Gossip Girl of the Week: Geraldine Hughes

IT'S a sad story. A young Irish girl, Molly Sweeney, has been blind most of her life. But she's adjusted. She has friends, a good job as a massage therapist and an open, joyous attitude toward life. And then she finds love. All her new husband wants to do is save her -- by getting her surgery that might restore her sight. It works. But no one gets a happy ending. Ciaran O'Reilly is the husband. Jonathan Hogan is the doctor. And Geraldine Hughes plays Molly with what one critic called "an intensity that's almost too brilliant to bear."

CURRENT GIG The title role in the Irish Rep's revival of Brian Friel's "Molly Sweeney."

AGE 40.

BORN AND RAISED West Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the height of the Troubles.

ALMA MATER U.C.L.A.

AVAILABILITY Married to Ian Harrington.

BROADWAY DEBUT Brian Friel's "Translations" (2007).

BEST KNOWN TO MOVIEGOERS AS Sylvester Stallone's love interest in "Rocky Balboa" (2006). Clint Eastwood's daughter-in-law in "Gran Torino" (2008).

BIG BREAK A TV movie, "Children of the Crossfire" (1984). An American director came to her school to audition children, and she was chosen.

EARLY JOB IN AMERICA Part-time nanny to Danny De Vito and Rhea Perlman's children.

THAT OLD SCREEN-VS.-STAGE QUESTION "I think you can't get too far into the film business without doing theater again. It grounds you again, because L.A. can be so unreal."*

*"Punching Above Her Weight Comes Easy," by Sean O'Driscoll, The Sunday Times of London, Jan. 7, 2007.

"Molly Sweeney," by Brian Friel, directed by Charlotte Moore, Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, (212) 727-2737, irishrep.org. Opening night: Jan. 30, 2011.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about Alan Rickman and his performance in "John Gabriel Borkman" at BAM. Then search to read about Stockard Channing in "Other Desert Cities," Jon Robin Baitz's latest; the horrors of audience participation this season; and theater openings in the near future, including "Arcadia," "That Championship Season" and the South Park guys' Broadway debut, "The Book of Mormon."

Gossip Guy of the Week: Alan Rickman

IN the movie "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), he was the breathtakingly noble Colonel Brandon, who wins Kate Winslet's heart. In the original "Die Hard" (1988), he was Hans Gruber, the quintessential villain. In the Harry Potter movies, he's Severus Snape, the potions professor at Hogwarts. But right now he's charming New York theater fans as an Ibsen antihero in a production sent over from the Abbey Theater of Dublin.

CURRENT GIG "John Gabriel Borkman" at BAM. He plays the title character, a sort of 19th-century Bernie Madoff, back home, a ruined but unapologetic man, after his time in prison.

WHAT THE TIMES THOUGHT Ben Brantley liked Lindsay Duncan (playing Borkman's once and possibly future love interest) better but complimented Rickman and Fiona Shaw's charisma and technical acuity. Variety liked Rickman better, referring to his "towering performance as Ibsen's disgraced but unrepentant banker."

AGE 64.

BORN AND RAISED London.

ALMA MATER Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. (Before that, he studied graphic design at the Chelsea College of Art & Design.)

AVAILABILITY Longtime relationship with Rima Horton, an economics professor and politician -- and his college sweetheart.

TRADEMARK Lazy, languorous, sensual voice.

BROADWAY DEBUT "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1987). Playing Valmont, he earned a Tony nomination.

TRADE SECRET "More and more I believe that great acting is about truly listening to what the other person is saying and then truly answering. Once you start doing that . . . then it becomes utterly compulsive."*

*"Mapping the Dark Heart of Strindberg," Sarah Lyall, The New York Times, April 11, 2010.

"John Gabriel Borkman," by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Frank McGuinness, directed by James Macdonald, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100, bam.org. Opening night: Jan. 13, 2011.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about a way to get really cheap tickets to Off Broadway shows right now. Then search to read about Stockard Channing and "Other Desert Cities," Brian Bedford and "The Importance of Being Earnest," and eight big Broadway openings coming up in March.

