From Master Class to Don't Dress For Dinner, A Look at the 2011-12 Broadway Season: The Play Revivals
By Playbill Staff
March 15, 2012
With the 2011-12 Broadway season coming to a close next month (April 26 is the cut-off date for eligibility for the 66th Annual Tony Awards), Playbill.com offers a three-part look at the current season. Here are the play revivals.
From the critically acclaimed Master Class, which starred Tony winner Tyne Daly, to Don't Dress For Dinner, which will open on the last day of eligibility, here is an overview of the nine play revivals that have opened or will open in time for the 2012 Tonys, which will take place June 10 at the Beacon Theatre. Show: Master Class
Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Preview: June 14, 2011
Opening: July 7, 2011
Closing: Sept. 4, 2011
Creators: Play by Terrence McNally. Direction by Stephen Wadsworth.
Original Principal Cast: Tyne Daly as Maria Callas, Sierra Boggess as Sharon Graham, Clinton Brandhagen as Stagehand, Jeremy Cohen as Emmanuel Weinstock, Alexandra Silber as Sophie De Palma and Garrett Sorenson as Anthony Candolino.
Synopsis: According to Manhattan Theatre Club, "Terrence McNally's play about Maria Callas takes us to one of her famous master classes, where, late in her own career, she dares the next generation to make the same sacrifices and rise to the same heights that made her the most celebrated, the most reviled and the most controversial singer of her time."
Check out production photos from the show.
Watch highlights from the production:
Show: Man and Boy
Theatre: American Airlines Theatre
Preview: Sept. 9, 2011
Opening: Oct. 9, 2011
Closing: Nov. 27, 2011
Creators: Play by Terence Rattigan. Direction by Maria Aitken.
Original Principal Cast: Frank Langella as Gregor Antonescu, Adam Driver as Basil Anthony, Francesca Faridany as Countess Antonescu, Zach Grenier as Mark Herries, Brian Hutchison as David Beeston, Virginia Kull as Carol Penn and Michael Siberry as Sven Johnson.
Synopsis: Set during the Depression, the play is billed this way by Roundabout: Langella plays ruthless financier Gregor Antonescu, whose business "is dangerously close to crumbling. In order to escape the wolves at his door, Gregor tracks down his estranged son Basil in the hopes of using his Greenwich Village apartment as a base to make a company-saving deal. Can this reunion help them reconcile? Or will this corrupt father use his only son as a pawn in one last power play? Man and Boy is a gripping story about family, success and what we're willing to sacrifice for both."
Check out production photos from the show.
Watch highlights from the production:
Show: Private Lives
Theatre: Music Box Theatre
Preview: Nov. 6, 2011
Opening: Nov. 17, 2011
Closing: Dec. 31, 2011
Creators: Play by Noël Coward. Direction by Richard Eyre.
Original Principal Cast: Kim Cattrall as Amanda, Paul Gross as Elyot, Simon Paisley Day as Victor, Anna Madeley as Sybil and Caroline Lena Olsson as Louise.
Synopsis: Considered one of the greatest comedies ever written, Coward's Private Lives, according to producers, "premiered in London in 1930 and has been produced around the world ever since; it premiered on Broadway in 1931. Glamorous, rich and reckless, Amanda and Elyot have been divorced from each other for five years. Now both are honeymooning with their new spouses in the South of France. When, by chance, they meet again across adjoining hotel balconies, their insatiable feelings for each other are immediately rekindled. They hurl themselves headlong into love and lust without a care for scandal, new partners or memories of what drove them apart in the first place… for a little while, anyway."
Check out pictures from opening night.
Playbill Video interviews the cast:
Show: The Road to Mecca
Theatre: American Airlines Theatre
Preview: Dec. 16, 2011
Opening: Jan. 17, 2012
Closing: March 4, 2012
Creators: Play by Athol Fugard. Direction by Gordon Edelstein.
Original Principal Cast: Rosemary Harris as Miss Helen, Carla Gugino as Elsa Barlow and Jim Dale as Marius Byleveld.
Synopsis: "Set in the region of South Africa known as the Karoo, The Road to Mecca tells the story of an elderly woman who has spent the years since her husband's death transforming her home into an intricate and dazzling work of art," according to Roundabout Theatre Company. "The reclusive Miss Helen has become depressed and appears increasingly unable to care for herself. Pastor Marius Byleveld, who embodies the village's conservative values, is determined to get Miss Helen into an old-age home. Her friend Elsa, a young teacher from Cape Town who is deeply suspicious of the patriarchal traditions Byleveld represents, is just as determined that Miss Helen remain free."
