Exciting spring season for plays

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:36pm

13 plays are set to open between March 9 and April 30. Too many, of course, but given that The Seagull, All My Sons and Speed-the-Plow are the only shows that have recouped this season, maybe it's not such a bad thing. For once, it's not about the musicals!

On paper, the pedigree of what's coming seems unusually high - and a spring season that includes Eugene Ionesco, Friedrich Schiller, Samuel Beckett, Alan Ayckbourn, August Wilson, Neil LaBute, Noel Coward, Yasmina Reza and by my count, four new plays by American authors (now that Moises Kaufman is an American citizen) is ok with me.

So, here's the list of what's coming. Which ones are you excited about? For me, I cannot wait for Norman Conquests, Exit the King, Mary Stuart and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (my fave of August Wilson's cycle).

33 Variations (opens March 9 at the O'Neill)
Impressionism (opens March 12 at the Schoenfeld)
Blithe Spirit (opens March 15 at the Shubert)
God of Carnage (opens March 22 at the Jacobs)
Exit the King (opens March 26 at the Barrymore)
Irena's Vow (opens March 29 at the Kerr)
reasons to be pretty (opens April 2 at the Lyceum)
Joe Turner's Come and Gone (opens April 16 at the Belasco)
Mary Stuart (opens April 19 at the Broadhurst)
The Norman Conquests (opens April 23 at Circle in the Square)
The Philanthropist (opens April 26 at American Airlines)
Accent on Youth (opens April 29 at the Friedman)
Waiting for Godot (opens April 30 at Studio 54)

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:41pm

I have to say, I'm excited for the whole list.

But especially GOD OF CARNAGE, for which the script is sitting on my nightstand, and EXIT THE KING.

But looking at that list of the playwrights coming in - it's fabulous.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:48pm

The spring does indeed look especially bright. I'm really looking forward to a marathon day of The Norman Conquests, as well as seeing Blithe Spirite and Exit the King. Everything coming in looks worth seeing. I can't say the same for the musicals, but I generally don't see musicals, so this spring season works out quite well for me.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:48pm

It's fantastic!

Mary Stuart looks like a fantastic resurrection of the Schiller play, which is exciting.

Joe Turner... i mean, just YAY!

My only quip is that there's no Pill in reasons to be pretty. I just hope she gets back to the stage soon

[Chip12]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:50pm

God of Carnage has Tony Soprano in it, right?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:53pm

Nope.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:53pm

The big confrontation scene in Mary Stuart between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I is really one of the great scenes in world theatre, plus Janet McTeer is fabulous in everything she touches. I also can't wait to see the rain!

[Chip12]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 9:56pm

Yankee, isn't James Gandelfini Tony Soprano?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:00pm

No. James Gandolfini was Tony Soprano.

He is not Tony Soprano. He is James Gandolfini.

Lot of people get that confused.

[Chip12]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:01pm

Well, I know that's not his real name!!LOL

What, do you think I dont know the difference between TV and real life?

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:03pm

That is a great list. MARY STUART is a pretty fantastic play. I'd love to see it again.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:05pm

Back to the subject at hand, interesting that Joe Turner's Come and Gone is being revived the same season as Speed-the-Plow. Both shows originally opened in 1988, though both plays lost the Best Play Tony to M. Butterfly. Also in 1988, Joan Allen won her Tony Award for Burn This, and now she's back too!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:09pm

It'll be interesting to see how JOE TURNER is received, especially with a Caucasian director. Didn't Wilson famously once state that he'd never want a non-African American to direct his work?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:16pm

I think he did, but Bartlett Sher should fare nicely with it. I hope the play enjoys greater success this time around. It had the misfortune of following the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences. Now, Fences was a very very good play, but I think Joe Turner was better. But, Joe Turner was a darker, more disturbing play than Fences, and I'm not sure people were quite ready for it. Delroy Lindo's haunted performance in the City of Bones scene is still etched in my mind, more than 20 years later.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:20pm

The plethora of non-musical plays coming up is mind boggling -- most I've seen in years. I usually like to see anything during the late preview period, but I'm going to have the forego that practice for now. I've already got tickets for Blithe Spirit, with reasons to be pretty (didn't see it off-Broadway) and Exit the King high on my list.

Two itsy-bitsy cavils. The number of revivals appears to be disproportionate to the number of new plays. And, although I know it's all tied up with Tony expectations and other reasons, I really wish the plays could have been spread out more evenly throughout the season. When you consider that we didn't really have all the much in the way of non-musicals during the fall, it would have made for a more varied season earlier on. By Tony time, Equus and Dividing the Estate will probably be forgotten entities -- undeservedly so, IMO.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:35pm

There were eight plays that opened in the fall (Equus, The Seagull, To Be or Not To Be, Speed-the-Plow, A Man for All Seasons, All My Sons, Dividing the Estate, American Buffalo), so it's not as if all of the action for plays is just happening this spring. Also, the tally of five new plays and eight revivals this spring is not as unsettling as it seems, since four of the play revivals are being produced by the non-profits. And at least three of the four commercially produced play revivals are risky, exciting, uncoventional choices (not slighting the delightful Blithe Spirit, but I'm referring to Exit the King, Mary Stuart and The Norman Conquests).

[BroadwayBoy2]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:41pm

Will the Norman Conquest do a marathon day like Coast of Utopia did? Also, why in its original run was it not acknowledge (i butchered that one) as a play?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:45pm

Yes, The Norman Conquests will be doing all three plays on Saturdays. The Drama Desk awarded it Unique Theatrical Experience back in 1975, but they most certainly are plays.

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:54pm

The Spring Preview episode of Theater Talk is now up on their website. They really didn't cover everything because they were too busy with the sarcastic remarks and quips. Not a Musto fan and didn't like his remark about the economy. But it is worth a watch. Some good conversation did get in there. And they seem to think that "HAIR" will be at the Walter Kerr!

Updated On: 2/15/09 at 10:54 PM

[BroadwayBoy2]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 11:09pm

I don't know why but I have this dying urge to see The Norman Conquests. Is anyone a fan of this piece?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 11:28pm

I'm an unabashed Ayckbourn fan, and think these plays are his best work. Reviews for the Old Vic's production were uniformly wonderful, and friends who saw it raved.

Here are a few of the notices:

Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/the-norman-conquests-the-old-vic-954355.html

International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/22/arts/lon22.php

Times
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article4908252.ece

Time Out London
http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/event/115472/the-norman-conquests.html

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 12:04am

I'm excited for "The Norma Conquests." I don't know anything about it, but I really want to go on one of the marathon days!

And I'm so excited for "reasons to be pretty" and "Enter the King." My two favorite playwrights with plays I haven't seen or read!

[being.jeremiah]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 12:28am

My two favorite playwrights with plays I haven't seen or read!

Something's just wrong with that phrase.

*****

Well, I'm excited to see ALL of them. After a really disappointing Hedda Gabler and simply compelling The American Plan (not to mention the truly hilarious You're Welcome, America: A Final Night with George W. Bush, can't wait for what's to come this season in plays.

Next up: 33 Variations this Wednesday.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 2:05am

Didn't Wilson famously once state that he'd never want a non-African American to direct his work?

He qualified that, slightly: he said that he'd never want a non-African American to direct a film of his work ("The film is still going to be here 180 years from now"). He mentioned a white-directed production of (I think FENCES) he saw that "they didn't do too bad with: they missed a few things, but I fixed them."

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 7:01am

I am looking forward to two plays this Spring: IRENA'S VOW and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS. I have been waiting for THE NORMAN CONQUESTS to appear on Broadway Box or Givenik. Does anyone know when that may happen?