Issue #169: April 15, 2006

• Julianne Moore hits the boards in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour when it opens on November 30 under the direction of Sam Mendes.  No theater was mentioned.

• At the Delacorte Theater this summer you can catch Tony winner Jennifer Ehle as Lady Macbeth along side Liev Schreiber in Moises Kaufman’s production from June 13 to July 7.

• Another David Hare offering, Stuff Happens is a hit with the Public Theater’s box office.  After a successful premiere in 2004 in London and a production last summer at the Mark Taper Forum in Las Angeles, this timely play can be found at the reconfigured Newman Theater.

• The little Toronto musical that could, The Drowsy Chaperone, opens at the Marquis Theater on May 1.  Starting out as a 40-minute romp celebrating the upcoming marriage of two Second City troupe members, this former Fridge Festival favorite is now hitting the big time.  Here’s to a few Tony nods

• John Waters’ latest film to stage project, Cry-Baby is scheduled to open at Seattle’s 5^th Avenue Theater next February.

• One summer highlight for the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. will be Tovah Feldshuh in Hello, Dolly! June 7 to July 23.

• If you’re in the Westport, Connecticut area you can catch the voice of CNN, James Earl Jones starring as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in Thurgood at the Westport Country Playhouse from April 30 to May 14.

• Broadway vet Cherry Jones will hit the road in September when she will reprise her Tony-winning role as a crusading nun in Doubt.

• Valerie Harper is in the final months of her North American tour of the one-woman show Golda’s Balcony.  The production makes its way to Toronto’s Elgin Theatre opening May 23.

• On a recent flying visit to New York I walked around Broadway taking in all the marquees with new shows that are stampeding to open before the Tony Award nomination deadline.  Look for Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple as a front-runner in the new musical category.  And the limited run of The History Boys, a play from the U.K., will be one of the hottest tickets this season.