Broadway news: a Pulitzer, a map, Leguizamo, Lortels
Tracy Letts on Monday was awarded the Pulitzer prize for drama for "August: Osage County." The play is currently on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre through April 20. It will reopen April 29th in Broadway's Music Box Theatre.
John Leguizamo will star in a revival of David Mamet's "American Buffalo" on Broadway this fall, Variety reports.
Cool new mapping site Broadway2Day lets you pick a date and map all the Broadway and Off-Broadway shows performing that day. (Found via GoogleMapsMania.)
A few Broadway possibilities:
Katie Holmes in "All My Sons" (Variety)
Tina Brown's "The Diana Chronicles" (NY Post)
"Mask" (Steve on Broadway)
Steve Carell Broadway project (Broadway Undercover)
Anna Nicole Smith - the opera (Playbill)
Meanwhile "Chicago" continues to cycle through a list of oft-changing cast members. The current roster includes Bianca Marronquin as Roxie (through April 20;) Ron Orbach as Amos (through April 20;) Brenda Braxton as Velma (through May 11;) Grammy winner Mýa as Velma (from May 12 through July 13;) Jeff McCarthy as Billy Flynn (through June 1;) and Kecia Lewis-Evans as Mama Morton (through June 1.)
Terrence Howard will not be apearing in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" from April 15 though May 4.
Serialized (free) online Off-Off- etc.- Broaday show: The Battery's Down.
Off-Brodway's Lucille Lortel award nominees were announced last week, not lacking in drama. Playwright Horton Foote has refused his nomination for "Dividing the Estate" because the nominating committee has classified it as a revival rather than a new work, according to Variety. (Although written in 1989 and performed regionally since then, Foote has since rewritten portions.) "Dividing the Estate" will move to Lincoln Center Theater starting October 23.
Other primary Lortel nominees: Outstanding play nominees are “Betrayed,” written by George Packer and produced by Culture Project; “Blackbird,” written by David Harrower and produced by Manhattan Theatre Club; “The Brothers Size,”written by Tarell Alvin McCraney and produced by The Public Theater and The Foundry Theatre; “New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656,” written by David Ives and produced by Classic Stage Company with Bob Boyett; and “Opus,” written by Michael Hollinger and produced by Primary Stages. Outstanding musical nominees are “Adding Machine,” with original music by Joshua Schmidt, libretto by Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt, and produced by Scott Morfee, Tom Wirtshafter, and Margaret Cotter; Second Stage Theatre’s “Next to Normal,” with music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey; “Passing Strange” with book and lyrics by Stew, music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen and produced by The Public Theater, in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre; the Vineyard Theatre production of “The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (or the Friends of Dr. Rushower)” with libretto by Ben Katchor and music by Mark Mulcahy; and “Wanda's World,” with a book by Eric H. Weinberger, music and lyrics by Beth Falcone, story by Eric H. Weinberger and Beth Falcone and produced by Amas Musical Theatre, in association with Terry Schnuck.
Upcoming Broadway-related events:
On April 14, the Theater Museum hosts a panel discussion on " The Impact on Jewish Culture on Broadway Theatre" at the Times Square Visitors Center at 6 p.m.
On May 20, the New York Philharmonic has scheduled a show titled "Broadway's Greatest Showstoppers," which will be performed by the likes of Marvin Hamlisch, Kristin Chenowethand Raúl Esparza.
The Met Museum of Art will host its own Broadway tribute series in May. Members of the original casts and road companies of "Guys and Dolls" (on May 1,) and "Kismet" (on May 8) will perform and talk about their experiences in the shows.
And lastly, Will Ferrell as the Phantom of the Opera:
