[malcolm1980]

I have a friend who went to see Corbin Bleu in In the Heights and he raved about it. I also heard his reviews have been pretty good so far.

Oh and what did everyone think of the American Idiot musical cast at the Grammys?
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[Will]

Adam and I are going to fall over ourselves for american idiot. And Rebecca Naomi Jones (who knocked me out in passing strange) is my blind prediction for best actress.

[Culturegeek]

"South Pacific will close this summer, but Lincoln Center has three Broadway productions in the wings: John Guare's A Free Man of Color, the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and the American premiere of the acclaimed War Horse. "

War Horse is a more acclaimed version of Coram Boy (not really, but similar physical theatre from the National mold).
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[Will]

I had a feeling they would go with Women on the verge over giant. Would have liked to have seen giant come to town.


War Horse looks terrific, but I also loved coram boy.

[malcolm1980]

[Above the Title]

"The Miracle Worker" is in huge trouble and may close after this weekend if ticket sales don't pick up. I have my tickets for Thursday night so I'm nervous now.

[tonygoldenemmy]

Brantley's review was a hoot.

[Above the Title]

I won't read it before I see it (hopefully!) but, yes, that was probably a large contributing factor to the financial woes.

[corbs]

if i were to go to 2 of next to normal, hair, and west side story, and one was to consider the fact that west side is my favorite play, which 2 would one suggest i go see, and why not the third, when i hit up broadway in 2 weeks? and does one have any suggestions for cheaper tix other than the tkts line?

[Will]

Of those three, Hair is the must see and West Side Story is considered by many a let down (I haven't seen it). Next to Normal is very well liked, but I haven't been moved to go see it.

I will say, though, that it is a mistake to come to NYC and not see Our Town.

I will be in touch if I see discounts.

[tonygoldenemmy]

Reviews for the play itself were lukewarm, but definitely jot Valerie Harper down as a likely Best Actress nominee for her Tallulah Bankhead turn in Looped.

[SondheimGeek]

I would pick Next To Normal for the fact that it's something new. The other two are revivals.

West Side Story was a huge let down for me. I was excited to see it on stage finally, but found myself bored during the whole thing.

I can't say anything for Hair, since I haven't seen it. I haven't been moved to see it yet.
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"As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals."

[Above the Title]

"Hair" has Ace Young from "American Idol" in the buff (literally!) if that makes a difference to you.

[blanchardwasrobbed]

I would see "Next to Normal" because of the reason that SondheimGeek gave: it is original. However, I am very partial because I adore that show and will be seeing it weekly when I move to NY (just kidding, of course).

I really hated that I didn't get to see "Hair" this past summer, but hopefully, it will still be playing in the summer when I get there.
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Thank y'all. Thank you so much. All of you haters can go suck on a Snickers bar!!

[mebra]

Saw the National tour of "August: Osage County" today. Estelle Parsons is a master class in stage acting. Her final scene just killed me. Letts' masterpiece will rightfully go done in history as one of the greatest theatrical experiences of the 21st century. Really, really good stuff.

[blanchardwasrobbed]

[Culturegeek]

The Mountaintop beat perhaps the heaviest Olivier line-up in modern history. I thought Enron had it in the bag, but Jerusalem and Red were all way ahead of it in terms of critical press and buzz. Very surprising, and gives it a great lead for it's Broadway debut.
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[Sanny]

Oooh...me intrigued:

New York Production Set for Latest Kushner Play

Tony Kushner’s latest play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With A Key to the Scriptures,” his first epic-sized work about American life since his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angels in America” in the early 1990s, will have its New York premiere next spring in a co-production by the Public Theater and the Signature Theater Company, the two theaters announced on Monday.

The play, which explores politics, marriage, sex, radicalism, and the labor movement under the roof of a retired longshoreman’s Brooklyn brownstone, was first produced under a commission from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis as part of a festival of Kushner plays in 2009. The director Michael Greif (“Rent,” “Next to Normal”) mounted the Guthrie production, as he will the new one, which will run on the Public’s 299-seat Newman Theater stage from March 22 through June 12, 2011.

