TheatreScene: July 11 - 17

NEW POLL!  VOTE TODAY!  LOOK TO YOUR RIGHT!

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK:

• July 11: Drawing Broadway 4: Al Hirschfeld
• July 12: LOGO: Hair
• July 13: SAVE THIS SHOW! Is Priscilla in Trouble?  Hope Not!
• July 14: REVIEW: Hair (National Tour/Return Broadway Engagement)
• July 15: Ms. Broadway July 2011: Jennifer Damiano
• July 16: Emmy Loves Broadway

TOPS AND BOTTOMS (July 4 - 10)

• Top Gross: Wicked ($1.867M)
• Top Attendance: The Book of Mormon (102.4%)
• Bottom Gross: Master Class ($227K)
• Bottom Attendance: Hair (49.8%)
• $1M Club: The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Wicked
• SRO Club: Wicked, The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Anything Goes

COMINGS AND GOINGS:

Shows:

• Hair re-opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on July 13 to strong reviews.  The show also announced, along with The Book of Mormon's Rory O'Malley, on behalf of Broadway Impact that some of New York's first gay marriages woukd be happening onstage at the St. James following the July 25th performance of Hair.  Several same-sex couples in the Broadway community will be tying the knot at the event. 

• RENT began previews at New World Stages on July 14, for an August 11 opening.
• The San Francisco company of Billy Elliot will close four weeks early, on August 21, rather than September 17th.  Go into your Angry Dance, Billy!

Casting:

• Jonathan Groff will head the cast og MCC's The Submission, along with American Pie's Eddie Kaye Thomas.

• The casting notice went up for what is now officially the Broadway-bound Lysistrata Jones.  Go Spartans!

• The longest-running Dynamo in Broadway's Mamma Mia!, Judy McLane (Tonya), will be temporarily leaving her disco boots behind to star as Diana in a regional production of next to normal in Utah this fall.  She returns to Broadway on October.

Milestones:

• Extended! Master Class looks like the first big hit of the season.  It has again been extended, this time through Septembet 4.
• Unnatural Acts looks like off-Broadway's first big hit of the season.  It, too has been extended, this time through July 24.
• Liza Minnelli was named an officer in the French Legion of Honor.  Yeah, and so is Jerry Lewis.

• Ghetto Klown, which closed last week, announced that it recouped its investment.  The Motherfucker with the Hat, which closes today at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre after 28 previews and 112 performances, also announced that it will close in the black.

BROADWAY PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

• Ken Fallin's latest!

 

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

 

BROADWAY VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

 

 

As a fan of both the Harry Potter series, and the musical, The Book of Mormon, I found this parody of the books through the musical's song, "Hello!" to be a riot.  You have to listen carefully, or turn it up and put on the headphones.  The deatils of each character are delicious - especially minor character (relatively, anyway) Luna.  Even better, this was written and performed by ONE person, Billy Elliot's Tessa Netting.

Jeff

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