Sidney Brustein’s Window’ Moves to Broadway

Neil Patrick Harris joins ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’

Neil Patrick Harris will join the cast of the new farce “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” which is now in previews and officially opens next week, from April 11 through April 30 as a special guest star, serving in multiple roles including as the narrator. “I’m a massive fan of Team Mischief and physical comedy in general, so I jumped (fell?) at the chance to join their genius onstage,” Harris said in a statement. “That said, the role of the Narrator mostly sits in a chair and reads a book, so apparently no rehearsals are required. I guess that’s fine… what could possibly go wrong?” It is unclear whether additional special guests will be enlisted during the show’s 16-and-a-half-week engagement.

‘Sidney Brustein’ with Isaac and Brosnahan making quick Broadway transfer

It’s apparently never too late to schedule a limited Broadway run before the Tony Awards cutoff deadline. The hit revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s rarely-performed drama “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” which just completed a limited run at BAM with Oscar Isaac (who led Shakespeare in the Park productions before becoming a film star) and Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), will transfer to Broadway for an 80-performance run beginning April 25, with its opening night just two days later.

The original 1964 Broadway production closed just two days before Hansberry (who had won acclaim as the playwright of “A Raisin in the Sun” and was also a well-known political activist) died at age 34 of cancer. Isaac plays Sidney Brustein, a progressive-minded but immature and self-centered Jewish intellectual who lives in a Greenwich Village apartment in the early 1960s with his wife Iris (Brosnahan), a struggling actress. They are joined by a Black activist, a reform politician, a gay experimental playwright, a suburban housewife, and a prostitute.

‘Wolf Play’ leads Lucille Lortel Award nominations

In a sign that theater awards season is just around the corner, the nominations for the 38th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards, which recognize only Off-Broadway productions (thus allowing Off-Broadway to be recognized without competition from Broadway), were announced last week. “Wolf Play,” Hansol Jung’s acclaimed adoptive parenting with puppetry drama, received six nominations, with five nominations each going to Samuel D. Hunter’s “A Case for the Existence of God,” the Irish Rep revival of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” Brian Watkins’ “Epiphany,” and the parody musical “Titanique.”

Groban and Ashford get miscast in ‘Phantom’

Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, currently starring on Broadway as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, respectively, have apparently already spotted their next roles. Last Monday night, the two took part in MCC Theater’s annual fundraising concert “Miscast” (where actors perform songs written for the opposite sex) with a performance of the title song from “The Phantom of the Opera,” with Groban as Christine and Ashford as the Phantom, aided by fog and costuming effects. Other performances included Ben Platt’s “The Wizard and I,” LaChanze’s “Heaven on Their Minds,” and Jordan E. Cooper’s “The Ladies Who Lunch.” For those interested in checking it out, the concert will be made available for streaming from April 10 to 16 for $45.