New York Spotlight: August 2005

The dog days of August may turn out to be the cat’s meow for musical lovers, who have an abundance of riches awaiting them.

Imagine a world without John Lennon… I bet you can’t. The late great singer/songwriter gets his due in Lennon (opening August 14), a bio-musical focusing primarily on his post-Beatle life with wife Yoko Ono. A talented cast of nine performers, including Chuck Cooper, Marcy Harriell, Chad Kimball, Terrence Mann, and Julia Murney, take the stage of the Broadhurst Theater.

The Public Theater, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, brings the first major revival of its 1971 Tony Award winning Best Musical Two Gentlemen of Verona to the Delacorte Theater (opening August 28). Norm Lewis, Rosario Dawson, soap opera star Renee Elise Goldsberry and newcomer Oscar Isaac are the romantic leads. Tony winner Kathleen Marshall directs.

For something completely original, theatergoers can check out Once Around the Sun, a new musical about an aspiring rock star with Asa Somers, Maya Days, and John Hickok, at the Zipper (Opening August 11). Also on a tap are the world premieres of The Great American Trailer Park Musical (previews begin August 20, Dodger Stages) which stars Shuler Hensley, Orfeh, Linda Hart, and Kaitlin Hopkins; and Kirsten Childs’ Brazilian-flavored Miracle Brothers (previews begin August 25, Vineyard Theater), with Tyler Maynard, Clifton Oliver, Kerry Butler, and Cheryl Freeman heading the cast.

On the dramatic front, the month’s main attraction is the Primary Stages production of Terrence McNally’s Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams (opening August 18), a play about theater (of all things) starring Nathan Lane, Marian Seldes, Michael Countryman, and Alison Fraser. Dan O’Brien’s stirring drama The Dear Boy (opening August 8) at the McGinn/Cazale takes a look at a soon-to-retire English teacher forced to reevaluate his life, with Daniel Gerroll and T. Scott Cunningham leading the cast. Getting a second chance is the National Asian-American Theater Company’s production of Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov, directed by Jonathan Bank (previews begin August 2).

If you’re looking for laughs, there’s the long-awaited reunion of the Five Lesbian Brothers, who bring us the twistedly funny Oedipus at Palm Springs (opening August 3) at New York Theater Workshop. Joy, a romantic comedy with music about a group of friends in San Francisco looking for love (opening August 14 at The Actor’s Playhouse),
or New York Classical Theater’s production of Moliere’s Scapin, in which theatergoers follow the cast as they move around Central Park (August 4-28).

Also in the area’s parks are the Pulse Ensemble’s Theater of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream at Harlem’s Riverbank State Park (August 4-28) and the Theater for the New City’s Social Insecurity, “a street opera” about three soldiers who are sent to Iraq and their return home; it plays at various venues throughout the five boroughs (August 6-September 18).

Finally, “Festival Season” continues apace. The Ice Factory Festival at SoHo’s Ohio Theater concludes with the Foundry Theater’s Major Bang (August 3-6) and the Witness Relocation Company’s In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus (August 10-13); The American Living Room Festival (through August 21) at HERE promises something for everyone; and the biggest kahuna of them all, the New York International Fringe Festival, returns from August 12-28.