PLAYBILL.COM'S WEEK IN REVIEW, Jan. 10-16: Enter the Plays

By Kenneth Jones
16 Jan 2009

PLAYBILL.COM'S WEEK IN REVIEW, Jan. 10-16: Enter the Plays

With the Jan. 11 exit of the well-regarded Broadway productions of Spamalot and Gypsy, as well as the limited-engagement revival of All My Sons, Broadway seemed eager in the past week to quickly rebalance itself for what's imminently ahead in 2009. That is, producers made casting and theatre announcements for new productions.

In this nervous economy, it has been noted, plays seem to be the thing. For starters, they are cheaper to produce than big musicals. Even better if you budget them with a limited-engagement plan, and spike the marquee with stars. Observers have often moaned in recent years of the dearth of plays on Broadway, but here come some genuinely new or unfamiliar non-musical titles, with movie or TV stars attached: Jane Fonda in writer-director Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations, Jeff Daniels in God of Carnage and Geoffrey Rush in Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King.

It was announced this week that Colin Hanks (Tom's son), Samantha Mathis, Zach Grenier, Don Amendolia, Susan Kellermann and Erik Steele had joined 33 Variations, about a modern woman (played by Fonda) investigating the genius of Beethoven (played by Grenier) while dealing with her own issues (Mathis plays her daughter, Hanks plays a nurse). The play will surely please classical music fans; the respected pianist Diane Walsh is also part of the cast. Performances begin Feb. 9 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. The official opening will be March 9. The limited engagement will play through May 24.

Also this week, Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden were announced for the Broadway staging of Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage — translated by Christopher Hampton — which will begin previews at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre Feb. 28. The play, seen in London, will open on Broadway March 22 with this American cast, directed by Matthew Warchus.

It's "a comedy of manners without the manners," the producers said. It "deals with the aftermath of a playground altercation between two boys and what happens when their parents meet to talk about it."

Official word about a Broadway run of Ionesco's Exit the King came this week also. "Six Feet Under" star Lauren Ambrose of Broadway's Awake and Sing!, Tony Award winner Andrea Martin (My Favorite Year, Young Frankenstein) will star with Rush, who won an Academy Award for his performance in "Shine," and fellow Oscar winner Susan Sarandon.

Performances will begin March 7 at the Barrymore Theatre with an official opening March 26; the limited engagement will run through June 14.

Australian director Neil Armfield will helm the production. He directed the play, which features a translation by the director and actor Rush, last year at the Belvoir St. Theatre in Sydney. Rush also starred Down Under.

Exit the King is called "a hilarious and poignant comedy about a megalomaniacal ruler, King Berenger (Rush) whose incompetence has left his country in near ruin. Despite the efforts of Queen Marguerite (Sarandon) and the other members of the court to convince the King he has only 90 minutes left to live, he refuses to relinquish any control."

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