THEATER BULLETIN: A unique Broadway double presale

Beginning Thursday, September 10 at Noon, two Broadway premieres of plays by Pulitzer-winning playwrights go on sale as a package deal -- Bruce Norris’s 2022 drama Downstate and Bess Wohl’s 2015 Small Mouth Sounds, both directed by multiple Tony winner Joe Mantello. The rules are very complicated so I have attached a link to the press release below, but the gist of it is that if you buy a ticket for the limited Fall run of Downstate for $150 or more, you are assured a ticket for the Spring run of Small Mouth Sounds for “only” $250. I liked the Norris play very much (https://tinyurl.com/2rwdn887) and highly recommend it. While I enjoyed Small Mouth Sounds too (https://tinyurl.com/4h9xnx7b), I can’t imagine it in a Broadway theater, nor can I image anyone paying $250 or more to see it. A large part of the appeal of its earlier production was that that there were only two rows of seats on facing sides of a long, narrow stage, so you felt very close to the action. If Mantello can recapture that feeling of intimacy, he is truly a miracle worker. My advice is to sit tight until September 25, when separate tickets for Downstate go on sale. This is a marketing ploy by Scott Rudin that I hope doesn’t catch on.

Link to press release: 

https://tinyurl.com/mrc3272a

FLASH: The Times just announced that Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, Sarah Paulson and Martin Freeman will be in the Small Mouth Sounds cast. I suppose it's an easy opportunity for them to appear on Broadway without having to learn a lot of lines and a reason to charge big bucks for tickets.

Paranormal Activity

B-

In 2007 a very low-budget indie horror film with the same name, about a young couple in a haunted house, was a surprise hit that went on to become one of the most profitable movies Hollywood ever made. Its gimmick was that the story was presented as found footage recorded by security cameras, at that time the utmost in high tech. Six sequels followed. Now, playwright Levi Holloway has taken up the gauntlet with a theatrical version for the age of Alexa, FaceTime and Zoom. Lou (Cher Alvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight), a bickering young couple who have been married for almost a year, have just moved from Chicago to London, mainly to escape Lou’s anxiety, depression and blackouts, caused by a sense that she is being haunted. Alas, they learn that you can’t leave your troubles behind, and we eventually learn that Lou is not the only one being haunted. We also meet James’s Bible-thumping Southern mother Carolanne (Shannon Cochran) and a medium, Etheline Cosgrave (Eva Kaminsky), whose podcasts Lou has been avidly following. The actors are all well-suited to their roles. There are enough laughs to keep the rising tension from boiling over. Fly Davis’s cross-section of a rather dowdy London house provides a suitable setting for the action, with failing fuses, tripped alarms, banging doors and more. Designer Chris Fisher gives us two illlusions, one in each act, that got enthusiastic ovations. Note that I mention applause, not screams – I did not hear a single scream during the entire play. There were a few moments that were startling, but not truly scary. For me, things didn’t really kick into gear until the last fifteen minutes when we finally learn more about Lou and James and why they are being punished. The ending is so abrupt that if you blink you will miss it. The younger than usual audience was attentive, but not demonstrative. Most of the major New York critics gave the play enthusiastic reviews. I wish I could join them, but I thought two hours was a long time to sit there for a very modest payoff. 

Amaze

B+

This magic show/memoir featuring Jamie Allan, a British magician/monologist who intersperses memories of his childhood with a series of amazing illusions, sleight of hand and mentalist tricks, has been running at New World Stages for over a year.

Allan grew up over a village pub owned by his loving, supportive parents. His mother, who sang at the pub’s cabaret, died when he was still a child. The show is in large part a tribute to her. 

Some of the tricks are small scale, involving Rubik cubes, playing cards and a jigsaw puzzle, but they are projected on three large screens. The first act ends with a spectacular levitation with a surprise twist at the end. The second act involves more tech, including video screens, iPads and, in a trick that especially baffled me, the calculators on the audience members’ cellphones. There is low-key audience participation, mostly with children. The set and projections are quite elaborate. His two female assistants are duly attractive. At two hours with intermission, it’s a little long. Some of the reminiscences are a bit long-winded and could be trimmed to pick up the pace. Nevertheless, it delivers on its title and is a good family show. Discount tickets are available on TodayTix.

THEATER TALK: September 2026

Now that September is here, the pace of openings both on and off Broadway is picking up greatly. Here are a dozen shows opening in the next two months that caught my eye. 

On Broadway, there are many more revivals than new works: 

Manhattan Theatre Club is bringing Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy School Girls: Or, the African Mean Girls Play, an off-Broadway hit in 2017, to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre starting September 8^th. (Here’s a link to my review of the 2017 production: https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com/2017/11/school-girls-or-aftrican-mean-girls-play.html.)

Roundabout Theatre Company presents Tony winner Bill Irwin starring in his own adaptation of Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid at the Todd Haines Theatre starting September 25.

On September 29, Jon Robin Baitz’s 2011 play, Other Desert Cities, begins previews at the Hudson Theater, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney. That’s a play I reacted to quite differently the two times I saw it (https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com/2012/01/other-desert-cities-revisited.html). With this cast, I’m tempted to see it yet again.

Lincoln Center Theater has revived Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 hit, A Few Good Men, with Bradley Whitford leading the cast. 

A hit in London, Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing comes to the Winter Garden Theatre starting October 31^st starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell.

In a musical revival with a twist, The Fantasticks finally arrives on Broadway, regendered to be about two mothers and their two sons, at Second Stage’s Hayes Theatre on October 25^th.

As for new shows, here are two of note:

Billy Crystal returns to Broadway in 860, a one-man show about the loss of his home in the Palisades fire, starting October 1^st at the Imperial Theatre.

And, finally, the only new Broadway musical soon to open is Wanted, about Mary and Martha Clarke, two outlaws on the run in 1890’s Texas. With no names I recognized among the creators or the cast, this is truly a dark horse. Previews start October 15^th.

Off Broadway, Greenwich House Theater is presenting a limited-run revival of Marin Ireland’s semi-autobiographical play Pre-Existing Condition about moving forward after a life-altering relationship. It was a New York Times Critic’s pick in its earlier production. The leading role will be played by a different actress each week, including Lupita Nyong’o, Phillipa Soo, Susannah Flood and Edie Falco. Previews begin September 1^st.

Vineyard Theater presents the one-man show In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, written and performed by Roger Guenveur Smith, beginning September 9^th.

Starting September 29^th. The Public Theater is presenting Ryan J. Haddad’s Good Time Charlie, which Playbill describes as a “multigenerational story of gay men growing up, falling in love, and cherishing the arts.”

The Public is also presenting the North American premiere of the musical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after a West End run. Previews begin on October 8. 

These twelve shows vividly illustrate the variety and vitality of the New York theater scene. There should be something here for just about every theatergoer.

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