Yahoo Lifestyle Broadway’s 2024-2025 Season: ‘Redwood’ & All Of Deadline’s Reviews
Broadway’s 2024-2025 season has gotten off to a rather extraordinarily fine start, from the wildly popular and hysterically funny Oh, Mary! to the fabulous splash of Death Becomes Her and the wonderful left-field sleeper Maybe Happy Ending. There have been a few clunkers — looking at you, Tammy Faye — but if the spring season holds the ratio, theatergoers have much to look forward to.
This compendium of Deadline’s Broadway reviews for the season might offer some guidance through what will be a very show-packed spring. No fewer than 18 shows are scheduled to open in March and April and of the Tony Awards nominations and show, and we’ll be reviewing them all.
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Here’s the lineup: Purpose (March 17), Buena Vista Social Club (March 19), Operation Mincemeat (March 20), Othello (March 23), The Picture of Dorian Gray (March 27), Glengarry Glen Ross (March 31), Good Night, and Good Luck (April 3), BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical (April 5), The Last Five Years (April 6), Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (April 8), Smash (April 10), John Proctor is the Villain (April 14), Floyd Collins (April 21), Stranger Things: The First Shadow (April 22), Just In Time (April 23), Pirates! The Penzance Musical (April 24), Dead Outlaw (April 27), Real Women Have Curves: The Musical (April 27).
Redwood
Opening night: February 13, 2025
Venue: Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre
Written/directed by: Tina Landau
Music by: Kate Diaz
Lyrics by: Diaz and Landau
Cast: Idina Menzel, De’Adre Aziza, Michael Park, Zachary Noah Piser, Khaila Wilcoxon
Running time: 1 hr 50 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Don’t be fooled by the elaborate, gorgeous projections and LED panels that turn the Nederlander Theatre’s stage into a massive forest, a cross-country trip with state after state speeding by outside a car window, a Brooklyn apartment, a fast-spreading woodland fire, all so expertly created they can, at times, feel more like one of those virtual amusement park rides (that’s a compliment) than a typical Broadway outing. At heart, though, Redwood is an intimate tale, emotionally generous in message if familiar in narrative. And it really does look amazing.
Idina Menzel’s much anticipated Broadway return won’t rank among her stage triumphs like Wicked and Rent, but in its own smaller way seems a no-brainer choice for her return star vehicle. The score calls for a lot of belting — too much belting, actually — and there are few better than Menzel. Director Tina Landau’s book (Menzel gets a co-conceived credit and she contributed to the lyrics) never quite hits the heights that the show’s title might imply, but it holds our interest throughout.
Menzel plays Jesse, a New York City gallery owner, who, when we first meet her, might seem to have a charmed life — a successful business, a wife she loves (De’Adre Aziza plays Mel), a son (Zachary Noah Piser as Spencer) she dotes on until she can’t. We sense early on that this happy life is a memory as the play cuts back and forth through time, and soon enough we learn about the event that has shattered the idyll: Spencer, so playful and loving as a child, grows into a troubled, resentful young man, fated to die of a drug overdose just after college. How the two mothers deal with the tragedy is the engine of the story.
While the open-hearted Mel wants to honor Spencer’s life (and the survivors’ grief) by facing up to reality — and talking about it — Jesse’s instinct is to run, both emotionally and physically. As the one-year anniversary of Spencer’s death approaches, Jesse’s bottled-up feelings drive a wedge between the two women, and on impulse Jesse hits the road. In the parlance of 12-steppers, she pulls a geographic: She takes off, impetuous and alone, for a cross-country trip, seeking some kind of self-understanding as she ultimately lands in the forests of California’s redwood country, finding both a sanctuary and, whether she knows it or not, a bucket-list tribute to her late son.
“Losing a child – your only child – breaks you in a way that is not fixable or solvable,” Jesse says.