Last-Minute Off Broadway Theater Tickets for $20, and Some of the Shows Are Actually Terrific

THE BRIDE WORE CORAL From left: Patricia Conolly, Jaime Ray Newman, Michael Countryman and Joey Slotnick in "The New York Idea."

SOMETHING called "20 at 20," sponsored by the Off Broadway Alliance, started this week. It means that between now and Feb. 6, you can show up at any of more than 30 Off Broadway shows 20 minutes before curtain time and buy a ticket for just $20.

But you may be skeptical. "Probably," you're thinking, "these shows are all dogs. Probably someone should pay me $20 for sitting through them." Well, gentle reader, in some cases that may be true. Who knows? But on this list of shows, there also happen to be some real winners. Here are our Top 5 picks:

1. THE DIVINE SISTER

If you know Charles Busch's work, you're probably already at the box office. If you don't, just rest assured that he's the funniest actor regularly working in drag in New York.* And Ben Brantley of The New York Times has called this show his "freshest, funniest work in years, perhaps decades." All you need to know is that Busch plays the Mother Superior at St. Veronica's convent school, a strong woman who used to be a very Roz Russell-like girl reporter, and there are dark secrets to be revealed all around her.

SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, divinesisteronstage.com.


2. THE NEW YORK IDEA

It's the turn of the last century in Manhattan, and everyone who matters is terribly shocked that two divorced people are marrying each other. He's solid and conservative. She's free and casual and can't take her eyes off the racing form. But their ex-spouses aren't as completely out of the picture as you might think. David Auburn, who won the Pulitzer Prize and the best play Tony for "Proof," has adapted the script, based on Langdon Mitchell's 1906 original. The result is so much fun that it may bring back lots of Edwardian-era scripts. (Jan. 27, 2011 update: Do not do what Brantley of The Times did: read Mitchell's original script. Apparently the update lost a certain amount of texture and character.)

Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, atlantictheater.org.


3. NEWSICAL: FULL SPIN AHEAD

One critic called it " 'The Daily Show' set to music." A cast of four comic actors play political and entertainment-world celebrities and comment on recent trends and news stories in the form of musical sketches. You'll meet, among others, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, her daughter Bristol (dancing), that fed-up Jet Blue flight attendant, homophobic Marines, Pee-wee Herman (as a TSA agent) and Harry Potter (on a sad New Year's Eve a few years from now). And then there's Liza Minnelli, who is thrilled to hear about the movement that will make it possible for gay men anywhere to legally marry. "Up till now," she says breathlessly, "I've just been marrying them all myself."

Kirk Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, newsicalthemusical.net.


4. THROUGH THE NIGHT

Daniel Beaty's solo show is now in its third New York theater in a year, but wherever it plays it's a moving commentary on what it means to be a black man in America today. (Bill Cosby is a fan of Mr. Beaty's work.) He plays a variety of characters, including a health-food-store owner trying to wean Harlem off soul food, a gay executive who still hasn't told his minister father about his sexuality and a recent high school graduate who is determined to get out of the projects. The script finds poetry and hope in unexpected places.

Westside Theater Downstairs, 407 West 43rd Street, throughthenightonstage.com.


5. LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE

This is one of those all-women shows in which the cast changes constantly. During the 20at20 period, the actresses include Alexis Biedel (yes, "Gilmore Girl" fans, our own Rory!), Pauletta Washington and Anita Gillette. But whoever is onstage, you always get Nora and Delia Ephron's smart, witty take on women, clothes and the memories they evoke.

Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street, lovelossonstage.com.

And for the children:

FRECKLEFACE STRAWBERRY

It's sweet. It's cute. And most of the other shows around for young theatergoers resemble circus acts more than comedy or drama. This little musical, based on the actress Julianne Moore's childhood experiences as a redhead with freckles who is teased for being different, actually has distinct characters, a plot and a message. A much better introduction to theater than a production about juggling or giant bubbles.

New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, frecklefacethemusical.com.

For more information on the program and the other shows: 20at20.com.


*Brian Bedford, who is currently playing Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest," normally wears men's clothing onstage. And works in Canada.


