Around Broadway

One of the most celebrated voices of our era meets one of the most distinctive voices of an earlier era. Audra McDonald, the five-time Tony-winning singer and actress, becomes the latest performer to channel Billie Holiday in the Broadway revival of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at Circle in the Square Theater.

Written by Lanie Robertson and directed by Lonny Price, we see Holiday performing at a Philadelphia nightclub just a few months before her death in 1959.

A star-packed cast — Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei — is assembled for the Broadway debut of a playwright known for “experimental theater.”

Les Miz s back. (Did you know it had ever gone away?) The original Cameron Mackintosh theatrical colossus ran for more than 15 years before closing in 2003, then came back for a brief encore in 2006. 

Les Miserables returns again with the same producer (Mackintosh), same score (Alain Boublil and Jean-Michel Schönberg) and even the same theater (the Imperial on West 45th Street), but in what is described as a “new production” directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell.

The people at Disney Theatrical Group, who produce the company’s live shows, have certainly had a genie in a bottle for the past 20 years, coming up with hit stage musicals based on the films "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," "Mary Poppins," "The Little Mermaid" and others. But now they’re letting that genie out: "Aladdin," the 1992 film that featured Robin Williams as the voice of the genie, has joined the ranks of Disney’s screen-to-stage properties.

Yo, Adrian! I’m on Broadway!

It might not be the last movie you ever expected to see turned into a Broadway musical, but it’s probably not one of the first either. Nevertheless, here it is: “Rocky,” the Oscar-winning 1976 movie written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, has now been set to song and dance.

Actor Bryan Cranston’s roles keep getting bigger. He gained fame for his work on the TV sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” then went on to even greater acclaim — and three Emmy awards — for his work on the drama “Breaking Bad.” Now he’s making his Broadway debut playing a bigger character than either Malcolm’s father Hal Wilkerson, or the “Breaking Bad” high-school-teacher-cum-meth-dealer, Walter White.

Sarah Ruhl's new play Stage Kiss follows the antics of two actors who renew an old romance when they appear together in an antique drama from the 1930s. Jessica Hecht and Dominic Fumusa star in the production, which is directed by Rebecca Taichman for Playwrights Horizons.

A lineup of famous Yankees from several eras past and present are on the same stage in Bronx Bombers, a new play now running at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

Babe Ruth and Derek Jeter are the roster bookends in Robert Simonson's play, which centers on famed catcher Yogi Berra, played by Peter Scolari. The play’s first act is set in 1977, when Berra was a coach with the Yankees. In the second act, the dimension of time is set aside, allowing a meeting of legendary Yankee team members.

Theater that knocks down the wall between performers and spectators has become a fashionable trend in recent years. Sleep No More, an interactive riff on Macbeth, has been a runaway hit, playing for more than two years in Chelsea.

Two Irish farmers, Anthony and Rosemary, are deeply tied to the land. Because they grew up as neighbors, they also have deep ties to one another, but their personal connections are not all positive.