Theater News

New York Spotlight: October 2005

Simon Says

Eugenio Derbez in Latinologues
(Photo © Joan Marcus)
Eugenio Derbez in Latinologues
(Photo © Joan Marcus)

The Great White Way is full of plenty of new marquees this month, while Off-Broadway holds up its end of the bargain as well.

Of course, the biggest news on the Rialto is the revival of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple at the Brooks Atkinson, which reunites Producers stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison and fussbudget photographer Felix Unger (opens October 27). Brad Garrett, Rob Bartlett, Peter Frechette, Lee Wilkof, Olivia D’Abo, and Jessica Stone round out the cast, under the direction of Tony Award winner Joe Mantello.

Backing up a bit, the Roundabout starts off the Broadway season with Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg’s comedy A Naked Girl on the Appian Way about a successful cookbook author (played by Jill Clayburgh) and her husband (played by Richard Thomas) whose life is turned upside down when their children return from an extended vacation (opens October 6). Hitting New York after many years of successfully touring the country is Latinologues, a collection of monologues by writer and co-star Rick Najera about Latino life, directed by Cheech Marin (opens October 13 at the Helen Hayes).

More laughs can be found at the Biltmore as Manhattan Theater Club revives Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular. Now set in the present-day, this uproarious comedy stars Mireille Enos, Clea Lewis, Sam Robards, Alan Ruck, Deborah Rush, and Paxton Whitehead (opens October 18). Having written some of the world’s most popular commercial jingles, not to mention the super smash hit “You Light Up My Life,” Joe Brooks now turns to musical theater with In My Life (opens October 20 at the Music Box), which details the love affair between a musician with Tourette’s Syndrome (played by Christopher Hanke) and a spunky journalist (played by Jessica Boevers), who are unaware they are participants in God’s first reality opera.

The stars truly shine just as brightly Off-Broadway this month: Sopranos star Michael Imperioli co-directs the 9/11-themed drama Late Fragment at his theater, Studio Dante (opens October 1); British comic and talk show host Graham Norton makes another welcome stateside appearance in Know All (Village Theater, opens October 4); OBIE winner Aasif Mandvi and Main Stem mainstay Shawn Elliott co-star in the science-oriented drama Einstein’s Gift (Acorn Theater, opens October 6), and Taye Diggs, Anthony Mackie, Steven Pasquale, and James McDaniel headline Second Stage Theatre’s much-awaited revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winner A Soldier’s Play (opens October 17).

As the month continues, so do the luminaries. French film goddess Isabelle Huppert makes a rare American appearance in Sarah Kane’s controversial 4.48 Psychose at BAM (opens October 19); Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth, Jeffrey DeMunn, Jenn Harris, and James Waterston take the stage of the Flea Theater in Roger Rosenblatt’s series of urban sketches, Ashley Montana in the Caicos (opens October 20); Grammy Award-winning country singer Steve Earle is the author of Karla, a new drama about death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker (played by Obie winner Jodie Markell) at the Culture Project (opens October 22); and Oscar winner Dianne Wiest, Charles Durning, Jason Ritter, and Gaby Hoffman share the stage of the Mitzi Newhouse in Wendy Wasserstein’s provocative drama Third, about a college student accused of plagiarism (opens October 24).