Curtain Call: Clothing, Closings and Coming Clean

EUGENE ADEBARI

Broadway: It was recently announced that Ain’t Too Proud Tony nominee Ephraim Sykes will take the lead role in the upcoming Michael Jackson musical entitled MJ. Also confirmed for the upcoming production are Quentin Earl Darrington, Whitney Bashor, Gabriel Ruiz, Antoine L. Smith and Joey Sorge. No word has been released yet about the roles of Sykes’ co-starts. MJ will open this summer with previews beginning on July 6 with an opening night of August 13 at the Neil Simon Theatre.

Noah Haidle’s play, Birthday Candles, will open on Broadway this April, directed by Vivienne Benesch and presented by Roundabout Theater Company. The show tells the story of the life of Ernestine Ashworth, played by Debra Messing, through the baking of a cake. Joining the cast will be Brooklyn 99’s Andre Braugher and Veronica Mars' Enrico Colantoni. Birthday Candles opens on April 21 at the American Airlines Theater and will play through June 21, 2020.

Dharon E. Jones made his Broadway debut last year as Action in the revival of West Side Story at the Broadway Theatre. Now, he will be stepping in for Ben Cook who played Riff, Tony’s right-hand man. Cook originated the role in this production, but sustained an injury at the January 5 performance, unallowing him to continue in the park. Jones will remain in the role until Cook recovers.

With the new year, many shows playing limited engagements and some long time favorites must come to a close. Following a national tour and a 16-week engagement at the Longacre Theatre, the cast of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical say goodbye to their mythical characters. Now a classic Broadway production, Sara Bareilles said goodbye to her Tony and Grammy-nominated musical, Waitress on January 5th. Waitress made history by having four women in its top creative roles and has been bringing joy and tears to countless audiences since 2016. Another loss for Broadway, Lin Manuel Miranda’s improvised rap show, Freestyle Love Supreme closed on January 12, concluding its 14-week run with sold-out performances and epic performances.

Daniel wolfsbauer

Off-Broadway: Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s opera, Intimate Apparel, will open begin previews on February 27 ahead of a March 23rd opening Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. The 1905 set opera follows a single African American woman named Esther Tuesday, played by Kearstin Piper Brown, who sews undergarments and begins writing to a suitor on the Panama Canal. Intimate Apparel originally opened Off-Broadway in 2004 starring Viola Davis as Esther and it remains one of the most produced works across U.S. regional theaters.

Previews for Eboni Booth’s play, Paris, began at the Atlantic Theater company looking ahead to a January 21 opening night. Jules Latimer stars in the lead role of Emmie, one of the only black people living in Paris, Vermont who takes a job at a local general store. Other cast members include Ann McDonough, Bruce McKenzie and James Murtaugh among others.

Hunter College sees a return engagement of Red Bull Theater’s all-female adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, titled Mac Beth. Performances began January 6th and will run through February 22nd at Hunter’s Frederick Lowe Theater. The play follows seven girls who meet up to perform a play and end up reimagining the iconic work. The cast includes Orange is the New Black’s Isemnia Mendes as Lady Macbeth, Brittany Bradford as Macbeth and Ayana Workman as Banquo.

International: Kevin Elyot’s 1982 play Coming Clean plays London’s Trafalgar Studios 2 again beginning on January 10 through February 2. The production opened at King’s Head Theatre in 2017 and played Trafalgar Studios 2 in 2019. The play follows two men who have been together for five years, but now reach a standstill in their relationship as each man wants different things. The cast includes Stanton Plummer-Cambridge among others.

Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend will make its North American premiere at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre The Menier Chocolate Factory production will play from March 31st- May 3rd, 2020. The show follows a group of young girls at a finishing school who learn the ways of love as they grow up in the French Riviera. The cast is led by Jack Butterworth as Bobby van Husen and features Les Misérables star Amara Okereke as Polly.

China has seen an increase in interest in immersive theater experiences, sparking the opening of Mythic Stories of Fanling Township in Liaoning in Northeast China. The show allows audience members to move freely throughout the experience while actors interpret the story. Audience members watch behind masks as the characters act out the entirety of the play multiple times throughout a couple of hours, similar to the popular immersive show, Sleep No More. Producer Zhang Chunyang based his own immersive experiences off of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, a classic compilation of supernatural stories. The show celebrated its one-year anniversary in December yet continues to represent China’s obsession with new ways to imagine and present culture.