After the Guthrie production, which had a running time of three and a half hours, Mr. Kushner began reworking the play by “moving huge pieces around and making all sorts of changes” based on conversations with Mr. Greif, the cast, artists at the Guthrie and others, he said in an interview on Monday.

He continued reshaping the play through a two-week workshop at the Public Theater in September and during talks with the artistic directors of the Public and Signature, Oskar Eustis and James Houghton, and the producer Scott Rudin, who is attached to mount any future commercial production.

Mr. Kushner said that the scope and themes of the play, and its 11 characters, remained intact from the Guthrie production, but that the script has also been influenced by his recent work editing volumes of plays by Arthur Miller and by his desire to balance the sweep of his ambitions with an interest in writing “a really well-made play.”

“This work adheres to Aristotlean unity more than anything I’ve ever done – it’s not short episodic scenes, but long scenes set in the same location in Brooklyn,” Mr. Kushner said. “I think by nature I’m an epic writer rather than an Aristotlean, well-made play writer, but I feel the thing that’s exciting to me about this work is finding ways to do both in the space of an evening that people can sit through to deal with large concerns.”

Mr. Kushner said he had been under tough deadlines at the Guthrie, but that all in all the process there was positive. He had initially hoped to see “Intelligent Homosexual” produced in New York this year, he said, but decided that he didn’t want to rush the play to Broadway and preferred to have time to work on the co-production while also working with Signature on its 2010-11 season devoted to his work, which will include the first New York revival of “Angels.”

“I’ve been on Broadway twice, I know what’s involved in making a play work commercially, and I also hate making other people lose money, and the stress of it isn’t particularly thrilling to me,” Mr. Kushner said. “If it feels at some point like a Broadway run is what should happen after this co-production, great.”

Mr. Eustis, who has been a friend and collaborator of Mr. Kushner since the 1980s, said that he believed “Intelligent Homosexual” would stand as a major work in Mr. Kushner’s oeuvre.

“What he has done in this play is extraordinary, in that one feels Arthur Miller but one also feels Eugene O’Neill,” Mr. Eustis said. “It’s written in the shadow of the great American family plays.”

He and Mr. Houghton said they would develop a ticket pricing model to keep costs low for their subscribers and theater-goers, though probably not as low as Signature’s ticket plan of $20 for each seat. The co-production is expected to cost slightly less than $1 million, which the two not-for-profit theater companies will share. The forthcoming production is being presented in association with the Guthrie.

The cast for the 11-character production next year is expected to include at least some of the actors from the Guthrie run since, Mr. Kushner said, he wrote five of the characters with specific actors in mind.

While he did not name names – a casting announcement will be made later – the Guthrie production included several actors who have long histories with Kushner plays, including the “Angels” veterans Stephen Spinella, who played Prior Walter on Broadway, and Kathleen Chalfant, who played Hannah Pitt, Ethel Rosenberg, and others.

[Above the Title]

Um, Megan Mullally pulled out of "Lips Together, Teeth Apart" two weeks before opening night. And in breach of her contract.

[tonygoldenemmy]

It's those damn I Cannot Believe It's Not Butter commercials. She's too famous for Broadway now.

[Above the Title]

"Lips Together" canceled following Mullally's departure

The article basically says she wanted Patton Oswalt fired because he was giving a terrible performance. And she realized the production was shit. And she didn't want to be in another flop after "Young Frankenstein." And her mom is very ill. And she didn't get along with Joe Mantello.

[jonny]

please let patton talk about this on twitter. please please please.

[corbs]

i saw next to normal only. it was great.

[malcolm1980]

[corbs]

oh, and this trip totally got me way back into musicals. Musical Mondays at the bar Splash was just the best thing ever.