Priscilla sing-a-long! ... John Leguizamo sends in the klown… Pacino takes his last pound of flesh… and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn again for the first time in 60 years (in, ahem, a different borough).
Blake
Saturday, February 19 
GO? Before Priscilla Queen of the Desert steamrolls its way onto Broadway next month, get acquainted with its source material, the 1994 Golden Globe-nominated cult-classic “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” at a special (sing-along!) screening. (10 PM, 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street, at Canal St., $13, info/tickets)
Sunday, February 20 
BEFORE IT CLOSES? Tony and Oscar winner Al Pacino stars in the classic Shakespearean tragedy The Merchant of Venice. This Daniel Sullivan-directed production garnered rave reviews when it debuted last summer at The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park series. Much of the cast (including Lily Rabe as Portia and Byron Jennings as Antonio) transferred with the hit production to Broadway. (Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Aves., info/tickets)
Monday, February 21
PREVIEWS? Firebrand funnyman John Leguizamo returns to Broadway in a new one-man show directed by Fisher Stevens. Following the formula that garnered him a Tony nomination, Ghetto Klown features Leguizamo as a variety of characters, but this time, he’ll also do impersonations of famous former co-stars like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Sean Penn. Officially opens March 22. (Lyceum Theatre, 149 W. 45th St., btwn. 6th & 7th Aves., info/tickets)
Tuesday, February 22 
GO? The Peccadillo Theater Company revives the classic Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. This will be the first time in 60 years the musical will see a fully-staged New York production. (Theatre at St. Clement's, 423 W. 46th St., btwn. 9th & 10th Aves., Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets)
Wednesday, February 23
GO? Horse Trade Theatre Group presents the 5th Annual FRIGID Festival kicking-off this week in downtown Manhattan. The fest promises 150 performances and 30 shows over 12 days from local New York artists. Shows being featured at FRIGID range from the traditional to the avant-garde and promise to always be gloriously “uncensored". (Through March 6 at three venues: The Kraine and The Red Room, at 85 East 4th Street; and UNDER St. Marks, 94 St. Marks Place, info/tickets).
GO? Take a journey through Old Broadway on Uncle Sam’s Broadway walking tour featuring a bonafide history lesson that would school even the most devoted of theatre purists. (11 AM, meets at the Times Square Visitor’s Alliance Center on 7th Ave, btwn. 46th & 47th Sts., $25, info/tickets)
Thursday, February 24 WATCH? HBO debuts the televised version of the stage show Thurgood starring Tony winner Laurence Fishburne as the titular Supreme Court Justice and Civil Rights pioneer Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood premiered on Broadway in August 2008. The HBO production was later filmed in front of a live audience at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. (9 PM ET, info)
PREVIEWS? The “South Park” guys, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, join forces with one of Broadway’s funniest music men, Avenue Q’s Robert Lopez, for a new musical The Book of Mormon. If Stone, Parker and Lopez’s past creations are any indication of what is to come, we can expect toe-tapping tunes, offensive one-liners and plenty of laughs. Officially opens March 24. (Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave., info)
Friday, February 25
GO (KIDS)? He had the flowing locks that made all the girls swoon on Season 6 of “American Idol.” Now, Sanjaya Malakar (sporting a noticeably tamer ‘do) will make his New York theatre debut in the children’s play based on a book by Julianne Moore, Freckleface Strawberry: The Musical. (New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., btwn. 8th and 9th Aves., Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets)
