Fall on Broadway - Is this the dullest season ever?

[JakeB]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 4:53pm

Brooklyn
La Cage Aux Folles
Good Vibrations
All Shook Up
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Sweet Charity
Spamalot
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Little Women
Pacific Overtures

The ones in bold are likely to be good, but the rest are just boring. Revivals and safe classics. Little Women as a stage musical? Urgh, the idea alone reminds me of Jane Eyre. But of course it has **SUTTON** in it so it can do no wrong.

Pacific Overtures, if Assassins couldn't zing it, this won't.

Sweet Charity / La Cage, OK a little glitzy and will probably be good, but you can see these on the road and in regions all the time.

All Shook Up / Good Vibrations, mindless cash-ins. They may be good but artistically they lack any kind of excitement.

Compare this to the West End:

Bat Boy
The Producers
Mary Poppins
Woman in White
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Brighton Rock
Simply Heavenly

And I know where I'd rather be...

Anyone agree?

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 4:55pm

"And I know where I'd rather be..."

I know where I'd rather be.

At home.

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 4:56pm

i have to disagree with your assessment of Assassins... remember, it was a limited run to begin with... as will be Pacific Overtures... Updated On: 8/31/04 at 04:56 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 4:56pm

yes, your right. Broadway looks so much better... the shows i MUST see: Dirty Rotten... , Pacific Overtures, Spamalot, Brookyln. And those are the shows that are on my must list only. this upcoming season (while not as good as seasons past) promises to be exciting and fun. can't wait!

Mary Poppins, the musical, puh-lease!

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 4:58pm

I'm looking forward to

Spamalot
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Pacific Overtures
La Cage aux Folles

Brooklyn, maybe

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 4:59pm

I second JoeyJoe's assessment.

However, CCBB isn't until the spring, after 42nd Street has closed.

And you're missing a whole slew of other shows...

From Playbill.com


RECKLESS

* Biltmore Theatre
* First Preview: Sept. 23
* Opening: Oct. 14
* Director: Mark Brokaw
* Cast: Mary-Louise Parker, Debra Monk, Rosie Perez
* Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Craig Lucas' 1983 play about a surburban mother who discovers her husband has taken a contract out on her life.

BROOKLYN

* Plymouth Theatre
* First Preview: Sept. 23
* Opening: Oct. 21
* Director: Jeff Calhoun
* Cast: Eden Espinosa, Kevin Anderson, Cleavant Derricks
* A new musical set in Brooklyn and Paris by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson.

LAUGH WHORE

* Cort Theatre
* First Preview: Oct. 12
* Opening: Oct. 24
* Director: Joe Mantello
* Cast: Mario Cantone
* The actor-comedian provides laughs and songs in a new solo show with music by Jerry Dixon.

TWELVE ANGRY MEN

* American Airlines Theatre
* First Preview: Oct. 1
* Opening: Oct. 28
* Director: Scott Ellis
* Cast: Philip Bosco, Boyd Gaines, Larry Bryggman
* Roundabout Theatre Company's staging of Reginald Rose's drama set in the jury room of a murder case.

GEM OF THE OCEAN

* Theatre: Walter Kerr
* First Preview: Oct. 23
* Opening: Nov. 11
* Director: Marion McClinton
* Cast: Delroy Lindo, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Phylicia Rashad, LisaGay Hamilton
* The latest play by August Wilson.

'NIGHT, MOTHER

* Royale Theatre
* First Preview: Oct. 22
* Opening: Nov. 14
* Director: Michael Mayer
* Cast: Edie Falco, Brenda Blethyn
* A revival of Marsha Norman's play about a mother and her grown daughter's desire to die.

THE GOOD BODY

* Booth Theatre
* First Preview: Oct. 22
* Opening: Nov. 15
* Director: Peter Askin
* Cast: Eve Ensler
* The Vagina Monologues scribe turns her focus on the rest of the female form and society's vision of "good."

WHOOPI

* Lyceum Theatre
* First Preview: Nov. 6
* Opening: Nov. 17
* Director: Mike Nichols
* Cast: Whoopi Goldberg
* A return engagement of the actress-comedian's 1984 Broadway solo show.

DEMOCRACY

* Brooks Atkinson Theatre
* First Preview: Nov. 2
* Opening: Nov. 18
* Director: Michael Blakemore
* Cast: James Naughton, Richard Thomas, Michael Cumpsty
* The U.S. premiere of Michael Frayn's play about West German politics and personalities during the Cold War.

DAME EDNA: BACK WITH A VENGEANCE

* Music Box Theatre
* First Preview: Nov. 5
* Opening: Nov. 21
* Cast: Barry Humphries
* Australia's Tony Award-winning First Lady returns to Broadway in a new show.

PACIFIC OVERTURES

* Studio 54
* First Preview: Nov. 12
* Opening: Dec. 2
* Director: Amon Miyamoto
* Cast: B.D. Wong, Francis Jue, Paolo Montalban, Alvin Ing
* Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical about the cultural and political opening of Japan.

700 SUNDAYS

* Broadhurst Theatre
* First Preview: Nov. 12
* Opening: Dec. 5
* Director: Des McAnuff
* Cast: Billy Crystal
* The comedian retells stories of his family and life in a new two-act play.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

* Marquis Theatre
* First Preview: Nov. 7
* Opening: Dec. 9
* Director: Jerry Zaks
* Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell
* Cast: Gary Beach, Daniel Davis, Gavin Creel
* A revival of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's musical about the marriage of the son of two long-partnered gay men.

GOOD VIBRATIONS

* Eugene O'Neill Theatre
* First Preview: Dec. 4
* Opening: Jan. 13, 2005
* Director: John Carrafa
* Choreographer: John Carrafa
* Cast: TBA
* A new musical about friends who take a road trip to California that uses the songs of the Beach Boys.

LITTLE WOMEN

* Virginia Theatre
* First Preview: Dec. 2
* Opening: Jan. 23, 2005
* Director: Susan H. Schulman
* Cast: Sutton Foster, Maureen McGovern
* Allan Knee, Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein's musical of Louisa May Alcott's durable coming-of-age tale of sisters and their mother in Civil War-era New England.

THE PILLOWMAN

* Theatre: TBA
* First Preview: Fall 2004
* Opening: Fall 2004
* Director: John Crowley
* Cast: TBA
* Martin McDonagh's play about a writer in a totalitarian state who is interrogated about the horrific events in his short stories.

THE PAJAMA GAME

* Theatre: TBA
* First Preview: 2004-05
* Opening: 2004-05
* Director: Kathleen Marshall
* Choreographer: Kathleen Marshall
* Cast: TBA
* A revival of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross' musical tale of love among labor strife.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 5:02pm

Little Women might not be that bad. I like the songs.

[Corine2]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 5:05pm

Dame Edna. Dame Edna.
Hello Jake. Dame is back.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 5:08pm

Democracy
12 Angry Men
Whoopi
'Night Mother
Pacific Overtures
Dame Edna
La Cage aux Folles
The Pillowman

(though not necessarily in that order)

[sweetiedarlinmia]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 5:24pm

I'm so glad you posted that kissmycookie. People we must remember that Broadway does not consist only of musicals. I know personally i'm looking forward to some of the plays, particularly Gem of the Ocean.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:32pm

Somebody wake me in the fall of 2005.

[LadyGuenevere]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:44pm

I'm not looking forward to this. The musicals, anyway. I'm much more excited for the straight plays.