Gordon Cox: Last News

Gordon Cox Theater Editor The creators of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” are certain their hit show will have a future life — they just don’t yet know what that future life looks like. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: Now playing in an extended run at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in downtown Manhattan, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” mashes up Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s long-running 1982 musical with the colorful and very queer ballroom culture seen in “Paris is Burning” and “Pose.” Audiences and critics alike have fallen for the unexpected pairing, turning the show into one of the breakout hits of summer theater season.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor There were a whole lot of sure things heading into the 2024 Tony Awards ceremony — “Stereophonic,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” Daniel Radcliffe. But this year’s full list of winners had room for some unexpected twists and turns, too. You want snubs? You want surprises? Find ’em right here.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Nine,” “Red”: Stories about artists and the process of making art have long fascinated theater audiences. This season’s Tony nominations add new tales of creativity and collaboration to the canon — and conversations with the creators of these shows offer insights into the universal appeal of the subject, even for those who might not consider themselves artistic.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Live theater always reflects the moment in which it’s presented, but this season, Broadway charged head-on into the politics of today with unusual force: A play that directly addressed antisemitism, Israel and Gaza opened barely two months after the events of Oct. 7; climate protestors interrupted a 140-year-old drama about the threat of environmental calamity, and an onstage chronicle of Vladimir Putin’s rise to power opened even as the Russian invasion of Ukraine rolled into its third year.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the duo who have produced and directed the Tony Awards telecast since 2003, won’t share too many specifics about the Tony ceremony coming up on Sunday. But director and executive producer Weiss will say this: “I think it’s going to be, from the very start, a really ‘wow’ kind of show,” he said.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Emmy-winning actress Sarah Paulson is no stranger to entertainment industry awards shows — but even so, her current Tony nomination, for her lead performance in the Broadway play “Appropriate,” is a big deal for her. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “I won an Emmy for ‘American Crime Story’ and it was an extraordinary experience, but I don’t remember anything about the night.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Are we back yet? That’s the question Broadway has been asking for the past three years, as the theater industry emerged from lockdown into a harsh new reality of rising costs and slow-to-return audiences. But now, after a grim fall, a springtime surge of buzzy new openings and a heartening spike in sales suggest that bated-breath Broadway may be ready to exhale.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Jessica Lange has starred on Broadway before — winning a Tony for her most recent appearance there in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2016. But according to Lange, now back on Broadway in a Tony-nominated turn in “Mother Play,” she feels like a different actor that the one audiences have seen before.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor The new musical “Lempicka” has inspired a love-it-or-hate-it response from critics and audiences alike — and its two newly-minted Tony-nominated actors, Eden Espinosa and Amber Iman, love that everyone seems to have strong feelings at all — positive or negative. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “It’s been a while since a show has taken the risks and the big swings our show has,” said Espinosa, the fan-favorite star nominated for lead actress in a musical. Speaking on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast, she continued, “The show is so epic.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor The Tony-winning Broadway icon Bernadette Peters has long been considered one of the foremost performers of composer Stephen Sondheim‘s work. But as Peters revealed in the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety‘s theater podcast, it wasn’t quite love at first sight when she initially performed his tunes. It was more like love at second sight.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Even if you don’t know “The Notebook,” you know there’s a romantic couple at the heart of the story. But in the new Broadway musical adaptation of “The Notebook,” there’s not just one couple — there’s three: Three actors playing each of the two characters at different times of their lives.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor What’s a theater influencer and how do you become one? On the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast, Kristin Hopkins and Ashley Hufford, two influencers with strong social media presences on Instagram and TikTok, explained how they did it. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: The first thing to know: They both have day jobs. “I’m not making tons of money from this,” laughed Hufford, who is a video content editor by day.