With the strike at last over – the news of which took over the entire front page of yesterday’s New York Post, proving just how central theatre is to the lifeblood of this town, and a story also appearing on the front page, just below the masthead, of the New York Times as well – Broadway sprung back into action yesterday. Opening nights have been hastily reconvened, as I mentioned yesterday would have to happen: The Farnsworth Invention will finally open on Monday, August: Osage County on Tuesday, The Seafarer on Thursday, and Is He Dead? on Sunday week. The Homecoming, originally due to have begun previews last Friday but which had a one-off run-through to a free audience who were asked to donate to BC/EFA instead last Sunday, will now begin performances this coming Tuesday, and delay its official opening by three days to now open on December 16. Only Disney’s The Little Mermaid has put back its opening substantially, and although it has resumed previews, will now open on January 10 instead of the original December 6.
The PRs rushed to get the news out that Broadway is back in business, offering photocalls and press interviews at every turn.
I happened to go by the Richard Rodgers yesterday afternoon, where Cyrano de Bergerac is currently playing, and ran into press agent John Barlow who was with a gallery of photographers, including my good friend Bruce Glikas of Broadway.com, waiting to catch the moment of star Jennifer Garner’s arrival back at the theatre. The impromptu official photocall was suddenly rivalled only by passing members of the public also rushing to get their picture snapped with her.
Ironically, the major critics were out last night at a critics’ preview for a production that had been unaffected by the strike, the Lincoln Center’s new production of Cymbeline, and I joined them: the New York system of letting critics see “regular” performances, rather than celebrity-packed opening nights (which happen there as in London), seems to work brilliantly. Not only is the show able to start on time, unaffected by the crush of celebrity arrivals, but there’s also a different level of concentration in the air when audiences are not craning their necks trying to see who else is there.
It was just a regular performance on a regular day; but whenever I’m in New York, I am typically so busy that there’s nothing normal about it at all. I started the day yesterday by having breakfast with a friend, Mark Simon, who is a New York theatrical casting director (who was going on yesterday to audition 250 kids for Jason Robert Brown’s new musical Thirteen, that Jeremy Sams will direct here next year); then I went down to Madison Square Garden to see the new Cirque du Soleil show, Wintuk, at 11am, where total chaos reigned in trying to get into the auditorium, and the painfully slow queues (20 minutes to get your ticket scanned, then another 20 minutes to actually snake your way into the theatre), meant a late start of 11.15am. Then I headed to Joe Allen’s for an interview lunch with New York veteran cabaret artist Julie Wilson (now 83) and fellow cabaret singer Jeff Harnar, who is co-producing a season of cabaret that will kick off with her at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre in February. At 4pm, I went to a reading for a new musical, Let Yourself Go, based on old songs by Irving Berlin, that London producer Bill Kenwright was sponsoring at the New 42nd Street Studios. Bill was on an even tighter schedule than me yesterday: he had arrived from London only two hours earlier, and had also already done an audition round for his production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind that is currently touring the US, and after the reading was heading to a preview of Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention, since Bill had of course produced his first play A Few Good Men in the West End. After the reading, I met my partner and three friends for dinner, then we headed over to Lincoln Center for Cymbeline. That was another three hours in the theatre; and when I finally got home at midnight, I had to stay up and begin my review column for this Sunday’s paper. I finally succumbed to sleep at 1am, but set the alarm to resume at 5am! Thank God I am flying home tonight: I could do with a solid night’s sleep on the plane!
