Some Like It Hot, a new musical based on the 1959 Billy Wilder screwball comedy of the same title, will begin previews November 1 and open December 11 at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway. Other than the source material, the new show is not related to the 1972 musical Sugar, which was also adapted from the same Osar-winning movie about a pair of Prohibition-era musicians who go on the run after witnessing a mob rubout. They disguise themselves as women and hide out in an all-female band, which works out fine until they start falling in love with the band’s lead singer. The three roles were ..read more

Above: Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke in the London production of Death of a Salesman that is transferring to Broadway. Photo by Brinkhoff Mogenburg Two Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Piano Lesson (1990), are headed for major revivals on Broadway in the coming season. Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington and Danielle Brooks will star in a revival of August Wilson’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Piano Lesson. Telling the story of a family torn over what to do with an heirloom piano that helped free th ..read more

Above: James Ijames, whose Fat Ham won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Fat Ham, playwright James Ijames’ contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet set at a Southern family barbecue, was named winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play, which premiered in 2021 as filmed production for Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater, is scheduled to make its New York premiere May 12 at the Public Theater in a co-production with National Black Theatre that be directed by Saheem Ali. The Public Theater describes Fat Ham thus: “Juicy is a queer, So ..read more

Above: Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple on Broadway. Photo by Matthew Murphy Jon M. Chu, director of the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked, announced that the film will be release in two parts, on Dec. 25, 2024 and Dec. 25, 2025. The announcement was made via social media April 27 by Chu, who directed the 2021 film version of the Tony-winning musical In the Heights. As previously announced, Cynthia Erivo will play Elphaba, the “wicked” witch of the West, and Grande will play Glinda, “good” witch of the North.  Both have Broadway credits. Erivo, 35 ..read more

Nominations were announced May 9 for the American Theatre Wing’s 75th Annual Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards for superlative achievement on Broadway. A Strange Loop, a musical about a young, gay black man trying to write a musical, led the field of musicals with 11 nominations, including Best Musical. The show has previously won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Among plays, The Lehman Trilogy, a drama about the rise and fall of the family-owned banking house, earned eight nominations including Best Play, the most of any non-musical play. The much-hyped revival of The Music Man earned six nom ..read more

Above: Oscar Hammerstein II. Courtesy of Rodgers and Hammerstein, An Imagem Company. Broadway stars Derek Klena and Justin Guarini are scheduled to perform at a July 11 benefit concert to help save the country home of lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960), the place that inspired his bucolic words and images that found their way into Oklahoma!, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Flower Drum Song, South Pacific , and many other of the great musicals he wrote with composer Richard Rodgers. The nonprofit Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Cent ..read more

Nominations for the 2022 Tony Awards will be announced May 9 instead of the originally scheduled May 3. Recent cancellations of performances due to resurgent COVID-19 has caused havoc for the members of the Tony nominating committee, who need to see all potential nominees.  For the same reason, several shows have been forced to delay their openings beyond the original cutoff date of April 28, so the cutoff date has been extended to May 4. Nominations will be announced on the Tony Awards’ official You Tube page, at 9  AM ET / 6 AM PT. The date of the Tony Awards ceremony is not a ..read more

The Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers and national publications, has announced nominees for its 71st Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards, honoring the 2021-2022 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. The show that earned the most OCCA nominations is the Broadway play The Lehman Trilogy with nine nominations, followed by the Off-Broadway musicals Harmony and Kimberly Akimbo which earned eight nods each. The most recognized Broadway musicals of the season are MJ the Musical  ..read more

The Broadway League has extended its COVID-19-necessitated mask mandate for audiences through May 31 at least, but announced that commercial Broadway theatres will no longer require ticket-holders to show proof of vaccination after April 30. The requirements have been in place since the Broadway theatres reopened in August 2021. Broadway’s not-for-profit institutional companies—Roundabout Theatre Company (Studio 54, Stephen Sondheim Theatre, American Airlines Theatre), Manhattan Theatre Club (Samuel Friedman Theatre) and Lincoln Center Theatre (Vivian Beaumont Theatre)—will continue to require ..read more