Photo by Joan Marcus

Broadway Bound?

Check out these
new shows on the
Great White Way.

Alice Burdick Schweiger

Special to the Jewish News

0

nce again, Broadway marquees
are looking like Hollywood bill-
boards. The likes of Claire Danes,
starring in Pygmalion, and Jennifer Garner
and Kevin Kline, starring in Cyrano de
Bergerac, are just some of film's heavy hit-
ters performing on the Great White Way.
"Having Hollywood stars appear on
Broadway is still very much desired today,
probably more so than in past years, and
it's a trend that isn't showing any signs
of stopping:' says Alan Cohen, direc-
tor of communications at the League of
American Theatres and Producers. "Using
a big Hollywood name equals star power,
which can be a guarantee of strong ticket
sales."
While the number of crossover stars
continues to rise, so does the demand for
tickets — and their cost. Wicked, Spring
Awakening and Jersey Boys are sold out for
months on weekends despite their price
tag of $111.50-plus for regular orchestra
seats and as much as $350 for premiere
seats. For Mel Brooks' new show Young
Frankenstein, premiere seating is going for
$450 a ticket.
"It's costing more than ever to produce
a show on Broadway, and producers are
looking for the best way to recoup their
investments and make money:' says Cohen.
But the good news is that reduced-price
seats still are available. TKTS Discount
Booths, located in Times Square and the
South Street Seaport, offer tickets up to 50
percent off for dozens of productions every
day.
As in most years, there are plenty of new
Broadway and Off-Broadway dramas and
musicals with a Jewish connection. Here is
a sampling:

BROADWAY

A Bronx Tale
Actor and playwright Chazz Palminteri
makes his Broadway debut with this clas-
sic coming-of-age story, set in the 1960s,
about a young boy who grows up in a
rough neighborhood in the Bronx. The

boy admires his hard-working father but
develops a relationship with a dangerous
crime boss. The 1993 feature film version
was written by Palminteri and directed by
Robert DeNiro. Tony Award winner Jerry
Zaks, whose parents were Holocaust survi-
vors, directs the play.
Running through Feb. 10 at Walter Kerr
Theatre, 219 W 48th St. (212) 239-6200.

Cyrano de Bergerac
If you recently saw Cyrano, the new David
DiChiera-Bernard Uzan Michigan Opera
Theatre collaboration about the unattract
ve Frenchman with an overly large nose
who writes love letters to the stunning
Roxane on behalf of his dim-witted friend,
you now have the opportunity to see the
0 riginal Edmond Rostand play upon which
t draws.
The original production opened in Paris
n 1897. A translated Broadway version
0 pened in 1899 and was revived in 1923,
1 946, 1984 and 1992. This latest incarna-
t ion stars Kevin Kline (Sophie's Choice, A
Fish Called Wanda), whose father was
0 f German Jewish descent, and Jennifer
G arner (Alias).
Through Dec. 23 at Richard Rodgers
Theatre, 226 W 46th St. (212) 307-4100.

Rock 'N' Roll
Spanning the years 1968 to 1990, this Tom
Stoppard play is set in Cambridge and in
Prague, looking at music from the perspec-
tives of both the West and the East. The
Czech-born Stoppard was born Tomas
Straussler; his Jewish family escaped the
Nazis by fleeing to Singapore, where his
father was killed in the Japanese inva-
sion. His mother later married Kenneth
Stoppard, a major in the British army, and
the playwright adopted his non-Jewish
stepfather's name.
At the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W
45th St. (212) 239-6200.

The Farnsworth Invention
Set in 1929, this play chronicles the race
between Philo T. Farnsworth, an Idaho
farm boy, and David Sarnoff, head of the
Radio Corporation of America (RCA), to
patent the television set.
Sarnoff (1891-1971) was born outside of
Minsk, Russia, where he studied Talmud.
He immigrated to America at age 14, even-

-

In The Heights
Produced by Oak Park native (he grew
up attending Temple Israel) Jeffrey
Seller (Rent, Avenue Q), this vibrant
salsa-style musical, which originated
Off-Broadway, is about life in the close-
knit, economically stressed Latin-
American neighborhood of New York
City's Washington Heights. Seller, who
graduated from Oak Park High in 1982
Mank and Michael Rachlis in
and earned a degree at the University of Last Jew in Europe
Michigan, told Playbill: "Here's a show
that has attracted everyone from the hard-
tually working at the Wireless Telegraph
to-get Latino audience to the essential
Company as an operator where, in April
Jewish audience."
1912, he picked up a message that the
Previews begin Feb. 14 at Richard Rodgers ocean liner Titanic was sinking. Later, it
Theater, 226 W 46th St. (212) 307-4100.
was Sarnoff's idea to transmit music and
voice over the airwaves.
November
Jewish writer Aaron Sorkin (The West
Written by Chicago-born Jewish playwright Wing) penned the script; Jewish actor
David Mamet, this political comedy, set
Hank Azaria (Spamalot) plays Sarnoff;
days before a presidential election, stars
Jewish composer and Oak Park native
Nathan Lane as a president running for a
Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), an Oak
second term. Campaign issues include civil Park High School and University of
marriage, gambling casinos, questionable
Michigan graduate, composed the original
pardons and campaign contributions.
music.
Previews begin Dec. 20 at the Ethel
Opening Nov. 14 at the Music Box
Barrymore Theatre, 243 W 47th St. (212)
Theatre, 239 W 45th St. (212) 239-6200.
239-6200.

Jimmi Simpson (Philo T. Farnsworth)
and Hank Azaria (David Sarnoff) in
The Farnsworth Invention

The Homecoming
This 40th-anniversary revival of Jewish
playwright Harold Pinter's Tony Award-
winning play about a dysfunctional family
welcoming home an estranged brother and
his new American wife stars Ian McShane
of HBO's Deadwood.
Previews begin Nov. 23 at the Cort
Theatre, 138 W 48th St. (212) 239-6200.

The Little Mermaid
This stage version of the 1989 Disney
animated hit film takes place in a magical
kingdom beneath the sea. Songs are by
Jewish composers Alan Menken and the
late Howard Ashman, with 10 new tunes by
Menken and Glenn Slater. Natasha Katz,
who is married to Detroit-born sound
designer Daniel Moses Schreier, created
the lighting.
Opening Dec. 6 at the Lunt-Fontanne
Theatre, 205 W 46th St. (212) 307-4747.

The Ritz
In this Terrence McNally comedy star-
ring Rosie Perez, garbageman Gaetano
Proclo's mobster brother-in-law orders
him killed, so he escapes to the Ritz
— not the Turkish bath he expects but
a gay bathhouse. To avoid suspicion,
he pretends to be a big-time Broadway
producer. Cast members include Sirius
Radio Broadway host Seth Rudetsky as
Sheldon.
Through Dec. 2 at Studio 54, 254 W 54th
St. (212) 719-1300.

Young Frankenstein
Once again, Mel Brooks teams up with
librettist Thomas Meehan (The Producers)
to bring one of Brooks' classic movies to
Broadway.
In this spoof, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein
tries, like his grandfather Dr. Victor
Frankenstein before him, to bring a corpse
to life and winds up creating a monster.
Jewish actor Gene Wilder, who helped write
the screenplay, starred as Frankenstein
in the film; Roger Bart (Tony-nominated

Broadway on page C10

November 15 9 2007

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