While she can’t quite verbalize or come to terms with her grief — “I’m just not a therapy person,” she says, an innocuous quip that hits Mel like a fist — she makes an immediate and visceral connection to the giant trees, one in particular that she names Stella. A chance meeting in the forest with two canopy botanists (Michael Park and Khaila Wilcoxon, both terrific) studying climate change by scaling the heights of the trees finds Jesse entranced with the trunks and the leaves and the opportunity to lose herself in both. She determines to join her new acquaintances on a climb, if not to the treetops then to a resting platform high enough to experience the glory.
If the tale sounds a bit far-fetched, keep in mind the real-life story that inspired it: In the late 1990s, activist Julia Butterfly Hill spent more than 700 days living in a 1,000-year-old tree — she named hers Luna — to prevent it from being chopped down by loggers. She won the battle.
While the book and lyrics find considerable poetry and allegory in the conceit (“If the fires come,” Jesse sings to her tree, “would I lose you like I lost him?”), the book isn’t always convincing in some of the details, like the scholars’ acquiescence to the beginner or Jesse’s sudden climbing skills. Fortunately, Menzel and the production’s designers pick up the slack with a near-miraculous job in making believers of us. Hana S. Kim’s video projections, Jason Ardizzone-West’s scenic designs, Scott Zielinski’s lighting and Jonathan Deans’ sound are so potent they come close to vertigo-inducing. As the actors fly on their ropes, the massive projected forest begins to move, soaring and taking the audience with it. It’s a wonderful effect, so powerful in its execution that at moments the entire theater seems to be rising.
The way Menzel becomes one with that movement is thrilling. At one point, after watching her companions playfully use their climbing ropes for some Tarzan-style fun, she does the same, away from their protective eyes. Only we see what she sees, as she gleefully swoops in long arcs from the huge tree that dominates the stage. (Jesse’s air dances, or “vertical performance,” is choreographed by Bandaloop, a dance company with an expertise in just such stage movements).
Menzel’s go-for-broke commitment is rewarded by a score full of big ballads for those powerhouse vocals and enough space to accommodate her quieter, supple approach. “In the Leaves,” one of the show’s big numbers, is her chance to use her full arsenal, as the song moves from ballad to rocker driven forward by the insistent percussion of drums and strings. It’s a love song to a tree, and Menzel sells it for all it’s worth.
Redwood, though, ultimately is just a shade too thin in its storytelling imagination, hitting the familiar dramatic beats we’ve come to expect through countless grief and recovery stories. Still, it’s not hard to focus your attention on the successful aspects — Menzel, that set, the sky dancing, and across-the-board fine performances from the rest of the cast. Piser is particularly poignant as the late son, appearing spectrally to offer a last chance at closure. It’s a touching moment that ties up loose ends and satisfies emotionally. Whatever their shortcomings, in the end we’re happy for both Jesse and for Redwood.
English
Opening night: January 23, 2025
Venue: Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre
Written by: Sanaz Toossi
Directed by: Knud Adams
Cast: Tala Ashe, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Pooya Mohseni, Marjan Neshat, Hadi Tabbal
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Absolutely nothing gets lost in the translation of Sanaz Toossi’s English as the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a group of Iranians longing for the West finally makes its Broadway debut, two years after its Off Broadway bow garnered critical raves and regional stagings won over audiences with its unfailing wit, grace and compassion. Read full review.
All In: Comedy About Love
Opening night: December 22, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Hudson Theatre
Written by: Simon Rich
Directed by: Alex Timbers
Cast: John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Richard Kind, Renée Elise Goldsberry
Running time: 1 hr 30 min (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Directed by the ever nimble Alex Timbers and performed by a rotating cast of four actors – I was lucky to get the truly excellent John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Richard Kind – the 90-minute All In is a perfect holiday snickerdoodle, a light and tasty snack no less funny for its brevity and lack of splashy production values. Read full review.