Check out production photos from the show.
Watch highlights from the production:
Show: Wit
Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Preview: Jan. 5, 2012
Opening: Jan. 26, 2012
Closing: March 17, 2012
Creators: Play by Margaret Edson. Direction by Lynne Meadow.
Original Principal Cast: Cynthia Nixon as Vivian Bearing, Michael Countryman as Harvey Kelekian, Suzanna Bertish as E.M. Ashford and Carra Patterson as Susie Monahan.
Synopsis: Wit, according to Manhattan Theatre Club, "follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor as she undergoes experimental treatment for cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to academia, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research."
Check out photos from opening night.
Watch highlights from the production:
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| Philip Seymour Hoffman |
| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Theatre: Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Preview: Feb. 14, 2012
Opening: March 15, 2012
Closing: June 2, 2012
Creators: Play by Arthur Miller. Direction by Mike Nichols.
Original Principal Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman, Linda Emond as Linda Loman, Andrew Garfield as Biff Loman, John Glover as Ben, Bill Camp as Charley, Finn Wittrock as Happy Loman and Fran Kranz as Bernard.
Synopsis: Salesman Willy Loman finds his career crumbling and his relationships with his wife and sons severely tested in Miller's dream-like meditation on the cost of the American dream.
Check out Playbill's Photo Archive of Death of a Salesman. Show: The Best Man
Theatre: Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
Preview: March 6, 2012
Opening: April 1, 2012
Closing: Open-ended
Creators: Play by Gore Vidal. Direction by Michael Wilson.
Original Principal Cast: James Earl Jones as Former President Arthur Hockstader, Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Sue-Ellen Gamadge, John Larroquette as Secretary William Russell, Candice Bergen as Alice Russell, Eric McCormack as Senator Joseph Cantwell, Kerry Butler as Mabel Cantwell, Jefferson Mays as Sheldon Marcus and Michael McKean as Dick Jensen.
Synopsis: "A play about power, ambition, political secrets, ruthlessness and the race for the presidency, Gore Vidal's The Best Man is set at the national convention where two candidates are vying for their party's nomination during the primary season," according to press notes. "It's an inside look at the dirt-digging, double-dealing, triple-crossing chicanery of presidential electioneering and what could be more fun in a presidential campaign season than these theatrical fireworks."
Check out photos from The Best Man press day.
Playbill Video interviews the cast:
Show: A Streetcar Named Desire
Theatre: Broadhurst Theatre
Preview: April 3, 2012
Opening: April 22, 2012
Closing: July 22, 2012
Creators: Play by Tennessee Williams. Direction by Emily Mann.
Original Principal Cast: Blair Underwood as Stanley Kowalski, Nicole Ari Parker as Blanche DuBois, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Stella Kowalski and Wood Harris as Mitch.
Synopsis: Fragile Southern belle Blanche DuBois moves to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella, and her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, in a dingy apartment. Temperaments clash, fireworks fly and secrets are revealed in Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama.
Check out pictures from Streetcar press day.
Playbill Video interviews the cast:
Show: Don't Dress For Dinner
Theatre: American Airlines Theatre
Preview: March 30, 2012
Opening: April 26, 2012
Closing: June 17, 2012
Creators: Play by Marc Camoletti. Adapted by Robin Hawdon. Direction by John Tillinger.
Original Principal Cast: Ben Daniels as Robert, Patricia Kalember as Jacqueline, Adam James as Bernard, Jennifer Tilly as Suzanne and Spencer Kayden as Suzette.
Synopsis: In the play, according to Roundabout, Bernard's plans for a romantic rendezvous with his mistress "are complete with a gourmet caterer and an alibi courtesy of his friend, Robert. But when Bernard's wife learns that Robert will be visiting for the weekend, she decides to stay in town for a surprise tryst of her own…setting the stage for a collision course of hidden identities and outrageous infidelities. The cook is Suzette, the lover is Suzanne, the friend is bewildered, the wife is suspicious, the husband is losing his mind and everyone is guaranteed a good time at this hilarious romp through the French countryside."
Watch interviews with the Roundabout creatives: