The acclaimed Broadway revival of Richard Greenberg’s baseball drama “Take Me Out,” which received a limited run in the spring produced by the nonprofit Second Stage, will receive an encore 14-week run beginning Oct. 27 at Broadway’s Schoenfeld Theatre.
Returning cast members will include Jesse Tyler Ferguson (who won a Tony Award for his performance) and Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”). The 2003 all-male drama explores the epic consequences of a Derek Jeter-like professional baseball player coming out as gay.
For the protection of the actors, audience members will be required to leave their cell phones in locked Yondr pouches during the production. (During the spring run, video footage leaked of a locker room shower scene with full nudity.)
Groff and Mendez to join Radcliffe in “Merrily’
Jonathan Groff (“Spring Awakening”) and Tony winner Lindsay Mendez (“Carousel”) will join Daniel Radcliffe in the upcoming Off-Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” which will be produced by New York Theatre Workshop beginning Nov. 21.
The production, directed by Maria Friedman, originated a decade ago at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory and was screened in movie theaters. Although the original Broadway production was a huge flop 40 years ago, “Merrily” (which has an exquisitely crafted and heartfelt score and a complex and backwards-moving book) has since received countless revivals, including a 2012 Encores! production with Lin-Manuel Miranda and a 2019 Off-Broadway production by Fiasco Theater.
The ‘stage door’ will go virtual
Since the pandemic, the longtime tradition of the Broadway “stage door” (in which fans wait for actors to leave the theater following performances in order to score autographs and photographs) has become difficult to manage.
As an alternative, Audience Rewards (a loyalty and benefits service for Broadway ticket-buyers) is launching a “Virtual Stage Door,” where fans can meet and chat online with actors and obtain downloadable digital autographs. Upcoming sessions will feature Robin de Jesús (“tick…tick…BOOM!”), the cast of “Six,” and Brittney Johnson (“Wicked”)
‘The Kite Runner’ marks one-year anniversary of fall of Kabul
Last week, “The Kite Runner” (the stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 bestselling novel about life in Afghanistan, which is playing a limited run on Broadway) marked the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul with a speech at curtain call delivered by cast member Azita Ghanizada, as reported by Playbill.com.
\”This past year has ushered in a whole new series of humanitarian crises and refugee crises, and a long list of human rights atrocities and violations,” said Ghanizada, who also urged audience members to contribute to human rights charities.
LeBron James-inspired drama set for Off-Broadway
“King James,” the title of Rajiv Joseph’s (“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”) new play, refers to the nickname for basketball player LeBron James. However, “King James” is not a bio of James.
Instead, it focuses on two friends who idolize James. It will be presented Off-Broadway in the spring by Manhattan Theatre Company in a production directed by Kenny Leon (“A Soldier’s Play”).