Theater News

Opening Movers

Jonathan Cake, Lynda Carter, James Denton, Raul Esparza, Jonathan Groff, Jon Hamm, Teri Hatcher, Cheyenne Jackson, Elisabeth Moss, Jeremy Piven, Susan Sarandon, and Naomi Watts light up the nights.

Joseph Marzullo Benjamin Gabbe Becky Sapp
New York City

On Thursday night, the Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow opened at the Barrymore Theatre. Celebrating after the performance were stars Elisabeth Moss, Raul Esparza, Jeremy Piven, and director Neil Pepe.

Moss, who stars on AMC’s Emmy Award-winning Mad Men as copywriter Peggy Olson, was surrounded by her co-stars, including handsome Jon Hamm, who plays her boss, Don Draper.

Vincent Kartheiser, who plays coworker Pete Campbell, was another first-night guest.

Stage veteran Bryan Batt, who plays Salvatore Romano on the series, attended with good pal Patricia Clarkson.

Series creator Matthew Weiner shared a playful moment with another of the show’s players, Talia Balsam, who plays Mona Sterling.

Ian McShane, who played Esparza’s father in the recent Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, was on hand to lend support.

Jonathan Cake worked with Pepe earlier this year on the Atlantic Theater Company’s production of Almost an Evening and Parlour Song.

David Pittu and Peter Bartlett, who worked with Pepe on the Atlantic’s What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling — which reopens at New World Stages on November 1 — also attended the opening.

A pregnant Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber — who will host the New Globe Theater’s Shakespeare in the Brave New World benefit on Monday, October 27 at the NYU Skirball Center — were spotted in the throng.

Here is the ever-busy Jonathan Groff, who will co-star with Schreiber in the film Taking Woodstock, and bows next month in Playwrights Horizons’ production of Craig Lucas’ Prayer For My Enemy, and may return to Broadway next year in Hair.

Ugly Betty star Michael Urie — who is also part of the rotating cast of the very popular Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words — was clearly excited to be at the opening!

On Wednesday night, the National Arts Club hosted the opening of No Why, an exhibition of photographs by Jean-Louis Blondeau. He was joined by Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (left) as well as his very talented wife, singer-actress Gay Marshall.

On Tuesday night, former Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter began a week-long engagement at Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency. Among Carter’s many celebrity admirers that night — who included Alan Cumming, Les Moonves, and Blaine Trump – was the equally wonderful Cheyenne Jackson, soon to do a reading of the Broadway-bound musical The Band Wagon.

Finally, on Saturday, October 18, there was a gala opening for the play How Cissy Grew at West Hollywood’s El Portal Theater. The show’s star James Denton — best known for his role as Mike Delfino on ABC’s Desperate Housewives — was joined by his wife and stage co-star Erin O’Brien, and series co-stars Brenda Strong and Teri Hatcher.

Housewives co-star Doug Savant, real-life wife Laura Leighton, onscreen wife Felicity Huffman, and series creator Marc Cherry also attended the gala.

For TheaterMania’s review of Speed-the-Plow, click here.

For TheaterMania’s review of How Cissy Grew, click here.