Theater News

New York Spotlight: June 2011

Summer Class

Tyne Daly in Master Class
(© James White)
Tyne Daly in Master Class
(© James White)

The 2010-2011 Broadway season officially comes to a close on June 12 with the presentation of the Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre. But the 2011-2012 season is just getting underway!

Tony Award winner Tyne Daly stars as opera diva Maria Callas in the Broadway revival of Terrence McNally’s Master Class (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, June 14-August 14). The cast also includes 2011 Olivier nominee Sierra Boggess, along with Clinton Brandhagen, Jeremy Cohen, Alexandra Silber, and Garrett Sorenson.

Also, after numerous delays, injuries, and creative team changes, the Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will finally open to the press on June 14 at the Foxwoods Theatre. Reeve Carney stars in the title role of this musical based on the Marvel Comics character. The score is by Bono and The Edge, of the band U2.

The Public Theater presents its Shakespeare in the Park summer repertory at the Delacorte Theater with Measure for Measure (June 6-July 30) and All’s Well That Ends Well (June 11-July 30). The company for both productions will include John Cullum, Michael Hayden, Annie Parisse, Tonya Pinkins, Lorenzo Pisoni, and Reg Rogers, among others.

Cirque du Soleil takes over Radio City Music Hall with the company’s new acrobatic spectacle, Zarkana (June 9-November 22), written and directed by acclaimed film and theatre director François Girard.

Joely Richardson and Cotter Smith star in Michael Weller’s Side Effects (Lucille Lortel Theatre, beginning June 2). The play centers on a couple whose marriage seems picture-perfect but is actually disintegrating. Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 production of Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles (Duke on 42nd Street, June 6- July 6) focuses on a young man seeking solace from his feisty grandmother. It features Gabriel Ebert, Greta Lee, Mary Louise Wilson, and Zoe Winters.

Justin Bartha stars in Zach Braff’s new play, All New People (Second Stage, beginning June 28). It’s about a man wishing to retreat from the world, whose solitude is interrupted by a motley parade of misfits. Second Stage will also present Michael Mitnick’s Sex Lives of Our Parents at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, June 7-July 3. Lisa Emery and Daniel Jenkins are part of the cast of this play about a bride visited by unwanted ghosts of her mother’s past.

Brent Barrett and Jenn Harris lead the cast of Silence! The Musical (Theater 80 St Mark’s, June 24-August 13), an unauthorized parody of the thriller Silence of the Lambs. Adam Kantor and Lauren Molina are featured in the new musical Next Thing You Know, presented by CAP 21 at its new Black Box Theatre, June 7-25. It’s the story of four New Yorkers confronting adulthood. Miche Braden plays the title role in The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, presented by Penguin Rep at St. Luke’s Theater, beginning June 7.

June is Gay Pride Month, which seems the perfect time for Classic Stage Company to present its world premiere of Unnatural Acts: Harvard’s Secret Court of 1920 (June 14-July 10), based on a historical incident that resulted in the expulsion of a group of homosexual students from Harvard. LGBT fare also includes Holly Hughes’ new solo, The Dog and Pony Show (bring your own pony) (Dixon Place, June 3-18); Linda Simpson’s The Emperor’s New Codpiece (Laurie Beechman Theatre, June 10-July 15), a queer reimagining of a classic tale; Eyes of Babylon (59E59 Theaters, June 14-July 3), a solo performance by gay ex-Marine Jeff Keys; and Quartet, an evening of gay-themed one-acts by Mario Fratti at Theater for the New City, June 2-19.

The World Science Festival kick starts the summer festival season with its opening night gala featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, Liev Schreiber, David Morse, Mireille Enos, and Bill Camp in a reading of Alan Alda’s new play about Marie Curie. Additional festivals this month include Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks 2011 (HERE Arts Center, June 2-25); The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity (various locations, June 1-26), The Gallery Players’ 14th Annual Black Box New Play Festival (June 2-26), St. Ann’s Warehouse’s Labapalooza! Mini Festival of New Puppet Theater (June 2-5), and The Brick’s Comic Book Theater Festival (June 2-July 1).

Nilaja Sun brings her award-winning solo show No Child… to the Barrow Street Theatre, June 5-25. The piece is inspired by the writer/performer’s experiences working in New York City’s public schools as a teaching artist. Another solo piece is presented by Cary Hoffman, whose one-man musical My Sinatra (Midtown Theatre, beginning June 4) is about his love and idolization for his hero Frank Sinatra and the perils of wanting to become somebody else.

Also of note: MoLoRa (Ailey Citigroup Theater, June 30-July 24), a South African adaptation of the Oresteia trilogy; The Foundry Theatre’s FUREE on Pins & Needles (June 22-July 29); the new musical play The Magdalene (Theatre at St. Clement’s, June 14-September 4); and Boo Killebrew’s Play About My Dad (59E59 Theaters, June 16-July 2).