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Then scroll on to read about Stockard Channing and "Other Desert Cities," the fabulous Jon Robin Baitz play she's doing at Lincoln Center. Plus Brian Bedford and his astounding performance in the Roundabout's "Importance of Being Earnest." Then search to read about tons of stars and shows, including eight productions that are opening on Broadway in March and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," which may or may not be.

Gossip Girl of the Week: Stockard Channing

SHE stands out in "Other Desert Cities," which isn't easy. With the constantly smart, constantly sexy script. And John Lee Beatty's intensely beige, appropriately uncomfortable living room set. And Joe Mantello's flawless, look-anywhere-and-you'll-see-something-going-on direction. And the rest of the cast: Stacy Keach, Linda Lavin, Elizabeth Marvel and the guy you may not have heard of, Thomas Sadowski (above). Stockard Channing looks mahvelous. And the minute she walks onto the stage in her tennis clothes, she rules.

CURRENT GIG "Other Desert Cities," Jon Robin Baitz's fabulous new play at Lincoln Center about a Republican couple in Palm Springs and their two liberal children. Or are there three?

WHAT THE TIMES THOUGHT "Gorgeously acted," "seriously satisfying," "leaves you feeling both moved and gratifyingly sated." (Ben Brantley, "Drowning in Domestic Denial in the Sands of Palm Beach.")

AGE 66.

BORN AND RAISED New York City. Brooklyn (before it was cool).

ALMA MATER Radcliffe. (For you younger people, that's the women's college at Harvard.) Before that, she went to the fancy Chapin School in Manhattan and the fancy Madeira School in McLean, Va.

AVAILABILITY Divorced four times. She's been with Daniel Gillham, a cinematographer, for more than 20 years.

BEST KNOWN AS Rizzo, the hard-edged high school bad girl in the movie version of "Grease" (1978). She was 34 when it was released.

BEST KNOWN ON TV AS The first lady Abbey Bartlet on "The West Wing." Abbey was a recurring character from 1999 to 2006. Channing was nominated for an Emmy every season and won in 2002.

BROADWAY DEBUT "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1971). She started out in the chorus but eventually played Julia, the female co-lead.

HER TONY "Joe Egg" (1985). She was the troubled mother of a brain-damaged girl. ("Dale and Channing in Nichols's 'Joe Egg.' ")

ALL HER TONY NOMINATIONS "Six Degrees of Separation," "The House of Blue Leaves," "The Lion in Winter," "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun" and even the 2008 flop revival of "Pal Joey."

HOW HER LOVE OF THEATER BEGAN "My parents would go to musicals a lot. You’d come home, and they would put records on at cocktail time. I know the complete score of 'Happy Hunting,' 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,' 'South Pacific.' " ("Bewitched, Bothered and Back," The New York Times, by Erik Piepenburg.)

"Other Desert Cities," by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Joe Mantello, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200, lct.org. Opening night: Jan. 13, 2011.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about Brian Bedford, currently playing Lady Bracknell (brilliantly) in the Roundabout's production (brilliant) of "The Importance of Being Earnest" (eternally brilliant). Then search to read about eight big Broadway openings in March and what's gone horribly wrong with audience participation at the theater.

Gossip Guy of the Fortnight: Brian Bedford

HIS father was a postman. He dropped out of school at 15 to become an actor. His best pal as a teenager was Brian Epstein. His mentor was John Gielgud. He moved to Ontario, where he has been a member of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for 27 years, because, he said, he wanted to live in America but also wanted a British actor's career. Brian Bedford is our kind of guy.

CURRENT GIG Directing and playing Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest" on Broadway.

WHAT THE TIMES THOUGHT Lady Bracknell "has perhaps never been more imperious, more indomitable -- or more delectably entertaining -- than in Mr. Bedford's brilliant portrayal." (Charles Isherwood, "A Stylish Monster Conquers at a Glance.")

AGE 75.

BORN AND RAISED Morley, Yorkshire, England.

ALMA MATER Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

AVAILABILITY He has shared a house in Stratford since 1985 with Tim MacDonald, a fellow actor who plays the butler, Merriman, in "Earnest."

BROADWAY DEBUT "Five Finger Exercise" (1959), with Jessica Tandy.

