What Will Broadway Look Like in the Next Twenty Years?

Broadway has had good years and bad, and big hits and misses — especially over the last decade.  But what about twenty years from now?  How will the centuries-old traditions of theater on the Great White Way be different in 2032?

At Monday’s inaugural TEDxBroadway conference at New World Stages, Broadway professionals, including producers, marketers, entrepreneurs, economists and artists, will meet to discuss the future of New York’s famed Theatre District.  About a dozen speakers will gather to present their views on what Broadway is doing — and what it must do — to ensure long-term success.

The first speaker, is Ken Davenport, a writer, director, producer, and co-organizer of the conference.  He points out Broadway has come a long way in the last twenty years.  “Before you think about where you’re going, you have to know about where you’ve been.  I remember riding my bike through 42nd Street and seeing a crack addict lying on the ground.  When you think of where it was 20 years ago, then you have to think that major things could happen over the next 20 years.”  Read more

‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ to Land on Broadway March 28th

Peter and the Starcatcher, the new play by Tony Award nominee Rick Elice, will arrive at the begin preview performances on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th Street) on Wednesday, March 28, with an official opening night set for Sunday, April 15, 2012.

Directed by Tony Award-winner Roger Rees and Drama Desk Award-winner and Tony Award nominee Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), the show is based on The New York Times best selling Disney-Hyperion novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson that asks: How did Peter Pan become The Boy Who Refused To Grow Up?

No casting information has been announced but a company of twelve actors will play some 50 characters.  Read more

William Shatner is Coming To Broadway – 19 Performances Only!

If Wolverine can conquer Broadway, why not Captain Kirk?

William Shatner is coming to the Music Box Theatre in his one-man show, Shatner’s World: We Live In It.

But catch him quick because it’s a limited run: February 14 – March 4.

Via the Press Release: The two-hour show will take audiences on a voyage through Shatner’s life and career, from Shakespearean stage actor to internationally known icon and raconteur, known as much for his unique persona as for his expansive body of work on television and film.

Returning to Broadway and the Music Box for the first time since 1962, Shatner said, “I’ve been pretty busy since I last played the Music Box. I’ve been refurbished; I hope the theatre has been too. My plan has always been to return to Broadway every 50 years. I can’t ask my fans to wait for me longer than Halley’s Comet, so I’m coming back.”

All I know is that he better sing Rocket Man.  Read more

Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin Talk “Mediocre” Theater and Why They Get On Stage

For An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, the two stars take songs from their repertoire to weave together a story for their concert audience. The two recently spoke with The New York Times about their friendship, but also about Broadway, actors, and even the consumer.

When LuPone was asked about the standard she holds other actors to, she says, “It’s always about the audience. I mean, I’m mad when I come out of a theater, and it’s mediocre, and I’ve spent over 300 bucks. I’m furious. It’s a higher-stake game now, and everybody has to be on top of their game. And you can’t have anybody go out there and dis the play, dis the playwright, dis the audience — you can’t. It’s unacceptable.”

Patinkin on the other hand is more critical of the writers, “When you can’t learn the lines or there’s a problem, continually, with the scene, something’s wrong. It’s not just that I’m having a bad day. The great people that I’ve worked with, like Steve Sondheim, when we were doing ‘Sunday in the Park,’ when he’s getting ready to write that part, and you’ve been doing the workshop, he wants to know: What are you thinking? And you have a long, two-, three-hour conversation. And then the next two, three days later, comes this poem set to music, that was part of your conversation. The lesser-gifted folk are not so open to your thoughts.”  Read more

After Being Away From Theatre for 8 Years, Clark Gregg Answers if An Actor Can “Lose It”

Clark Gregg might be most known as Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Movie Universe, but he’s had an extensive career in film and television and is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company.

He currently appears in Ethan Coen‘s collection of one-act plays, Happy Hour, on the New York stage.  Gregg gave an interview to The Gothamist about returning to the stage after a prolonged absence. 

When asked about the fact that he hasn’t done theater in some time — his last appearance on Broadway was in A Few Good Men, which ran from 1989-1991, later becoming a hit movie (with Kevin Bacon replacing Gregg in the role of Capt. Jack Ross) — Gregg comments on whether or not one can really “lose” it. “You know, you may but I haven’t yet, I don’t think. It feels pretty good; I thought it was going to feel more uncomfortable, but I did a sitcom for a couple of years [The New Adventures of Old Christine] and one of the great things about a sitcom is that you have an audience, which certainly was how I came up working. And it was really comforting to have 200 or 300 people. You don’t have a stand-up comic kind of warming them up and pizza and snacks and everything to put them in a really good mood before the dark comedy of an Ethan Coen play, but it’s kept me from at least getting rusty.”  Read more

Hugh Dancy on the 2 Character Broadway Play ‘Venus in Fur’: “It leaves me with nowhere to run”

Hugh Dancy is currently in rehearsal for the Broadway première of Venus in Fur as playwright/director, Thomas, alongside Nina Arianda. The show, which closed off-Broadway two years ago, features only 2 characters and “it leaves me with nowhere to run,” Dancy said.

