The WEEK AHEAD: May 14-20 | Playbill

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Inside Track The WEEK AHEAD: May 14-20 Broadway continues to fill its awards shelf this WEEK AHEAD!


The Great White Way loses its Wonderland (for now)… Signature completes its Kushner hat trick…AIDS Walk NYC…and the Obies continue their tradition of getting Broadway stars to travel below 42nd Street.

The lights are much brighter there,
Blake


Saturday, May 14
GO (KIDS)? Before puppets were singing about outing your neighbor or a “useless” B.A. in English, they were singing about far more kid-friendly things like rocking out with crocodiles and finding a rainbow connection. Even the provocateurs of their day (see Debbie Harry, Johnny Cash and Elton John) underwent G-rated makeovers in order to rock soft with Jim Henson’s Muppets on early-morning TV. The Muppet Vault: A Little Bit Rock & Roll is an afternoon family rock-fest featuring classic Muppet music clips and trivia for some old-school family fun. (2 PM, The Bell House, 149 7th St., btwn. 2nd & 3rd Ave., in Park Slope, $8, info)

Sunday, May 15
GO/SUPPORT? Since 1981, New Yorkers across the state have been gathering in Central Park for the annual AIDS Walk New York. Among the groups participating in this year’s walk is Broadway Impact, the community’s advocacy group dedicated to marriage equality. Among the celebrity walkers are Broadway Impact co-founders Gavin Creel (Hair) and Rory O’Malley (Book of Mormon) and Nick Adams, James Brown III, Keala Settle, Nathan Graham, Kyle Brown, Joshua Buscher (all of Priscilla Queen of the Desert), Alysha Umphress (American Idiot), Courtney Wolfson (Addams Family), Hillary Elk (Memphis), Vanessa Ray (Hair), Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Brian Letendre, Tia Altinay (all of Mary Poppins) and David Gregory ("One Life to Live"). (Click here for info on how to walk and/or donate to Broadway Impact’s AIDS Walk initiative)

Playbill cover for Wonderland Marquis TheatreLAST CHANCE? Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland — a modern-day musical retelling of the classic fairytale “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” — will close on Broadway before a planned national tour. The show stars Janet Dacal as a grownup Alice who bumps her head and lands in an underground dream world where she encounters contemporary singing versions of Lewis Carroll’s timeless characters — like the Queen of Hearts (Karen Mason), the Mad Hatter (Kate Shindle) and the White Rabbit (Edward Staudenmayer). (Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway, btwn. 45th & 46th Sts., info/tickets)

Monday, May 16
 David Hyde PierceGO? Alec Baldwin, Lee Pace, Jim Parsons, John Larroquette, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mamie Gummer, Margaret Colin, Nina Arianda, Patina Miller, Robert Sean Leonard, Arian Moayed and Rose Hemingway are set to present at the 56th Annual Village Voice Obie Awards hosted by David Hyde Pierce and S. Epatha Merkerson. Past Obie winner Anthony Rapp is set to perform. (8 PM, Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St., btwn. 3rd & 4th Aves., $15-$25, info/tickets)

Tuesday, May 17
Tony Kushner and Peter BartlettPREVIEW? The Signature Theatre continues its celebration of Tony Kushner with the New York debut of The Illusion, based on the Pierre Corneille play L'Illusion Comique. Illusion tells the story of a lawyer who travels to a mysterious cave in search of details of what happened to the son he banished years earlier. Signature describes it as “Kushner’s most joyful theatrical play.” Michael Meyer directs the show, which is the third in this series of Kushner collaborations for the Signature’s 20th anniversary season (also including Angels in America and The Intellectual Homosexual’s Guide…). (Through July 10, Peter Norton Space, 555 W. 42nd St, btwn. 10th & 11th Ave., info/tickets)

Wednesday, May 18
GO? Quentin Earl Darrington, Allan Harris, Christiane Noll and Tony winner Karen Ziemba celebrate the songs that brought jazz and African American-influenced music to the Main Stem with More Than a Song: The Music That Integrated America. This concert, curated by Michael Feinstein, aims to celebrate that time in Broadway history when white composers, like Berlin and Gershwin, introduced black performers and composers, like Fats Waller and Eubie Blake, to mainstream audiences. (7:30 PM, The Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, 10 Columbus Circle, $75-$120, info/tickets)

Thursday, May 19
Varla Jean Merman and Leslie JordanOPENING? Leslie Jordan, Kyle Dean Massey, Savannah Wise and Varla Jean Merman (aka Jeffery Roberson) star in the new musical Lucky Guy, about a bunch of larger-than-life hillbillies with champagne wishes and Music City dreams. Jordan and Merman play the glittery king and queen of the trailer park who try to scheme some wide-eyed country bumpkins (Massey and Wise) out of their hopes of making it big on the Nashville music circuit. (Little Shubert Theatre, 422 W. 42nd St., btwn. 9th and Dyer Aves., Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets)

Friday, May 20
Daniel RadcliffeGO? The 77th Annual Drama League luncheon, hosted by Kathleen Turner, will feature a starry dais including Daniel Radcliffe, Robin Williams, James Earl Jones, Patina Miller, Brian Bedford and the Book of Mormon’s leading men Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells. John Kander will present Liza Minnelli with the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award, (12 PM, Marriott Marquis Hotel, 1535 Broadway at 46th St., info/tickets or call 212-244-9494 ext. 26)

 
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