ONLY ONE TONY? He won for "The School for Wives" (1971) and was nominated another five times.

KINDS OF ROLES HE LIKES TO DO "I do like playing totally blinkered, deluded people. I find them funny." ("The Importance of Being Astonished," by Ben Brantley, The New York Times.)

ALSO CHECK OUT
"Every Inch a King," by Richard Ouzounian, thestar.com.

"The Importance of Being Earnest," by Oscar Wilde, directed by Brian Bedford, American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, roundabouttheatre.com. Opening night: Jan. 13, 2011.

[This post was updated on Jan. 22, 2011.)

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about the horrors of audience participation (especially at "Korach") and eight big Broadway openings coming in March.

Audience Participation at the Theater Is Totally Out of Control and Must Be Stopped

IT was last Thursday, the day Ellen Stewart died. So, thinking about Stewart and her amazing, inventive, avant-garde work at La MaMa for all those decades, I was feeling more open than I normally would be to experimental theater forms. But my experience of the Living Theater's "Korach" went way, way, way too far.

When I'm in critic or award-nominator mode, I always try to be kind and to keep an open mind. So I thought positive thoughts as two dozen or so actors performed the story of Korach (rhymes with low-back) and his followers, who apparently broke away from Moses during those 40 years wandering in the desert because Moses became too authoritarian, stayed away too long receiving the Ten Commandments and wouldn't let most of his people inside the temple. O.K., I thought, that's clever when Korach and all the Korachites emerge from the stage floor. Nice touch with the changing colors of the black and white costumes. Yes, it all seems painfully 1960s, but who am I to make harsh judgments about playwrights and actors and actresses who need work and a form of self-expression?

But the actors kept seeming to try to catch my eye. The theater on 21 Clinton Street (F train to Delancey Street) is tiny and plays are performed in the round, so a lot of the time, there were actors as close to me as my computer screen is right now.

Now I had been forewarned by my colleague Eric Grode's review in The New York Times ("A Man So Stubborn He Wouldn't Listen Even to Moses"). "The audience-performer divide blurs at the end," he wrote, "as cast members cajole one and all into standing, dancing, joining hands and vocalizing." I should have paid more attention to his final thought, though: "It takes moxie," he continued, to end a theater piece about dissent "with enforced participation."

I was determined not to be grumpy and uncooperative, but what I didn't fully understand from the Times review was the nature of this vocalizing. The cast would sing a line, something like "Gosh, we really like diversity" or "It's good to be in touch with the spirit" (not verbatim examples, but you get the idea), and we were to sing them back. And not just one or two lines. This thing went on. And on. Moxie? I'd say this whole thing took colossal nerve.

I tried. I really did. But as this young moon-faced blonde kept smiling at me inanely and expectantly, I finally said quietly, "I really hate this." She looked at me with sympathy and an expression that suggested I just wasn't open and spiritual enough to appreciate this uplifting moment. While the elderly scruffy-bearded man to my left was. I think the actress may have touched my shoulder. The look in her eye -- and the eyes of many of her fellow cast members -- reminded me of something. But what?

A day or two later, I was doing a search on "Korach" (which, to me, sounds like the name they gave Captain Kirk on that planet where he had amnesia and everybody dressed like 19th-century American Indians), and I came across Jacob Gallagher-Ross's review of the show in The Village Voice ("The Living Theatre Inflicts Korach on Local Ticket Holders").

He wrote of the company's "antiquated theatrical tricks" and wondered if anyone involved had seen any other piece of theater in the past 30 years. He described the hideous ending: "The proceedings go from kitschy to insufferable" as cast members "smiling beatifically" and offering "uninvited touches" began "singing banalities about unity in diversity" and forcing the audience to join in. What the production gave us was a situation in which "helpless spectators obey strangely cheerful minders."

"There's a word for this kind of arrangement," he concluded. "It's called a cult." (I immediately went to Facebook and friended Gallagher-Ross.)

I don't mind a dash of audience participation, the sort Dame Edna does when she throws good-natured insults at audience members about their hair or clothing ("Affordable"). And possibly invites one person onstage to be mildly embarrassed. I don't mind this as long as that person is not me.

