BE SURE TO CAST YOUR VOTE IN THIS MONTH'S POLL (TO YOUR RIGHT)!
LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? BECOME A "FOLLOWER"!
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK!:- April 18: REVIEW: The Book of Mormon
- April 19: ASK JEFF: Random Questions, Random Answers
- April 20: Broadway Game: Jeopardy! Round 1
- April 21: REVIEW: Sister Act
- April 22: REVIEW: American Idiot (Final Company)
- April 23: 1st Annual Awards That Tony Forgot
SPECIAL JK'S THEATRESCENE DISCOUNT FOR THE NORMAL HEART ON BROADWAY:
TOPS AND BOTTOMS (April 11 - 17)
- Top Gross: Wicked ($1.66M)
- Bottom Gross: High ($91K)
- Top Attendance: The Book of Mormon (102.4%)
- Bottom Attendance: Million Dollar Quartet (43.4%)
- $1M Club: Mary Poppins, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Lion King, Wicked
- SRO Club: Anything Goes, The Book of Mormon, War Horse
BROADWAY BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK:
- April 18: Actor Gavin Creel (Hair, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
- April 19: Actor Betsy Joslyn (Sweeney Todd - original, Into the Woods - original)
- April 20: Actor Jessica Lange (A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie)
- April 21: Actor Patti LuPone (Evita, Anything Goes - 1987, Women on the Verge...)
- April 22: Actor Alan Campbell (Hello, Again - revival, Sunset Boulevard)
- April 23: Actor David Larsen (American Idiot, Billy Elliot, Good Vibrations)
- April 24: Actor Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl, I Can Get It for You Wholesale)
OPENING AND IN PREVIEWS THIS WEEK ON BROADWAY:
- Baby It’s You!: Previews - March 26; Opening - April 27
- The House of Blue Leaves: Previews - April 4; Opening - April 25
- The Normal Heart: Previews - April 19; Opening - April 27
- The People in the Picture: Previews - April 1; Opening - April 28
- Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark: On Hiatus. Previews - November 28, 2010; Previews Resume: May 12; Opening – June 14
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Casting
- Jane Krakowski, Tony winner for Nine, co-star of Grand Hotel: The Musical, and current star of TV's 30 Rock gave birth to her first son on April 13. Congratulations, Jane!
- The First Lady of American Theatre, Helen Hayes, will be commemorated on a "Forever" stamp by the United States Postal Service. The stamp will be unveiled at the 2011 Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, DC on April 25. Ms. Hayes is the only actor to have two Broadway theatres named after her, and is one of only 12 performers to have won a Tony, an Oscar, an Emmy and a Grammy.
- Cousin Brucie Morrow, legendary 50's, 60's and 70'd DJ will be a special guest star in Memphis for the week of May 3 - 8. The stint includes a special scene specifically written for him by Tony winner Joe DiPietro.
- Christopher Tierney has been cleared by doctors to return to rehearsals for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Finally, some excellent news for that show!
- Tony winner Catherine Zeta-Jones, fresh from her self-imposed "rest," will be in the Rock of Ages film, in a villainous role created especially for her. She will be singing "Hit Me with Your Best Shot."
- The cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert will be honored by the Family Equality Council on April 25, in recognition of their efforts to help LGBT families.
- The 25th Annual Easter Bonnet Competition being held on April 25 and 26, will have a veritable who's who of Broadway involved including Sutton Foster, Kathleen Turner, Daniel Radcliffe, Harvey Fierstein, Nick Adams, Robin Williams and Christie Brinkley. My money is on How to Succeed to win for the most money collected. Saturday night, they earned $7,200 in about 5 minutes for two bow ties and a meet and greet with Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette!
- There will be no public tickets on available for this years Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre. You can see better at home, anyway!
April 18:
- The play Clybourne Parkwon the Pulitzer Prize for drama 2011.
- The current revival of La Cage aux Folles celebrated one year on Broadway!
- High, starring Kathleen Turner, opened at the Booth Theatre.
- American Idiot celebrated one year on Broadway!
- Sister Act opened at the Broadway Theatre.
- High announced its closing for April 24, 2011.
- Jerusalem opened at the Music Box Theatre.
- The revival of Born Yesterday opened at the Cort Theatre.
- High closed at the Booth Theatre after 8 performances.
- American Idiot closed at the St. James Theatre after 422 performances.
BROADWAY HISTORY: IMPORTANT OPENINGS OVER THE YEARS:
April 18:
- 1994: Disney's Beauty and the Beast opened at the Palace Theatre. The show changed Broadway forever, and ran 5,461 performances.
- 2002: Thoroughly Modern Millie opened at the Marquis Theatre, won the Best Musical Tony and ran for 903 performances.
- 2005: The Light in the Piazza opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center. Victoria Clark (Tony winner), Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Morrison starred. The show ran 504 performances.
- 1945: Groundbreaking Carousel opened at the Majestic Theatre, bringing spousal abuse and suicide to the musical stage. It ran 890 performances.
- 1979: The Elephant Man opened at the Booth Theatre, earning Carole Shelley a Tony and a Best Play award to booth. It closed after 916 performances, including a stink by David Bowie.
- 2001: They predicted it would run for decades, but it lasted just under 6 years. It won more Tonys than any show ever, and it brought Premium seating ($425.00 per orchestra seat) to the masses, to "help keep scalpers from bilking too much money out of the audiences' pocketbooks." Huh? So we should give too much money to Mel Brooks instead? The Producers opened at the St. James and closed after 2,502 performances.
- 1977: Annie opened at the Alvin Theatre. The sun came out for 2,377 performances worth of tomorrows.
- 1993: Another show they said would run for years lasted just over 2 at the St. James Theatre. The Who's Tommy played 899 performances.
- 1963: She Loves Me, widely considered to be one of Broadway's greatest, most perfect musicals opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran a surprisingly short 301 performances.
- 1997: Like a certain show this year, this show had huge previews issues, terrible word of mouth and a ship that didn't sink. But Titanic opened, took Broadway by storm, and sailed 804 times at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
BROADWAY VIDEO OF THE WEEK:
Broadway Says "It Gets Better" with the November 2010 "You Are Not Alone" Concert benefiting The Trevor Project. Betty Buckley, Aaron Lazar, Seth Rudetsky and many more Broadway celebrities participated in this event.
Sing For Hope from Kelly Reed on Vimeo.
Jeff
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