end of 2021. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s long battle with polio was dramatized in the 1958 Dore Schary play Sunrise at Campobello, named after the island that served as FDR’s summer home in New Brunswick, Canada. When it opened on Broadway, Ralph Bellamy played the disease-stricken President, and Broadway newcomer James Earl Jones was featured as Edward, the butler. The winner of four 1958 Tonys, including best play, Sunrise at Campobello was also turned into a successful film adaptation in 1960, also starring Bellamy.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue served as Leonard Bernstein’s last original Broadway score. The 1976 tuner — written for America’s bicentennial — parades through the early history of the White House and its inhabitants from 1800 to 1900. It also looks at the influence of several First Ladies and includes additional commentary from White House servants. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ran a grand total of seven performances, but it gave Bernstein one more well-regarded collection of music. 

While set in a period before the executive office existed, the Sherman Edwards-Peter Stone musical 1776 focuses on future Presidents John Adams and Jefferson, taking audiences inside the making of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 1776 shows Adams as the leading champion of said independence, as he persuades his colleagues to sign the document that he has coaxed Jefferson to draft. 1776 premiered on Broadway in 1969 and won three Tonys, including best musical; it was revived in 1997, before a 2022 production at Roundabout Theatre Company broke new ground for the title by highlighting an all-female, non-binary, and transgender cast. That production is currently on a national tour following its recent January 8 Broadway closing. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2015 hip-hop, non-stop juggernaut of a magnum opus Hamilton (still running at the Richard Rodgers Theatre) chronicled the life of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and the birth — and “afterbirth” — of our nation. Hamilton served alongside then-General George Washington as his “Right Hand Man” during the Revolutionary War, before Washington appointed him to his Cabinet after becoming the first President. Soon after, Thomas Jefferson arrives overseas after serving as France’s ambassador (“What’d I Miss”), and Hamilton gains two more political enemies in both Jefferson and James Madison, who are ideologically alike. In addition to Hamilton’s Broadway production, various national tours, and countless international mountings, a proshot featuring the original Broadway cast can now be streamed on Disney+ (featuring Tony winner Leslie Odom, Jr., soon to be seen on Broadway in a revival of Purlie Victorious).

By Jordan Levinson

Today is Presidents’ Day, one of eleven permanent federal holidays in the United States. The executive office is no stranger to the Broadway stage. In fact, several are prominent characters in both plays and musicals alike. This article — presented in two parts — will salute just a few of them:

Robert Sherwood had one of the earliest works of Broadway theatre to feature a Presidential character, as his three-act bioplay Abe Lincoln in Illinois opened at the Plymouth Theatre (now the Gerald Schoenfeld) in 1938 and ran for over a year. The work chronicles Honest Abe’s personal life and career, from humbling Illinois businessman to 16^th President of the United States.  

Also in the late 1930s, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s I’d Rather Be Right was a Great Depression-era political satire set in New York City. Since this was about the Depression, there was a high chance Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be a part of the show — and indeed he was, lively played by the entertainer George M. Cohan, who sang such songs as “We’re Going to Balance the Budget” and “Off the Record” while solving a couple’s marriage dilemma. I’d Rather Be Right played nearly 300 performances on Broadway. 

The 1987 musical Teddy & Alice played the Minskoff Theatre and featured music adapted from John Philip Sousa’s catalogue, with other new songs by Richard Kapp and lyrics by Hal Hackady. The show is a fictionalized account of the relationship between Teddy Roosevelt and his daughter during his tenure in the White House. Though Teddy is the lead here, his Presidential successor, William Howard Taft, also makes an appearance in the musical. The cast featured several Tony winners and nominees, including Len Cariou, Karen Ziemba, Beth Fowler, Ron Raines, and Nancy Opel. 

