At the end of 2023, things seemed dire for serious plays on Broadway. Outside of the outstanding revival of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "Appropriate," there was no other drama playing on Broadway. Thankfully, the passing of a few months made all the difference one could hope, as the numerous spring openings revealed that the best new productions on Broadway are now unquestionably the wide array of excellent new play productions. By contrast, outside of several fine new musical productions, the plentiful new musical productions this year are largely a yawn inducing lot.
As for the currently running plays, it is notable that"Stereophonic" has gained considerable weight and clarity in its move to the Broadway stage from Playwrights Horizons. The larger stage allows the subtle character interactions to breathe and become more noticeable to the audience, and this perfect ensemble cast has honed the precision of their roles. While there are many notable new plays this spring, for me "Stereophonic" stands head and shoulders above anything else currently playing on Broadway.
I was profoundly moved by Paula Vogel's engaging and finely written "Mother Play," which was rewarded with tonally rich staging and direction (by Tina Landau), and finely honed performances from Jessica Lange and Celia Keenan-Bolger. While Vogel's biographically inspired brother-sister bond was previously explored in Vogel's 1990 play "The Baltimore Waltz," the portrayal here is not derivative or duplicative due to the wisdom and perspective Vogel (and all of us) have gained on the topics covered since the latter years of the last century.
In what appears to be her professional theater debut, Rachel McAdams gives a searingly beautiful lead performance in Amy Herzog's lovingly rendered "Mary Jane" which also features outstanding supporting cast performances. This play about a mother caring for her seriously ill toddler stays clear of the weepy Lifetime Channel type movie tropes, and provides an emotionally astute window into the world of empathy and acceptance from which everyone could learn.
Star casting (of "Succession's" Jeremy Strong and "The Soprano's" Michael Imperioli) may have helped obtain producing investors for Amy Herzog's terrific and resonant adaptation of Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People," but director Sam Gold and his strong cast turn this sometimes unwieldy and overlong drama into something timely and urgent. This production keeps the audience on the edges of their seats watching the twists and turns of the plot unfold. Much as with McAdams' performance in "Mary Jane," here the celebrity actors acquit themselves with panache providing award worthy level performances.
While I previously reported on two new spring musicals that I found engaging and worthwhile ("Illinoise" and "The Outsiders") sadly the other new musicals this spring are largely a disappointment. For exapmle, while I understand the commercial pressures that resulted in the audience pleasing changes to Shaina Taub's "Suffs," I nevertheless found the Broadway production to be a dumbed down version of the show's great, if overlong, off-Broadway production at the Public.
I was ultimately mesmerized by the high concept journey to hell that is Rebecca Frecknall's revival of "Cabaret," although I could have done without the distracting and unneccesary "pre-show" with its unduly expensive food and drink urgings. The one performance I found to be distracting was that of the usually fine Ato Blankson-Wood as Cliff, who has no chemistry with Sally or any other character for that matter. Perhaps it is an intentional directorial choice, but it fell flat for me.
While I am pleasantly surprised by the number of excellent play offerings this spring on Broadway, I remain concerned about the dearth of supply and quality of new productions being mounted off-Broadway. There were not many off-Broadway productions that I wanted to see this spring, and among the few I did see were a largely cliche "Lonely Few" at MCC and an interesting and well produced, if overstuffed, production of Suzan Lori-Park's "Sally & Tom" at the Public.
While this year's Tony nominations of five solid award quality new plays is encouraging, I cannot fail to note that they were all mounted by non-profit theaters, and 3 of the 5 started in off-Broadway houses. I am concerned about the future supply of serious new plays at a time when theatrical non-profits are largely in financial straights, and tv and film offer increasingly more lucrative options for writers, actors, directors and other creative professionals. Nevertheless, I will enjoy the play dominated riches of this season and hope for the best for the future.
