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HANGMEN is set to Hangout on Broadway, This Week’s Grosses, The Red Ribbon Revue, EMOJILAND gets Steele, SUPERHERO makes a Super Album, Hal Prince to be Celebrated December 16.
“Today on Broadway” is a daily, Monday through Friday, podcast hitting the top theatre headlines of the day.
Any and all feedback is appreciated:
Ashley Steves ashley@broadwayradio.com | @NoThisIsAshley
James Marino james@broadwayradio.com | @JamesMarino
Matt Tamanini matt@broadwayradio.com | @BWWMatt
1. Martin McDonagh’s HANGMEN Is Coming to Broadway
http://www.playbill.com/article/off-broadway-hit-hangmen-will-make-broadway-debut-in-2020
Monday morning at 10 AM, we received the news that the Off-Broadway hit play HANGMEN will be coming to Broadway in 2020. The Martin McDonagh play is set to begin performances on February 28th at the Golden Theatre with an opening night set for March 19th.
McDonagh’s play follows local British hangman Harry who finds himself without a job on the day that hanging has been abolished. In the wake of this historic decision, a string of events leads to both comic and tragic consequences.
The original production at London’s Royal Court Theatre won two Olivier Awards in 2016 for Best New Play and Best Set Design—done by Anna Fleischle—leading to a sold-out Off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2018. Matthew Dunster will again direct for the Broadway production. Casting for the Broadway premiere will be announced at a later date.
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Broadway’s Dirty Secret
Ivo Van Hove’s success shows how much American commercial theater relies on European state funding.
BY HELEN LEWIS, The Atlantic
NOVEMBER 6, 2019
2. This Week’s Grosses
https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses.cfm
Grosses were down seven percent this week from the previous week at a grand total of $32,819,621 split between 36 shows.
The big ones at the top of the pack, of course, were HAMILTON and MOULIN ROUGE!, both of which took in over $2 million. Ten other productions broke the million dollar mark: AIN’T TOO PROUD, ALADDIN, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, HADESTOWN, JAGGED LITTLE PILL, THE BOOK OF MORMON, THE LION KING, TINA—THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and WICKED. Especially big considering JAGGED LITTLE PILL is, of course, still in previews. It put on eight preview performances and made just $46 over the million-dollar mark, bringing in 80.56 percent of its gross potential. TINA also had its first full week of performances after its opening last week, and brought in just shy of $1.5 million at 90.29 percent of its gross potential.
Kristin Chenoweth’s limited engagement, KRISTIN CHENOWETH: FOR THE GIRLS, came and went at the Nederlander Theatre. In eight performances, Cheno brought in $969,894, 75 percent of the gross potential but to a sold-out house.
Shows pulling in over 100 percent of their gross potential were TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, HAMILTON, MOULIN ROUGE!, AMERICAN UTOPIA, AND HADESTOWN topping the list at 120.04 percent.
At the bottom of the pack grosses-wise, for shows in full performances, THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM brought in only $251,376, just 34.77 percent of its gross potential. THE LIGHTNING THIEF continues its lacklust run at $255,064, or just shy of 30 percent of its potential. SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW, which opened the middle of last week and played five performances and three previews ranked lowest last week at 28.5 percent of its potential. Similarly, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, which is still in previews capped at 30.19 percent.
Now, obviously still in previews this week of grosses, but now that’s it’s opened, it will be interesting to see what THE INHERITANCE’s numbers look like next week. With two performances and six previews, the show only brought in 44.83 percent of its gross potential.
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3. In Other News…
Javier Muñoz and More to Commemorate World AIDS Day at The Red Ribbon Revue
The Great Comet’s Lucas Steele Joins Cast of Off-Broadway Musical EMOJILAND
Tom Kitt Musical SUPERHERO to Release Original Cast Album
http://www.playbill.com/article/tom-kitt-musical-superhero-to-release-original-cast-album
Celebration of Hal Prince’s Life To Be Held in December
Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side has announced its lineup and honorees for its Red Ribbon Review, a celebration of songwriters who have died of HIV/AIDS. HAMILTON alum Javier Muñoz, librettist Dick Scanlen, FUN HOME’s Beth Malone, and Dimitri Moïse will honor artists across musical genres, including Howard Ashman, Peter Allen, Michael Friedman, and Jerry Herman. The event will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and mothers2mothers and will take place on December 1st.
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Another star has joined the already star-studded cast of the Off-Broadway musical EMOJILAND. Lucas Steele, who was Tony-nominated for his performance in NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, will join the cast of the new musical, which will play a limited Off-Broadway engagement from January 9th through March 8th at The Duke on 42nd Street. As we reported last week, the cast includes George Abud, Laura Schein, Felicia Boswell, Natalie Weiss, Ann Harada, Lesli Margherita, and Josh Lamon. Thomas Caruso will direct.
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Sony Masterworks Broadway will release the original Off-Broadway cast recording of SUPERHERO, which had its world premiere Off-Broadway in January at Second Stage Theater. With music and lyrics by Tom Kitt and a book by John Logan, the musical starred Kate Baldwin, Bryce Pinkham, and more. The cast album will be available for digital download and streaming on December 6th.
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Finally, on December 16th, Broadway will pay tribute to the late, great Hal Prince. A celebration of the life of the Broadway producer will be held at the Majestic Theatre at 1:30 pm. Doors will be open at 1 o’clock, and the tribute, which will feature performances and speeches, is open to members of the theater community, as well as friends and family. The legendary director and producer, as we know, passed away on July 31st at the age of 91.
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