Gore Vidal’s 1960 play The Best Man is also fictional, as it follows two candidates — Senator Joe Cantwell and Secretary of State William Russell — with opposing values who compete for the Presidency and vie for the support of the soon-to-be-former President Arthur Hockstader. The Best Man was nominated for six Tony Awards, including best play, and Vidal adapted his play into a 1964 film. The original production starred Melvyn Douglas who had previously starred in The Gangs All Here, a play loosely based on the presidency of Warren G. Harding. The Best Man has also received two Broadway remounts as of this writing (2001 and 2012). The 2012 production starred James Earl Jones as Hockstader, as well as John Larroquette, Eric McCormack, Jefferson Mays, and Angela Lansbury.  

On the more recent front, David Mamet’s November premiered in 2008 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. A comedy about the lengths people go to win, it focuses on a fictional President’s day in the life, beleaguered just days before his second election. Low on money, threatened by imminent nuclear war, and facing atrocious approval ratings, the President decides to pardon some turkeys before they get slaughtered for Thanksgiving dinners, hoping he can win back the public’s affection. The original five-person cast of November was led by Nathan Lane, Dylan Baker, and Laurie Metcalf. You can catch Nathan Lane this season in the new play Pictures From Home, playing at Studio 54. 

Winner of the 2014 Tony for best play, Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way takes audiences from November 1963 to November 1964 — after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States, determined to end American racial injustice by passing a landmark civil rights bill. The play follows Johnson’s journey to a successful reelection campaign, and its title comes from his 1964 campaign slogan: “All the Way with LBJ.” “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston played Johnson, winning a Tony for his performance. All the Way became a TV film in 2016 starring Cranston, and it even spawned a stage sequel, The Great Society, which continues Johnson’s story into his second term of office as the Vietnam War begins to spiral out of control. In its 2019 Broadway run at Lincoln Center Theatre, Brian Cox led the company as Johnson.

Many presidents also receive a passing reference in the groundbreaking peace-love-and-rock-and-roll musical Hair, living proof of the hippie subculture and sexual revolution of the 1960s. The song “Initials” links LBJ with several acronyms, including the IRT, the FBI, the CIA, and LSD. Lincoln, Washington, Calvin Coolidge, and Ulysses S. Grant also make appearances during a wild extended second-act acid trip sequence, in which one of the hippies has a vision that he has skydived from a plane into wartime Vietnam.

By Patrick Jones

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters follows two childhood sweethearts whose correspondence begins with notes and postcards to each other. A performance favorite for big-name actors and actresses, Love Letters is unique in that it requires little to no preparation, and the lines do not have to be memorized. The couple’s notes, letters, and cards make up the entire script, and the actors often sit side by side at tables, reading the letters out loud. The play has seen various rotating casts both in its 1989 Broadway premiere and a 2014 revival; notable performers have included Stockard Channing, Swoosie Kurtz, Elizabeth McGovern, Lynn Redgrave, Elaine Stritch, John Rubinstein, Richard Thomas, Mia Farrow, Alan Alda, and Carol Burnett.  

Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick caught the love bug when they wrote the score for 1963’s She Loves Me. Based on a Hungarian play from the 1930s, the tuner is set in a European perfumery, where two feuding shop clerks have no idea they are in love. They exchange love letters after they both respond to a lonely-hearts ad in the newspaper, unaware that they are each other’s pen pal. The original production — starring Barbara Cook and directed by an on-the-rise Hal Prince — played 301 performances. The star-studded 2016 remount, which starred Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi, Jane Krakowski, and Gavin Creel, became the first-ever Broadway production to be livestreamed; it was broadcast on the BroadwayHD service in late June that year and has since aired several times on PBS’s “Great Performances.” This was partially because the story was modernized in the beloved 1998 rom com “You’ve Got Mail”, fronted by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Bock and Harnick’s lovely score includes such standouts as “She Loves Me”,“Tonight at Eight”, “Will He Like Me?”, and “Vanilla Ice Cream.”

Before Levi starred in She Loves Me, he ordered love in the 2013 musical First Date, his Broadway debut. With a score by newbies Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner and direction by Bill Berry, First Date follows Levi’s character on a blind date at a New York City restaurant, where a pleasant dinner with his partner (played by “Smash” alum Krysta Rodriguez) turns into a high-stakes evening. As the date unfolds —leading to musical numbers like “The Awkward Pause”, the three “Bailout” songs, and “The Check!” — the other patrons at the restaurant serve as the voices in both of their heads, playing disapproving parents, exes, supportive best friends, and much more. Though the show received mixed reviews, Levi received the bulk of its praise, and his sick burn of an 11 o’clock number, “In Love with You”, brought down the house nightly. 

In the 1960s, Neil Simon dramatized the relatability of the life of newlyweds learning to cope with each other in his romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park. Set over a four-day period, the play follows an optimistic Corie Bratter and her anxious husband Paul; Corie wants Paul to be more easygoing — and perform actions like running barefoot in the park — as they navigate life’s ups and downs. The original Broadway production ran for nearly four years and won a Tony for Mike Nichols’s direction. 

In late 2010, Roundabout Theatre Company presented Brief Encounter, a new melodrama that was a breakout hit in London two years before. This 90-minute play with music combines elements of the 1936 Noël Coward play Still Life, as well as Coward’s screenplay for the 1945 film “Brief Encounter” (which was adapted from Still Life). It adds up to a play about a suburban wife and a married doctor who have a chance encounter in late 1930s England and end up falling passionately in love, but they are never able to find fulfillment. The Broadway cast featured an onstage cast of nine, including future Tony winner Gabriel Ebert (Matilda) and future Tony nominee Damon Daunno (Oklahoma!), while a return engagement in London played a six-month run in 2018. 

Hadestown, resident of the Walter Kerr Theatre since spring 2019, is a jazz and folk-inflected Greek mythology modernization and the winner of eight Tony Awards, including best musical. Taking audiences on a journey down the road to hell, Hadestown intertwines the love stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone. Singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell composed Hadestown’s score, based off her concept album of the same name; highlights include “Way Down Hadestown”, “Wait for Me”, “Livin’ It Up on Top”, and “Our Lady of the Underground.”

Beyond Hadestown, there are ample opportunities to see love on Broadway this Valentine’s Day. Currently playing the Al Hirschfeld Theatre is the Tony Award winning jukebox musical, Moulin Rouge!, which tells the fictional story of a lovesick writer and a dazzling performer in Paris. & Juliet, playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, is a modern flip of the Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet featuring hits from pop songwriter Max Martin. Coming soon to Broadway are two reinvented retellings of classic fairy tale romances this year; Andrew Lowd Webber’s Bad Cinderalla, which opens at the Imperial Theatre in March, and Once Upon a One More Time, featuring the music of Britney Spears and begins performances in May. One of the world’s most famous love triangles will take the Vivian Beaumont stage in Lincoln Center Theater’s upcoming reimagined revival of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot, which opens in April of this year under the direction of musical theater maestro, Bartlett Sher (The King and I, South Pacific, and currently running at Studio 54, the wonderful Pictures From Home). 

By Gianfranco Lentini

Pictures From Home—a new American play based on the late Larry Sultan’s photo memoir of the same name—celebrates both its Broadway bow and world premiere on Thursday, February 9th. Now playing at the landmark Studio 54, Pictures From Home vividly brings to life a heartfelt, tragicomic portrait of a family, all captured through the lens of a son’s camera. 

As the play dares to ask, “How do you capture a lifetime?” Well, we know you don’t have all day, so here is just a snapshot of the incredible and inventive work of the stars of Pictures From Home. 

Nathan Lane 

With a heavily-lauded career that has spanned stage, television, and film, Nathan Lane has become a household name. Currently playing Irving in Pictures From Home, Lane was last seen on Broadway in 2019 playing the titular character in Gary: A Sequel to Titus Adronicus. And prior to that, Lane deftly portrayed Roy M. Cohn in the Royal National Theatre’s Broadway transfer of Angels in America, which earned him his third Tony Award (the other two being for 2001’s The Producers and 1996’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). But on a night indoors, turn on the TV and catch Lane as the indomitable Ward McAllister in HBO’s The Gilded Age (Season 2 coming soon) or as Ted Dimas in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building (for which he won the 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series). 

