1969 After 97 preview performances, Jackie Mason and Mike Mortman‘s A Teaspoon Every Four Hours opens—and closes—on Broadway. The play’s unusually long preview period gives it the record for the most previews of a Broadway show before its opening night. Its record is surpassed exactly 42 years later, by Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark.
1979 Flowers for Algernon, a new musical by Charles Strouse and David Rogers, opens at London’s Queen’s Theatre. Based on the novel by Daniel Keyes, the show stars a pre-PhantomMichael Crawford as Charlie Gordon, the same role that won Cliff Robertson an Oscar for Charly, the film version of the novel. Cheryl Kennedy co-stars in the musical.
1979 Film star Al Pacino (already a household name thanks to the Godfather films and Dog Day Afternoon) returns to his Broadway roots in the title role of Richard III.
1990 John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation premieres at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse, starring Stockard Channing, John Cunningham, and James McDaniel.Inspired by a true story, the play follows a group of wealthy New Yorkers who are taken in by a conman who claims to be the son of actor-director Sidney Poitier. The work eventually transfers to the Vivian Beautmont Theatre on Broadway, where it is Tony-nominated for Best Play and named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist.
2001 Young people, New York City, music. Those are the ingredients that matter in a new musical comedy, I Sing!, opening at the Maverick Theatre Off-Broadway. Benjamin Salka directs the new work he co-wrote with composer Eli Bolin and lyricist Sam Forman. The libretto is by Bolin, Forman and Salka. The cast includes newcomers Billy Eichner, Jeff Juday, Jodie Langel, Michael Raine, and Meredith Zeitlin.
2006 Kate Burton stars as a woman scorned opposite Tony Goldwyn as her long estranged ex-husband when Theresa Rebeck’s The Water’s Edge opens its Off-Broadway premiere at Second Stage Theatre. Directed by Will Frears, the cast also includes Mamie Gummer, Austin Lysy, and Katharine Powell.
200710 Million Miles, the new Keith Bunin-Patty Griffin musical at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theatre. Directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer, the cast includes Matthew Morrison, Irene Molloy, Mare Winningham, and Skipp Sudduth.
2010 Obie, Lucille Lortel, and GLAAD Award winner Colman Domingo, having just been seen Off-Broadway in The Scottsboro Boys, joins the Broadway company of Chicago as Billy Flynn for a five-week limited engagement.
2011 Following the longest preview period in Broadway history—performances began November 28, 2010—Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark officially opens at Broadway’s Foxwoods Theatre. Over the course of its 182 previews, original director/librettist/designer Julie Taymor was replaced by creative consultant Philip Wm. McKinley and librettist Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who made changes to the musical during a month-long hiatus in April-May 2011. Reeve Carney stars as the superhero with the powers of a spider in the show which cost a reported $75 million, by far the most expensive in Broadway history.
2012 A revival of Mary Chase‘s 1944 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy Harvey opens on Broadway at Studio 54. The Roundabout Theatre Company production stars Jim Parsons as Elwood P. Dowd, a man whose best friend is a 6-foot-tall rabbit.
The new film adaptation of ‘In The Heights’ has brought in box office numbers that are lower than predicted. The film was expected to generate more than 20 million. However, with it bringing in4.9 million on Friday from 3,456 theaters, its 3-day estimate is now just under 13 million.
Many musical theatre songs employ the rhythm of an Argentinian tango—think “Mushnik and Son” from Little Shop of Horrors or “Hernando’s Hideaway” from The Pajama Game—but we’ve decided to make this quiz easy for you and only include show tunes with “tango” in the song title.
Click through the gallery below and see how many tangos you can name from the lyrics. Bonus points if you know the musical, too.
How Many Musical Theatre Tangos Can You Identify From Their Lyrics?
Happy heat index! Hoo boy, it’s hot outside in NYC this week. Or as Abuela Claudia says “Ay, carajo, it’s hot!” Speaking of that character, I’m so happy Olga Merediz is reprising her role from Off-Broadway and Broadway in the new In The Heights film. I was always stunned by her emotional and brilliantly performed number, “Paciencia Y Fé.” However, she told me she used to feel sometimes like she was about to pass out after the final note and I don’t blame her.
I was remembering recently that there are stories I’ve heard on Stars in the House that I haven’t put in my column because I’ve run out of space. One was during a game night featuring Chris Sieber. We were discussing his hilarious scene in Sex and the City when Samantha (played by Kim Cattrall) is told by a friend that the massage therapist Kevin (played by Sieber) will have sex with her during her session. She decides to move things along by putting her hand on his crotch…and he rejects her. Chris told me that they kept re-doing the shot so she wound up putting hand on his crotch numerous times. Watch how great he is in the scene. There’s so much silent movie acting…all in his face!
And during our Godspell reunion on Stars in the House, I asked Stephen Schwartz about “Bless the Lord,” which completely changes tempo/feel in the middle. He said he learned that from listening to Laura Nyro—pop songs can suddenly have a different feel and still be cohesive! Be sure to seek out the amazing version featuring future Tony Award winner, Lindsay Mendez.
Broadway Bares 1992 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
On my SiriusXM talk show Seth Speaks, I interviewed Jerry Mitchell who’s quarantining in London. He’s there to work on Hairspray and Pretty Woman. We talked about this year’s Broadway Bares which streams June 20at 9 PM ET. It all began in 1992 when Jerry was in Will Rogers Follies wearing barley anything. He walked into his group dressing room and the late, great Jason Opsahl jokingly said, “why don’t you go dance on the bar at Splash?!” P.S. Splash was a fun gay bar in Chelsea. This was around the time the cast was raising money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, leading up to the Easter Bonnet Competition and Jerry thought it would be a great way to get some funds raised.
He called a bunch of guys with “great bodies” and choreographed some sexy numbers. When they got to the bar, there was a line out the door! They wound up doing two shows and raising $10,000 and that was the beginning. Broadway Bares has gotten bigger and bigger and has now raised millions of dollars. One of the other reasons he did the show was to show people that he could choreograph and we began discussing how the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefits are such great showcases for up-and-coming choreographers. I wrote my first Easter Bonnet Competition opening number and it was choreographed by newcomer Kathleen Marshall, and a few years later, I teamed up with newbie Chris Gattelli. Both now have Tony Awards (side note: I don’t).
In terms of upcoming musicals, Jerry talked about three new ones he’s working on for Broadway: Becoming Nancy, another inspired by Betty Boop (with Bob Martin writing the book, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and music by David Foster), and finally an adaptation of Jeffrey Self’s YA novel Drag Teen. The creative team for that one includes book writer Troy Johnson, with a score by Stephen Oremus and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. Fun!
I asked Jerry about his early experiences on Broadway and he told me about being a swing in Woman of the Year with Lauren Bacall. She was very intimidating and one day while he was getting ready to go on, he was warming up and hit one of the pre-set mannequins that was behind the scrim. Lauren whirled around and yelled, “Be careful with the dummies, be careful with the lifts and be careful with me!” Well, instead of cowering, he yelled back “I am careful with the dummies, I am careful with the lifts, and I am careful with you!” The next day she came in, gave him a big smile and told him “Great job last night!” He feels she had been testing him and appreciated that he stood up to her. A few months later, he was doing Night of a Thousand Stars, a giant fundraiser for the Actors Fund. On one of his arms was Ethel Merman and on the other, Carol Channing. Ann Miller saw him, ran up, and told him, “You’re so tall and such a great dancer! I want you in my Broadway show.” Lauren pushed Ann aside and told her “You can’t have him! He’s in my Broadway show.” She went from starting up with him to hoarding him!
As we discussed his own work, Jerry said one of the biggest lessons he’s learned is to not have everything planned out. He still comes prepared to rehearsal, but he’s much more open to hearing ideas from everyone and creating during the rehearsal process. We agreed that when you first start out, you want to show that you are completely on your gig and you feel like you have to prove you know everything. More experience makes you more confident and allows you to not have to prove anything. Jerry and I worked together for a long time putting together production numbers on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. Here’s one of the most dance-y ones…a tribute to Dick Van Dyke, who makes an amazing surprise appearance.
