New York Spotlight: July 2010

Harry Connick, Jr. in Concert on Broadway marks this Grammy-winning recording artist and two-time Tony nominee’s return to the Great White Way. He plays a limited engagement at the Neil Simon Theater, July 15-29. Meanwhile, Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch also make their returns to Broadway, replacing Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, respectively, in the revival of A Little Night Music, at the Walter Kerr Theater beginning July 13.

2010 Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro has penned the book for a new musical debuting Off-Broadway from the York Theatre Company. Falling for Eve (July 6-August 8) features music by Bret Simmons and lyrics by David Howard, and offers an unconventional retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. The cast includes Jennifer Blood, Krystal Joy Brown, Nehal Joshi, Adam Kantor, Jose Llana, and Sasha Sloan.

The Transport Group’s new musical See Rock City & Other Destinations features Stanley Bahorek, Donna Lynne Champlin, Jonathan Hammond, Ryan Hilliard, Mamie Parris, Bryce Ryness, and Sally Wilfert, who perform in this contemporary pop-rock musical road trip that ventures to tourist destinations across America.

Zach Braff, Bobby Cannavale, Sutton Foster, and Ari Graynor star in Paul Weitz’s dark comedy, Trust, at Second Stage Theater, July 23-September 5. The play is about a rich man named Harry who looks to find something real in the most unlikely of places. Second Stage’s Uptown series debuts Bachelorette (McGinn/Cazale Theatre, July 12-August 7), which features Tracee Chimo, Carmen M. Herlihy, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Fran Kranz, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Katherine Waterston in the tale of a bachelorette party goes awry.

John Glover and Noah Robbins lead the cast of Secrets of the Trade (Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters, July 27-September 4), the New York premiere of Jonathan Tolins’ latest play about a smart, ambitious kid from Long Island and his Broadway idol. Bernie Kopell, Lou Cutell, and Teresa Ganzel star in Cutell and Joao Machado’s Viagara Falls, at the Little Shubert Theatre beginning July 5. The play focuses on two widowers who decide that they should sow some wild oats as one of them celebrates his 77th birthday.

Mary Testa leads the cast of the new musical I’ll Be Damned (Vineyard Theatre, July 1-18), about a friendless, comic-book-loving homeschooler named Louis who receives a seemingly irresistible offer from Satan. Meanwhile, Prospect Theater Company looks to cash in on the TV phenomenon Glee with its new musical, With Glee (Kirk Theatre, July 10-August 1), about a group of teenage boys during their first year at a boarding school in Maine.

Tony Award winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia is part of the ensemble cast of Tales from the Tunnel, at the Bleecker Street Theatre, beginning July 10. The piece premiered at last year’s FringeNYC, and explores the varied experiences that people can have while riding on the subway. Another FringeNYC hit getting a longer run is Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party (Acorn Theatre, July 27-September 5), in which a fourth-grade Christmas pageant in Abraham Lincoln’s rural Illinois hometown sets off a firestorm of controversy when it calls into question the former president’s sexuality.

As the Gays in the Military debate rages on, Marc Wolf revives his docudrama on the topic, Another American: Asking and Telling, distilled from over one hundred and fifty interviews with straight, gay and lesbian military personnel, in addition to civil rights lawyers, federal judges, professors and politicians. It plays a limited run at the DR2 Theatre, July 12-August 30.

Following a critically acclaimed run at Barrington Stage Company, Freud’s Last Session makes the move Off-Broadway, playing the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater beginning July 9. The work focuses on an encounter between Freud and Lewis just weeks before Freud chooses to take his own life.

PTP/NYC (formerly The Potomac Theatre Project) presents four works in repertory at Atlantic Stage 2, July 6 – August 1. They include a revival of David Rabe’s exploration of euthanasia, A Question of Mercy; the New York premiere of Snoo Wilson’s play about Alan Turing, Lovesong of the Electric Bear; and a double bill of plays by Howard Barker: Gary the Thief and Plevna: Meditations on Hatred.

Also of note: TheatreWorks USA debuts the family-friendly tuner We the People: America Rocks! at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (July 8-August 13); Broadway veteran Jeremy Bobb plays the title role in The Gallery Players’ production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (July 22 – August 1); and Ciaran Sheehan and Terry Donnelly recreate their original roles in Irish Repertory Theatre’s revival of Frank McCourt’s The Irish…and How They Got That Way (July 14 – September 4).

Finally, the Midtown International Theatre Festival plays multiple venues, July 12-August 1. Some of the titles offered include Can I Really Date A Guy Who Wears A Yarmulke?, Love Humiliation Karaoke, Most Likely To: The Senior Superlative Musical, The Starship Astrov, and Ten Reasons I Won’t Go Home With You.