When it’s mentioned that Venus in Fur closed and is now re-opening in just a two-year span, Dancy responds, “Are you trying to make me tremble? You are always up against it, and not to get to precious, but it’s a little bit remarkable that you produce anything. We’re only one week into rehearsal, I’m sure we will cobble something together. Which is the worst pitch for a play ever. Yes, I do think we will be ready. Every time I’ve worked onstage,there’s been no pressure to be ready at the stage I’m at now. You only have to be ready, you want everything to fall into place at the very last minute. If it happens earlier, it’s wasted time.”

“There’s a part of it where you apply your experience with the play, but usually if a play is well-written it works in a unique way,” he said. “It will reveal itself as you work on it and for me the best way is to sit back and wait for it. It will click into place, usually that happens. And there are big shifts once you get into dress rehearsal and you are running the thing through.”    Read more

Broadway Stars Recall Their Worst Audition Stories

Even Broadway stars can’t nail every audition — as many actors know, even the smallest, most insignificant thing could stop an actor from getting a part. 

So it’s quite comforting to read Broadway stars recalling their worst auditions to the New York Post, especially since we know that they have all since gone on to great success.  After all, no one’s career is ever a path of success after success.

Nathan Lane brings up when he bombed an audition with Milos Forman for the part of Schikaneder in Amadeus.  He confesses, “Milos was exceedingly charming, and at the end of the meeting he asked if I wouldn’t mind reading a scene with him. I was happy to oblige.  I did the first line, and when I finished, he said, ‘No, more like this.’ Then he read the line. I did the next line, and then he said the same thing . . . this went on for the entire scene. Line by line. When we finally finished, I looked at him and said, ‘Well, I don’t know about me, but I think you’d be great in the part.’ He giggled, gave me a screen test — and Simon Callow was wonderful in the movie.”   Read more

As the Typically Weak Broadway Fall Season Approaches, Several Shows Hope for the Best

As I’ve covered in previous posts, Broadway shows don’t always enjoy the runaway success that The Book of Mormon is currently basking in.  In fact, more often than not Broadway shows rely on big-selling summers to prop up what typically are much weaker falls. 

But what happens when a show under-performs in the summer?

According to The New York Times, that is a problem that both Sister Act and Priscilla Queen of the Desert have been facing after both shows sold less than the expected number of tickets, as did even the once wildly successful Billy Elliot.  

All three hope that a few adjustments — such as changing the advertising and marketing, and, in the case of Billy Elliot, altering the show’s content to remove profanity to make it more “family friendly” — will provide the shows with a few more gallons in the tank.  Remarkably, Priscilla Queen of the Desert is even offering a money-back guarantee to groups in the event that group members object to the show’s content (which involves drag queens).   Read more

Kelli O’Hara to Star Opposite Matthew Broderick in Broadway’s ‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’

Three-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara (South Pacific, The Pajama Game and The Light in the Piazza) will star opposite two-time Tony Award-winner Matthew Broderick (The Producers, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Brighton Beach Memoirs) in the new musical comedy, Nice Work If You Can Get It. 

Directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes, The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town), the show is scheduled to open on Broadway this April.

The show centers on Billie Bendix (O’Hara), a tough-as-nails bootlegger who meets up with wealthy playboy Jimmy Winter (Broderick) on the weekend of his wedding.  Read more

Broadway’s ‘The Book of Mormon’ Enjoys Sizeable Profits

Have you seen the line waiting for Book of Mormon lottery rush tickets and standing room only tickets outside the Eugene O’Neill theater on 49th Street?  It is so impossible to score affordable tickets to the show that people are willing to wait just for a chance to buy cheaper tickets to the hugely popular Broadway show. 

But just how successful has the show been?  Thanks to an article from Bloomberg, we can finally see that The Book of Mormon is paying off quite well for not only its creative personnel but also for its investors.

According to the article, The Book of Mormon cost $9.1 million — far cheaper than effect-laden shows like Shrek and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark — and has already recouped thirty percent of its cost for it’s investors and will pay off the investments completely by October.  That’s significant because most Broadway shows take years to break even, if they ever do.  And since the show is still sold out until 2012, the investors can already expect a profit.  Reportedly the show rakes in $1.2 million per week and costs just over $600,000 a week to operate (excluding royalties), so currently the show makes over twice what it spends per week — though that profit gets cut up to by the various royalty deals.  Read more

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