New York Spotlight: November 2005

Theatergoers have plenty to be thankful for on the Main Stem and elsewhere this month, beginning with the return of Tony Award winner Patti LuPone to the Broadway musical stage in the unusual 10-person, everyone-plays-their-own-instrument revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. LuPone tackles the tuba, while fellow Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris strums the guitar as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street in this daring re-imagining of the beloved musical (November 3, Eugene O’Neill).

Indeed, award winners abound on the Great White Way this month. Those popular pop stars Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons see their life pass before they eyes in the bio-musical Jersey Boys (November 6, August Wilson Theater). Tony winner Judy Kaye trills embarrassingly off-key (on purpose) as society songstress Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir (November 10, Lyceum). British superstars Maria Friedman and Michael Ball headline Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest tuner, The Woman in White, based on the classic Wilkie Collins novel (November 17, Marquis), and Tony winners George Grizzard and Frances Sternhagen team with Frederick Weller and Obie goddess Elizabeth Marvel for the much-awaited revival of Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winner Seascape (November 21, Booth).

Off-Broadway has more than its share of award winners too, starting with Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, who co-stars with Veanne Cox and George S. Irving in Barra Grant’s dark comedy A Mother, A Daughter and A Gun (November 1, Dodger Stages). Obie winner Brenda Currin returns with her 1980s Off-Broadway hit Sister and Miss Lexie at the Flea (November 13). The interactive musical comedy Bingo (November 7, St. Luke’s Theater) boasts such top-tier talent as Klea Blackhurst, Liz Larsen, Liz McCartney, and Janet Metz. And Tony winners Boyd Gaines and Richard Easton, along with Jeffrey Carlson, Michael Emerson, Reg Rogers, and Andrew Weems, go back to the 18th Century in Itamar Moses’ much-awaited Bach at Liepzig at New York Theater Workshop (November 14).

Shakespeare lovers have plenty to look forward to this month. Edward Hall’s award-winning Watermill company returns to BAM with an all-male The Winter’s Tale (November 2). The ever-daring Queens Company serves up an all-female The Taming of the Shrew at Walkerspace (November 5). And the always watchable Michael Cumpsty tackles Shakespeare’s greatest role, Hamlet at Classic Stage Company (November 13).

If you’re looking for new takes on old classics, you’re in luck. Gerry Bammann stars in a new adaptation of Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener (November 6, Blue Heron); NAATCO presents Cowboy V. Samurai, a contemporary re-telling of Cyrano de Bergerac (November 8, Rattlestick); Adrian Zmed and Annie Golden go back to Biblical times in the new musical The Ark (November 14, 37 Arts); and Samuel Beckett’s existential masterpiece Waiting for Godot returns in time for its 50th Anniversary (November 16, St. Clement’s).

Rounding out the month are a slew of provocative plays. Jack Holmes’ solo show RFK about the late, great politician, lands at the Culture Project (November 15); The Public Theater’s new artistic director Oskar Eustis directs Rinne Groff’s acclaimed drama The Ruby Sunrise (November 16); Beyond the Mirror, a searing drama at Theater for the New City, marks the first US-Afghan theater collaboration (November 20); Emmy nominee Michael C. Hall takes on the title role of Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theater (November 20); and Obie winner Kristine Neilsen does the same for Christopher Durang’s Miss Witherspoon at Playwrights Horizons (November 29).