Try To Remember The Fantasticks

Playbill has the news:

The Off-Broadway revival of The Fantasticks, still the longest-running musical in world history and the longest-running play of any kind in American history, has announced that it will close in May. The little musical about a Boy, a Girl and the wall that separates them will close May 3, the 55th anniversary of the opening of the show in 1960. At the time of its closing, the production will have played a total of 20,672 performances in NYC: 17,162 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, and 3,510 at the Jerry Orbach Theatre at the Snapple Theater Center at the corner of Broadway and 50th Street. Producer Catherine Russell told Playbill.com, "It has become increasingly challenging to sell lots of tickets consistently--we are either incredibly busy and selling out or selling fewer tickets that we have been in previous years. It's feast or famine. So due to this uncertainty,I have reluctantly decided to close The Fantasticks on the 55th anniversary of its opening on May 3, 1960.

Opening In NYC: Clinton, The Musical

Via press release:

If President William Jefferson Clinton behaved like two different people—one moment noble, the next naughty—that’s because he was! Clinton The Musical explores the two very different sides of the 42nd President of the United States: “WJ,” (Tom Galantich) the wholesome, intelligent one, and “Billy,” (Duke Lafoon) the randy, charming one. With Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (Kerry Butler) at their side, the two will handle issues from The White House to Whitewater, the sax to the sex, social security to social climbers, and in the process make history. Maybe. You cannot miss this “Hillary-ous” new musical and outrageous double Bill! The cast features Tony Award nominee Kerry Butler as Hillary (Rodham) Clinton, Tom Galantich (Tail! Spin!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) as WJ Clinton and Duke Lafoon (MONICA! The Musical, A Wonderful Life) as Billy Clinton, Emmy Award winner Judy Gold as Eleanor Roosevelt, John Treacy Egan (Nice Work If You Can Get It, Sister Act) as Newt Gingrich, Veronica J. Kuehn (Mamma Mia!, Avenue Q) as Monica Lewinsky. 

Previews begin March 25th at New World Stages.

Courtney Love - All I Ever Wanted

Via the New York Times:

Singer, songwriter, punk-rocker, actress, fashionista, tabloid bonanza and ... piano mover? That’s part of Courtney Love’s latest and thoroughly unexpected gig. The performer who made her name in the 1990s with her primal rasp and confrontational, straight-from-the-id songs will play the lead in “Kansas City Choir Boy,” a music-theater piece she’s performing with its songwriter, Todd Almond, in the 84-seat South Village performance space Here from Jan. 8-17. It’s not “Mary Poppins,” but it’s not Grand Guignol either. Billed as a “theatricalized concept album,” “Kansas City Choir Boy” is a song cycle with very little dialogue: the story of a couple pulled apart by ambition. In Kansas City, he’s a nameless musician who composes on his laptop and his piano; she’s a singer, Athena, and they’re teenage sweethearts. He’s content in the Midwest, while she leaves him behind to make it in New York. He tries to follow her and reconnect, but she has been seduced by the siren call of fame.

Very Marianne Faithfull.

Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of the Karpel Group, today's Swag Tuesday prize is two tickets to see The Orion Experience, Off-Broadway's new interactive show that opens this Thursday at XL Nightclub in Midtown Manhattan.

THE ORION EXPERIENCE: Off-Broadway's New Interactive Dance Party! THE ORION EXPERIENCE is an interactive musical event in the style of ROCKY HORROR, BARBARELLA and CAPTAIN EO. In-flight amenities include live electro-pop music, wall-to-wall dancing, aerialists, and cocktails! Join the crew and dance the night away. Visit TheOrionExperience.com and use code TOETKG35 for a special $35 discounted ticket. BLASTING OFF AUGUST 1 - SEPTEMBER 1 AT XL NIGHTCLUB (512 W. 42nd St): Thursday 8pm, Saturday 9pm & Sunday 8pm.

We have five pairs of The Orion Experience tickets to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post and please remember to leave an email address in the text of your comments. Your winning tickets are good for any show from August 1st through September 1st. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

Broadway Week Sales Commence

This is the slowest time of the year for Broadway and the annual two-for-one ticket sale has commenced.  Most of the participating 19 shows have been playing for years and years, so there's probably not much there for the average theater queen.  Your better option might be Off-Broadway Week, which runs January 28th through February 10th and offers the same deal. 