Stars in the House also had the hilarious and musically talented cast of the TV show Girls 5Eva. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s about a marginally successful ‘90s group (thing Spice Girls) who have all (except one) left the business. Flash forward to today, and one of their songs is sampled by a popular artist. The 4 women who are still alive (the fifth, played by Ashley Park, died swimming off an infinity pool) try to get the group back together again and on the radio. Cast mates Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, Busy Phillips, and Sara Bareilles, creator Meredith Scardino, and producers Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond all dropped by for a chat. James asked Tina why she thought of Sara Bareilles for a sitcom lead and Tina started to say she had seen Sara perform and then Sara joked that it was in the live version of Jesus Christ Superstar. (Mary Magdalene is not a role that can land you a sitcom.) However, Tina did see Sara in Waitress and thought she was loveable, quirky, and comedic and she’d be perfect to play Dawn. And she was right! Watch highlights of the fabulous cast
James and I were also so happy to see our pal Jennifer Simard in an episode where she plays a bizarre woman who rents her house as an Airbnb but, while she has guests, secretly lives in a locked closet. Tina told us she cast her because she’s been a fan ever since she saw her in Disaster! playing the nun with the gambling addiction. Tina added that it was the funniest performance she’d ever seen on Broadway. And, I might add, brilliantly sung! Here’s my deconstruction.
Busy Phillips is the group member who can’t really sing but can nail the final spoken line in songs. However, in real life, she loves singing. Check this out! And Paula Pell plays the group member who becomes a dentist. She was so hilarious as the character based on Elaine Stritch in the mockumentary called Co-op. Here she is doing “I Gotta Go.” (The actual version of Elaine recording “The Ladies Who Lunch” is also worth checking out). And finally, here’s the title track of “Girls5Eva” written by Jeff Richmond and Meredith Scardino.
In live concert news, I’ll be doing one with Matthew Morrison on Sunday at 3 PM ET (and repeated at 8 PM). We’ll be doing tons of songs from his career including Hairspray, Light in The Piazza, South Pacific, and much more! Get ye olde tix at TheSethConcertSeries.com. What many people may not remember is Matt was one of the boys in Fresh Step—the fake boy band that David Letterman would trick audiences with. Watch the video here—he’s in the red outfit with his shirt wide open. Peace out!
Celebrate Matthew Morrison’s Birthday With a Photo Lookback
BroadwayWorld is thrilled to announce that Broadway’s Next on Stage Dance Edition is back for Season 2 sponsored by LaDuca Shoes Inspired by your favorite network TV dancing contests, BroadwayWorld is inviting high school and college aged students to submit videos of themselves performing to asong from the musical theatre canon to enter the competition.
The KILL ONE Race, a seven-episode game-play by Raja Feather Kelly (We’re Gonna Die, Fairview, A Strange Loop) and the feath3r theory, continues through June 12 after premiering June 4.
Part-documentary, part-theatre, and part-reality TV game show, The KILL ONE Race follows seven contestants competing to be proven the most ethical—and earn the singular prize of death—over the course of seven days. The virtual production was conceived, production designed, and directed by Kelly as a commentary on reality TV’s grasp on reality.
Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, the piece wasa filmed on the company’s mainstage, where the cast recreated a macabre game first envisioned in the fictional 1963 dystopian novel Kill One.
A Look at Raja Feather Kelly’s The KILL ONE Race at Playwrights Horizons
A Look at Raja Feather Kelly’s The KILL ONE Race at Playwrights Horizons
19 PHOTOS
“On broadcast television, 15 of the top 20 highest-rated programs among the younger adult group are reality or unscripted shows. Are we aware of the negative psychological effect, the insidious impact on our behavior, or the real estate this form occupies in our moral landscape?” Kelly explained in a previous statement. “As we get more and more information from reality TV, we become more and more desirous of competition. People are willing to give up their families; they’re willing to give up their money; they’re willing to be embarrassed; what’s next? I believe that if we don’t start making fun of it and pointing a finger at it, the premise of these shows will soon be, ’who’s gonna be the first to die?’“
Kelly appears alongside Chris Bell, Alexandra Giroux, Amy Hoang, Claire Gieringer, Jamen Nanthakumar, Alexander Paris, Fana Fraser, Rio Sofia, and Lucien Zayan.
The creative team includes Laura Snow as media producer and lead editor, CJ Ferroni as director of photography, with lighting design by Tuce Yasak, set design by You-Shin Chen, music by Remy Kurs, and creative architecture by Sophie Maguire. Brandi Holt is company manager, Colm Summers serves as assistant to director, and Iliya Vidrin and Jessi Stegall in place as ethics consultants. The series is co-produced by Snow and Kelly.
The series can be streamed at TheKillOneRace.com. Episodes 1 and 2 became available June 4, followed by Episodes 3 and 4 on June 7. Episode 5 are due on June 9, Episode 6 on June 11, and Episode 7 on June 12.