Gypsy
Opening night: December 19, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Majestic Theatre
Directed by: George C. Wolfe
Book by: Arthur Laurents
Music by: Jule Styne
Lyrics by: Stephen Sondheim
Cast: Audra McDonald, Danny Burstein, Joy Woods, Jordan Tyson, Kevin Csolak, Lesli Margherita, Lili Thomas, Mylinda Hull, Jacob Ming-Trent, Kyleigh Vickers, Marley Lianne Gomes & Jade Smith, Natalie Wachen, Tryphena Wade
Running time: 3 hrs (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Along with the high hopes is the question that’s been whispered since the production was announced months ago: Would Audra McDonald, an opera-trained vocalist prized for her impossibly pure soprano, have the grit and belt for the rough-around-the-edges anti-heroine Rose, a character entrusted with a bundle of the finest, gutsiest anthems and ballads ever written by those formidable theater creators Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim? The answer is a qualified, perhaps even reluctant, yes. I can’t recall a better wrong-for-the-part performance in recent memory than McDonald’s Rose. Read full review.
Eureka Day
Opening night: December 16, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Written by: Jonathan Spector
Directed by: Anna D. Shapiro
Cast: Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, Eboni Flowers
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Playwright Jonathan Spector has done us all a favor and molded one of the most divisive, inane, grotesque and newly resurgent issues — vaccines — and polished it into a shiny, insightful and damn funny little gem so that all of us can ogle and ponder and reconsider just how in the name of Jonas Salk did we get here. Read full review.
Cult of Love
Opening night: December 12, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater
Written By: Leslye Headland
Directed By: Trip Cullman
Cast: Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Zachary Quinto, David Rasche, Christopher Sears, Mare Winningham, Shailene Woodley
Running time: 1 hr 45 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: A Second Stage Theater production steered like a fast-moving sleigh by director Trip Cullman, Cult of Love boasts an excellent cast (headed by Zachary Quinto, Mare Winningham, David Rasche and, in an impressive Broadway debut, Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s Rebecca Henderson) that pulls off a familiar scenario with unexpected freshness. Read full review.
Death Becomes Her
Opening night: November 21, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Directed/choreography by: Christopher Gattelli
Book by: Marco Pennette
Music by: Julia Mattison & Noel Carey
Cast: Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Christopher Sieber and Michelle Williams, with Marija Abney, Lauren Celentano, Sarita Colon, Kaleigh Cronin, Natalie Charle Ellis, Taurean Everett, Michael Graceffa, Neil Haskell, Kolton Krouse, Josh Lamon, Sarah Meahl, Ximone Rose, Sir Brock Warren, Bud Weber, Ryan Worsing, Warren Yang
Running time: 2 hr 30 mins (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: A perfect rejoinder to the ubiquitous Broadway Sucks These Days gripe about the too-many movie-to-stage adaptations has arrived at long last, and it’s a simple three-word response: Death Becomes Her. A virtually perfect big-budget, broad-appeal musical comedy that improves in every way over the 1992 film, director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli’s wildly entertaining vehicle for two of our best singer-actor-comedians on any stage today renders the movie-as-source snipe worthless. Read full review.
Swept Away
Opening night: November 19, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Longacre Theatre
Director: Michael Mayer
Book: John Logan
Music and lyrics: The Avett Brothers
Cast: John Gallagher Jr., Stark Sands, Wayne Duvall and Adrian Blake Enscoe, with Josh Breckenridge, Hunter Brown, Matt DeAngelis, Cameron Johnson, Brandon Kalm, Rico LeBron, Michael J. Mainwaring, Orville Mendoza, Chase Peacock, Tyrone L. Robinson, David Rowen and John Sygar. (Swings include John Michael Finley and Robert Pendilla.)
Running time: 1 hr 30 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: As enthralling as it is disquieting, Swept Away is a taut and captivating new folk musical featuring the gorgeous songs of the roots-rock group The Avett Brothers and an impeccable cast headed by John Gallagher Jr. and Stark Sands. Most in the audience will know where all this is headed, though Swept Away has more than a few surprises in store, not least some revelations about one character’s previous experiences and his long, slow march toward redemption. Read full review.
