Adrienne Warren to lead ‘Room’ on Broadway
Adrienne Warren, who made headlines right before the pandemic began for her Tony Award-winning performance as Tina Turner in the bio musical “Tina,” will return to Broadway in the spring in “Room,” an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel about a mother and son who escape from their captor’s purpose-built room. Donaghue prepared both the stage version (which premiered in London in 2017 and has songs and music by Kathryn Joseph and Cora Bissett) and the screenplay for the 2015 film starring Brie Larson. It will play the newly refurbished James Earl Jones Theatre (which was recently home to “Ohio State Murders”) beginning April 3.
‘The Collaboration’ receives final extension
Last month, “The Collaboration,” a new bio drama by Anthony McCarten about a 1984 collaboration between Andy Warhol (Paul Bettany) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeremy Pope), had to cancel its opening night performance at the very last minute due to illness. Nevertheless, the play has gone on to receive multiple extensions of its limited run on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Last week, it received a final extension through Feb. 11. “The Collaboration” will be followed at the theater by “Summer 1976,” a new drama by David Auburn (“Proof”) starring Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht.
O’Hara and James reunite for ‘Days of Wine and Roses’
Broadway veterans Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, who played opposite each other in “The Sweet Smell of Success” in 2002, will lead the world premiere of “Days of Wine and Roses,” the first new musical by songwriter Adam Guettel to play New York since “The Light in the Piazza” (which is about to be revived by Encores! at City Center) in nearly two decades. It will be produced Off-Broadway by the Atlantic Theater Company beginning May 5. The musical (which has a book by Craig Lucas) is based on the 1962 film of the same name directed by Blake Edwards about a couple fighting alcohol addiction.
‘Theater Camp” picked up for distribution
Following its standing ovation premiere over the weekend at Sundance Film Festival, the indie film comedy “Theater Camp” has been acquired for distribution by Searchlight Pictures. With a cast that includes Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, and Amy Sedaris, “Theater Camp” takes the form of a mockumentary about a theater camp in Upstate New York on the brink of collapse. (I myself once attended a theater camp in Upstate New York: French Woods Festival of the Arts.)
Artistic director of Primary Stages dies
Andrew Leynse, artistic director of the Off-Broadway theater company Primary Stages, died last Friday following a sudden illness. “We have lost one of the dearest, kindest, most devoted people we have ever known. Andrew was our light and our heart, and his passing diminishes us all,” the company said in a statement. Leynse served as the artistic director of Primary Stages for 21 seasons, during which time it produced new plays and musicals by writers such as Horton Foote (including “Dividing the Estate,” which transferred to Broadway), Terrence McNally, Charles Busch, and A.R. Gurney.
