New York Spotlight: August 2008
(© Carol Rosegg)
The musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, featuring book, music, and lyrics by Jill Santoriello, arrives on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, beginning August 19. James Barbour stars, with a principal cast featuring Craig Bennett, Brandi Burkhardt, Kevin Earley, Gregg Edelman, Michael Hayward-Jones, Aaron Lazar, Mackenzie Mauzy, Katherine McGrath, Les Minski, Natalie Toro, and Nick Wyman.
Aya Cash, Scott Cohen, Dylan McDermott, Brian J. Smith, and Maura Tierney star in the world premiere of Nicky Silver’s Three Changes at Playwrights Horizons, August 22-September 28. In the play, a comfortably married, Upper West Side couple’s lives are disrupted when the husband’s wayward brother arrives from Hollywood.
New York Theatre Workshop presents the world premiere of Michael Weller’s Beast (August 29-October 12). The comedy, directed by Jo Bonney, centers around two Iraqi War veterans, and stars Raul Aranas, Jeremy Bobb, Lisa Joyce, Logan Marshall-Green, Larry Pine, Eileen Rivera, and Corey Stoll.
Signature Theatre Company kicks off its new season — devoted to plays originally presented by the Negro Ensemble Company — with Leslie Lee’s award-winning The First Breeze of Summer (August 5-September 28). Tony Award winner Leslie Uggams leads the cast in this work about three generations of an African-American family who get together on a single weekend. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs.
The musical revue The Marvelous Wonderettes plays the Westside Theatre, beginning August 26. Written and directed by Roger Bean, the show features the iconic sounds of the fifties and beyond in a journey back to a 1958 high school prom.
The New York International Fringe Festival returns for the twelfth year, August 8-24, in multiple downtown venues. As usual, there are some recognizable names involved with the festival, including SNL veteran Ana Gasteyer, who is directing Hanna LoPatin’s solo show, The Sound of One Hanna Clapping; Obie Award winner Lisa Banes and Tony Award nominee Xanthe Elbrick, who star in The Alice Complex; Mark Setlock and Jan Leslie Harding, who are cast members in The Umbrella Plays; and Petronia Paley, who is directing Ascension, set in 1850 on a plantation in Alabama.
Spiegeltent returns to the South Street Seaport, bringing with it a new edition of Absinthe (beginning August 6) and the debut of Desir (beginning August 7). Both shows feature a mixture of eye-popping circus and burlesque acts.
Finally, following a successful Off-Off-Broadway engagement earlier this year, Nicu’s Spoon presents a commercial run of Timothy Findley’s drama Elizabeth Rex at CenterStage, NY, August 13-September 6. The play is set on the eve prior to the dawn of the execution of the Earl of Essex as Queen Elizabeth spends the night in a barn with William Shakespeare and his troupe of players.
