Theater

We told you about the revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo co-starring John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer, and now we can report about its new home: the Belasco Theatre. American Buffalo takes over the stage from another Mamet play, Speed-the-Plow. That Jeremy Piven-starring production will move to the Barrymore Theater where Godspell was supposed to be performed. The Godspell production was postponed because of a financial fallout from an investor.

Directed by Robert Falls, previews of American Buffalo will begin Oct. 31 at the Belasco with an official opening scheduled for Nov. 17. Tickets will go on sale Sept. 4 through Telecharge by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com.

The Roundabout Theatre Company has just announced the casting for a new production of Pal Joey. Christian Hoff (Jersey Boys) will play Joey Evans, a lowlife nightclub entertainer who wants to own his own business. Stockard Channing (she's still got it) will play an older, married woman who he tries to seduce so she'll give him money to start his nightclub. Martha Plimpton (a two-time Tony nominee but we'll always remember her from the Goonies) will play Gladys Bumps, a chorus girl who dislikes Joey. Pal Joey was originally written as a series of awkwardly written letters published in The New Yorker in the late 1930s. The story takes place in Chicago.  read more »

Michael Stuhlbarg is about to become A Serious Man for Joel and Ethan Coen. The brothers have penned a new movie and he's going to be their star. Mr. Stuhlbarg has been a fixture on New York theater stages, receiving a Tony nomination for his role in The Pillowman and recently starring as Hamlet for the Public's Shakespeare in the Park production this year. He's had some bit parts on Law & Order (like every New York actor), but now he'll get the chance to work on the big screen with the Coen brothers on their new dark comedy.

Fittingly, he'll play the title role as Larry Gopnik, a professor in the Midwest whose wife leaves him and his socially awkward brother (played by another prime casting choice, Richard Kind) won't move out of his house.  read more »

This Halloween, Mamet is returning to Broadway (again) with a revival of American Buffalo. Directed by Robert Falls, previews will begin Oct. 31 with a premiere set for Nov. 17. Latin "Sexaholic" John Leguizamo and "Original King of Comedy" Cedric the Entertainer will lead the cast about "the bungled heist of an old nickel by three lowlifes based in a Chicago pawnshop." According to press notes, the play suggests how the language and practice of American business and power politics are insidious forces in our society.

Playbill reports:

David Mamet's 1976 Obie Award-winning play, American Buffalo, originally opened at Chicago's Goodman Theater.

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George Furth, a playwright who co-wrote musicals with Stephen Sondheim including Tony Award-winning Company, died on Monday in California at 75. He was hospitalized for a lung infection, but an exact cause has not been reported. Mr. Furth was a lanky, familiar character in many movies and tv shows including Blazing Saddles, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Murder, She Wrote, and Wings.

The New York Times reports:

As a playwright, Mr. Furth reached Broadway several times, both on his own and as a collaborator. “Twigs,” his play about four women from the same family, all played by Sada Thompson, received mixed reviews when it opened on Broadway in 1971, though Mr.

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Seems like Showtime's Weeds stars have caught the stage bug recently. First, Hunter Parrish makes his Broadway debut in Spring Awakening on Aug. 18. Now Mary-Louise Parker, the MILF who plays his drug-dealer mom on Showtime's Weeds, will trot back onto Broadway too. She'll star in a revival of Henrik Ibsen's classic Hedda Gabler in January 2009 for the Roundabout Theatre Company. Previews are slated to begin on Jan. 6 2009 with an official opening on Jan. 25.

Playbill has more:

In Hedda Gabler, press notes state,"the newly-wed Hedda Tesman finds herself bored with married life to her scholar husband, George Tesman.

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Why do we go to the theater? Put it another way: Why, oh why, do we go to the theater? It frequently frustrates and disappoints us. And it’s expensive. Yet we keep going, come what may.

But look at it from the point of view of the people who work in theater. It frequently frustrates and disappoints them. And it’s expensive for them, too, because as a general rule of thumb they’re criminally underpaid.

Theater folk are the ones who subsidize the theater the most. So I was delighted by a peach of a line about their fatal attraction to a precarious life, one that comes in the last minutes of A.  read more »

Yay! More rock musical Hair for you! The Shakespeare in the Park production at the Delacorte Theater has extended its limited engagement to Sept. 7. It was originally set to run until Aug. 17. Then last week the Public extended it until Aug. 31. Now, there's an extra week to get your dose of peace, love and those hott Hair boys.  read more »

Olivier Award winner Richard Griffiths and stage and screen veteran Kate Mulgrew will get to see Daniel Radcliffe naked. A lot. They'll all be rehearsing together for the Broadway revival of Equus. Actually, Mr. Griffiths and Mr. Radcliffe have been pretty intimate before, since they all worked together on the London Equus revival in 2007. The play begins previews at the Broadhurst Theatre on Sept. 5. There will be an official opening on Sept. 25.

Mr. Radcliffe will star as Alan Strang with Mr. Griffiths as Dr. Martin Dysart. Ms. Mulgrew will play Hesther Saloman, the role created on Broadway by Marian Seldes in 1974.

Playbill has more:  read more »

You might spot The Public Theater's new top dog at the Delacorte's opening night performance of Hair in Central Park tonight. Andrew D. Hamingson, former helmer of the Atlantic Theater Company, will make his first unofficial appearance in his new role as executive director of the Public at the rock musical.

Mr. Hamingson, 45, will replace Mara Manus, who held the post for six years and helped the Public rise from financial doldrums. She's leaving in September to become executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, according to the New York Times. Mr. Hamingston will officially start the job in October and be in charge of all administrative and financial matters, including a $20 million budget that rose from $11 million in the past five years (Thanks, Mara!).

Oskar Eustis, the artistic director, told the Times: “He is a fantastic combination of an inside and outside guy,” Mr. Eustis said. “He really has demonstrated strong management and internal leadership skills and ability in fund-raising. Being able to do both of those was an important part of the package.”

A little more on his background:  read more »