Following separate runs Off-Broadway and in Edmonton, Canada, the new musical “Hadestown” (an adaptation of the Orpheus myth, based on a concept album by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell) will play London’s National Theatre in November before a planned Broadway bow next year. It is directed by Rachel Chavkin (“Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812”). The Off-Broadway production at New York Theatre Workshop was staged atmospherically around a wooden arena. Its cast included Patrick Page (“Spider-Man”) and Amber Gray. Mitchell’s score incorporates folk-pop and New Orleans jazz.
‘Cost of Living’ wins Pulitzer
“Cost of Living,” a play by Martyna Majok (“Ironbound”) about physically disabled individuals struggling to rebuild their lives and maintain their personal relationships, won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama on Monday. Following its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, it was produced Off-Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club. The production received a Champions of Change Award from the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities.
Irish Rep to revive ‘On a Clear Day’ with Melissa Errico
Following its intimate revival of “Finian’s Rainbow,” Off-Broadway’s Irish Repertory Theatre will present the melodic 1965 flop musical “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” (which also has music by Burton Lane) beginning in June. Like “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Clear Day” will star Melissa Errico and be directed by Charlotte Moore. Errico will be joined by Stephen Bogardus (“Bright Star”) and John Cudia (“Phantom of the Opera”). Its kooky plot involves the relationship between a male psychology professor and a female student with a gift for extrasensory perception. In 2011, a reconceived version starring Harry Connick Jr. opened on Broadway and was even less successful than the original production.
‘Cher Show’ announces casting
Stephanie J. Block (“Falsettos”), Teal Wicks (“Wicked”) and Micaela Diamond (in her Broadway debut) will share the role of Cher (portraying the superstar at different stages of her life) in the new bio-musical “The Cher Show,” which will open in Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre in December, following a tryout run in Chicago in June. The cast will include Jarrod Spector (“Beautiful”) as Sonny Bono, Michael Berresse (“A Chorus Line”) as costume designer, and Bob Mackie, and Emily Skinner (“Side Show”) as singer-songwriter Georgia Holt (i.e. Cher’s mother).
‘Be More Chill’ to play Off-Broadway
“Be More Chill,” a sci-fi musical comedy about an ordinary high school student who sets out to become popular, will receive its New York premiere this summer at Off-Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center. It has songs by Joe Iconis (whose song “Broadway, Here I Come” was featured on the TV series “Smash”) and a book by Joe Tracz (“The Lightning Thief”). After premiering at Two River Theater in New Jersey, the show gained a cult following through the spread of its cast album. The cast will be led by Will Roland (“Dear Evan Hansen”).
Manhattan School of Music presenting ‘Smile’
“Smile,” a rarely seen 1986 musical by Marvin Hamlisch (“A Chorus Line”) and Howard Ashman (“Little Shop of Horrors”) about teenage girls competing in a high school beauty pageant, the adults running it and the corruption behind the facade, will be performed next week at Riverside Church by students in Manhattan School of Music’s newly formed musical theater conservatory program. The original Broadway production of “Smile” ran only 48 performances. It was subsequently revised by Hamlisch and Ashman for amateur productions.
Spotted . . .
Jessica Lange at “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” . . . Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at “Luisa Miller” at the Metropolitan Opera . . . Edie Falco and Phylicia Rashad at “Children of a Lesser God” . . . Dee Snider at “The Play That Goes Wrong” . . . Steve Young at “Sweeney Todd.”
