Broadway Week Begins. Stage-Ready News of the Week – New York Theater

Today begins Broadway Week, a two-for-one ticket discount for current Broadway shows. It's the start of a busy month and a great season. In September alone, three Broadway shows will premiere and five more will begin previews.

Broadway Season Preview 2024-2025

And there is much more than just Broadway.

Theater openings in New York in September 2024

Theatre quiz for August 2024

The Week in New York – Theater Reviews

48 Hours in Harlem: 6 plays inspired by the courageous speeches of black leaders

As in years past, participating writers, directors and actors had just 48 hours to conceive, rehearse and perform half a dozen short plays, each inspired by a specific theme. For the first time this year, the inspiration was not classical plays or other literary works, but memorable speeches by black leaders.

Hurricane season

It would be silly to dismiss Hurricane Season simply because the production has no final curtain and the cast must work through the entire intermission, making a sort of robotic ponga dance back and forth across the stage incessantly… Yet these obviously artistic touches served as a clue—or turning point—that led me to a question I was asking about the piece as a whole: How much of this arises organically from an original artistic vision, and how much of it is a self-conscious attempt to enter the pantheon of the avant-garde?

John Patrick Shanley and the art of the 15-minute piece at the Chain Summer One Act Festival

Following the recent Broadway revival of his Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play “Doubt” and his new Off-Broadway hit “Brooklyn Laundry,” John Patrick Shanley has written another new play this year, “Banshee,” which is getting considerably less attention. That's not surprising, since it's running Off-Off-Broadway… for only four performances (the last one on Saturday)… on a program with four other plays… and it's one of fourteen such programs (about fifty new plays in all) as part of the annual Chain Summer One Act Festival.

The week in New York theater news

“The Notebook” closes on Broadway on December 15, after 35 previews and 317 regular performances.

Full cast for Tammy Faye, opening November 19 at the Palace, Katie Brayben as Tammy Faye Bakker, Christian Borle as Jim Bakker and Michael Cerveris as Rev. Jerry Falwell. Accompanying cast are Autumn Hurlbert, Nick Bailey, Charl Brown, Mark Evans, Allison Guinn, Ian Lassiter, Raymond J. Lee, Max Gordon Moore, Alana Pollard, Andy Taylor, Amanda Clement, Michael Di Liberto, Jonathan Duvelson, Lily Kaufmann, Denis Lambert, Elliott Mattox, Brittany Nicholas, Kevin Quillon, Aveena Sawyer, Allysa Shorte, TJ Tapp, Daniel Torres and Dana Wilton.

Broadway theater artists zoom for Harris

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition presents A night of artivism September 16 at the Playhouse Theater at the Abrons Theater in Manhattan.

The Bushwick Starr celebrates its new permanent home on Saturday, September 7 (weather permitting)
from 4-8pm

The state of workers’ theatre on Labour Day 2024. Questions and answers with Colm Summers from Working Theatre

“Some of my favorite playwrights in the American theater – like Martyna Majok [Ironbound, Cost of Living, Sanctuary City] and Lynn Nottage [Sweat, Clyde’s]and even more contemporary playwrights like Alex Lin [“Chinese Republicans”] – are examples for me of the fact that work-related theatre is continuing to thrive.
But it's true that our genre is underrepresented. And while we may tell working-class stories on stage, we've created a theater economy where working-class or lower-income people don't have the same access as people with a Master of Fine Arts or conservatory training. That limits the kind of artists whose work we see on American stages.”

Were 45 years as director of the Second Stage enough? Not for Carole Rothman. (NY Times)

There is much debate about the long tenures of artistic directors in New York. They stayed for 45 years. André Bishop ran the Lincoln Center Theater for 32 years. Lynne Meadow has been at the Manhattan Theater Club for over 50 years. Todd Haimes was at Roundabout for 40 years.

Do you think we all did a good job? Do you think we all helped the theatre to be a success? Do you think our experience, our knowledge, our good taste are valuable?

Todd rebuilt a bankrupt theater. The stability that André gave to Lincoln Center was crucial. Lynne's plays were nominated for three Tonys this year, and two of them were written by women. I took over a theater that didn't exist and made it successful.

Do you have any advice for your successor?

NO.

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