In five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes (all figures approximate), Rent—the musical about a group of '90s-era "new bohemians" living, loving, and dying of AIDS in the East Village—will be revived Off-Broadway. There's no escaping the past!
Rent Is Happening Again, This Time Off-Broadway
Elf and Ricky Martin Coming to Broadway, Hair Leaving
Big Broadway news this week, people! Brace for Elf, Evita, Spidey (yes, still happening!), Funny Girl and Annie. And say goodbye to the successful revival of Hair, which was not specifically too good anyway. Click on the images here for all the fabulous details. Also, as you no doubt know, the Tony Awards will be broadcast Sunday night—you can watch the red carpet and Creative Arts Tonys between 6 and 8 p.m. via webcast on Tonys.com, and then the show is broadcast on CBS starting at 8 p.m.
Neil Simon Revival To Close After 8 Days
In tomorrow's NY Times Arts & Leisure section, page 3 features a big, 4-color ad boasting about the revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (it's sort of like this). However, the Times reports that it "will close on Sunday, and the companion production of Mr. Simon’s 'Broadway Bound' will not open as planned, because of weak ticket sales, according to an executive involved with the production." BBM "opened last Sunday to a mix of modest and positive reviews, but Emanuel Azenberg, the lead producer, had said that rave reviews would be essential to improve box office receipts."
Angels in America in New York Again
The first New York revival of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning two-part epic work, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, will be staged by Signature Theatre Company as part of their 20th anniversary season in 2010-2011. Signature, which devotes an entire season to a single playwright's work, announced that part one, Millennium Approaches and part two, Perestroika, will run in repertory; the theater also plans to have performance days where the plays (each three and a half hours) are presented back to back. As usual with Signature, all tickets for the initial run will be sold for $20, thanks to a grant from Time Warner.
Opinionist: West Side Story
At 91, Arthur Laurents seems endowed with better acuity, instincts and vitality than most Americans one-fourth his age. At least, that's the impression one draws from his mostly exhilarating revival of West Side Story, which Laurents has brought back to Broadway somewhere in between reviving an award-winning of production of Gypsy and skiing in St. Moritz. The West Side Story that opened Thursday night at the gigantic old Palace Theater is traditional where it matters—faithfully recreating Jerome Robbins's transporting choreography—and unorthodox where it doesn't; some scenes, for example, are performed almost entirely in Spanish without supertitles.
Free (And Easy) Tickets to Hair Being Handed Out Now!
If you happen to be reading this in East Harlem, you’ve got a good shot at getting quick tickets to the Shakespeare in the Park revival of that ‘60s rock musical HAIR – you know, the one with that song "Age of Aquarius" from The 40 Year Old Virgin. The Public Theater is giving away vouchers for free tickets in all five boroughs through Saturday – today they’re at the El Museo Del Barrio (1230 5th Ave @ 104th Street) until 3 p.m. Sure, tickets are free anyway, but there's (theoretically) not such a crazy line for these. Just check the website for all the uptight, 21st century details about what “voucher” means to those squares at the Public.
The Electric Company Returns; Filming in NYC
Residents of Washington Heights and the Lower East Side may be noticing some production crews in their 'nabe this week, as filming begins for the redux of PBS's The Electric Company, which ended its series in 1977.
Moose Murders, Broadway’s Biggest Bomb, Lives On
How bad does a show have to be to become good? That’s the question posed by self-described “part-time conceptual artist” John Borek, who has recently revived the notorious 1983 Broadway flop Moose Murders in Rochester. The murder-mystery farce by Arthur Bicknell, which takes place one dark and stormy night at an isolated lodge, closed after 14 performances and widespread critical derision; the term “Moose Murders” has since become a Broadway euphemism for theatrical disaster.

