When there’s a month with a fifth Wednesday, I’ll be heading Way-Off-Broadway for a look at theatrical happenings outside New York City. This Leap Day, we’re hopping around the country (and across the pond) to find the best spots for Broadway dreaming…

"Kinky Boots" Film Poster. Image via Google.

Mommy, where do musicals come from?

That question used to be easy to answer. “Well, darling, when a bookwriter and composer and lyricist love each other very much, they go to New Haven and try out their baby.” Now, the truth is, musicals are produced through a decidedly less romantic series of non-monogamous readings, staged readings and workshops. The traditional out-of-town tryout is often skipped as too expensive or a waste of a star’s window of availability. But they do still happen, though often in the guise of regional theater productions.

"Metamorphoses". Photo by Joan Marcus.

Over the last week, two major new tuners announced that they will be getting pre-Broadway tryouts in Chicago. Kinky Boots, based on the 2005 British film and scored by pop icon Cyndi Lauper, will play the Bank of America Theater in the Windy City in October.  The following summer, director Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses) will bring her adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle Book to Chicago’s premiere regional venue, the Goodman Theatre.

Why Chicago? Certainly it has a very vibrant theater community and an audience that can intelligently support and critique new work. It was the proving ground for two recent Broadway musicals, The Addams Family and Million Dollar Quartet, which may not have been blockbuster critical and commercial successes but they both live on and may recoup their investments through touring or Off-Broadway productions.

However, if I were a producer, I wouldn’t be looking for a city that fields doubles; I’d be looking for somewhere that has a track record of home runs. Is there such a place? Allow me to attempt a very rough, statistically unsound but amusing analysis… Read more…

When there’s a month with a fifth Wednesday, I’ll be heading Way-Off-Broadway for a look at theatrical happenings outside New York City. Given the limited run of one of the shows in this post, I’m bringing you the report early.  (Not to worry; Theater Buff will appear next week.)

Richard Roxburgh & Cate Blanchett in "Uncle Vanya". Photo by Lisa Tomasetti.

Washington, D.C. is hot…and not just because of its traditional swampy August weather. In the last six months, two shows that originated or were produced inside the beltway have announced Broadway transfers (Follies and the Steppenwolf production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf). The Studio Theatre’s Venus in Fur got a jump on the upcoming Broadway version with rave reviews. And two major works (discussed below) have made D.C. a hot ticket destination as not just our Nation’s Capital, but as a capital of regional theater.

Last weekend, I hopped aboard Amtrak (with my beloved train wine) to see if the talk is on target or the usual D.C. hot air…

Uncle Vanya, Sydney Theatre Company: Extraordinary. Don’t read another syllable; just click over to the Kennedy Center website now and see if there are any cancellations, random singles or “unfortunate” computer meltdowns that have revealed new tickets for this Aussie import (playing through August 27). Or call and sweet talk the box office manager. I’ll wait…Got ‘em? Good. Now, let’s discuss…

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When there’s a month with a fifth Wednesday, I’ll be heading Way-Off-Broadway for a look at theatrical happenings outside New York City. So pack your duffels, grab your bug spray and get ready to romance a boy from the cabin next door; we’re off to summer camp…

Image via The O'Neill Theater Center.

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT is magic. Not slight of hand “magic” but real, wondrous magic. Each summer, its ragtag assemblage of barns and cabins springs to life, like the gently sloping meadow on which it sits, and suddenly blooms with new works of theater.

Playwrights, notebook in hand, wander the grounds trying to talk out a scene–and not be tempted to the inviting stretch of beach just down the path. Composers, shuffling freshly printed pages, duck into makeshift rehearsal rooms to teach singers a song they just wrote. Visitors, instead of filing out of a theater after a play reading, stay put and engage in spirited conversations with the creative team. Shows, following in the footsteps of Avenue Q and The House of Blue Leaves, grow into fully articulated works. That’s the O’Neill magic; a place where artists and audiences, daytrippers and diehards, join together with a no-frills positivity that is, in my experience, unmatched in the world of theater development.

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When there’s a month with a fifth Wednesday, I’ll be heading Way-Off-Broadway for a look at theatrical happenings outside New York City. (Perhaps we should call it a journey to the Fifth Dimension and start singing “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine”.) First up, a quick trip down to Washington, D.C. to look at the new and improved Arena Stage…

Photo by Nick Lehoux courtesy of Bing Thom Architects

Regional theaters develop and produce the most adventurous and original theater in America today. (Did you hear that thunk? That was my gauntlet being thrown down.) Arena Stage, under the artistic direction of Molly Smith, is at the very front rank of these vibrant organizations, with an enviable track record of shepherding new plays and musicals, including the recent Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal. Now, with their newly-opened Mead Center for American Theater, they have a architectural home that matches their theatrical ambitions.  Here’s what you need to know…

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