Tomorrow In New York City

There's just a few seats left for tomorrow night's reading of Father Tony Adams' new play, A Letter From The Bishop. Email for reservations: aletterfromthebishop@me.com.

A Letter From The Bishop: Father Tony Adams' Play Gets First NYC Reading

Father Tony Adams' timely new play, A Letter From The Bishop, had its first public reading in Fort Lauderdale earlier this year, which some of you watched here via a live video hookup. If you're in NYC next month, please consider attending the play's first Gotham reading at Times Square's St. Clement's Theater. Free admission, but reservations are recommended!

I Can See Your Dirty Pillows

The revival of one of Broadway's most famous flops is currently in previews at Lucille Lortel Theater in the West Village. Carrie: The Musical only ran for five performances in 1988 and bootlegged audio recordings became a highly sought-after collectors item. The revival's official opening is March 1st. Get tickets here. I'm totally going.

Playwright Lanford Wilson Dies At 73

Pulitzer Prize-winning openly gay playwright Lanford Wilson died of pneumonia yesterday at the age of 73. Wilson is considered to have been one of the primary figures in the creation of New York's vibrant Off Broadway theater movement.

Mr. Wilson's work was first seen in such bohemian, downtown dens as Caffe Cino and Cafe LaMaMa E.T.C. His youthful colleagues included writers Sam Shepard, Leonard Melfi and Jean Claude van Itallie. In 1969, he became a founding member of the Circle Repertory Company, which became an influential Off-Broadway hothouse of talent during the 1970s. There, many of his most significant works debuted, including The Hot l Baltimore and Talley's Folly. Mr. Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for the latter, the central and most famous play in his Talley Trilogy, which tracked the adventures of several generations of the same Missouri clan.

Wilson's Burn This is one of the best plays I've ever seen. And the short-lived 1975 TV version of Hot l Baltimore, which featured one of television's first gay couples, was fantastic despite its reputation as Norman Lear's only sitcom "failure."

Broadway Friday

-Steve Hayes (Tired Old Queen At The Movies) stars with playwright Bradford Scobie and drag legend Murray Hill in Moisty The Snowman Saves Christmas, now running Off Broadway at Dixon Place. Get tickets here.

- Michael Urie (Ugly Betty) will replace Christian Borle as Prior Walter in the critically raved Off Broadway revival of Tony Kushner's Angels In America. Urie steps in on February 2nd, the production has been extended until March 27th.

- Whoa. Jackie Hoffman (love her!) is talking serious trash about her role in The Addams Family. "We're the only musical that doesn't appeal to gay people." But it has Nathan Lane and (JMG reader/Tony nominee) Kevin Chamberlin in it!

- Henry Rollins brings his one-man show to Joe's Pub for a week beginning February 8th. It's his 50th birthday celebration and you know you're going.

- Beginning previews Off Broadway on December 22nd is Richard Skipper As "Carol Channing" In Concert. Get tickets here.

- Oscar winner Halle Berry makes her Broadway debut this fall in Katori Hall's The Mountaintop opposite Samuel L. Jackson. Last year the play won the Olivier Award for its West End run.

- ABC is developing a drama for Tony winner Idina Menzel (Wicked), who will play a single mom who sings at weddings and bar mitzvahs to pay the rent. Menzel makes her debut with the New York Philharmonic on February 5th.

TRAILER: Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Still in heavily-laden with tech glitches previews.

Broadway Friday

-Openly lesbian Tony winner Cherry Jones (Doubt) begins previews tonight in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. Opening night is October 3rd.

-Next Sunday (Sept. 12) La Cage Aux Folles lead Kelsey Grammer hosts the annual Broadway On Broadway spectacular in which the casts of more than two dozen hit Broadway shows perform for free in Times Square to the accompaniment of a 30-piece orchestra. Arrive by 11am (or earlier) for a good view as Times Square will be mobbed blocks deep in front of the stage. Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes will perform New York State Of Mind for the finale.

