Issue #29: September 1, 1999

• The summer has taken its toll on two of Broadway’s plays. As hinted at in my last column, the long-running Art closed its doors on August 8 after 600 performances. After losing the best play Tony to SideMan, Patrick Marber’s Closer couldn’t stop the box office slide. Closer played its final performance on August 22.

• If you’re planning a visit to the Hartford, Conn., area over the next year you may want to take in some of the offerings by the Hartford Stage Co.’s 1999-2000 season. Broadway diva Betty Buckley headlines in their first production, Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real running from September 9 to October 10. Next is the East Coast premiere of Lanford Wilson’s Book of Days, from October 21 to November 20. The New Year brings the revival of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman from January 13 to February 13. From February 24 to March 26 artistic director Michael Wilson will direct a new adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel, The Enchanted April. The current buzz on April is that it is Broadway bound. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors will run from April 6 to May 7 with Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing, an adaptation of Molnar’s farce, Play at a Castle, wrapping up the season, running from May 25 to June 24.

• Even though Conor McPherson’s The Weir is limping along on Broadway, the London production has extended its engagement to March 25, 2000. The 1999 Olivier Award winner for Best New Play continues to pack them in at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs.

• Ted Dystra and Richard Greenblatt premiere their hilarious production 2 Pianos, 4 Hands to the Comedy Theatre beginning October 7. This smash hit has left a trail of sold-out engagements throughout North America.

• The commercial theatre scene is rather bleak in Australia according to a recent 300-page report probing the performing arts. The musical theatre season is now limping with the recent cancellation of the Really Useful Co.’s Sunset Boulevard. This has blind sided the community when just weeks ago the Really Useful Co. pulled out, after less than two years, of an eight-year management contract with the Lyric Theatre at Sydney’s Star City Casino. This, remember, is coming on the heels of producer Cameron Mackintosh closing his Oz operation after 15 years. Other musical casualties of the past two seasons include Jekyll & Hyde, Beauty and the Beast, Show Boat, Sisterella, Peter Pan and Chess. We will just have to see if our theatre friends downunder will be able to recover from the loss of two of the musical theatre world’s biggest players.

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