Happy New Year! BWW Looks Ahead at What's Coming up in 2012!

 

January 12: The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess - Richard Rodgers Theatre

Currently in previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre is The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. Joining Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis as Porgy and David Alan Grier as Sporting Life are Phillip Boykin as Crown, Nikki Renée Daniels as Clara, Joshua Henry as Jake, Christopher Innvar as Detective, Bryonha Marie Parham as Serena and NaTasha Yvette Williams as Mariah as well as Allison Blackwell, Roosevelt André Credit, Trevon Davis, Joseph Dellger, Wilkie Ferguson, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Heather Hill, David Hughey, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Alicia Hall Moran, Cedric Neal, Phumzile Sojola, Nathaniel Stampley, Julius Thomas III, J.D. Webster and Lisa Nicole Wilkerson. For additional information, visit: http://www.porgyandbessonbroadway.com

January 17: The Road to Mecca - American Airlines Theatre

Roundabout Theatre Company presents Tony Award® winner RoseMary Harris as "Miss Helen," Carla Gugino as "Elsa Barlow" and Tony Award® winner Jim Dale as "Marius Byleveld" in the Broadway premiere production of Athol Fugard's play The Road To Mecca, directed by Gordon Edelstein. Set in the region of South Africa known as the Karoo, The Road to Mecca tells the story of an elderly woman who has spent the years since her husband's death transforming her home into an intricate and dazzling work of art. Tickets are available at www.roundabouttheatre.org

January 26: Wit - Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Tony and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Nixon will return to MTC to star in the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow. WIT follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor (Nixon) as she undergoes experimental treatment for cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to academia, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research. For more information, visit: http://www.witonbroadway.com

February 07: Venus In Fur - Lyceum Theatre

VENUS IN FUR is currently playing a sold out engagement at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The production will end at the Friedman on Sunday, December 18 and resume performances at the Lyceum Theatre on Tuesday, February 7. Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, the show stars Tony Award nominee Nina Arianda and Emmy Award nominee Hugh Dancy. Tickets can be purchased by visiting Telecharge.com.

March 01: A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams' sultry drama, A Streetcar Named Desire is set against the sexy backdrop of New Orleans' gritty French Quarter A Streetcar Named Desire tells the tale of former school teacher and socialite Blanche DuBois (Nicole Ari Parker), as she's forced to move in with her sister Stella (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and her animalistic husband Stanley (Blair Underwood). But the fragile, Blanche quickly gets a gritty life lesson in the seamy, steamy underbelly of 1940's New Orleans. Click here for additional information on the production.

March 15: Death of a Salesman - Barrymore Theatre

Arthur Miller’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN comes to Broadway in a new production directed by eight-time Tony Award® winner Mike Nichols and starring Academy Award® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman, Obie Award winner Linda Emond as Linda Loman and Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, The Amazing Spider-Man), making his Broadway debut as Biff Loman. For tickets, visit Telecharge.com.

March 18: Once - Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre

Even before the show opened Off-Broadway, producers had announced that ONCE, the new musical based on the 2007 Academy Award-winning film, will play Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre this spring. ONCE features the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, a book by award-winning Irish playwright & screenwriter, Enda Walsh (Penelope, Hunger, The New Electric Ballroom), direction by the acclaimEd Scottish director of Black Watch, John Tiffany, movement by Steven Hoggett (Black Watch, American Idiot) and musical direction by Martin Lowe (Mamma Mia!). Click here for additional information on the production.

March 22: Jesus Christ Superstar - Neil Simon Theatre

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's hit production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, directed by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Director Des McAnuff will open on Broadway on March 22, 2012 (previews begin March 1) at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52nd Street). The cast will feature Paul Nolan as Jesus Christ, Josh Young as Judas Iscariot, Chilina Kennedy as Mary Magdalene, Tom Hewitt as Pontius Pilate, Bruce Dow as King Herod, Marcus Nance as Caiaphas and Aaron Walpole as Annas. For additional information, visit: http://www.superstaronbroadway.com/

March 29: Newsies - Nederlander Theatre

Newsies will move to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre for a strictly limited 101 performance run following its critically-hailed run at Paper Mill Playhouse earlier this fall. The musical, featuring a score by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Sister Act) and Jack Feldman, and a book by four-time Tony Award® winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy), will play its first Broadway preview on March 15th prior to its March 29th opening night; the final performance is scheduled for June 10th.

April 01: Gore Vidal's The Best Man - Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre

Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN is coming to Broadway in an all-star theatrical event with two time Tony Award winner James Earl Jones, Tony and Emmy Award winner John Larroquette, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Candice Bergen, Emmy Award winner Eric McCormack, Drama Desk Award winner and Academy Award nominee Michael McKean and five time Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury. A play about power, ambition, political secrets, ruthlessness and the race for the presidency, Gore Vidal’s THE BEST MAN is set at the national convention where two candidates are vying for their party’s nomination during the primary season. Please visit www.thebestmanonbroadway.com for information.

April 02: End of the Rainbow - Belasco Theatre

Starring Olivier® Award-winner Tracie Bennett in a bravura performance as Judy Garland, End of the Rainbow received rave reviews and four Olivier® Award nominations in London. The setting is December 1968, and Judy Garland is about to make her comeback... again. This savagely funny drama offers unique insight into the inner conflict that inspired and consumed one of the most beloved figures in American popular culture. End of the Rainbow features some of Garland's most memorable songs, performed with the show-stopping gusto for which she will always be remembered. Click here for more information on the production.

