New York Spotlight: January 2011

While there are no new Broadway shows beginning this month, there are a number of high-profile Off-Broadway entries. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, and Juliet Rylance play the titular Three Sisters in Classic Stage Company’s revival of Chekhov’s play about thwarted dreams, running January 12-February 20. The star-studded cast also includes the likes of Josh Hamilton, Marin Ireland, Roberta Maxwell, Anson Mount, and Peter Sarsgaard.

Also highly anticipated is the Abbey Theatre’s revival of Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman (BAM Harvey Theater, January 7-February 6), starring Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman, and Fiona Shaw in this timely tale of one man’s undoing in the wake of relentless deception and fraud.

Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis stars in the Roundabout’s revival of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (Laura Pels Theatre, January 7-April 3), as a dying American widow visited by a handsome and mysterious young man. Jennifer Carpenter and Pablo Schreiber star in Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries (Second Stage Theatre, January 5-February 20), which follows two friends over 30 years.

Andre Braugher heads the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club’s The Whipping Man (New York City Center Stage I, January 13-March 13). Set after the end of The Civil War, the play concerns a Jewish Confederate soldier and two of his former slaves. Daniel Davis, Gregg Edelman, and Carolyn McCormick lead the cast of Primary Stages’ world premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Black Tie (59 E59 Theaters, January 25-March 20), in which the father of the groom’s efforts to make a memorable toast meets unexpected resistance.

Atlantic Theatre Company presents a new version of the 1906 comedy The New York Idea (Lucille Lortel Theatre, January 6-February 13), about a freewheeling young divorcee. The Mint Theater Company presents Arnold Bennett’s 1909 comedy What the Public Wants (January 13 – March 13), a satirical look at tabloid journalism. The Pearl Theatre Company is presenting Moliere’s The Misanthrope (New York City Center Stage II, January 23-February 20), about the romance of an honest man and a notorious liar. Theatre for a New Audience has a revival of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (New Victory Theatre, January 13-30), in which six versatile actors play 14 roles.

Mark St. Germain’s recent hit play Freud’s Last Session makes a return to the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater beginning January 14. It imagines an encounter between Freud and C.S. Lewis just weeks before Freud chooses to take his own life. Also returning is Daniel Beaty’s solo show Through the Night (Westside Theatre, beginning January 24), a look at Black masculinity.

Broadway veteran Thomas J. Ryan stars in the possibly self-explanatory, Tom Ryan Thinks He’s James Mason Starring in a Movie By Nicholas Ray in which a Man’s Illness Provides an Escape from the Pain, Pressure and Loneliness of Trying to be the Ultimate American Father, Only to Drive Him Further Into the More Thrilling Though Possibly Lonelier Roles of Addict and Misunderstood Visionary (Incubator Arts, January 7-22). Winner of the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Pants on Fire’s Metamorphoses (Flea Theater, January 5-30), resets the mythological tale in World War II-era Britain. Working Theatre presents Honey Brown Eyes (Clurman Theatre, January 9-February 6), which portrays the 1992 war in Bosnia through two encounters of unsettling intimacy.

Two major Off-Off-Broadway festivals are presenting work this month. The Public Theater-sponsored Under the Radar Festival features work by artists such as David Greenspan, Suzan-Lori Parks, Taylor Mac, and Chay Yew in productions like Ameriville, Jump, Watch Me Work, and The Walk Across America for Mother Earth. Meanwhile, highlights of P.S. 122’s Coil Festival include Annie Dorsen’s Hello Hi There (January 6-22) at its home space and John Jahnke & Hotel Savant’s Men Go Down at 3LD Art & Technology Center (January 6-23).

Also of note: York Theatre Company’s new musical comedy, The Road to Qatar (January 25-February 27); Ma-Yi Theatre’s revival of Ralph B. Pena’s Flipzoids (Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, January 11-February 6), starring Obie Award winner Ching Valdes-Aran; Joel Fields’ romantic comedy How I Fell in Love (Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, January 21-February 13); Carnival Round the Central Figure (IRT, January 13-30), directed by Karen Kohlhaas; the official Off-Broadway debut of Richard Skipper as Carol Channing in Concert (St. Luke’s Theatre, through January 26); Mr. Hirsch Died Yesterday (Castillo Theatre, January 21-February 20), directed by Woodie King, Jr.; and Connect Five (Ars Nova, January 5-16), an evening of one act plays.