But things may really be getting out of hand. At "Play Dead," the magician Teller's otherwise very entertaining scary show at the Players Theater in the Village, starring the light-bulb-eating Todd Robbins, one poor male audience member is invited to lie down in a coffinlike box and is promptly turned into a skeleton. (He is returned intact to his loved ones at the end of the show.) A couple of others are ordered onstage to operate a Ouija board and call forth spirits. Harmless, I guess, but it does make one fear to take an aisle seat. The crew also throws sticky, moist things at the audience in the dark and tells them that they're entrails.

And then there was "Blind Date," Rebecca Northan's improv show at Ars Nova in December. Ms. Northan, playing Mimi, a sexy Parisian clown who wears a red nose, chooses a male audience member at the beginning of the show and keeps him onstage for the entire 90-minute running time to play her blind date. It's pretty entertaining, true, but what does this poor guy get? Maybe for some men, it's the experience of a lifetime, but surely others feel that they've been cheated. They paid for a ticket and then didn't get to see a show. What if this is the beginning of reality-show theater? Producers will just hire and pay one actor, then fill all the other roles with audience members. Well, maybe we'll at least get our Equity cards.


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about eight big shows, including Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" and the South Park guys' musical "The Book of Mormon," opening on Broadway in March. Then search to read about herds of stage stars, including David Duchovny, Tracee Chimo, Laura Benanti, James Earl Jones and Christopher Tierney, the "Spider-Man" accident guy.

And Now a Roundup of March Openings , , ,

HERE we were, just finishing up our posts about Broadway openings in March when the people behind "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" moved their opening again, this time from Feb. 7 to March 15. But we're just going to ignore them because, really, who knows when this thing is going to open officially? Julie Taymor and the producers are making so much money in previews they might be fools to actually let all the critics in.

Meanwhile, here are eight other Broadway shows opening in March 2011. Of the eight, three are musicals, four are plays (a mix of comedy and drama) and one is a solo show. Three, including "How to Succeed" (above), are revivals. Five have movie stars in the cast -- six if you count Leguizamo.

ARCADIA Hunky actors (Billy Crudup, Raul Esparza), one of Meryl Streep's daughters (Grace Gummer) and Tom Stoppard's words in a revival of this brilliant comedy-with-drama.

BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO A movie star (Robin Williams), big subjects, wacky treatment, a fascinating new playwright (Rajiv Joseph).

THE BOOK OF MORMON Blasphemous new comedy with songs, from the creators of "South Park" and "Avenue Q."

GHETTO KLOWN John Leguizamo's irreverent one-man show.

GOOD PEOPLE A movie star (Frances McDormand) and serious contemporary subjects in a new play from a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (David Lindsay-Abbaire).

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING A movie star (Daniel Radcliffe) in a revival of a beloved Kennedy-era musical. "Mad Men" nostalgia with dancing. It won the Pulitzer too, way back when.

PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT: THE MUSICAL Two Australian gay guys and a transsexual on a bus, rocking out to golden oldies in splashy costumes.

THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON Hunky guys (including Kiefer Sutherland and Chris Noth) in the revival of a Pulitzer Prize-winning all-male drama.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? For lots more information on all eight shows, scroll on. Or search to read items about stars like Nicole Kidman and Mark Rylance and shows like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Mistakes Were Made."

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'That Championship Season'?

It's raining men again. Jason Miller's powerful male-bonding drama "That Championship Season" (1972) is back, almost 40 years after it won the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

The cast is stellar: Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Noth (a k a Mr. Big of "Sex and the City"), the comedian Jim Gaffigan and Jason Patric (son of the playwright) play former high school basketball players getting together 20 years later for a reunion. Brian Cox plays their old coach, who is hosting the initially jovial get-together at his house in Scranton, Pa.

Gaffigan's character is an inept mayor nervous about losing his re-election bid. Noth plays a millionaire who got rich through strip mining and may be having an affair with one of his old teammates' wives. Sutherland plays a junior high school principal, and Patric is his brother, an alcoholic would-be writer. Cox's character may turn out to be a bigot and a bully, rather than a man to look up to.