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor When Sterlin Harjo, the co-creator of “Reservation Dogs,” started writing his first play with the other members of The 1491s, the sketch comedy troupe of which he was member, he and the group began working on the project in the same way they would have brainstormed one of their comic YouTube shorts: “The first day of working, we sat around and drew dicks on a dry-erase board for half the day,” he said. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: Harjo recalled the process in a conversation with Bobby Wilson, another one of the five members of The 1491s, during the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. The play, “Between Two Knees,” was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a series of plays focused on U.S.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Fresh off an early workshop of “The Light in the Piazza,” the actress Kelli O’Hara had a passing thought: What if there was an ambitious musical adaptation of “Days of Wine and Roses,” the 1962 addiction drama that starred Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick? It could give her a chance to reunite with “Piazza” composer Adam Guettel and with the actor Brian D’Arcy James, with whom she had starred in the short-lived Broadway musical “The Sweet Smell of Success.” Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “I just thought: What an awesome acting challenge and rich, artful experience [it could be],” O’Hara said in a conversation with James on Variety‘s theater podcast, “Stagecraft.” “Adam was intrigued by the idea and without me knowing, he went off and got the rights to it!” It took 21 years of on-and-off work, but “Days of Wine and Roses” finally had its world premiere at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater last year and has just begun performances on Broadway. Both performers said they relish the opportunity to return to songs that can be challenging both for singers and for audiences.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Sara Bareilles has always spoken openly about the fact that her work on the musical “Waitress” changed her life. “My life is in two categories: It’s before and after ‘Waitress,’” she said on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor While the cast of the new Broadway production of “Spamalot” is cracking up audiences, they’re all trying their best not to crack up as well. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: On the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast, actors James Monroe Iglehart, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Michael Urie gave listeners a glimpse of the shenanigans that threaten their poker faces. “There’s this part where [co-star] Ethan Slater, as a mime, is miming dropping a baby off a balcony and it makes me laugh every night,” Urie says.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor To hear the actress Sierra Boggess tell it, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Broadway musical “Harmony” couldn’t have a more apt title. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “They sing in harmony the entire show,” said Boggess (“The Little Mermaid,” “Love Never Dies”), speaking in a conversation with “Harmony” director-choreographer Warren Carlyle on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. “There’s no sound like it on Broadway right now.” Carlyle (“After Midnight,” “The Music Man”) described the sound of “Harmony,” about a real-life troupe of singers called the Comedian Harmonists, as “a cross between the Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers.” He went on to reveal his take on how the hitmaking duo Manilow and Sussman work together.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Scar in “The Lion King.” The Green Goblin in “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” The titular green guy in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The actor Patrick Page (“Hadestown“) has played every one of those Broadway villains—and he brings all that experience to bear in the Off-Broadway solo show he both wrote and stars in, “All the Devils Are Here.” Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: Subtitled “How Shakespeare Invented the Villain,” the show delves into all the ways the Bard depicted bad guys and evil-doers with depth, nuance and humanity that were, at the time, revolutionary. In the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast, Page theorized that his famously deep voice has probably contributed to his frequent casting in villain roles. “There’s a strong tradition in the theater of those roles being more bass roles.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor The 2023 edition of Variety’s annual theater breakfast was all about the Business of Broadway. But that didn’t keep things from getting spiritual, too. In a panel discussion featuring the starry cast of “Merrily We Roll Along” — held during the Business of Broadway breakfast Oct.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Leslie Odom Jr. isn’t just the star of the new, critically acclaimed Broadway revival of “Purlie Victorious.” He’s also one of its producers. The combination is really working for him.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor For every production of “Merrily We Roll Along,” there is always a question. Ever since the ignominious failure of its Broadway premiere, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical has carried the reputation of being too flawed, too facile, too conceptual ever to satisfy — while at the same time, a cult of creatives and fans have remained steadfastly convinced the show’s a masterpiece, needing only the right staging to reveal it. The same question, then, haunts every revival: Is this the version that finally fulfills the promise of “Merrily We Roll Along”? Judging from critical and audience response, the latest New York production may be the one that achieves it.