It’s show time! After a gloomy late summer when Broadway shows were shuttering like a hurricane was about to blow into town, things are picking up with a slew of new openings. This month, what’s old is new again with three revivals that hope to capitalize on big stars, Tony Award-winning composers, and creative visions for classic material. We’ll see what sticks!
The Front Page
Written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, The Front Page first opened at the Times Square Theatre in 1928. Nearly 90 years later, this revival marks the sixth production to hit the boards.
The play takes place in the press room of Chicago’s Criminal Courts Building, which is buzzing with reporters covering the story of an escaped prisoner. When star reporter Hildy Johnson (John Slattery) accidentally discovers the runaway convict, he and his editor Walter Burns (Nathan Lane) conspire to hide the man from the other reporters, while they chase the biggest scoop of their careers.
Often cited as the greatest play ever written about the newspaper business, The Front Page has also been a hit on screen. A 1931 film version starred Adolphe Menjou as Walter Burns and Pat O’Brien as Hildy Johnson. The 1940 film adaptation, His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant as Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as a now-female Hildy Johnson, is considered one of the classics of the screwball comedy genre, and in 1993 was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The Front Page
Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th Street
Opening night: October 20
The cast of Lincoln Center Theatre’s ‘Falsettos.’
Falsettos
What other show could open with “four Jews in a room bitching” other than William Finn and James Lapine’s 1992 look at love and life through the lens of the AIDS crisis?
The groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning musical Falsettos comes back to Broadway this fall in an all-new production from Lincoln Center Theater. Lapine returns to direct an extraordinary cast featuring Stephanie J. Block (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Christian Borle (Something Rotten!, Tony Award), Andrew Rannells (The Book of Mormon), Anthony Rosenthal, Tracie Thoms, Brandon Uranowitz (An American in Paris) and Betsy Wolfe (The Last Five Years).
Falsettos revolves around the life of a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin, his wife, lover, about-to-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbians next door. It’s a hilarious and achingly poignant look at the infinite possibilities that make up a modern family… and a beautiful reminder that love can tell a million stories.
Falsettos
Walter Kerr Theater
219 West 48th Street
Opening night: October 27
Les Liasons Dangereuses
Les Liasons Dangereuses
Talk about a power play. Live Schreiber, Tony Award winner for Best Actor in Glengarry Glen Ross and star of Showtime’s “Ray Donovan”; and Janet McTeer, Tony winner for Best Actress in A Doll’s House, return to Broadway in one of the sexiest plays ever written.
Les Liasons Dangereuses begins with two ex-lovers who scheme to ruin the reputation of an innocent young aristocrat. As their game of seduction and manipulation becomes more intricate, they quickly discover that the stakes are higher than they bargained for… and their last encounter may be their most dangerous by far.
Direct from London, McTeer reprises her role in the Donmar Warehouse’s critically acclaimed, sold-out production. Written by Academy Award winner Christopher Hampton, re-imagined by Olivier Award nominee and Donmar Artistic Director Josie Rourke, and brought to Broadway by the Tony-winning producer of Red, this staging promises to breathe a bold new life into one of the theater’s most provocative and intriguing plays.
Les Liasons Dangereuses
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
Opening night: October 30
