Theater News

The Weekend Report: Harry Connick Jr. Lottery; Oscar Isaac at Miscast; Paddington Cast

Find out all the theater news you missed this week.

Welcome to TheaterMania's Weekend Report, where you'll find recent news stories from the New York theater scene and beyond.


Harry Connick Jr. returns to Broadway.
Harry Connick Jr. returns to Broadway.
(© David Gordon)

Harry Connick Jr.'s Ticket Lottery

A digital lottery ticket policy has been announced for Harry Connick Jr.'s upcoming Broadway concert, Harry Connick Jr. — A Celebration of Cole Porter, beginning its three-week run December 7 at the Nederlander Theater.

The digital lottery will open at 9am the day of the performance for evening performances, and 8pm the day prior to the matinee performances. Matinee lotteries will close at 9am the day of the performance, and evening lotteries will close at 1pm the day of the performance. Winners will be notified by email shortly after each drawing and have 60 minutes to claim and pay for tickets online. Tickets can be picked up 30 minutes prior to show time at the Nederlander. Limit two per entry. Click here to enter.

The production will feature a 25-piece orchestra and Connick performing some of Porter's greatest hits.


Dates for New York Theatre Workshop Productions

The New York Theatre Workshop production of Celine Song's Endlings will run February 19, 2020-March 29, 2020. Directed by Sammi Cannold, the production will feature Wai Ching Ho as Han Sol, Emily Kuroda as Go Min, and Jo Yang as Sook Ja, alongside Matt DaSilva as White Stage Manager, Miles G. Jackson as White Husband, Mark Mauriello as White Stage Manager/Turtle, Jiehae Park as Ha Young, Keith Pinault as White Stage Manager, and Andy Talen as White Stage Manager.

The company has also announced that Martyna Majok's new play Sanctuary City, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, will run March 4-April 12 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.


Immanuel Houston and Chris Collins-Pisano in Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation.
Immanuel Houston and Chris Collins-Pisano in Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation.
(© Carol Rosegg)

The Return of the Return of Forbidden Broadway

The latest iteration of Forbidden Broadway, subtitled The Next Generation, will play a new engagement at the York Theatre Company after a debut run this fall at the Triad. Performances will take place January 15, 2020-February 9, 2020.

Written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini, the show features spoofs of Broadway's Hadestown, Oklahoma!, and more, as well as of stars Ben Platt, Santino Fontana, Billy Porter, Bette Midler, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Immanuel Houston, Aline Mayagoitia, Chris Collins-Pisano, Jenny Lee Stern, and Joshua Turchin will star, with Gerry McIntyre providing choreography and Fred Barton on the piano.


Paddington Comes to Off-Broadway

Jake Bazel, Jessica Bulzacchelli, John Cody, A.J. Ditty, and Kirsty Moon will star in the off-Broadway run of Paddington Gets in a Jam at the DR2 Theatre, running December 13-March 8, 2020.

In Jonathan Rockefeller's Paddington Gets in a Jam, Paddington is at home making his favorite marmalade jam, with the help of the Brown's housekeeper Mrs. Bird, but they run out of sugar. Paddington goes next door to borrow some sugar, where he finds his ever-grumpy neighbor Mr. Curry in a panic, expecting an important visitor. Paddington volunteers to help get the house ready for the visit, but unfortunately for Paddington his good intentions lead to some hysterical chaos.

The creative team includes Rockefeller (creator/director), Rockefeller Productions (puppet design), Doug Kmiotek (playwright), David Goldstein and Peter Feuchtwanger (set design), Jamie Roderick (lighting design), Dave Ferdinand (sound design), and Mikaela Hogan (props master).


Red Bucket Follies Returns

Performers have been announced for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Red Bucket Follies benefit, to be held December 9 and 10.

The event will feature guest appearances by Derrick Baskin, James Harkness, Jawan Jackson, Jelani Remy and Ephraim Sykes, Christian Borle and Jonathan Groff, André De Shields, P.J. Griffith and Ashley Matthews, Ellie MacPherson and Sid Solomon, Tam Mutu, Sahr Ngaujah and Karen Olivo, and C.J. Pawlikowski and John Rochette.

Judges will include Derren Brown, Kyle Soller, Andrew Burnap, Samuel H. Levine, Damon Daunno, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Michael Benjamin Washington, Sharon Wheatley, Astrid Van Wieren, Leslie Mayer, and Peg Wendlandt. Seth Rudetsky will host.


Oscar Isaac will be honored at MCC Theater's 2020 Miscast Gala.
Oscar Isaac will be honored at MCC Theater's 2020 Miscast Gala.
(© Tricia Baron)

Announcements

• MCC Theater will honor actor Oscar Isaac, board chair Susan Raanan, and former youth company members Alexander Lambie and Cesar Rosado at the 2020 Miscast gala, to be held April 6 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

• Nancy Anderson, Christopher Borg, Howard McGillin, Kendal Sparks, and Jennifer Van Dyck will join Charles Busch in Primary Stages' The Confession of Lily Dare, running at the Cherry Lane Theatre January 11-March 5 under the direction of Carl Andress.

• Gregg Edelman and Eric William Morris have joined the cast of Richard Greenberg's The Perplexed, beginning performances February 11 at Manhattan Theatre Club's New York City Center — Stage I.

• The Public Theater has extended Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day through December 22. Bill Heck will replace cast member Michael Urie for the final week of the run.

• Tina Satter's Is This a Room will return to the VIneyard Theatre, December 20-January 19.

• Waterwell's The Courtroom, a reenactment of deportation proceedings, will be presented at Cooper Union's Great Hall on Monday, December 9 at 7pm. The company includes Happy Anderson, J. Smith-Cameron, Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek, Michael Bryan French, Mick Hilgers, Linda Powell, Jason Ralph, and Kristin Villanueva.

• Manhattan Theatre Club's production of My Name Is Lucy Barton will now begin performances January 4. Laura Linney stars.

• Theatre for a New Audience's revival of María Irene Fornés's Fefu and Her Friends will add four extra and final performances to its run, set for December 10, 11, and 12.

• Broadway's Moulin Rouge! The Musical has partnered with the New York Academy of Art to host The Toulouse-Lautrec Celebration of Art & Artists on February 18. A portion of the proceeds from this special performance of the show will benefit the school's scholarships and programming.

• The 2020 Drama Desk Awards will be presented Sunday, May 31, at Town Hall. Nominations will be announced April 21.

• Patrick Stewart's benefit run of his one-man A Christmas Carol will offer four lucky people the opportunity to win $25 tickets for the December 11 and 13 performances at Theater 511. Two tickets will be provided per performance.

• Andy Sandberg has being named the artistic director and chief executive officer at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida.

• The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene production of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony: A New Musical will now run February 9, 2021-March 27, 2021. The yearlong delay is due to a bout of appendicitis suffered by director and choreographer Warren Carlyle, who was successfully treated.

• The cast of Broadway's Six will take part in BroadwayCon's First Look session on Friday, January 24. A conversation with the cast and creative team will take place January 26.


Hot Shots

Here are some photos from the goings-on around town this week:


Watch a montage from Greater Clements, Samuel D. Hunter's new play at Lincoln Center Theater: