New York Spotlight: January 2010

Two of the city’s major non-profit companies start off the new year with Broadway productions. Manhattan Theater Club presents Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, beginning January 5), about a long-term couple who share a passion for documenting the realities of war. Daniel Sullivan directs a cast that includes Eric Bogosian, Brian d’Arcy James, Laura Linney, and Alicia Silverstone.

Meanwhile, the Roundabout Theatre Company presents a revival of Noel Coward’s classic comedy, Present Laughter (American Airlines Theater, beginning January 2). Victor Garber stars as a matinee idol whose life gets turned upside down as he struggles to plan a trip to Africa. The supporting cast includes Harriet Harris, Brooks Ashmanskas, and Lisa Banes.

The stars are out Off-Broadway as Tony Award winners John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle play the title roles in Douglas Carter Beane’s Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, at Second Stage Theatre, beginning January 26. Scott Ellis directs this play, about a pair of gossip columnists who must find news when the social circuit no longer provides any. Hugh Dancy, Ben Whishaw, Andrea Riseborough, and Adam James star in the American premiere of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride, presented by MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel, January 27-March 20. The action jumps from 1958 to the present and back and involves a complex love triangle. Tony Award winner Joe Mantello directs.

Stephen Rea and Sean McGinley reprise their starring roles in the American premiere of The Abbey Theatre’s production of Sam Shepard’s Ages of the Moon, presented by the Atlantic Theatre Company at the Linda Gross Theater, January 12-March 7. At Atlantic Stage 2, David Greenspan performs his solo The Myopia in repertory with Gertrude Stein’s Plays (January 6-February 7).

Keith Carradine, Josh Hamilton, Marin Ireland, Laurie Metcalf, and Maggie Siff are among the cast of the New Group’s revival of Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind (Theatre Row, beginning January 29), directed by Ethan Hawke. Tony Award-winning musical theater legend Elaine Stritch drops in at the Carlyle for At Home At The Carlyle: Elaine Stritch Singin’ Sondheim. . . One Song At A Time (January 5-30), while Tony winner Tyne Daly plays Feinstein’s at The Regency with The Second Time Around (January 19-30).

The Bridge Project presents Shakespeare’s As You Like It at BAM’s Harvey Theater, January 12-March 13. Sam Mendes directs a transatlantic company of actors including Christian Camargo, Stephen Dillane, Alvin Epstein, Ron Cephas Jones, Juliet Rylance, and Thomas Sadoski. The third and final installment of Horton Foote’s The Orphans’ Home Cycle begins on January 7, with the entire nine-play, three-part saga performing in repertory through March 28.

Walter Bobbie directs David Ives’ Venus in Fur, inspired by the infamous erotic novel, for Classic Stage Company, January 13-February 21. Ensemble Studio Theater presents Robert Askins’ Princes of Waco (January 8-30), in which an old man teaches a fatherless boy how to drink, fight and steal. The Women’s Project presents Rachel Axler’s dark comedy Smudge (Julia Miles Theater, January 3-Feburary 7), in which a hopeful young couple gives birth to a smudge. Primary Stages presents Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now? (59E59 Theaters, January 26-March 6), in which a woman struggles to balance personal freedom with family life, fidelity, and a demanding job. Craig Alan Edwards stars in his one-man piece about Dr. Martin Luther King, The Man in Room 306, at 59E59, January 15-February 14. Also at the venue is Rough Sketch (January 14-31), about two animators snowed in over the holidays.

Sexual Healing (Mint Theater, January 6-13), written and directed by Jonathan Leaf, details the taboo experimentation and practices of a renowned sex researcher who filmed hundreds of couples having intercourse. Notorious performance artist Karen Finley debuts The Jackie Look (Laurie Beechman Theatre, January 30-March 6), riffing on the iconic persona of Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis. Two-time Obie Award winner Matthew Maguire bring his new autobiographical solo show, Wild Man to The Wild Project, January 11-26. Margaux Laskey also has an autobiographical solo at The Wild Project, Size Ate: One Woman’s Search for the Perfect Fit, January 14-16. Another solo show, Michael Aronov’s Manigma (Clurman Theater, January 15-March 13), depicts six distinct characters who represent extrapolated versions of the actor’s own personality.

The Public Theater presents the Under the Radar Festival (January 6-17), with productions including American Document, a collaboration between SITI Company actors and Martha Graham Company dancers, featuring a script by Charles L. Mee and direction by Anne Bogart; Husbands, based on John Cassavetes’ 1970s film; and Silver Stars, a song cycle about Irish gay men. P.S. 122 is one of UTR’s partner venues and some of that festival’s shows overlap with P.S. 122’s own COIL festival (January 6-17), including Jerk, adapted from Dennis Cooper’s novel, and Richard Maxwell’s Ads.

Also of note: International WOW stages Japanese playwright Masataka Matsuda’s Auto Da Fe (Baruch Performing Arts Center, January 7-24); The Flea Theater presents Elaine Murphy’s Little Gem (January 5-16); playwright Young Jean Lee directs her newest work, LEAR (SoHo Repertory Theatre, January 7-31); and Abingdon Theatre Company debuts Jan Buttram’s Phantom Killer (January 22-February 14).