Lookin’ for some hot stuff baby this spring? “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” a new jukebox musical about the disco-era singer-songwriter and featuring many of her hit songs (including “Hot Stuff,” “She Works Hard for the Money” and “Last Dance”), will open on Broadway in late April (right before the Tony Awards eligibility deadline) at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (where “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is about to close shop). The production (which is currently finishing an out-of-town run at La Jolla Playhouse in California) is being put together by director Des McAnuff, choreographer Sergio Trujillo and producing company the Dodgers (who all worked together on “Jersey Boys”). Music exec Tommy Mottola is also serving as a producer.
‘Pygmalion,’ ‘My Fair Lady’ in NYC simultaneously
The experimental/ensemble/classical theater company Bedlam (which is currently presenting an unconventional version of “Peter Pan” for the holidays) will return in March with George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 comedy of social criticism “Pygmalion.” It will run concurrently with Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of the classic musical “My Fair Lady” (based on “Pygmalion”). Each production begins previews just days apart, with “Pygmalion” on March 12 and “My Fair Lady” on March 15. “At this moment in time I’m extremely interested in exploring how power is negotiated through sexual politics in this gritty interpretation of Shaw’s classic play,” Bedlam artistic director Eric Tucker said in a statement.
Encores! retrospective called ‘Hey, Look Me Over!’
City Center will launch its 2018 Encores! season in February with eight rarely-seen musicals instead of just one. “Hey, Look Me Over!,” a retrospective/revue hosted by Bob Martin (in the guise of his opinionated Man in Chair character from “The Drowsy Chaperone”), will offer selections from “All American,” “George M!,” “Greenwillow,” “Jamaica,” “Mack & Mabel,” “Milk and Honey,” “Sail Away” and “Wildcat,” most of which played Broadway in the 1960s. The cast will include Bebe Neuwirth, Vanessa Williams, Judy Kuhn, Marc Kudisch, Reed Birney and Carolee Carmello.
London ‘Yerma’ to play Park Avenue Armory
Director Simon Stone’s adaptation of “Yerma,” a poetic tragedy by the early 20th century Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca (“Blood Wedding,” “The House of Bernarda Alba”), will play the Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side in March. The production (which is staged within a large glass box) previously played London’s National Theatre and was broadcast in movie theaters as part of the NT Live series. Olivier Award winner Billie Piper will make her North American debut in the title role. Last season, a massive production of Eugene O’Neill’s expressionistic tragedy “The Hairy Ape” with Bobby Cannavale played the venue.
Spotted …
Denzel Washington at “Latin History for Morons” … Jeff Ross at “Meteor Shower” … Tyra Banks, Clay Aiken and Ben Platt at “Come from Away” … Renée Fleming and Joel Grey at “Farinelli and the King” … David Schwimmer at “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play.”
