front mezz junkies

15 Shows You Should Already Have Tickets For. Broadway and Off Broadway.

• Theatre: Ethel Barrymore
• Previews: December 17, 2016
• Opening: January 8, 2017
• Written by Andrew Upton
• Director: John Crowley
• Cast: Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh

This is the one I couldn’t wait to get tickets for.  The cast says it all, Blanchett on Broadway, and then you add in that it’s a new play based on Chekhov’s Platonov, but updated to the 1990’s, and I’m sold (not that I wasn’t already). As will most, or all of the tickets before the play even opens.

2/ Les liaisons Dangereuses

• Theatre: Booth
• Previews: October 8, 2016
• Opening: October 30, 2016
• Written by Christopher Hampton
• Director: Josie Rourke
• Cast: Janet McTeer, Liev Schreiber

Once again, a classic magnificent play with a stellar cast.  ‘Tony Tony Tony’ is all I can say. And it’s a transfer from an acclaimed run at the Donmar Warehouse in London.  How can it go wrong?  So don’t wait or you might miss out.

• Theatre: Belasco
• Previews: November 14, 2016
• Opening: December 4, 2016
• Score: Ben Pasek and Justin Paul; book: Steven Levenson
• Director: Michael Greif
• Cast: Ben Platt, Laura Dreyfuss, Rachel Bay Jones, Jennifer laura Thompson, Mike Faist, Will Roland, Kristolyn Lloyd, Michael Park.

I saw this both at Arena Stage in Washington, DC and Off-Broadway at Second Stage in the spring of 2016. Winning the Outer Critics Circle Award as Best New Off-Broadway Musical, I’m so excited to see it come to Broadway.  And possibly win a few Tony nominations here and there next Spring.  Just check out what I had to say about it after the DC viewing. The title says it all:

https://frontmezzjunkies.com/2015/08/23/dear-evan-hanson-please-come-to-broadway/

5/ Othello

With this cast, especially the the two leads, David Oyelowo (Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Histories, Selma) and Daniel Craig (Betrayal, Spectre), plus the Tony Award winner Sam Gold returning to NYTW to direct this iconic play, Othello should and could be the star-studded event of the off-Broadway scene….or not.  Can you even get a ticket for this anymore? Or is it sold-out already.  I know I purchased my membership to NYTW mainly so I could buy my tickets within the first hour they went on sale (OK, OK, first few minutes..). I missed Lazarus last year, and I’m looking forward to #9 on my list, Nat Turner in Jerusalem, so I think it’s going to be a good year.

 6/ Plenty

Or this could be the female-alternative star-studded off-Broadway hard-to-get ticket of the season. This was one of the first plays I ever saw on Broadway way back in 1983 starring Kate Nelligan.  I didn’t understand the play back then; the story of a English woman who served as a spy for the French Resistance during World War II dealing with her marriage, the collapse of her ideals, and her faultering sanity. I also saw the movie with Meryl Streep, and still wasn’t sure if I got it. Hopefully, this time I will understand it.

But to be honest, every production that is being done at the Public Theatre this year sounds so amazing and interesting, I’m trying to see them all. Gabriels (all parts), Sweat, Tiny Beautiful Things, Party People.  Only missing a few at this point.  Need more tickets. 🙂

7/ Sweet Charity

• Theatre: Walter Kerr
• First Preview: September 29, 2016
• Target Opening: October 27, 2016
• Written by William Finn (music & lyrics), James Lapine (book)
• Director: James Lapine
• Cast: Christian Borle, Stephanie J. Block, Andrew Rannells

I saw this musical back in 1992 before I even lived in NYC.  I only remember that all the furniture was on wheels, and that I was terribly moved by the story of Marvin and his intimate and deep core relationships, including his ex-wife, his new boyfriend, his adolescent son, his psychiatrist, and his neighbors.  And with this cast, I don’t think I will be disappointed.

10/ Tick, Tick,…BOOM

11/ All The Ways To Say I Love You

• Theatre: Second Stage – Tony Kiser Theatre
• First Preview: October 15, 2016
• Opening Night: November 2, 2016
• Director: Leonard Foglia
• Cast: Anna Deavere Smith

• Theatre: Shubert
• Previews: March 15, 2017
• Opens: April 20, 2017
• Music and lyrics: Jerry Herman; book: Michael Stewart
• Director: Jerry Zaks; choreographer: Warren Carlyle
• Cast: Bette Midler, David Hyde Pierce

I hear that the weekly cost of the running of this revival is the most expensive in Broadway history.  But no wonder, look at that cast! I can’t wait to snatch up a ticket to see Bette Midler as Dolly, the matchmaker who sets out to find a match for herself at the turn of the 20th century.  Can you?

• Theatre: Vivian Beaumont
• Previews: March 23, 2017
• Opens: April 13, 2017
• Playwright: J.T. Rogers
• Director: Barlett Sher
• Cast: Jennifer Ehle, Daniel Jenkins, Jefferson Mays and Daniel Oreskes

I hear this transfer from the Lincoln Center Theatre about the top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords is something powerful to behold.  So I hope to be there to see.

• Theatre: Lunt-Fontanne
• First Preview: March 28, 2017
• Opening: April 23, 2017
• Written by David Greig (book), Marc Shaiman (music & lyrics), Scott Wittman (lyrics), Roald Dahl (novel)
• Director: Jack O’Brien
• Cast: Christian Borle

This West End transfer is looking to be the big challenger from England for the Best New Musical Tony (along with Groundhog Day) trying to snatch away the award from Dear Evan Hansen (which I’m hoping it doesn’t).  I can’t say I’m overly excited to see it.  I think I’d rather check it out in London where these kind of shows (Matilde) seem to be on the darker, more interesting side, before they get all polished and shiny for the NY Broadway crowds.

F/ Burn This

• Theatre: Hudson
• Previews: February 2017
• Opening: March 6, 2017
• Written by Lanford Wilson
• Director: Michael Mayer
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhall

With Jake Gyllenhall in the lead of a revival of the classic Lanford Wilson drama opening up the newly renovated Hudson Theatre, I’m guessing it will be a sold out limited run.  And I’m hoping I’ll be one of those lucky theatre junkies who gets to see this intense show.