Danny Burstein 

There’s zero argument about it: Danny Burstein is SPECTACULAR. Before assuming the role of Larry in Pictures From Home, Burstein dazzled as the boisterous Harold Zidler in the long-running Moulin Rouge! The Musical, assuring audiences that they, too, could “Can Can Can”! And that’s just what Burstein Did Did Did eight times a week, earning himself the IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and, last but not least, a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. 

Zoë Wanamaker 

After 17 years, Zoë Wanamaker makes her long-awaited return to the Broadway stage as Jean in Pictures From Home. But since her Tony-nominated performance as Bessie Berger in the 2006 Broadway production of Awake and Sing!, Wanamaker has been no stranger to the UK theater scene. Having taken the stage with many of London’s most premier and acclaimed theater companies—including The Young Vic, Bridge Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Royal

National Theatre, and Royal Shakespeare Theatre—Wanamaker has earned an impressive nine Olivier Award nominations, with two wins for 1998’s Electra and 1979’s Once in a Lifetime. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention Wanamaker’s unforgettable work across pop culture fandoms, including her portrayals of Madam Hooch in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the evil villain Lady Cassandra in 2005’s Doctor Who, and Baghra in 2021’s Netflix adaptation of Shadow and Bone. 

Sharr White 

Pictures From Home marks the third Broadway play for playwright Sharr White in only a decade. His two other plays—The Other Place (starring Laurie Metcalf) and The Snow Geese (starring Mary-Louise Parker and Danny Burstein)—both took their bow at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in 2013. But White knows his way around Off-Broadway just as well. In 2014, his two-hander Annapurna premiered at The New Group, starring everyone’s favorite real-life couple, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. And after that, The True, another play premiered with The New Group in 2018, starred Edie Falco and Michael McKean. And as if that hasn’t kept White busy enough, his television career boasts a number of notable credits, including writing for Showtime’s The Affair, creating Netflix’s Halston, co-showrunning HBO Max’s Generation, and writing/executive producing Apple TV’s upcoming Mrs. American Pie. 

Bartlett Sher 

If you’ve ever been within shouting distance of Lincoln Center, you’ve heard his name. Bartlett Sher captains the dynamic, powerhouse team of Pictures From Home as their director at helm. With a Broadway career that has spanned nearly two decades, Sher’s direction has become as 

iconic as many of the theatrical titles he’s worked on. This includes, but certainly is not limited to, 2005’s The Light in the Piazza, 2008’s South Pacific, 2015’s The King and I, and 2018’s My Fair Lady and To Kill a Mockingbird. The 9 Tony Award nominations behind his name (including a win for Best Direction of a Musical for South Pacific) agree: there’s no such thing as too much Sher. And good news, there’s more! Sher’s revival of Camelot will open at Lincoln Center Theater in April 2023, AND, recently announced, Sher is set to direct the Broadway adaptation of the six-time Oscar-winning movie La La Land, with a premiere date yet to be revealed.

By Jordan Levinson

Is it a squirrel? Is it a beaver? (Kinda both, but not quite either!)

That’s right, woodchuck-chuckers, Thursday, February 2 is Groundhog Day! Though it is not considered a federal holiday, many Americans turn their attention to the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where its famed groundhog, Phil, will either see his shadow or not at sunrise. If so, that means six more weeks of winter, and if not, spring may just be around the corner. 

Punxsutawney gained immense popularity when the town’s annual Groundhog Day celebrations were captured in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. The story of an arrogant TV weatherman (also named Phil) forced to relive the same day over and over until he learns to better himself, it has become one of the most successful comedy films ever, with several quotes now entrenched in the American pop culture lexicon. 

As early as 2003, there were initial talks of potentially adapting Groundhog Day for the stage — Stephen Sondheim was interested at first but ultimately decided to back out, stating that “it could not be improved.” The year 2014 linked a new trio to a potential musical version: composer-lyricist Tim Minchin, librettist Danny Rubin (who also wrote the film’s screenplay, and had been working on a musical version for years at that point), and director Matthew Warchus. Minchin and Warchus were reunited after their Matilda became a smash hit in London and New York.