Elf the Musical
Opening night: November 17, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Marquis Theatre
Directed by: Philip Wm. McKinley
Book by: Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin
Music: by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin
Cast: Grey Henson, Sean Astin, Kayla Davion, Michael Hayden, Ashley Brown, Kai Edgar, Jennifer Sanchez, Kalen Allen, Michael Deaner
Running time: 2 hr 30 mins (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: The updated Elf remains as much a mixed bag as it was during its previous two Broadway stagings in 2010 and 2012, with one major improvement: Grey Henson, the immensely likable, pitched-to-the-rafters firecracker from Mean Girls and Shucked, steps as easily into Buddy’s green winklepickers as Cinderella ever did a glass slipper. Read full review.
Tammy Faye
Opening night: November 14, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Palace Theatre
Directed by: Rupert Goold
Book by: James Graham
Music by: Elton John
Lyrics by: Jake Shears
Cast: Katie Brayben, Christian Borle, Michael Cerveris, Autumn Hurlbert, Nick Bailey, Charl Brown, Mark Evans, Allison Guinn, Ian Lassiter, Raymond J. Lee, Max Gordon Moore, Alana Pollard, Andy Taylor, and Amanda Clement, Michael Di Liberto, Jonathan Duvelson, Lily Kaufmann, Denis Lambert, Elliott Mattox, Brittany Nicholas, Keven Quillon, Aveena Sawyer, Allysa Shorte, TJ Tapp, Daniel Torres, and Dana Wilton
Running time: 2 hr 35 mins (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Tammy Faye is only slightly more fun than church on a hot July day. All concerned seem absolutely determined to transform Tammy Faye Bakker into a respectable, saintly and rather dull church-lady-next-door. Read full review.
Maybe Happy Ending
Opening night: November 12, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Belasco Theatre
Directed by: Michael Arden
Book by: Will Aronson, Hue Park
Music by: Will Aronson
Lyrics by: Hue Park
Cast: Darren Criss, Helen J Shen, Dez Duron, Marcus Choi and Arden Cho, Young Marion, Jim Kaplan
Running time: 1 hr 45 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: A tenderhearted meet-cute rom-com tinged with poignance, laughs and break-your-heart melancholy, Maybe Happy Ending just might be this season’s answer to Kimberly Akimbo. A near-perfect little fable of set-for-the-scrap-heap robots learning to love and knowing whatever happiness they find will be short-lived, it is, of all things, a musical about androids that absolutely brims with humanity. Read full review.
A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Opening night: November 11, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Studio 54
Director: Christopher Renshaw
Co-directors: Christina Sajous and James Monroe Iglehart
Book by: Aurin Squire
Music by: Songs From The Career of Louis Armstrong
Cast: James Monroe Iglehart, Darlesia Cearcy, Jennie Harney-Fleming, Kim Exum, Dionne Figgins, DeWitt Fleming Jr., Jason Thomas Forbach, Gavin Gregory, Jimmy Smagula and Brandon Louis Armstrong, Wesley J. Barnes, Willie Clyde Beaton II, Ronnie S. Bowman, Jr., Eean S. Cochran, Kate Louissaint, Matt Magnusson, Jodeci Milhouse, Alysha Morgan, Khadijah Rolle, Tally Sessions, Brett Sturgis, Renell Taylor, Meridien Terrell, Dori Waymer. (James T. Lane plays Armstrong at certain performances.)
Deadline’s takeaway: If A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, starring a terrific James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Hamilton) as the legendary Satchmo, doesn’t escape every pitfall of the jukebox musical, it comes closer than most. Read full review.
Romeo + Juliet
Opening night: October 24, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Circle In The Square
Written by: William Shakespeare
Directed by: Sam Gold
Music by: Jack Antonoff
Movement direction/choreography by: Sonya Tayeh
Cast: Kit Connor, Rachel Zegler, Gabby Beans, Daniel Bravo Hernández, Jasai Chase-Owens, Tommy Dorfman, Nihar Duvvuri, Sola Fadiran, Taheen Modak, Gían Pérez
Running time: 2 hr 20 mins (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Make room, plenty of room, for Sam Gold‘s Romeo + Juliet rave-up starring the compelling and well-matched Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler. The play is perhaps the best use in ages of Circle in the Square’s often troublesome in-the-round staging. Even when Connor’s Romeo and Zegler’s Juliet square off from opposite sides of the venue, their invisible chains – hormones, by another term – are magic. Read full review.
