Like most of you, I’ve been looking through all the fall
previews that everyone else has been doing and, to be honest, I don’t know that
there are all that many shows that I’m really looking forward to this
season.
However, one thing I am eager to see is Giant, Michael John
LaChiusa’s musical adaptation of the old James Dean-Rock Hudson-Elizabeth
Taylor movie that’s scheduled to open at the Public Theater in November. I saw
an earlier production of the show when it played down at Washington’s Signature
Theatre four years ago and am curious about how it’s evolved.
And I’m also intrigued by The
Twenty-Seventh Man, a new play about the persecution of writers and poets in
Stalinist Russia that’s also opening at the Public in November. Nathan
Englander has adapted his short story of the same name and if his play is
anywhere near as good as his most recent short story collection, “What We Talk
About When We Talk About Ann Frank,” then this show could be something very special.
Rounding off my must-see list is The Great God Pan, the
latest Amy Herzog play about the lives of liberal New Yorkers that’s scheduled
to open at Playwrights Horizons in December because I’m an unabashed Herzog
groupie.
But what I am really looking forward to this fall is the continuing
privilege of seeing some of the actors I most admire—some famous, some less so—tackle new challenges. Here are six of them:
Brian F. O’Byrne in If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet. I know that most people are excited about this
new dark, dysfunctional-family comedy because it will be the New York stage
debut of the movie actor Jake Gyllenhaal but what's got me jazzed is that it also will mark the return to
the stage of O’Byrne, who originated the role of
Father Flynn in Doubt. He then spent the next five years in Hollywood which,
for my money, didn’t make anywhere near the best use of his considerable
talent. So I can hardly wait to welcome him home when the show opens at the Roundabout
Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre next week.
Kathleen Chalfant in Red Dog Howls. Chalfant long ago proved
that she’s unbeatable when it comes to delivering the emotional goods
without even a hint of bathos. Plus she
has one of the most mellifluous voices in the business. So even if this new
role isn’t up to her iconic ones in Wit or Angels in America, it’ll be a treat
to see—and listen to—Chalfant in this new play about an elderly woman with a connection
to the Armenian Genocide in which over 1 million people were massacred between 1915
and 1923. It opens on Sept. 24 at the New York Theatre Workshop.
Boyd Gaines in An Enemy of the People. The unwavering
integrity that Gaines brings to every role is one of the main reasons that he’s
already won four Tonys and probably should have won several others along the way. It’s also
what makes me want to see him in this new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s morality
play about a man who takes a principled but unpopular stand against corruption
in his hometown. The fact that Gaines' main nemesis will be played by the equally unaffected
Richard Thomas makes this production all the more alluring. It
opens at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Sept. 27.
Bobby Cannavale and Al Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross. Talk about a no-brainer. Cannavale’s streetwise flair seems tailor-made for Ricky
Roma, the office hot shot in David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about
a group of desperate real estate agents.
While Pacino, who played Roma in the 1992 film version, seems to be at
just the right time in his life to take on the role of Shelley "The Machine" Levene, the old-timer who is
down on his luck but not ready to count himself out. I mean is there any self-respecting theater
lover who doesn’t want to see these two mix it up when the show opens at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Nov. 11?
No comments:
Post a Comment