New York Spotlight: February 2010

Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin and Tony nominee Alison Pill star as Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan, respectively, in the Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker, at Circle in the Square Theater, beginning February 12. The cast also features Elizabeth Franz, Matthew Modine, Jennifer Morrison, Daniel Oreskes, and Tobias Segal. Martin McDonagh’s first American-set play debuts on Broadway as A Behanding in Spokane begins performances at the Schoenfeld Theatre February 15. Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken and stage and screen stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, and Zoe Kazan appear in this black comedy involving a man searching for his missing hand, two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks, and an overly curious hotel clerk.

Michael Feinstein teams up with Dame Edna for All About Me, premiering at the Henry Miller’s Theatre on February 22. Four-time Emmy Award winner Valerie Harper returns to Broadway, starring as Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo’s Looped at the Lyceum Theatre beginning February 19. And rounding out the new Broadway productions is the Off-Broadway hit Next Fall, which transfers to the Helen Hayes Theatre on February 16. Patrick Heusinger and Patrick Breen head the cast as lovers Adam and Luke, whose relationship is tested by a tragic accident and conflicting views on faith.

Susan Stroman directs the world premiere of the Kander and Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, beginning February 12. The piece explores the infamous “Scottsboro” case of the 1930’s when a group of African-American teenagers were unjustly accused of attacking two white women, and stars John Cullum, Colman Domingo, and Brandon Victor Dixon. David and Joe Zellnik’s musical Yank!, about the love affair between two male soldiers during World War II (York Theatre Company at The Theatre at St. Peter’s, February 16-March 21), stars Nancy Anderson, Jeffry Denman, Ivan Hernandez, and Bobby Steggert.

City Center Encores! shows its Fanny (New York City Center, February 4-7), with Elena Shaddow in the title role alongside George Hearn, James Snyder, and Priscilla Lopez. On City Center’s Stage I, Remy Auberjonois, Michael Countryman, John Pankow, and David Pittu are in Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Equivocation ( February 9-March 28). Also at City Center, in the Stage II space, Pearl Theatre Company presents an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times (February 5-March 28).

Melissa Errico plays the title role of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida at Irish Rep (February 25-April 18), co-starring Xanthe Elbrick, Josh Grisetti, and Brian Murray. Larry Bryggman, Roberta Maxwell, Larry Pine, and Peter Strauss lead the cast of New York Theatre Workshop’s Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers (February 24-March 28), an inside look at The Washington Post‘s decision to publish the classified study documenting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. At Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, Kate Blumberg, Victoria Clark, Mary Beth Hurt, and Michael Siberry are among the cast of Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling (beginning February 11), tracing 80 years of a family’s history.

André De Shields celebrates Black History Month with a workshop production of his solo, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, February 4-14). Frank Wood, Annie Parisse, and Jeremy Shamos headline world premiere of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park, (Playwrights Horizons, through March 7), examining issues of gentrification. Veanne Cox, Seth Numrich, and Danielle Slavick star in Craig Wright’s Blind (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, February 17-March 21), a contemporary re-telling of the Oedipus story. Lauren Kennedy, Sally Mayes, and Teri Ralston star in the musical Good Ol’ Girls (Steinberg Center, February 8-April 11), about Southern women.

The Bridge Project presents Shakespeare’s The Tempest with Stephen Dillane as Prospero (BAM Harvey Theater, February 14-March 13), running in repertory with the company’s As You Like It (through March 13). Theatre for a New Audience presents Measure for Measure (Duke on 42nd Street, February 6-March 14), starring Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays as The Duke, Elizabeth Waterson as Isabella, and Rocco Sisto as Angelo. Patrick Page, Matthew Rauch, and Gareth Saxe head Red Bull Theater’s The Duchess of Malfi (Theater at St. Clement’s, February 23 – March 14).

The Temperamentals returns to Off-Broadway, this time at New World Stages, beginning February 18. Thomas Jay Ryan and Ugly Betty‘s Michael Urie reprise their roles as Mattachine Society founders Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich. The Transport Group revives Mart Crowley’s gay theater classic, The Boys in the Band in a site-specific location, February 12-March 14. The cast includes Jonathan Hammond, Kevin Isola, and Jon Levenson. Drag legend Lady Bunny joins Tina McKissick and Matthew Pender in the gay marriage-themed When Joey Married Bobby, at Theatre 80 St. Marks beginning February 6.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers land at the Minetta Lane Theatre, presenting 4PLAY (February 8 – March 7), which puts the art of juggling front and center. NAATCO and Theater Mitu present the world-premiere of A Play on War (Connelly Theater, February 12-March 16), inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children and incorporating abstractions of musical theater, Arabic clowning, and Peking opera.

59E59 Theaters plays host to Dog and Wolf (February 5-21), about the unlikely relationship between a political refugee and an American lawyer; Conviction (February 16-March 21), based on a true story of the Spanish-Inquisition; and Brack’s Last Bachelor Party (February 25-March 14) featuring the three men from Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler battling it out.

Also notable: Amas’ new musical Signs of Life (West Side YMCA, February 16-March 21); Pat Kinevane’s solo Forgotten at Irish Arts Center (February 17-March 7); Henri Becque’s 1882 play The Vultures (Flea Theater, February 25-March 27); James Roday and Michael Weston in Extinction (Cherry Lane Theatre, February 13-March 14); Prospect Theater Company’s new musical The Hidden Sky (West End Theater, through February 28); the New York premiere of Charles L. Mee’s Fêtes de la Nuit (Ohio Theatre, February 8-27); Barrow Group Theatre’s revival of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People (February 6-March 8); and Haskell King in Daniel Reitz’s site-specific solo, Afterclap (Jimmy’s No. 43, February 8-22).