Left On Tenth
Opening night: October 23, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre
Written by: Delia Ephron
Directed by: Susan Stroman
Cast: Julianna Margulies, Peter Gallagher, Peter Francis James, Kate MacCluggage
Running time: 1 hr 40 min (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Played by Julianna Margulies (ER, The Good Wife) with endless appeal that doesn’t shortchange the harsher aspects of a chemo-drenched recovery, the play’s Delia Ephron is still getting used to being alone following the recent death of her husband. Left on Tenth is a slight endeavor – slighter, probably, than a cancer odyssey has any right to be – and certainly falls short of better Ephron Sister efforts. Even so, there can be only one response to it, and that’s well wishes for all. Read full review.
Sunset Blvd.
Opening night: October 20, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s St. James Theatre
Director: Jamie Lloyd
Book and lyrics: Don Black and Christopher Hampton
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Cast: Nicole Scherzinger, Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett Young, David Thaxton, with Olivia Lacie Andrews, Brandon Mel Borkowsky, Shavey Brown, Hannah Yun Chamberlain, Cydney Clark, Raúl Contreras, Tyler Davis, E.J. Hamilton, Sydney Jones, Emma Lloyd, Pierre Marais, Shayna McPherson, Jimin Moon, Justice Moore, Drew Redington, Diego Andres Rodriguez. (Mandy Gonzalez will guest star as ‘Norma Desmond’ at certain select performances.)
Running time: 2 hr 30 mins (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: All that madness in Gloria Swanson’s eyes at the end of Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece Sunset Boulevard is amplified to breathtaking lengths in Jamie Lloyd‘s commanding and gorgeous renovation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical. With a career-expanding performance that redefines the onetime Dancing With the Stars competitor Nicole Scherzinger as thoroughly as Lloyd’s staging does Lloyd Webber’s musical, the revival is a stunner, stark always, funny sometimes and ultimately terrifying. Read full review.
Our Town
Opening night: October 10, 2024
Venue: Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
Written by: Thornton Wilder
Directed by: Kenny Leon
Cast: Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, Katie Holmes, Billy Eugene Jones, Ephraim Sykes, Richard Thomas, Michelle Wilson, Julie Halston, Donald Webber Jr., with Ephie Aardema Sarnak, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Safiya Kaijya Harris, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Hagan Oliveras, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Ricardo Vázquez, Matthew Elijah Webb, Greg Wood, Nimene Sierra Wureh
Running time: 1 hr 45 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: While a check-in from the fictional Grover’s Corners circa 1901-1913 is always a moving and welcome addition to anyone’s frazzled day, the new staging by Kenny Leon, with a cast that includes Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Billy Eugene Jones, Ephraim Sykes and Zoey Deutch, lacks the strong personality that would send it to the top of the many Our Towns that have staked claims on the world’s stages for nearly a century. Read full review.
Yellow Face
Opening night: October 1, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre
Written by: David Henry Hwang
Directed by: Leigh Silverman
Cast: Daniel Dae Kim, Kevin Del Aguila, Ryan Eggold, Francis Jue, Marinda Anderson, Greg Keller, Shannon Tyo
Running time: 1 hr 45 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face debuted Off Broadway 17 years ago, spinning a farcical tale about a real-life Broadway controversy that had taken place some 17 years before that. How it manages to be relevant, insightful and very funny as it makes its Broadway debut tonight, all these years later, is anyone’s guess, but it does. Read full review.
