New York Spotlight: March 2010

Two-time Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth head the Broadway cast of the highly anticipated musical version of The Addams Family, beginning performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, on March 8. Based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, the production also features veteran performers Terrence Mann, Carolee Carmello, Kevin Chamberlin, and Jackie Hoffman.

Another new musical generating lots of buzz is American Idiot, based on Green Day’s Grammy Award-winning album of the same name. John Gallagher Jr., Stark Sands, Michael Esper, and Rebecca Naomi Jones are among the cast members. The tuner, helmed by Michael Mayer, begins performances at the St. James Theatre on March 24.

A powerhouse cast consisting of Barbara Cook, Leslie Kritzer, Norm Lewis, Erin Mackey, Euan Morton, Matthew Scott, Vanessa Williams, and Tom Wopat star in Sondheim on Sondheim (Studio 54, beginning March 19), a multimedia inside look at the legendary composer’s career, featuring brand-new arrangements of over two dozen Sondheim songs.

Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth lead the cast of Promises, Promises, being revived at the Broadway Theatre, beginning March 27. Tony Goldwyn, Katie Finneran, Brooks Ashmanskas, Dick Latessa, and Peter Benson are also featured.

Musical legends Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley are brought to life in Million Dollar Quartet, at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre, beginning March 13. Come Fly Away, Twyla Tharp’s new dance musical based on music performed by Frank Sinatra, starts performances at the Marquis Theatre on March 1.

Anthony LaPaglia, Tony Shalhoub, Justin Bartha, and Jan Maxwell are among the performers in the Broadway revival of Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor, taking over the Music Box Theatre, beginning March 11. Alfred Molina makes a return to Broadway, reprising his critically acclaimed role as painter Mark Rothko in The Donmar Warehouse’s production of John Logan’s Red, at the Golden Theatre (beginning March 11).

Judith Ivey leads the cast of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of The Glass Menagerie (Laura Pels Theatre, March 5-May 20). Natasha Parry and Michael Pennington star in Theatre for a New Audience’s Love Is My Sin (Duke on 42nd Street, March 25-April 17), which director Peter Brook has adapted from the sonnets of William Shakespeare. Keir Dullea, Matt Servitto, and Marsha Mason star in the Keen Company’s revival of Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang for My Father (Theatre Row, March 23-May 1).

The Wooster Group revives James Strahs’ North Atlantic (Jerome Robbins Theater, March 10-April 25), with a company including Frances McDormand and Maura Tierney. Dan Butler and Roderick Hill are among the cast members of The Irish Curse (Soho Playhouse, March 17-May 30), about a support group for men with small penises.

David Greenspan and Jennifer Ikeda head the cast of Ma-Yi Theater’s Rescue Me (A Postmodern Classic with Snacks (Ohio Theater, March 23-April 18), a contemporary adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ The Book of Grace (Public Theater, March 2-April 4) weaves the story of three people bound together by passion and ambition, love and longing. Also at the Public, Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman’s new rock musical, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, makes a return visit (March 23-April 25).

Tony Award winner Lea Salonga presents her cabaret debut, The Journey So Far (Café Carlyle, March 9-27). Also, Elaine Stritch returns to the venue with At Home At The Carlyle: Elaine Stritch Singin’ Sondheim. . . One Song At A Time (March 22-May 1).

Chay Yew directs Kia Corthron’s A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick, about an African preacher-in-training who comes to a drought-stricken rural American community (Playwrights Horizons (March 4-April 11). T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party is revived by The Actors Company Theatre (Beckett Theatre, March 7-April 10). A struggling actor is inspired by the life of a gay movie star of the 1920s and ’30s who gave up his career to remain in a public relationship with his partner in Looking for Billy Haines (Lion Theatre, March 11-May 22).

Conceived and written by John Tartaglia, Imaginocean (New World Stages, beginning March 17), is a puppet adventure about a group of fish friends. More puppets can be found at Stuffed and Unstrung (Union Square Theatre, March 17-May 29), The Henson Alternative’s adult-oriented puppet improv show. Cirque du Soleil’s latest, Banana Shpeel begins performances at the Beacon Theatre on March 17. Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s Caligula Maximus (La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre, March 11-April 4) blends circus, music, dance and theater, and takes place on the last night of the notorious dictator’s life.

Also of note: BLOOLIPS’ Bette Bourne recounts A Life in Three Acts (St. Ann’s Warehouse, March 4-28); The 39 Steps begins its Off-Broadway run at New World Stages on March 25; Rob Becker’s solo Defending the Caveman gets revived at Sofia’s Restaurant Downstairs Theater (through April 18), starring Paul Perroni; Mabou Mines premieres the digital and live action adventure Finn (Skirball Center, March 4-7); Robert Emmet Lunney and Sam Tsoutsouvas star in Remembering Mr. Maugham (Clurman Theatre, March 4-13); Vampire Cowboys presents Alice in Slasherland (HERE Arts Center, March 18-April 10); Pan Asian Repertory presents Ching Chong Chinaman (West End Theatre, March 19-April 11); and female impersonator Tommy Femia stars in the new comedy Norma Doesmen (Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, March 4-28).