Groundhog Day, The Musical was officially confirmed in 2015. It was announced it would play London’s Old Vic Theatre in the summer of 2016, during Warchus’s debut season as their artistic director. Andy Karl led the company as Phil. Opening night was on August 16, 2016; reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The musical received two 2017 Olivier Awards, including best new musical.

It was announced in September 2016 that Groundhog Day would transfer to Broadway, succeeding the long-running Jersey Boys at the August Wilson Theatre. Karl would reprise his role and find himself surrounded by an all-new cast. 

First preview was set for March 16, 2017, but 15 minutes in that evening, there was a problem with the revolving stage (a crucial part of the show’s set design) and the show had to be continued as a “concert version” for the rest of the performance. 

The musical made unfortunate headlines when Karl tore his ACL mid-performance just three days before Groundhog Day’s scheduled opening night, but despite his injury, he would return for the official opening on April 17, 2017, receiving raves once again, along with the show itself. “A star is born (and born and born),” Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised, “Karl is so outrageously inventive in ringing changes on the same old, same old, that you can’t wait for another (almost identical) day to dawn.”  

Groundhog Day was nominated for seven 2017 Tonys, including best musical. However, in what proved to be an extremely stacked 2016-17 Broadway season for new musicals — a climate that also included Dear Evan Hansen, Come from Away, and Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 — it walked away empty-handed. As it also competed against family fare like Anastasia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as star-studded revivals of Hello, Dolly! and Sunset Boulevard, ticket sales began gradually slipping after the Tony ceremony, and a September 17, 2017 closing date was announced in mid-August. Groundhog Day shuttered after 31 previews and just 176 regular performances.

A Broadway cast recording was released during the show’s opening week. It shows Minchin taking the form of a fine musical chameleon, utilizing countless styles to make up his score. Highlights include the yearning group ballad “There Will Be Sun” (in which the Punxsutawnians pine for spring to arrive), the rollicking hillbilly anthem “Nobody Cares” (in which Phil goes drunk-driving with two other drunkards stuck in a rut, upon realizing they all have no future), the tap-happy delight “Philanthropy” (where Phil performs random acts of good for various townspeople), and the gorgeous finale “Seeing You” (where Phil shares a tender moment at a bachelor auction with the associate producer he has gotten to know very well across many Groundhog Days, yet it feels like he has just met her for the first time).

The musical served as a launchpad for many of its Broadway cast members. Karl led Pretty Woman a year later and was most recently seen in the revival of Into the Woods. Barrett Doss, who played Rita Hanson (the associate producer) is one of the leads on the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Station 19.” Andrew Call — Karl’s understudy — is the current Orin Scrivello in Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.

As for the ensemble, Taylor Iman Jones is the current Catherine Parr in SIX. Gerard Canonico was in Be More Chill and recently played Dick Roswell in Almost Famous. Rheaume Crenshaw can soon be seen in Shucked, and Vishal Vaidya will appear in a forthcoming revival of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. Raymond J. Lee will soon feature in Once Upon a One More Time, as Heather Ayers (recently seen in Off-Broadway’s Between the Lines) tours the country as the adult women in Mean Girls.

It was announced in early December 2022 that Groundhog Day would return to the Old Vic in the summer of 2023, with Karl once again reprising his role and Warchus’s staging still intact. Opening night is set for June 8, and tickets are on sale now. 

“We still need togetherness; we still need each otherness—with faith in the futureness of our cause. Let us, therefore, stifle the rifle of conflict, shatter the scatter of discord, smuggle the struggle, tickle the pickle, and grapple the apple of peace!” – Purlie Victorious Judson

Tony & Grammy Award winner and Academy & Emmy Award nominee Leslie Odom, Jr. will star in the new Broadway production of the classic American comedy Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch by the legendary Ossie Davis.  Purlie Victorious will be staged by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon who directed the critically acclaimed productions of Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog earlier this season. This production, scheduled to begin in late summer 2023, will mark Odom’s return to Broadway after winning the Tony for his iconic performance as “Aaron Burr” in Hamilton.

