New York Spotlight: April 2006

The neon lights will burn especially bright on Broadway this month, as eight shows officially bow on the Great White Way. But there are plenty of stars Off-Broadway as well.

The month’s main event is the Broadway debut of film superstar Julia Roberts in Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain (April 19, Bernard B. Jacobs). Wisely, Roberts has picked Tony Award-winning director Joe Mantello to guide her and the smoking-hot Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd to share the stage in this compelling family drama set over two different generations.

Two much-awaited productions from Britain hit our shores this month. Larry Bryggman, Michael Hayden, Ali MacGraw, Julianna Margulies, and Jeremy Sisto head the cast of the family drama Festen (April 9, Music Box), while the original British cast of Alan Bennett’s award-winning The History Boys (April 23, Broadhurst) — about a bunch of bright schoolboys in pursuit of sex, sport, and knowledge — arrives stateside under the direction of Nicholas Hytner.

Drama lovers are also eagerly awaiting Lincoln Center Theatre’s revival of one of America’s most beloved plays: Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing! (April 17, Belasco).This landmark 1935 work about a Jewish family in the Bronx falling on hard times during the Depression will star Lauren Ambrose, Ben Gazzara, Jonathan Hadary, Mark Ruffalo, and Zoe Wanamaker, under the guidance of director Bartlett Sher .

Musical lovers also have a look to forward to this month. For the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of The Threepenny Opera (Studio 54, April 20), the shark with the pretty teeth — a.k.a. Macheath — will be played by Tony winner Alan Cumming, alongside Grammy winner Cyndi Lauper as Jenny, Tony winner Jim Dale as Mr. Peachum, the wonderful Ana Gasteyer as his wife, and rising pop star Nellie McKay as their daughter Polly. Next up is Lestat (Palace, April 25), based on Anne Rice’s series of novels about the bloodthirsty vampire, which features a score by the legendary songwriting team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin and a top-notch cast led by Hugh Panaro and the absolutely fabulous Carolee Carmello.

Rounding out the month are The Wedding Singer (April 27, Hirschfeld), an adaptation of the popular Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore film starring television comedian Stephen Lynch and the beautiful Laura Benanti, and Hot Feet (April 30, Hilton), which takes the classic tale of The Red Shoes and gives it a new spin. The show’s score is by Maurice White, leader of the pop group Earth, Wind and Fire, and will include both original music and some of their biggest hits. Vivian Nixon (daughter of Broadway great Debbie Allen), Keith David, and Tony winner Ann Duquesnay head the very large — and very talented — cast.

Heading Off-Broadway, the stars also shine very brightly. J. Smith-Cameron, Reed Birney, and Dan McCabe star in David Marshall Grant’s dysfunctional family drama, Pen (Playwrights Horizons, April 2); Matthew Arkin and Danton Stone lead the cast of Jeff Cohen’s autobiographical comedy Men of Clay (June Havoc, April 2); Sandra Bernhard unleashes herself on the stage again in Everything Bad and Beautiful (Daryl Roth, April 5); Debra Monk, Lawrence Pressman, Ty Burrell, and Judy Greer show off in Paul Weitz’s dark comedy Show People (Second Stage, April 6); Maxwell Caulfield and Amelia Campbell have a tittilating Tryst (Promenade, April 6); and Marga Gomez struts her solo stuff in Los Big Names (47th Street Theater, April 9).

As the month continues, Katherine Moennig (of TV’s The L Word) and Lee Pace star in Peter Morris’ award-winning two-hander Guardians (Culture Project, April 10); Michael Tucker and Kristine Nielsen head the cast of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Based on a Totally True Story (MTC Stage II, April 11), about a young playwright tempted by Hollywood; Jeffrey DeMunn, Byron Jennings, Gloria Reuben, Jay O. Sanders, and Brenda Wehle head a cast of 16 in David Hare’s provocative political drama Stuff Happens (Public Theatre, April 13); and Sherie Rene Scott and Lili Taylor tackle John Guare’s daring Landscape of the Body (Signature, April 16).

As the very busy month wraps up, Bryan Batt and Nancy Opel headline John Epperson’s My Deah (April 21, Abingdon Theatre), a southern-fried take on Medea; Christiane Noll and Gabriel Barre move into the York Theatre’s new musical A Fine & Private Place (St. Peter’s, April 27), former Tony Award nominee John Cariani is both writer and co-star of the Transport Group production of cul-de-sac (April 30, Connelly Theatre); and Laila Robins, Bill Camp and Meredith Zinner make up the threesome at the heart of British playwright’s Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats (April 30, Duke on 42nd Street).

Finally, some trips to Brooklyn are definitely in order. The Gallery Players let it all hang out for Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out with former Tony nominee Jonathan Kaplan as Kippy. Over at BAM, the one-and-only Robert Wilson puts his singular stamp on a Norwegian co-production of Henrik Ibsen’s rarely-seen Peer Gynt (April 11) and the equally singular Lynn Redgrave takes on Lady Bracknell in Sir Peter Hall’s staging of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (April 18).