This Week on Stage: Billie Joe Armstrong boosts ‘American Idiot’ just as other shows turn on the dark

Image Credit: Slaven Vlasic/Getty ImagesForget the fuss about Julie Taymor’s megabudget musical Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark. The other big theater news is the return of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong to Broadway’s American Idiot for 50 shows, starting Jan. 1. This is very good news for producers of the rock musical, which has struggled at the box office for much of the seven months since its opening. Last week, the show filled just over half its seats and grossed a mere $600,000. The hope is that Armstrong’s presence will spike sales to the levels Idiot reached when he leapt into the role of seductive, drug-pushing rebel St. Jimmy for a surprise one-week gig from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 (that week, the show played to 93 percent capacity and grossed $1.1 million).

The timing is particularly smart since Armstrong will be arriving during what is traditionally a slow time for Broadway, the postholiday lull when New York is light on the tourism that typically drives ticket sales. In fact, it’s the fear of the January doldrums that has spurred the recent outbreak of closing notices on the Great White Way. Today, the well-reviewed rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson joined the trend; it  will close Jan. 2.

A lot of Broadway houses will be emptying in the next couple of months. The Kander-Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys announced its last performance will be Dec. 12, and the Brendan Fraser-topped comedy Elling closed on Sunday after just nine shows. The curtain will also be falling early on Fela! (Jan. 2), Promises, Promises (Jan. 2), Brief Encounter (Jan. 2), West Side Story (Jan. 2), Colin Quinn Long Story Short (Jan. 8), In the Heights (Jan. 9), La Bête (Jan. 9), and Next to Normal (Jan. 16). And that’s not even counting shows like the holiday hit Elf that were mounted this fall for a deliberately limited run.

Are there are any shows you’re hoping to see before they close? (My suggestion: Hurry up and see the sensational Scottsboro Boys!) And will you consider a trip to New York to see Billie Joe belting out “Know Your Enemy” at the St. James Theatre?

More Stage coverage from EW.com:
Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey announce dates for Richard III
Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark sells $1 million in tickets
Michael Urie joining, Zachary Quinto leaving revival of Angels in America

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This Week on Stage: The secret word is fun in Pee-wee Herman’s Broadway debut

Image Credit: Jeff VespaIt was a relatively busy week on the Great White Way. The producers of Next to Normal announced that the hit musical will have its last bipolar breakdown in January. The always entertaining Harvey Fierstein agreed to join the Broadway cast of La Cage Aux Folles in February, playing the cross-dressing Albin. And there were two big openings: The Pee-wee Herman Show, which made its way to the Big Apple after a run in L.A. earlier this year, and Colin Quinn Long Story Short, the one-man show from former SNL comedian Colin Quinn that moved uptown after an Off Broadway run earlier this year. We reviewed both here on EW.com. Here, the highlights:

The Pee-wee Herman Show: EW film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum loved the new stage incarnation of Pee-wee, and gave the production a solid A–: “The reunion of Pee-wee and his pals from the great TV show Pee-wee’s Playhouse is staged with modern brio by director Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), who produces a dazzling acid ride of color, light, goofy anarchy, punchy video clips, and juicy sound effects,” she wrote. “Throughout, the secret word is fun.”

Colin Quinn Long Story Short: I thought former SNL comedian Colin Quinn did a decent job in bringing his solo show about the history of the world’s empires to the Broadway stage: “Now arriving on the Great White Way, Long Story Short manages to hold on to its small-scale appeal,” I wrote in a grade-B review, “while also comfortably filling a much larger stage.”

Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky

More Stage coverage from EW.com:
Excess Hollywood: Harvey Fierstein joins Broadway’s ‘La Cage Aux Folles’
Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric coming to Broadway

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This Week on Stage: ‘Women on the Verge’ opens, disappoints

Image Credit: Paul KolnikThe big stage news of the week was the continuing problems with the upcoming Spider-Man musical, which faced both a safety inspection from New York state offiicals and a delayed start of public performances. When will Broadway’s most expensive musical ever catch a break? Stage-wise here on EW.com, we spoke with Time Stands Still star and standout Christina Ricci about the show, her debut on Broadway. And, of course, we reviewed the newest shows to open, which this week included the disappointing musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, as well as dramatic political play In the Wake and Off Broadway-to-Broadway transfer of The Scottsboro Boys. Here are the highlights:

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: EW stage editor Thom Geier found this new musical, which is based off Pedro Almodóvar’s 1988 film farce, disappointing to the effect of giving it a D+: “Seldom has such a strong cast”—which includes Sherie Rene Scott, Laura Benanti, Justin Guarini, and Patti LuPone—”been used to such poor effect,” he wrote in his review. “By the final curtain, you may wish that they had served some tranquilizer-laced gazpacho at intermission.” (Opened 11/4)

In the Wake: Reviewer Melissa Rose Bernardo wasn’t exactly enamored with the dramatic play, which centers around the Florida recount catastrophe in the 2000 Presidential election. Bernardo gave the show a C+ and said: “Ultimately, what Kron has created are two separate plays. And she hasn’t really finished either one—let alone integrated them together.” (Opened 11/1)

The Scottsboro Boys: Geier loved this Off Broadway-to-Broadway transfer, giving it a straight-up A and proclaiming, “The Scottsboro Boys challenges us even as it moves us to tears.” (Opened 10/31)

Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky

More Stage coverage from EW.com:
Broadway’s ‘Spider-Man’ musical delays opening until Jan. 11, 2011
‘Spider-Man’ musical faces safety inspection
Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric coming to Broadway
Young Broadway star Shannon Tavarez dies
Christina Ricci chats with EW about her Broadway debut in ‘Time Stands Still’
Aaron Sorkin writing Hugh Jackman’s Houdini musical: Composer Danny Elfman has ‘high hopes’

View the original article here

This Week on Stage: Christina Ricci holds her own in re-opening of ‘Time Stands Still’ with Laura Linney

Image Credit: Joan MarcusThe theater world was buzzy—and busy!—this past week: The choir-happy musical Leap of Faith, starring Brooke Shields and Raúl Esparza, opened in Los Angeles; Sister Act announced its opening dates in New York City (April 20, 2011!); Billie Joe Armstrong boosted the American Idiot box office big time; and Jersey Boys got the greenlight to doo-wop onto the big screen. And, of course, shows opened in NYC, including the re-opening of Broadway hit Time Stands Still (now with Christina Ricci, pictured here with costar Eric Bogosian), and Gatz and Tigers Be Still Off Broadway, all of which were reviewed by Melissa Rose Bernardo here on EW.com. The highlights:

Gatz: Bernardo loved the eight-hour show, which is a word-for-word production of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Showering the show with praise, Bernardo awarded Gatz an A and said: “It’s not unlike spending the day on the sofa curled up with a really, really good book.” (Opened 10/6)

Tigers Be Still: Of Kim Rosenstock’s NYC debut play, Bernardo says, “There’s a lot of angst packed into this appealingly dark comedy.” Bernardo ultimately awarded the show a B+, saying that Tigers is “overstuffed” at times but ultimately  makes “hanging out with despondent, angry, wayward people fun.” (Opened 10/6)

Time Stands Still: The play, which went on hiatus and moved theaters while star Laura Linney shot her Showtime series The Big C, returns with Christina Ricci in the role that Alicia Silverstone originated. After originally awarding Time a n A–, Bernardo thought the reopening also deserved an A– and said: “In her stage debut, the doe-eyed Ricci holds her own with her three costars, theatrical heavyweights all. And in her second go at the role, Linney has zoomed in on little bits of warmth in the detached, screwed-up woman who lives her life, unapologetically, behind the lens.”(Opened 10/7)

Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky

More Stage coverage from EW.com:
‘Leap of Faith’: Hollywood comes out in force to see Brooke Shields and Raúl Esparza in the new musical
Excess Hollywood: ‘Sister Act’ to open on Broadway
Billie Joe Armstrong boosts ‘American Idiot’ box office: Can it hold?
‘Glee’ duets: Yay for more ‘Chorus Line’
Cherry Jones and Sally Hawkins star in sluggish revival of ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ on Broadway
‘Jersey Boys’ heading to the big screen

View the original article here