ThisbroadSway Spring 2015 Preview

 
The snow is falling and it’s freezing in New York City and that can only mean one thing...that   Broadway is going to start heating up.  This spring lineup is full of excitement and surprises.   

We’ve got Kings and Queens, Doctors and Fish, Trains and Planes,  French girls, and Americans in France.    Big names like Tyne Daly come back for the first time since Mothers and Sons and we will see if Kristen Chenoweth can keep the On The 20th Century train on it’s tracks.   Also gracing the stage will be giants like Helen Mirren,  Chita Rivera, Kelly O’Hara,  Larry David,  and Renee Fleming.  We have seven brand  new musicals - Dr. Zhivago, It Shoulda Been You, Something Rotten, Finding Neverland, Fun Home, The Visit and the much anticipated An American in Paris fresh from the Théâtre du Châtelet.  A worthy production that is sure to fill the Palace Theatre in more ways than one.    Let’s see if everything comes up roses this spring thaw.   I know I’m excited, and before you know it the Tony’s will be here.   

Here’s the list to ponder in order of preview opening (not the actual opening)

ThisbroadSway Spring 2015 Preview 
 
 2/2/15-Fish in the Dark 
Cast: Larry David, Jayne Houdyshell, Jake Cannavale, Johnny Orsini, Rosie Perez, Jerry Adler, Ben Shenkman, Lewis J. Stadlen, Marylouise Burke, Jennifer Lyon

Inspired by the death of a friend's father, Larry David's play features approximately 15 characters. avid will make his Broadway debut, writing and starring in this play.

2/12/15-On the Twentieth Century 
Cast: Kristin Chenoweth, Peter Gallagher, Andy Karl, Michael McGrath, Mark Linn-Baker, Mary Louise Wilson

A struggling Broadway producer tries to get a former lover, now a Hollywood star, to sign a contract to star in his latest (and as yet un-conceived) play as they travel on the luxury train Twentieth Century Limited from Chicago to New York.
 
2/14/15-The Audience 
Cast: Helen Mirren, Dylan Baker, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Elwyn, Judith Ivey, Richard McCabe, Dakin Matthews, Rod McLachlan, Rufus Wright.  

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace. The Audience imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister uses these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional — sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive.

2/23/15-The Heidi Chronicles
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Jason Biggs, Bryce Pinkham, Tracee Chimo, Ali Ahn, Leighton Bryan, Elise Kibler, Andy Truschinski

Wendy Wasserstein's 1989 drama traces the coming of age of Heidi Holland as she tries to find her bearings in a rapidly changing America.

3/10/15-The Heart of Robinhood
Cast: TBD

A new twist on the classic story sees Maid Marion setting the hood and his gang straight.  This promises Shakespearean allusions and theatrical acrobatics.

3/12/15- The King and I
Cast: Kelli O'Hara, Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Conrad Ricamora, Ashley Park, Edward Baker-Duly, Jon Viktor Corpuz, Murphy Guyer, Jakes Lucas, Paul Nakauchi, Marc OkaIn

In 1860s Siam, Anna, a British schoolteacher, is hired as part of King Mongkut's drive to modernize his country. So it is written, so it is done at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre @Lincoln Center

3/13/15-An American in Paris
Cast: Robert Fairchild, Leanne Cope, Veanne Cox, Jill Paice, Brandon Uranowitz, Max von Essen

Set in World War II veteran Jerry Mulligan chooses newly-liberated Paris as the place to make a name for himself as a painter. But Jerry's life becomes complicated when he meets Lise, a young Parisian shop girl with her own secret – and gets caught up in this love quadrangle. Coming to us fresh from Paris where it previewed at the Théâtre du Châtelet to sold out audiences and rave reviews now comes to Broadway at the Palace Theatre.

3/14/15-Hand to God
Cast: Steven Boyer, Geneva Carr, Michael Oberholtzer, Sarah Stiles, Marc Kudisch

This R Rated puppet show played at the Lucille Lortel last year to sold out audiences, and rave reviews. Steven Boyer is brilliant, but you puritans may want to skip this one.

