Our annual Mother’s Day weekend on Broadway has been officially finalized, and the note-card delineating our run of theatrical pieces is due back from the printer any day. I’m still scoping out possible restaurants (sometimes the meals are just as important as the shows) and daytime excursion ideas (shopping and museums) but those are less rigid (and occasionally benefit from a complete lack of planning).
- The first entry in our Broadway weekend is, pardon the terrible pun, the only straight play we are attending this season (our two other selections being proper musicals). ‘The Boys in the Band’ is actually more of a gay play, one of the first of its kind to be produced, and it’s celebrating its 50thanniversary with this landmark production. Until recently, I’ve avoided the infamously-acerbic source material, but a few weeks ago a local theater group was putting it on, so Andy and I whet our appetites and were introduced to its acerbic heart. A play very much of its time, I’m interested to see what the Broadway production and its electrifying cast of gay Hollywood starlets does with the work. Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin DeJesus, Brian Hutchison, Charlie Carver, Michael Benjamin Washington and Tuc Watkins contribute to the ensemble magic.
- Our second selection is a magical musical revival: ‘Once On This Island’. That goes back to one of my first cognizant memories of Broadway, and it wasn’t in Times Square proper, but on my television screen in our Amsterdam family room. It was the first time I ever watched the Tony Awards, and I was blown away by this musical that was running away with all the awards. It was ‘Once On This Island’, and all these years later it’s back on Broadway with a critically-lauded production.
- The third jewel in this year’s Broadway crown (at least for us) will be ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, a show that slipped through last year’s selection rather egregiously. I’m most excited about this one, based on the soundtrack and story themes, and though original lead Ben Platt exited long ago, I’m confident the subsequent performers are more than up to the task at hand.
