I haven’t been this excited about the theatre docket in a long time. It seems like this spring the action for women will be on the Broadway and off Broadway stages.
The excitement begins with Jane Fonda in 33 Variations by Moises Kaufman who conceived the Laramie Project about Matthew Sheperd’s murder. Fonda who hasn’t been on stage in 46 years! plays a Katherine Brandt musicologist dying of ALS who wants to understand Beethoven’s end of life obsession with Diabelli’s Variations. The play also focuses on her tumultuous relationship with her daughter played by Samantha Mathis.
The excitement continues with the long awaited return of Joan Allen who stars with Jeremy Irons in Impressionism about about the relationship between a photojournalist and a gallery owner.
Cynthia Nixon spends a lot of time on stage and she will be seen at the Roundabout in Lisa Loomer’s play Distracted about a mom dealing with a 9-year old who may or may not have ADD and needs to decide whether to medicate him or not.
One of my favorite movies (starring the aforementioned Jane Fonda) 9 to 5 has been made into a muscial which stars Allison Janney (C.J. Cregg from The West Wing), Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty.
Other shows of interest:
Christine Ebersole and Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirt
Tovah Feldshuh in Irena’s Vow as woman who protects dozens of Jews from the Nazis;
Mamma Mia director Phyllida Lloyd takes on the political thriller Mary Stuart based on the rivalry between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth. Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter stars as Mary and Elizabeth.
Olympia Dukakis plays a Holocaust survivor in Craig Lucas’ 2005 play The Singing Forest at the Public.
Prolific playwright Yasmina Reza’s new play God of Carnage stars Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden (and James Gandolfini and Jeff Daniels.) Even more exciting is the return of Tina Howe whose new play Chasing Manet stars Jane Alexander and Lynn Cohen as two women plotting their escape from their nursing home.
Off Broadway brings hot director of the moment (when is that a woman?) Kate Whoriskey directing Christina Anderson’s Inked Baby about a woman unable to conceive a baby and gets her sister to carry her child at Playwirght’s Horizons.
Remember it’s as important to support women’s theatre as it is to support women’s films. If you have a little extra cash this spring come out and see one or more of these fine women on stage.
A Radical Vixen Retakes the Stage (NY Times)
Update:
Seems that I missed some important women and women playwrights. Here are my omissions:
Susan Sarandon, Lauren Ambrose and Andrea Martin in Ionesco’s Exit the King.
British actresses Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, and Amanda Root highlight the transfer of the Old Vic’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s comic trilogy of plays, The Norman Conquests.
The Atlantic Theatre will present the world premiere of Leslie Ayvazian’s play Make Me.
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Sadly, Fonda’s play isn’t doing too well– not too many tickets have been sold. But in this bad economic slump, who can blame ‘em?
Oh Melissa,
you make me miss NY…
Hey Melissa,
Didn’t know if you were aware that Jane Fonda is now on Twitter, and has been tweeting about her experience on Broadway (and blogging about it as well).
She has been on the Today Show and The View this week talking about the show and her blogging & tweeting:
“Jane Fonda shares her enjoyment for blogging and Twitter during recent visits to “The View” and NBC’s “Today Show” to promote her new Broadway play “33 Variations. She proclaimed, “I did something I have never done before…I twittered The Oscars.”
Seriously….how cool is that?
Her Twitter username is: JaneFonda
And the link to her main site (with the blog)is:
http://www.janefonda.com/
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