April 05: Evita - Marquis Theatre

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s landmark musical EVITA returns to Broadway on April 5, 2012 at the Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). Joining the previously announced stars of EVITA – world renowned music artist Ricky Martin as Che, Olivier Award-winning Argentinean actress Elena Roger in her Broadway debut as Eva Perón and Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris as Juan Perón – are Max von Essen as Magaldi, Rachel Potter as the Mistress, and Christina DeCicco as the alternate/standby for Eva Perón. For additional information, visit: http://evitaonbroadway.com

April 18: One Man, Two Guvnors

The National Theatre of Great Britain’s acclaimed comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, by Richard Bean is based on Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters and features songs by Grant Olding. In One Man, Two Guvnors, Corden stars as “Francis Henshall” (“ONE MAN”). Always-famished and easily-confused, Henshall agrees to work for a local gangster as well as a criminal in hiding (“TWO GUVNORS”), both of whom are linked in a tangled web of schemes and romantic associations... none of which Francis can keep straight. For tickets, visit: visit Telecharge.com

April 22: Rebecca - Broadhurst Theatre

Based on the classic Daphne Du Maurier novel (and later turned into an Oscar-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock), REBECCA is the story of Maxim de Winter, his new wife ("I") and Mrs. Danvers, the controlling and manipulative housekeeper of Maxim's West Country estate of Manderley - where the memory of his first wife, the glamorous and mysterious Rebecca, still casts a shadow. REBECCA had its world premiere in 2006 at Vereinigte Buhnen Wien in Vienna, where it played to sold-out houses for more than three years. Click here for additional information on the show.

April 23: Ghost The Musical - Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

As previously announced, Ghost The Musical on Broadway will star its UK leads Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy as Sam and Molly, when it premieres this Spring at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. They will be joined by Bryce Pinkham as Carl Bruner and newcomer Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Oda Mae Brown. This new musical is directed by Tony Award winner Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage, The Norman Conquests, Boeing-Boeing) and choreographed by Ashley Wallen (The X Factor, Kylie Minogue). Ghost The Musical is created by a team of Grammy and Academy Award winners, with a brand new, original score by Dave Stewart. Get tickets at: www.Ticketmaster.com 

April 24: Nice Work If You Can Get It - Imperial Theatre

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT stars two-time Tony Award-winner Matthew Broderick and three-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara and will be directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall. This new musical features a veritable hit parade of iconic George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin songs as well as some unknown gems in their catalog, and a book by Joe DiPietro. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT follows Billie Bendix (Kelli O'Hara), a tough-as-nails bootlegger who meets wealthy playboy Jimmy Winter (Matthew Broderick) on the weekend of his nuptials. Mayhem ensues. For more information, visit: http://www.niceworkonbroadway.com/

April 25: The Columnist - Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow returns to Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club world premiere production of THE COLUMNIST by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan. In this new play, Lithgow plays noted newspaper columnist Joseph Alsop. Columnists are kings in midcentury America and Joseph Alsop (Lithgow) wears the crown. Joe is beloved, feared and courted in equal measure by the Washington political world at whose center he sits. But as the '60s dawn and America undergoes dizzying change, the intense political drama Joe is embroiled in becomes deeply personal as well. For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

April 26: Don't Dress for Dinner - American Airlines Theatre

Marc Camoletti's Don't Dress for Dinner is the wildly funny sequel to the Broadway hit Boeing-Boeing. Bernard's plans for a romantic rendezvous with his mistress are complete with a gourmet caterer and an alibi courtesy of his friend, Robert. But when Bernard's wife learns that Robert will be visiting for the weekend, she decides to stay in town for a surprise tryst of her own... setting the stage for a collision course of hidden identities and outrageous infidelities. For tickets, visit: www.roundabouttheatre.org 

June 14: Harvey - Studio 54

Jim Parsons stars as one of modern theatre’s most lovable characters, Elwood P. Dowd. Charming and kind, Elwood has only one character flaw: an unwavering friendship with a 6-foot-tall, invisible white rabbit named Harvey. In order to save the family’s social reputation, Elwood’s sister Veta (Jessica Hecht) takes Elwood to the local sanatorium. But when the doctors mistakenly commit his anxiety-ridden sister, Elwood — and Harvey—slip out of the hospital unbothered, setting off a hilarious whirlwind of confusion and chaos as everyone in town tries to catch a man and his invisible rabbit. Tickets will be available at www.roundabouttheatre.org.

TBA: Peter and the Starcatcher

In this innovative and imaginative new play, a company of twelve actors plays some 50 characters, all on a journey to answer the century-old question: How did Peter Pan become The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up? This epic origin story of one of popular culture's most enduring and beloved characters proves that an audience's imagination can be the most captivating place in the world. Peter and the Starcatcher opened to rave reviews last March in its premiere Off Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop. Click here for additional information on the production.

 

TBA: Magic/Byrd

MAGIC BIRD, directed by Tony Nominee Thomas Kail (Lombardi, In The Heights) will reunite with Lombardi playwright and Oscar Winner and Emmy Nominee, Eric Simonson on MAGIC BIRD., a new American Play chronicling the intertwined life stories of two of the most influential figures in sports and pop culture of the past 25 years, Basketball Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. For more information, visit www.magicbirdbroadway.com.