BROADWAY SPRING PREVIEW 2012: What's the Buzz? Eva Peron, a Rockin' Messiah, Wit and Newsies on the Horizon

By Robert Simonson
31 Dec 2011

Matthew Broderick, Rosemary Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Martin, Cynthia Nixon and James Earl Jones
Matthew Broderick, Rosemary Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Martin, Cynthia Nixon and James Earl Jones

In the winter and spring months ahead, Broadway will see plays by Margaret Edson, Athol Fugard, David Auburn, Arthur Miller and others commingling with the musicals Newsies, Jesus Christ Superstar, Ghost, Rebecca and Nice Work If You Can Get It. Playbill offers you the spring 2012 lineup at a glance.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice will get to relive their salad days this spring, as new productions of their first two hits, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita are reborn on Broadway, opening within a couple weeks of each other.

Neither production was made in America. The JCS hails from Canada, the Evita from England. The former, a Stratford Shakespeare Festival staging by Des McAnuff, became a hot property the moment it received the simultaneous seal of approval from both the critical corps and the songwriters. Soon, the revival, praised for its slick, disciplined theatricality, was imported for a late fall run at the La Jolla Playhouse, where McAnuff has a long history. Following the Playhouse run, Superstar will open on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre March 22.

This Evita — the first Broadway revival of the 1976 musical about Argentine first lady Eva Peron — did not take as fast a track to New York. It began in London's West End in 2006, where it made a star out of Elena Roger, who is an Argentine herself. To play rebel-narrator Che, director Michael Grandage cast (for Broadway) a face more familiar to American audiences — singer Ricky Martin. Michael Cerveris, as Juan Peron, completes the list of leading players. The production will open at the Marquis Theatre on April 5.

James Corden in One Man, Two Guvnors.
photo by Johan Persson

The planes heading westward from London are packed with Broadway-bound shows this season. Also from England is the National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors, a rare opportunity for Broadway audiences to see a comedy by 18th-century Italian master Carlo Goldini. The fiendishly complicated plot, adapted by Richard Bean (the play is typically called The Servant of Two Masters), centers on Francis Henshall (played by popular British television star James Corden, also of The History Boys), who takes on jobs as lackey to two parties in order to meet his insatiable appetite for food. Trouble is, one of his bosses is out to kill the other one. The comedy will open at the Music Box on April 18.

Ghost is a musical based on an American property — the 1990 supernatural love story that starred Patrick Swayze, Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore — but it was England that gave the show its premiere. The script was assembled by a cross-Atlantic crew that included original screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, who adapted his original screenplay, composer Dave Stewart (half of The Eurythmics) and prolific American pop songwriter Glen Ballard ("Man in the Mirror," "You Oughta Know"). It opens at the Lunt-Fontanne on April 23.

Another Anglo-American mash-up is End Of The Rainbow, a new play by Britisher Peter Quilter about the final months of legendary entertainer Judy Garland. English actress Tracie Bennett (acclaimed for this assignment) plays the troubled Garland as she prepares for her latest comeback. Joining her is her new young fiance (Tom Pelphrey) and adoring accompanist (Michael Cumpsty). For the Garland-obsessed (I think there are a few theatregoers out there who meet that description), the show will feature several of the singer's most memorable songs. Opening is April 2 at the Belasco.

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