The creative team will feature scenic design by Tony Award winner Derek McLane (Moulin Rouge, MJ), costume design by Tony Award nominee Emilio Sosa (Trouble in Mind, A Beautiful Noise) and lighting design by Adam Honoré (Ain’t No Mo’, Chicken & Biscuits).

Purlie Victorious premiered on Broadway in 1961 at the Cort Theatre (now the James Earl Jones Theatre), directed by Howard Da Silva, and starred Ossie Davis as “Purlie Victorious Judson” and his wife and frequent collaborator, Ruby Dee as “Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins.” Original cast members also included: Alan Alda, Godfrey Cambridge, Sorrell Booke and Beah Richards. For its 100^th performance, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the company and celebrated the milestone with them. The play was later adapted into the musical, Purlie, which premiered on Broadway in 1970 at the Broadway Theatre.  

Davis and Dee were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors. Davis was also inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.

“Ossie Davis gave the American theater an American hero in Purlie Judson,” said Leslie Odom, Jr. “I have loved this piece and its author, Mr. Davis, for well over half my life. His writing and acting, his integrity, the commitment he and his brilliant wife made to nurturing young talent, and the example of citizenship have meant so much to me! I am thrilled beyond measure to be part of this revival company. Mr. Davis’s pages are full of joy and rhythm, laughter and hope. We will endeavor to live up to the demands of a challenging text and the legacy of a great American.”

The Davis family stated the following: “The Dee-Davis family is so excited that Purlie Victorious will return to Broadway. Dad’s genius with words was never more evident than in the voice of Purlie Victorious Judson, who takes a humorous look at a serious subject.  His call to justice is timeless and needed now more than ever. Thanks to producers Jeffrey Richards, Hunter Arnold, and Leslie Odom, Jr., and to director Kenny Leon for bringing Reverend Purlie to his feet once again. With Leslie Odom, Jr. in the role, Purlie will rise with magnificence.”

The producing team is led by Jeffrey Richards, Hunter Arnold, Irene Gandy, Jacob Soroken Porter, Kayla Greenspan and Leslie Odom, Jr., making his Broadway producing debut. 

Theatre, dates, additional casting and creative team members will be announced at a later date.

Sign up to learn more here.

Broadway’s Best Shows invites you to the starry Opening Night of Pictures From Home. To enter to win, all you have to do is email us a “picture from home” (This can be any vintage photo of you or your family) to this address with your name and you’ll be automatically entered. Five lucky winners will get a pair to the Opening Night on Thursday, February 9th at 7pm at Studio 54 Theatre.

Based on the landmark photo memoir by Larry Sultan, adapted to the stage by Sharr White, starring Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein, and Zoë Wanamaker and staged by award-winning director Bartlett Sher, PICTURES FROM HOME will evoke memories of childhood, parenthood, and the hard-won wisdom that comes with both.

*No purchase necessary and winners will be randomly selected Monday, Feb 6th. Photo submissions will be featured across social platforms. Travel not included.

By Jordan Levinson

On Tuesday, the nominees will be announced for the 95^th annual Academy Awards. There have been many Best Picture nominees and winners throughout Oscar history that have been based on plays and musicals; this article will shine a light on some of them:

During the Academy’s early history, around 8-12 films were nominated for Best Picture every year, and plays proved to be popular source material. In fact, there was at least one nominee most every year in the 1930s and early 1940s that used recent plays as its basis. When there were only three Best Picture nominees for the very first Oscars in 1927/28, two of them — 7^th Heaven and The Racket — were play adaptations from earlier in the decade. The first Best Picture winner that started as a work of theatre was 1931/32’s Grand Hotel. Based on a 1930 drama by screenplay writer William A. Drake, it remains to this day the only Best Picture winner to not be nominated in any other category. 