McNeal
Opening night: September 30, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center
Written by: Ayad Akhtar
Directed by: Bartlett Sher
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Brittany Bellizeare, Rafi Gavron, Melora Hardin, Andrea Martin, Ruthie Ann Miles, Saisha Talwar
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Slow to grab hold and knotty when it does, Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal, starring Robert Downey Jr. in a formidable Broadway debut, is, at its core, a sort of literary parlor game: Let’s take that most mighty of 20th century book-chat tropes – the macho, aging male superstar novelist who amorally mines the lives and works of his enemies, his betters and, most cruelly, his loved ones, as grist for his art, fuel for his bank accounts and supply chain for his trophy shelves. Now drop him into the brave new world of AI, where thievery can be accomplished with an ease and at a magnitude heretofore unimagined … astutely directed by the great Bartlett Sher, it is an often confusing though wheedlingly emotional mindgame. Read full review.
The Hills of California
Opening night: September 29, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater
Written by: Jez Butterworth
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Cast: Laura Donnelly, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond, Helena Wilson; Nancy Allsop; Sophia Ally; Lara McDonnell; Nicola Turner, David Wilson Barnes, Ta’Rea Campbell, Bryan Dick, Richard Lumsden, Richard Short, Liam Bixby, Ellyn Heald, Max Roll, Cameron Scoggins
Running time: 2 hr 45 mins (including one intermission and one pause)
Deadline’s takeaway: Is there a more dependable set-up for family drama than the gathering of long-estranged siblings? Last season’s dark and wonderful Appropriate proved there was plenty of life in Pinter’s old Homecoming trick, and this Broadway season Jez Butterworth does it again with the fine The Hills of California, a superbly performed reckoning with old traumas and those family squabbles that can seem so petty on the surface. Read full review.
The Roommate
Opening night: September 12, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Booth Theatre
Written by: Jen Silverman
Directed by: Jack O’Brien
Cast: Mia Farrow, Patti LuPone
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: The Roommate is an awkwardly paced, abruptly mood-shifting tale of two very different women on the verge of old age looking to outrun their pasts and stake new claims on the future. Not even the ever-reliable director Jack O’Brien can get a firm grasp on this squiggly story, but at least he doesn’t have to make the effort alone: Who wouldn’t want Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone on their team? Read full review.
Once Upon a Mattress
Opening night: August 12, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Hudson Theater
Written by: Amy Sherman-Palladino (new adaptation)
Music: Mary Rodgers
Lyrics: Marshall Barer
Original book: Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, Marshall Barer
Directed by: Lear deBessonet
Cast: Sutton Foster, Michael Urie, Ana Gasteyer, Brooks Ashmanskas, Daniel Breaker, Will Chase, Nikki Renée Daniels, David Patrick Kelly
Running time: 2 hr 15 mins (including intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: Carol Burnett is alive and well and not starring in the latest Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress, the fractured fairy tale musical opening tonight that laid the foundation for the funny lady’s towering comic career way back in ’59. Fortunately for Broadway audiences, the contemporary stage has its very own Princess Winnifred who is more than capable to doing the royal succession bit: Sutton Foster. Read full review.
Oh, Mary!
Opening night: June 11, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre
Written by: Cole Escola
Directed by: Sam Pinkleton
Cast: Cole Escola, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Bianca Leigh, Tony Macht
Running time: 1 hr 20 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: There’s funny, there’s very funny, and then there’s Oh, Mary! Cole Escola, low-key famous these last few years, ups the career stakes immensely with Oh, Mary! With nods and hints to Charles Busch, the late, great and forever ridiculous Everett Quinton, the Sedaris siblings, Carol Burnett, Pee-wee Herman and Absolutely Fabulous, Escola squeezes just enough juice from their influences for a mix that is entirely fresh and not to be missed. Read full review.
Home
Opening night: June 5, 2024
Venue: Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre
Written by: Samm-Art Williams
Directed by: Kenny Leon
Cast: Tory Kittles, Brittany Inge, Story Ayers
Running time: 1 hr 30 mins (no intermission)
Deadline’s takeaway: With the acclaimed director Kenny Leon at the helm and a three-actor cast that all but channels the author’s voice and the groundbreaking intensity and rhythms of his ’70s-era work for the Negro Ensemble Company, the revival promised to be a testament to the tenacity of the play and a well-deserved splash of late-career recognition for a once celebrated playwright who would become far better known for producing a trio of 1990s sitcoms (Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Martin). Read full review.
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