 3/15/15- Finding Neverland
Cast: Matthew Morrison, Laura Michelle Kelley, Kelsey Grammer, Carolee Carmello

J.M. Barrie's last play was an abysmal failure and his career is threatened by crippling writers block. But then a chance meeting in a London park with a woman and her spirited young boys provides just the inspiration he needs. Previewed at Boston's American Repertory Theatre (starring Jeremy Jordan) July - September 2014 to mixed reviews. 

3/16/15-Skylight
Cast: Bill Nighy, Carey Mulligan, Matthew Beard

On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis (Mulligan) receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, Tom Sergeant ( Nighy), a successful and charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died. As the evening progresses, the two attempt to rekindle their once passionate relationship, only to find themselves locked in a dangerous battle of opposing ideologies and mutual desires.

3/17/2015-It Shoulda Been You
Cast: Tyne Daley, Harriet Harris, Sierra Boggess, Lisa Howard, David Burtka, Edward Hibbert, Steve Rosen, Chip Zien, Montego Glover, Josh Grisetti

The bride is Jewish. The groom is Catholic. Her mother is a force of nature, his mother is a tempest in a cocktail shaker. And when the bride’s ex-boyfriend shows up, the perfect wedding starts to unravel faster than you can whistle “Here Comes the Bride!” This David Hyde Pierce production premiered at George Street Playhouse in 2011. Much of the George Street cast returns for the Broadway run, including Tyne Daly.  Sierra Boggess and David Burtka are Broadway additions.

 3/19/15-Gigi
Cast: Vanessa Hudgens, Victoria Clark, Corey Cott, Dee Hoty, Howard McGillin, Steffanie Leigh

A young French girl being groomed for the life of a courtesan attracts the attention of an older playboy whom she had always considered a friend, in Lerner and Loewe's stage adaptation of their 1958 film musical, based on Colette's novel.

3/20/15-Wolf Hall, Parts One & Two
Cast: Ben Miles, Lydia Leonard, Nathaniel Parker

Brits are back on Broadway with this stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel's prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

3/23/15-Something Rotten!
Cast: Christian Borle, Brian D'Arcy James, John Cariani, Heidi Blickenstaff, Brad Oscar, Kate Reinders, Brooks Ashmanskas, Peter Bartlett, Gerry Vichi, Michael James Scott 

It's the 1590s, and brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are desperate to write a hit play but are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rockstar known as 'The Bard.' When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world’s very first musical.
 
3/26/15-The Visit
Cast: Chita Rivera, Roger Rees

Claire Zachanassian, the oft-widowed richest woman in the world, returns to the hardship-stricken town of her birth. The locals pray that her wealth will bring them a new lease on life, but the carefully plotted renewal she offers carries a dreadful price.

3/27/15-Fun Home
Cast: Michael Ceveris, Judy Kuhn, Sydney Lucas, Beth Malone, Emily Skeggs, Joel Perez, Robert Colindrez, Zell Morrow, Oscar Williams

When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires.This played at the Public Theatre last year to sold out audiences and took many awards.It now moves to Broadway.

3/27/15-Doctor Zhivago
Cast: Tam Mutu, Kelli Barrett, Tom Hewitt, Paul Nolan

A young physician and his beautiful mistress get swept up in the danger and drama of the Bolshevik Revolution in this epic musical based on the classic novel by Nobel Prize author Boris Pasternak.

4/1/15-Living on Love
Cast: Renée Fleming, Douglas Sills, Anna Chlumsky, Blake Hammond, Scott Robertson

When celebrated diva Raquel De Angelis' husband Vito becomes enamored with the lovely young lady hired to ghostwrite his largely fictional autobiography, Raquel retaliates by hiring her own handsome, young scribe to chronicle her life as an opera star.
Kathleen Marshall's production was first produced and presented in July 2014 by the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

4/1/15-Airline Highway
Cast:  TBA

In the parking lot of The Hummingbird, a once-glamorous motel on New Orleans' infamous Airline Highway, a group of friends gather. A rag-tag collection of strippers, hustlers, and philosophers have come together to celebrate the life of Miss Ruby, an iconic burlesque performer who has requested a funeral before she dies. The party rages through the night as old friends resurface to pay their respects.
-thisbroadsway 2/16/2015