Other notable nominees during this era were based on dramas, like 1932/33 winner Cavalcade (based on Noël Coward’s historical play), 1936 nominee Dodsworth, 1939 nominee Dark Victory, and 1940 nominee Our Town (which currently has a Broadway revival in development, on track for the 2023-24 season). Early comedies were also popular fare, like 1938 winner You Can’t Take It with You, 1940 nominee and rom com The Philadelphia Story, and 1932/33 nominee She Done Him Wrong, starring Mae West and Cary Grant. The first musical adaptation to garner a Best Picture nomination was 1934’s Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers charmer The Gay Divorcee. 

As the 1940s rolled on, Lillian Hellman got some Oscar love, with 1941 and 1943 nominees The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine having been based on her plays. 1943 was also the last time until 2010 that there would be more than 5 nominees for Best Picture; the winner that year happened to be the classic Casablanca, based on the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick’s. Because of this new nomination limit, that created a lesser chance that play-based material could be up for Best Picture. 1948 and 1949 drama nominees Johnny Belinda and The Heiress were among the only non-Shakespearean works to be up for top honors. 

The 1950s were Tennessee Williams’s time to shine in filmland, with his A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof all receiving top-honor nods. That decade was also a good time be a drama, as works like Witness for the Prosecution, Picnic, and The Diary of Anne Frank were well-represented in their respective awards years. 

The next decade proved to be a golden age for the movie musical. West Side Story, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver!, Funny Girl, and Hello, Dolly! were all based on smash-hit Broadway tuners; three of them won Best Picture. The ‘60s also saw a renewed interest in historical works, like 1964’s nominated Becket and ’66 victor A Man for All Seasons. The year 1968 was the first time since 1955 that at least 3 out of 5 of the Best Picture nominees were originally seen on stage. 

Though the early 1970s saw a couple more successful nominated musicals — Cabaret and Fiddler on the Roof — aside from them, theatre was starting to be represented less and less (and likewise, novels, disaster movies, and thrillers much more) in the running for Best Picture, a trend that continues today. 

The dramedy Driving Miss Daisy and the Mozart bio-drama Amadeus won Best Picture in the 1980s, with another bio-drama and family drama — The Elephant Man and On Golden Pond — getting nominations. By the time the ‘90s came, theatre representation was vastly nonexistent amongst Best Picture nominees, with 1992’s A Few Good Men serving as the sole nod of the decade. 

However, with what the 21^st century has showed us so far, there is much optimism for the future of theatre-based films at the Oscars. 2003 saw Rob Marshall’s Chicago become the first musical to win Best Picture in 35 years, with War Horse, Les Misérables, Fences, The Father, and the acclaimed West Side Story remake all getting nominated in the 2010s and 2020s thus far. 

This year’s nominations will be announced at 8:30 AM ET and will be available via global livestream on Oscar.com and on their social media platforms, as well as a Good Morning America / ABC News Live telecast from the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills at the same time. Tune in — you don’t want to miss it.

By Jordan Levinson

Sunday, January 22 marks Lunar New Year 2023. Observed by millions across the continent of Asia, the holiday traditionally represents reunion and rebirth and a transition from winter to spring. It is also a time to honor ancestors and deities, and some traditional celebrations are marked by family reunions, parades, and pyrotechnic displays. Though Americans are most familiar with China’s Lunar New Year traditions, different Asian cultures observe in different ways. 2023 marks the Year of the Rabbit — the Asian calendar operates on a 12-year cycle where each year corresponds to one of a dozen different animals. The fourth animal represented in the Chinese zodiac, the rabbit is a symbol of grace, beauty, mercy, and good luck. 

In honor of Lunar New Year, we would like to spotlight some of the finest pieces of theatre — both musicals and plays — set in Asia:

In 1951, Broadway audiences got to know The King and I, the fifth musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Based on the Margaret Landon novel “Anna and the King of Siam,” the show follows British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens, hired by the King of Siam as part of an attempt to modernize his nation. As she takes a liking to the King’s children, Anna’s relationship with the King is marred by conflict, as well as a love for each other neither one of them can admit. Critics whistled a happy tune when The King and I officially opened at the St. James Theatre on March 29, and the musical received five 1952 Tonys, including best musical. It ran for 1,246 performances, making it the fourth-longest running musical in Broadway history at the time. As of this writing, the show has been revived four times on Broadway; the most recent mountings in 1996 and 2015 have each won the Tony for best musical revival. Musical highlights include “Hello, Young Lovers”, “Getting to Know You”, “Something Wonderful”, and “Shall We Dance?”.