-AbFab's Jennifer Saunders is collaborating with Mamma Mia! mastermind Judy Cramer on Spice Girls: The Musical, which "won't be a tribute or bio show, nor will it feature characters with any of the names of the famous five-piece." OK, then.

-John Paragon (the original Jambi) and Lynne Marie Stewart (the original Miss Yvonne) have been cast for the "re-imagined" Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway. Mekka-lekka-hi.

-Stephen Sondheim's 1981 bomb Merrily We Roll Along opens tonight at Fire Island Pine's Whyte Hall. Get tickets here.

-The Broadway debut of the WWII gay love story Yank! has been postponed until the fall of 2011. The show played Off Broadway last year to (mostly) rave reviews.

-Kenny Solms' gay comedy/musical It Must Be Him opened Off Broadway this week at Playwrights Horizon. Emmy nominee Peter Scolari (Newhart) stars. Get tickets here.

-Prostitution whores! On Thursday the cast of Real Housewives Of New Jersey kicked off a four night sold-out appearance in Off Broadway's My Big Gay Italian Wedding. Teresa Giudice, Ashley Holmes, Jacqueline Laurita, Caroline Manzo and Lauren Manzo return to the show for four more appearances beginning on October 20th. Get tickets here.

Broadway Friday

- Jesse Tyler Ferguson and a host of fellow gays earned Emmy nominations yesterday. Joining the Modern Family star with noms are Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, Chris Colfer, Alan Cumming, Lily Tomlin, and Ian McKellen. Glee leads the pack with 19 nominations. Darling of the gays Betty White scored a nom for her gig as SNL host.

- South Pacific will be made as a movie again, but the songs will be retooled to be "edgier," whatever that means. Casting not announced. The show first opened on Broadway in 1949, the last revival has been playing Lincoln Center since March, 2008. The first movie version opened in 1958.

- Four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks will helm Sister Act: The Musical when it arrives from London's West End next spring. It's expected to be next season's blockbuster.

- After 13 years at Radio City, next year's Tony Awards may take place at Washington Height's United Palace Theatre waaay up at 175th Street.

- Tomorrow Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore stage their 12th annual Broadway Barks on Schubert Alley to benefit local animal rescue groups. Expect major Broadway talent and legendary stars of the past to be on hand.

- Broadway In Bryant Park's summer series of free lunchtime shows began yesterday and continues for the next five Thursdays. Next Thursday's performers include the casts of South Pacific, Billy Eliot, and Memphis. Shows start at 12:30pm behind the Main Public Library.

- The New York Times tips Hell's Kitchen's Bar-Tini Ultra Lounge as the hip new place to meet chorus boys on their night off. I've been, it's true. Love the hostess, Paige Turner.

VIDEO: Jim David's South Pathetic plays the NYC Fringe Festival next month.

Jim Brochu Rings NASDAQ Closing Bell

Yesterday JMG reader Jim Brochu rang the closing bell at NASDAQ in recognition of his critically raved performance in his Off Broadway one man show tribute to Zero Mostel, Zero Hour, which is now running at the DR2 Theater. Jim's partner, Steve Schalchlin, recently had his show New World Waking! performed by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Get tickets to Zero Hour here.

Broadway Friday

- Neil Patrick Harris will star in a mixed live action/animated version of The Smurfs. NPH will be live, Alan Cumming and Jonathan Winters will be animated. NPH is also slated to guest star in an upcoming episode of Glee.

- Ugly Betty stars Vanessa Williams and Michael Urie will co-host this year's 76th Annual Drama League Awards on May 21st at the Marriott Marquis Grand Ballroom.

- Dumbo: The Musical is in the works to join the other 23 Disney shows on Broadway.

- Broadway's Theater Development Fund has a great program for the hearing and vision impaired. Go here for a list of upcoming shows that are open-captioned, offer audio descriptions, or feature sign language interpreters.

- Christopher Walken is earning rave notices in A Behanding In Spokane, as are costars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan.

- Here's a nice slideshow of recent gay-themed Broadway productions.

- The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is working on bringing its Gutter Ballet to Broadway. The band is just about to kick off their first ever non-holiday tour.

