Thursday, February 20, 2014
Yankees play “Bronx Bombers” has struck out at the Broadway box office, with dismal sales prompting producers to post a closing notice for the end of this week. The play, a fanta…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:12PMWednesday, February 19, 2014
Vanessa Williams, the “Ugly Betty” star who is also a Broadway vet, will be the next guest star to have a stint in “After Midnight,” the Cotton Club-era revue that wa…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:38PMTuesday, February 18, 2014
Bryan Cranston showed some presidential power at the Broadway box office last week, as his toplining stint in LBJ historical drama “All the Way” posted sales strong enough to lan…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:30PMMonday, February 17, 2014
Although there can scarcely have been a time when the warnings of “1984” didn’t feel urgent, Edward Snowden’s revelations about present-day governmental monitoring of private behavio…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:43PMFriday, February 14, 2014
Short stories are rich resource material for plays. But Ken Urban’s new play, “The Correspondent,” would make a better short story. The plot is concise and spooky: a ma…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:30PMCarey Mulligan, Bill Nighy and Matthew Beard will topline a new West End revival of David Hare’s 1995 play “Skylight,” to be helmed by Stephen Daldry. Mulligan was last on …
SOURCE: Variety at 08:40AMThursday, February 13, 2014
The blistering snowstorm that continues to pummel much of the Eastern seaboard is also putting the entertainment business in a deep freeze, closing movie theaters in major cities like New Yo…
SOURCE: Variety at 08:52PMJohn Lithgow toplines “King Lear” and Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater star in “Much Ado About Nothing” in New York this summer, with both titles lined up for the 2014 …
SOURCE: Variety at 05:39PMTuesday, February 11, 2014
“The Book of Mormon,” which has made a habit of breaking box office records on Broadway, has claimed a major title on the road, too: The production’s national tour has logg…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:51PMHugh Jackman has signed on to host the 68th annual Tony Awards in June, returning to the legit kudocast he previously emceed in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Jackman is a favorite among legit auds an…
SOURCE: Variety at 02:19PMMaggie Gyllenhaal, who’s appeared on New York stages multiple times but never on Broadway, will make her Main Stem debut this fall, starring opposite Ewan McGregor in the upcoming Roun…
SOURCE: Variety at 12:30PM“This night is killing him,” Kelly Ripa said Monday night in Bryan Lourd‘s living room. Well, it wasn’t actually in Lourd’s gracious New York penthouse, but it …
SOURCE: Variety at 02:44AMMonday, February 10, 2014
Producers of Broadway’s “Cinderella” are glad they called her, maybe: Carly Rae Jepson, who joined the cast of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Feb. 4 alongside Fran Drescher, helpe…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:39PMPlaywright Rebecca Gilman is known for tackling the topical (racism in academia in “Spinning into Butter,” stalking in “Boy Gets Girl”) and for carefully, even over-bluntly, placing …
SOURCE: Variety at 02:00PMSunday, February 9, 2014
The swarms of fans who are drawn, moth-like, to the incandescent flame that is Charles Busch will no doubt fly to “The Tribute Artist.” This frantic farce unites the scribe/perf…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PMFriday, February 7, 2014
On Cyber Monday 2013, mobile purchases accounted for 17% of all retail sales, or more than $350 million in a single day. On Broadway, mobile ticket sales made up just 0.08% of all purchases,…
SOURCE: Variety at 01:00PMThursday, February 6, 2014
So, what’s next — golf? Scribe-for-hire Eric Simonson and producers Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo have this factory assembly-line thing going with pro sports organizations: Fi…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PMBrian Zeilinger, a young producer who’s had a hand in a string of Broadway and West End shows, has launched a new Gotham-based management company, Catapult. Zeilinger aims to parlay in…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:25PMOprah Winfrey may have found her Broadway project at last, as word has gotten out that she’s considering a revival of Marsha Norman’s ” ‘Night, Mother” in which…
SOURCE: Variety at 02:31PMTuesday, February 4, 2014
Harvey Fierstein, Andrew Rannells, Michael Urie, Roger Rees, Jonathan Groff, Laura Benanti: All of these familiar Broadway faces, and a ton more, got together to put on a show. Making the ro…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:34PM“Amazing Grace,” the new musical that’s been seen in Gotham in a couple of industry presentations, has locked in a world premiere production as part of the Broadway in Chi…
SOURCE: Variety at 01:51PMMonday, February 3, 2014
The prophets of doom turned out to be right last week, as the Super Bowl took a supersized bite out of Broadway sales that were already weakened by the annual January slowdown. Box office sl…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:20PMFriday, January 31, 2014
Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale have teamed with Universal Stage Prods., producer Colin Ingram and Amblin Entertainment to turn 1985 time-travel comedy “Back to the Future” int…
SOURCE: Variety at 08:44AMThursday, January 30, 2014
The Williamstown Theater Festival has given New York legiters a couple of reasons to spend a weekend in the Berkshires this summer, with Chita Rivera, Renee Fleming, Joe DiPietro and Kathlee…
SOURCE: Variety at 06:21PMWith the Hollywood awards season building to an Oscar frenzy, the legit world’s 2014 kudo season continues to come into focus as the Drama Desk sets dates for its annual round of award…
SOURCE: Variety at 02:55PMChris Jones, the veteran theater journo who is the chief theater critic and columnist at the Chicago Tribune, will take the reins at the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:00AMWednesday, January 29, 2014
Broadway may have ended a record-breaking streak last season, but across the pond, numbers are on their way up. In London, both box office and attendance rose to new highs in 2013, according…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:30PMTuesday, January 28, 2014
With the producer of the stage version of “King Kong” talking up an impending Broadway opening during an interview on Australian radio, the New York run of the big-budget, Aussi…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:09PMShirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer topliner “Elsa and Fred,” a remake of the 2008 Argentinian/Spanish hit, will open the 31st annual Miami Intl. Film Festival, a ten day ev…
SOURCE: Variety at 02:39PMMonday, January 27, 2014
Isn’t it just a bit ironic that “Stop Hitting Yourself,” the Rude Mechs’ pointed (if only fitfully funny) satire of American materialism, should be playing in the gra…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PMLast week’s blizzard blew a chill wind over the Broadway box office, further softening up sales in a month that is often one of the Main Stem’s cruelest. The severe stormfront, dumping s…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:45PM 