19^th-century Japan served as the locale of Stephen Sondheim’s 1976 musical Pacific Overtures. The story tells of the country’s 1853 Westernization, as American ships opened it to the rest of the world. Pacific Overtures takes a Japanese point of view and follows two friends who are affected by this change. 

The original production was nominated for ten Tonys, with a 2004 revival receiving four more. Sondheim wrote his score in a quasi-Japanese style, utilizing many parallel 4ths and omitting all leading tones; highlights include “Someone in a Tree”, “Chrysanthemum Tea”, and “Please Hello.”

The heat was on at the Broadway Theatre in 1991, as the popera Miss Saigon opened to much fanfare. Written by Les Misérables songwriters Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the tuner relocates Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly” to the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Miss Saigon chronicles the doomed romance between a seventeen-year-old Vietnamese bargirl and a United States Marine. Like Les Mis and some of the other British “mega-musicals” of the 1980s, Miss Saigon had no shortage of visual spectacle; most notably, the famous onstage helicopter was an actual life-sized piece of machinery that served as a metaphor for both freedom and fear. The musical was nominated for eleven 1991 Tony Awards, and it ran for a decade; today, that production remains the 14^th-longest running musical in Broadway history. A 2017 revival marked Miss Saigon’s return to its original home for a limited engagement. 

A tragic affair based on Puccini’s opera also provides the groundwork for the David Henry Hwang play M. Butterfly. Here, a French diplomat is posted in China and has a twenty-year romantic relationship with who appears to be a Beijing Opera diva. M. Butterfly won the 1988 Tony for Best Play, and it was adapted into a 1993 film starring Jeremy Irons. Like Miss Saigon, the play also received a 2017 Broadway revival, with Hwang making textual changes that mostly addressed the issue of intersectional identities. 

Lesser known is The World of Suzie Wong, a 1958 play by Paul Osborn. Based on Richard Mason’s novel of the same name, it follows a British businessman who moves to Hong Kong to try and start a career as an artist; he falls in love with a Chinese prostitute who he has hired as a model. The World of Suzie Wong opened on October 14 and starred William Shatner as the businessman. In turn, the play was adapted into a successful 1960 motion picture starring another William, William Holden.

Another old, rare gem is the 1946 Raymond Scott / Bernard Hanighen musical Lute Song. Based on the 14^th-century Chinese play Tale of the Pipa, it is about a young scholar who leaves his bride behind to seek advancement in Peking. However, once he succeeds in doing so, he is unable to return home or contact his family. Mary Martin and Yul Brynner worked on this project together, and appearing as a lady-in-waiting was then-known Nancy Davis in her only Broadway show; of course, she became First Lady of the United States in 1981. Scott and Hanighen’s score for the show is thin — the cast album only includes 6 tracks — but it includes the gorgeous “Mountain High, Valley Low.”

Finally, we can look optimistically to future pieces of theatre that take place in Asia, as Maybe Happy Ending received its English-language premiere in Atlanta in early 2020, right before the COVID-19 shutdown. The winner of six Korean musical awards, Will Aronson and Hue Park’s original musical, directed by 2-time Tony nominee Michael Arden, is set in mid-21^st century Seoul, where two helper-bots undertake an adventurous journey. It opened at the Alliance Theatre — a prime breeding ground for forthcoming Broadway shows — where the Atlanta-Journal Constitution gave it a warm welcome: critic Wendell Brock called it “a dazzling, wonderfully strange new musical… brimming with ideas and technological inventiveness,” concluding, “As far as happy endings… I see nothing but a bright future for this deeply affecting show.” Producers are currently targeting the 2023-24 season for a New York transfer.