- Sleepless In Seattle: The Musical. SRSLY. Coming Valentine's Day 2011. Original screenplay writer Jeff Arch will write the libretto.

- Yank!, a gay military romance musical set in WWII is now playing Off Broadway at the Theater at St. Peter's. NYT sez: "The show has a fine mix of humor and simmering drama and decent enough songs to keep you anticipating the next one. Probably a few too many themes are introduced and left underexplored — fidelity in gay relationships, for example, and personal loyalty versus respect for military codes."

An Interview With Lady Bunny

Marti Gould Cummings and David Singletary of Broadway Speaks OUT interview Lady Bunny and the cast of the new Off Broadway show, When Joey Marries Bobby.

Loaded

Yesterday I joined the Farmboyz, Little David, Eric Leven, Wayne Hoffman and his partner for a matinee of Loaded, a new play by Elliot Ramón Potts that ran for five shows at the NYC LGBT Center back in January and opened this weekend Off Broadway at the Lion Theater. I went in knowing nothing more than the show's title, certainly not expecting a verbose 90 minute exploration of misogyny, HIV, barebacking, and gay activism - all intertwined with the complexities and expectations of the two very attractive cast members' daddy/boy fuck buddy relationship.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I strongly identified with the older man's philosophies and I could almost hear Father Tony's eyes rolling whenever the character said something I've said to Tony many times. More than the above cited subject matters, the play is a sharp examination of the gulf between gay men of the plague years and the priorities of today's young gay men. The acting is terrific. Highly recommended. Loaded runs six shows a week at the Lion Theater at Theater Row on W.42nd. Get tickets here. Facebook page here.

Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of Spin Cycle, this week's Swag Tuesday prize is two tickets to A Boy And His Soul, a new play written and performed by Colman Domingo, recently of Passing Strange and LOGO's Big Gay Sketch Show.

Soul is in watching your parents sell the house you grew up in. In the kitchen rotary phone cord your sister stretched out nine feet. In the broken EZbake oven your brother used to torment your sister’s Barbie dolls. Soul is in never learning the real secrets of your crazy cousin Siferdean until you were older. And listening to WDAS FM with your mother in the backyard at midnight on a hot summer evening. Soul is in Stevie, Aretha, Marvin, Chaka, Barry, Gladys…and Colman. Groove into 1970’s West Philly and discover the dazzling new play by Colman Domingo.

A Boy And His Soul begins previews at NYC's Vineyard Theater on September 9th and runs through October 18th. Use the code SPIN35SOUL and get special discounted tickets for $35 each. Purchase tickets here. Enter to win a pair of tickets by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to leave your email address in the text of your comment. If you cannot be in NYC during the run of the show, your winning entry is transferable to another party. Entries close on Wednesday at midnight, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

LGBT History: The Temperamentals

On Monday, Little David, Eric Leven and I attended the Off Broadway play The Temperamentals, a recounting of the formation of the very pre-Stonewall gay rights group the Mattachine Society.

“Temperamental” was code for “homosexual” in the early 1950’s, part of a created language of secret words that gay men used to communicate. The Temperamentals tells the story of two men - the communist Harry Hay and the Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich - as they fall in love while building the first gay rights organization in the pre-Stonewall United States.

I'm terrible at reviewing plays, so let's just say that we enjoyed it tremendously. The show has a limited run due to cast commitments and the space is quite small, so if you'd like to add some vital LGBT history to your gay pride observations this year, you should move quickly. Get tickets here.

Die Mommy Die!

Last night Aaron, Father Tony, Little David and I saw Charles Busch's Die Mommy Die! at the New World Stages. I haven't seen Busch since I saw my very first play in NYC, Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom, sometime in the 80's.

I'd already seen the movie, but I still had a great time, even if I'm not sure that the show lives up to Ben Brantley's rave review in the New York Times. But if you're a fan of the late-career movies of faded divas, the references to Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Joan Crawford come machine-gun fast.

By the way, the New World Stages, a former movie five-plex located under a plaza on West 50th, is a great Off-Broadway venue. Cool bar, neat layout, great video art in the lobby. Last night I picked up a signed window card for the show, as part their Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraiser. And my inexorable march to Offical Show Queen continues.