The Show Must,
And WILL Go On
by Tony Vellela
Britain’s Princess Diana shall return! “Diana,” the Broadway musical about the ill-fated first wife of Prince Charles, who died in an automobile accident in 1997, managed to get in nine preview performances last March, when the pandemic forced theatres to close. Jeanna de Waal portrayed the title character. The musical, written by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan, and directed by Christopher Ashley, is scheduled to re-open on December 1, with a Broadway house not yet selected. And in a first for Broadway, the producers have made a deal with Netflix to begin streaming a filmed version of the show, which was shot last September at the audience-less Longacre Theatre. It will begin its run on October 1, two months prior to the opening. Tickets for the stage production are available now . . . speaking of 2022, David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” will be revived beginning in March, with a cast featuring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell. This marks Fishburne’s return to Broadway since his one-man portrayal of Thurgood Marshall in 2008. Rockwell was last seen in the 2014 production of Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love.” The play debuted in 1997 . . .
Idina Menzel, Kelly Marie Tran, Patrick Wilson, Annaleigh Ashford, Robin de Jesus, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Lachanze, Billy Porter and Kelli O’Hara join forces in Manhattan Theatre Club’s annual “Miscast” gala, where actors perform songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast . . . to celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander month, the National Asian American Theatre Company will present a benefit reading of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” It will be streamed on Wednesday, May 19, featuring Amy Hill as the Stage Manager, and including Cindy Cheung, Kassandra Cordova, Autumn Domingo, Connor Domingo, Ron Domingo, John D. Haggerty, Midori Francis Iwama, Yumi Iwama, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim, Glenn Kubota, Clara Haru Mulligan, Olivia Oguma, Trevor Salter, Jon Norman Schneider, Alok Tewari, CJ Uy, Izaac Wang and Rita Wolf . . . following its successful Off-Broadway engagement, “Whiterock Cliff,” starring Ryan McCurdy, and written by McCurdy and Ellie Pyle, has begun streaming the one-man show until May 23. Visit www.fiveohm.tv/whiterock-cliff for tickets. The event takes place on Sunday, May 16 at 8 PM. For details, go to AllTogetherNowLive.com
. . . in honor of its silver anniversary season, the Mint Theater Company will be streaming, via MintTheater.org, Miles Malleson’s “Yours Unfaithfully,” which received its premiere production at The Mint. The cast includes Todd Cerveris, Mikaela Izquierdo, Elizabeth Gray, John Hutton and Max von Essen. Jonathan Bank directed the production. No tickets are required. It will be available until May 16 . . . Elliot Gould and Kathleen Chalfant star in “We Have to Hurry,” by Dorothy Lyman streaming live on May 1 and 2, to benefit the Actors Fund Home East and West, on May 1 and 2. Patricia Vanstone is scheduled to direct. The performances will stream
live via Broadway on Demand . . . Theatres and producers had been caught between two powerful unions, Actors Equity Association, with 51,000 actors and stage managers and SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 people who work primarily in film and television, over which union should represent streamed productions of stage work. An agreement was recently arrived at, with certain specific elements. If a production is strictly a visual recording of a live performance, it’s Equity’s territory. Works that include scenes shot out of sequence with the playscript, contain aspects not part of a traditional presentation or which includes editing belong to SAG-AFTRA. The agreement expires on December 31, 2021.
On Book
One of the best theatre biographies ever written, “Mike Nichols – A Life,” by Mark Harris, from Penguin Press, traces the multi-award-winning director’s life, from his earliest triumphs while still in his twenties, acting with Elaine May, half of the improv comedy duo. When he turned to directing, he scored four successful, consecutive Broadway shows, and two back-to-back Tony awards for directing. When Hollywood beckoned, the answered the call by directing the electric “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?,” followed by one of the highest-grossing films of all time, “The Graduate.” Harris pulls no punches, presenting both successes and failures . . . “Another Day’s Begun – Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’ in the 21st Century” presents an assessment of this iconic work. It was written by Howard Sherman, and details about how to secure a copy can be found at ourtown@hesherman.com.
TONY VELLELA wrote and produced the PBS theatre-themed series “Character Studies.” His play “Admissions” won the Best Play Award at the New York International Fringe Festival, received three off-Broadway productions, and is published by Playscripts. He has written reviews and feature stories about the entertainment industry for The Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone, Dramatics, Parade, Reader’s Digest, and dozens of other publications. His play “Maisie and Grover Go to the Theatre” is published by ArtAge. He has taught theatre classes at the 92nd St. Y, Columbia University’s Teachers’ College, at HB Studio and other institutions. His “Test of Time” won the Best Documentary Award for Lifetime Television. His new play, “Labor Days, is slat for production at Theatre for a New City in February, directed by Austin Pendleton.
CARMEL CAR & LIMOUSINE SERVICE, in business since 1978, has been selected as the official transportation company for Intermission Talk. Its wide variety of services, including special theatre packages and reservations, are available at carmellimo.com, the Carmel app, or at 212-666-6666.
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