Winning!
Blake
Saturday, April 2 
PREVIEWS? The much buzzed-about transatlantic transfer of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem comes to Broadway with leading man Mark Rylance in tow. Rylance won an Olivier Award for his performance as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, a motorcycle-riding woodsman who sets up court in a broken down trailer for a group of ragtag eccentrics (led stateside by Tony winner John Gallagher, Jr.). (Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave., Click here for Playbill Club discount preview tickets. Officially opens April 21.)
GO (L.A.)? An all-star lineup, including Carol Channing, Rita Moreno, Robert Morse and Liz Callaway, assembles for the annual Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (S.T.A.G.E), the longest continuously running AIDS benefit in the world. This year’s Event features stars performing songs they originated on the stage and will benefit the AIDS Project Los Angeles. (7:30 PM, Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA., $75-$220, info/tickets)
Sunday April 3 GO? Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS hosts Broadway Bares: Solo Strips, an intimate soiree leading up to Broadway’s naughtiest night of the year, June’s Broadway Bares. Solo Strips features striptease performances from the buff and beautiful of Broadway. (8 PM & 10 PM, Splash, 50 W. 17th St., btwn. 5th & 6th Aves., $10 to enter, info/tickets)
Monday, April 4
PREVIEWS? Ben Stiller and Edie Falco star in the revival of John Guare’s Tony-nominated dark comedy House of Blue Leaves. Stiller, who made his Broadway debut in the original 1986 version, graduates to leading-man status playing Artie Shaughnessy, a philandering zookeeper with stars in his eyes. Falco plays his wife, Bananas, who quite literally goes bananas as her marriage unfolds due to the intrusion of “the other woman,” played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Directed by David Cromer. (Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave., Click here for Playbill Club discount preview tickets. Officially opens April 25.)
Tuesday, April 5 
GO? Green Day’s American Idiot is set to close on Broadway in three weeks. Green Day frontman — and sometime Broadway star — Billie Joe Armstrong will return to the role of rock star-like drug dealer St. Jimmy for the show’s final weeks on the Great White Way. Not to fret, Idiot-lovers, the show will hit the road on its first national tour come fall. (St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave., info/tickets)
Wednesday, April 6 
GO (FREE)? The master puppeteers of London’s Handspring Puppet Company, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, kickoff a series of talkbacks in celebration of the stateside arrival of the critically acclaimed opus War Horse. Based on a children’s novel, War Horse stars life-sized puppet horses operated by several puppeteers. These stunning puppets take on lifelike features of their own, and to hear Jones and Kohler explain how they created these bamboo-framed puppets in such as way as to elicit the elegance and grace of real, live horses should be very interesting. The War Horse talkback series continues April 13 when author Michael Morpurgo (creator of the original children's novel that inspired War Horse) will join co-directors Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris to talk about their creation. (5:45 PM, lobby of the Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 W. 65th St., info)
Thursday, April 7 
OPENING? Cole Porter’s de-lightful and de-licious musical comedy Anything Goes returns to Broadway with Sutton Foster onboard as evangelical nightclub signer Reno Sweeney. Featuring Porter classics like “Friendship,” “De-Lovely,” and the title song, this Kathleen Marshall-helmed production also features Laura Osnes, John McMartin, Jessica Walter, Colin Donnell and Tony and Oscar winner Joey Grey. (Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 124 W. 43rd St., btwn. 6th & 7th Aves., info/tickets)
GO? The New York Philharmonic’s concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s Company is perhaps the most star-laden production of any this season featuring Patti LuPone, Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Christina Hendricks, Martha Plimpton, Jon Cryer, Anika Noni Rose and Katie Finneran. Directed by Lonny Price with musical direction by Paul Gemignani. (Through April 9, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, at Broadway & W. 65th St., $95-$295, info/tickets)
Friday, April 8 
CASTING? The “Uptown Girl” herself, Christie Brinkley, will head to midtown to get a little taste of the Windy City when she takes over as Roxie Hart in Broadway’s Chicago. (Ambassador Theatre, 219 W. 49th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave., Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets.)
