New York Spotlight: June 2005

June is busting out all over, and some of Broadway’s brightest stars are busting out as well, as the 2005-2006 season gets off to a rousing start.

On June 1, the legendary Elaine May returns with a trio of one-act plays, After the Night and The Music. May’s talented daughter, Jeannie Berlin, leads the cast, which also features Jere Burns, Brian Kerwin, Eddie Korbich, and J. Smith-Cameron. Another legendary theatrical figure, Hal Holbrook, comes back to town with an encore presentation of his Tony Award-winning solo show Mark Twain Tonight! from June 6 through June 26.

The Roundabout’s American Airlines Theater has finally seen the last of those 12 Angry Men. The house is now occupied by W. Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife (opening June 16). Kate Burton has the title role, with Michael Cumpsty as her adulterous husband, Kathryn Meisle as her best friend and his mistress, and Lynn Redgrave as her opinionated mother.

Ms. Redgrave’s big sister, Vanessa, is making one of her rare U.S. stage appearances, tackling the title role in Hecuba at BAM from June 17-26. And she’s just one of the many strong women on local stages. Law & Order star S. Epatha Merkerson has the title role in Birdie Blue at Second Stage (opening June 23). Brooke Adams portrays the stubborn Madame Ranevskaya in Tom Donaghy’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Atlantic (opening June 15), alongside Larry Bryggman, Scott Foley, Alvin Epstein, Mary McCann, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and Staceyann Chinn, a member of the Tony-winning cast of Def Poetry Jam, serves up a new autobiographical solo show Border/Clash at The Culture Project (opening June 16).

Speaking of siblings, Liev Schrieber’s younger brother, Pablo Schreiber, is part of the three-person cast of Paul Grellong’s dark comedy Manuscript at the Daryl Roth Theater (opening June 12); Marin Ireland and Jeffrey Carlson complete the trio, under the direction of Bob Balaban. Meanwhile, a triangle of another sort — the one that involved architect Stanford White, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, and her husband Harry K. Thaw — is reexamined in My Sweetheart’s the Man in the Moon (opening June 19), starring soap opera veteran Mark Pinter.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a month in New York without a dose of Shakespeare. The Aquila Theater Company presents its take on Twelfth Night (opening June 25), with original music by cast member Anthony Cochrane; while Tony Award winner William Finn is providing the music for the Public Theater’s production of As You Like It (previews begin June 26), directed by Mark Lamos, and starring Brian Bedford, Lynn Collins, and Richard Thomas.

Finally, the Brits Off Broadway festival comes to a close with four new productions, including the New York premiere of Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy Private Fears in Public Places (June 9-July 3), and Stewart Permutt’s Unsuspecting Susan (June 14-July 3), which stars Celia Imrie as a suburban housewife whose life is not as tranquil as it seems.