Labor Day has come and gone, and the summer season is officially over. Now we can finally get down to serious business and focus on the upcoming Broadway season, right? Nope. Due to a well-publicized 11th-hour cast change by the Democrats, the 2024 race for the White House has gotten seriously dramatic and parked itself centerstage. Any doubt that the election is hogging the spotlight was put to rest recently when Playbill reported that 30 out of 36 shows performing on Broadway will be dark on election night. It’s enough to make a diva go green with envy.
‘Wicked’ Barbies and T-shirts and cupcakes, oh my!
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Luckily, a certain green diva has been more than getting her share of attention by way of the mother-of-all teaser campaigns for the upcoming Wicked movie. And thanks to strategic licensing agreements with LEGO, Fisher-Price, Mattel, and more, store shelves will be packed with Elphaba and Glinda dolls just in time for every guncle to become very popular with their favorite niece or fabulous nephew this holiday season.
But the Wickedmania isn’t limited to the toy department. The long-awaited movie musical has also inspired a clothing collection with Aerie. Even Betty Crocker is in on the action with Wicked-inspired mix-to-reveal cupcake and cookie dough pop kit mixes. Universal has just released a second full trailer with more dialogue, more vocals, and more reasons to look forward to the film’s debut on November 22, featuring plenty of Broadway alums, including Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Ethan Slater, and Jeff Goldblum.
Out with the old, in with the new
The last raindrop will fall at the Schoenfeld Theater on December 15. After surviving all summer despite getting no love during awards season, producers of The Notebook announced that the musical version of the Nicholas Sparks novel and 2004 film will play its final performance before the holiday rush. But when one tearjerker closes, another one extends.
Due to a hot advance at the box office, the limited engagement of director Sam Gold’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, has extended its run at The Circle in the Square Theater through Sunday, February 16. Meanwhile, MCC Theater will have the highest A-list celebrity-to-audience member ratio Off-Broadway this fall when gay five-time Emmy-winner Neil Patrick Harris leads an all-star cast that includes Tony-winner Jane Krakowski, Emmy-winner Debra Messing, and Golden Globe nominee Constance Wu in Shit. Meet. Fan. by queer playwright and director Robert O’Hara (director of Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play).
Shit. Meet. Fan. MCC Theater, New York City. Performances October 10 – November 17.
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The stars are coming out to play on stage this fall, including our favorite “Heartstopper,” Pussycat Doll, and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alums.
Two shows jump the pond
The hit UK production of Heathers the Musical, which has been wowing audiences in London, will arrive in New York with its plaid skirts, croquet mallets, and “Dead Gay Son” number intact. According to the website for the touring production, a stop in the Big Apple is planned—the who, when, and where have yet to be announced. And as if part of a trade agreement, the Brits will be getting something American in return. Producers of the uber gay Titaníque (a hit in New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Sydney) have announced that the Celine Dion-infused 2023 Lucille Lortel Award-winning musical will set sail for London this December.
Titaníque, Criterion Theatre, London. Performances begin December 9.
‘Reefer’ extends, ‘Dracula’ bites, and a ‘Spelling Bee’ reboot
Star power is infusing the extended LA production of Reefer Madness The Musical (directed and choreographed by Spencer Liff) this month. Rachel Bloom (Golden Globe Award-winner for TV’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Matthew Morrison (Tony Award nominee for The Light in the Piazza, TV’s Glee) will be alternating the role of Jesus in the critically acclaimed production.
Reefer Madness The Musical, The Whitley, Los Angeles. Performances through October 27.
San Diego readies for a huge infusion of gay gothic guffaws when The Old Globe presents the West Coast premiere of Steve Rosen and Gordon Greenberg’s Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors starring Drew Droege (known for his online impressions of Chloë Sevigny). Droege will play the scene-stealing role of the ill-fated Mina as well as the lady vampire-slayer Jean Van Helsing in the gender-bending comedy.
Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors, The Old Globe, San Diego. Performances September 20 – October 27.
The Kennedy Center gave a good reason for queer musical lovers and logophiles (word lovers) to book a trip to DC when they announced that Tony Award-winner Bonnie Milligan (Kimberly Akimbo) will be joined by Beanie Feldstein (Hello, Dolly!, Lady Bird), and newlywed Noah Galvin (Theater Camp, The Real O’Neals) in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee this October. Can you spell e-x-c-i-t-e-d?
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC. Performances October 11-20.
This October, Broadway gayby and reality TV star Frankie Grande (Titaníque, Big Brother) will break out the fishnets and heels for a return engagement as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the Bucks County Playhouse’s annual production of The Rocky Horror Show. The production will be directed by Hunter Foster, fresh from Ogunquit, Maine, where he directed Latrice Royale in Little Shop of Horrors.
The Rocky Horror Show, Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, PA. Performances October 11 – November 3.
In the wings
Lin-Manuel Miranda has been getting some help from some big gay names on this next project, a concept album of The Warriors. He’s enlisted the talents of Billy Porter (Pose, Kinky Boots), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin, The Color Purple), and Mykal Kilgore (Motown) to provide vocals for his new musical-it-the-works based upon the 1979 film that follows a fictitious New York gang from the Bronx to Coney Island. The album will be released on October 18.
Speaking of Billy Porter, he and Alan Cumming are wearing producer tiaras again. The queer A-listers, who were part of the production team for the 2023 Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop, are lending their star power, artistic eye, and checkbooks to the new play Sugar Daddy, which starts performances at Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center this month with an eye for a 2025 Broadway opening.
Queer icon Cyndi Lauper — who appeared with Cumming in the 2006 Broadway revival of Threepenny Opera and wrote the music and lyrics for Porter’s comeback vehicle Kinky Boots — was busy last month with an industry presentation of her musical adaptation of Working Girl. The project, which has been in development for years, features a book by playwright Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius). So, can we expect a fabulous production number on the Staten Island Ferry anytime soon? Time (after time) will tell. Future plans for the project remain under wraps.
#Broadwaytok
No, you haven’t taken an edible. This vintage clip of Broadway veteran Bernadette Peters singing The Golden Girls theme song, “Thank You For Being a Friend,” recently resurfaced, highlighting the three-time Tony winner’s early stage presence. Originally released by singer-songwriter Andrew Gold in 1978, Peters performed it live a year later. The song resurfaced in 1985 when Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia commandeered it as the iconic theme song for the lives of four feisty women cohabitating in Miami.
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