The director is Gregory Mosher, who directed Scarlett Johansson Liev Schreiber and the gang in "A View From the Bridge" last season. Miller, who died in 2001, gave up writing to pursue his acting career and is best known as Father Karras in "The Exorcist."

TEAM PLAYERS Photo at top, from left: Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan and Chris Noth.

Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, thatchampionshipseason.com, telecharge.com. Previews begin Feb. 9. Opens March 6..


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about seven more Broadway openings in March: "Arcadia," "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," "The Book of Mormon," "Ghetto Klown," "Good People," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical." Then search to read about stars like Bernadette Peters and Michael Shannon and shows like "Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway" and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'?

PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT: THE MUSICAL

Two drag queens and a depressed transsexual hop on a bus and travel across the Australian desert to the middle of nowhere. That was pretty much the plot of the movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," a huge hit back in 1994. And now it's a Broadway musical.

"Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical" is already the most successful Australian stage musical ever. It's just about to celebrate its second anniversary on the London stage. And finally it arrives in New York, with Tony Sheldon from the London cast as Bernadette (a heartbreaking Terence Stamp in the movie), the older transsexual grieving for her much younger lover; Will Swenson as Tick a k a Mitzi (Hugo Weaving in the movie), a gay man whose secret is that he was once married and has a son he would now like to get to know; and Nick Adams as Adam a k a Felicia (Guy Pearce in the movie), the requisite wild young thing.

The book is by Stephan Elliott, who wrote and directed the movie, and Allan Scott. The director is Simon Phillips. And rather than write new songs, they're using oldies like "Material Girl," "I Love the Nightlife," "I Say a Little Prayer," "What's Love Got to Do With It?" and -- how could they not? -- "It's Raining Men."

Expect spectacle.


Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway (between 46th and 47th Streets), priscillaonbroadway.com, ticketmaster.com. Previews begin Feb. 28. Opens March 20.

UP NEXT (AND LAST): THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about six more Broadway openings in March: "Arcadia," "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," "The Book of Mormon," "Ghetto Klown," "Good People" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Then search to read about theater people from Scarlett Johansson to Cherry Jones.

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'How to Succeed in Business'?

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

The world loved watching him grow up in the "Harry Potter" movies. (He was 12 when the first, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," opened in 2001.) Theatergoers saw him, all of him, on Broadway in "Equus" in 2009. Now Daniel Radcliffe, 21, puts on a suit and tie, sings, dances and plays it for laughs in a new revival of Frank Loesser's 1961 musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Even without Radcliffe, this would be a hot ticket. "How to Succeed" is a winner in every way, having taken home the best-musical Tony Award, a batch of other Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama when it opened 50 years ago.

If you don't know the story -- of young J. Pierrepont Finch (Robert Morse in the original, Matthew Broderick in the 1995 revival, Radcliffe now) rising from the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder to the executive suite of the World Wide Wicket Company -- just think of it as the lighter side of "Mad Men." The jokes (the book is by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert) are just as good as the songs, which include the narcissistic "I Believe in You" and the rousing "Brotherhood of Man."

Rob Ashford, who did "Promises, Promises" last season, is the director and choreographer. The cast also includes John Larroquette (as J. B. Biggley), Michael Park, Rose Hemingway and Tammy Blanchard.

Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com, howtosucceedbroadway.com. Previews begin Feb. 26. Opens March 27.

UP NEXT: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about five more big Broadway openings in March: "Arcadia," "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," "The Book of Mormon," "Ghetto Klown" and "Good People." Then search to read about stage stars from Bernadette Peters to Michael Shannon.

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'Good People'?

[Fifth in a series of eight items about Broadway openings in March 2011.]


GOOD PEOPLE

Frances McDormand is the star. McDormand (above, looking considerably more glamorous than Marge Gunderson, the "Fargo" character she won her Oscar for playing) portrays a South Boston woman at the end of her rope. She's just lost her job. She's about to be evicted. Her only hope is an old boyfriend, a guy who escaped the working-class world she lives in and made it big. But the way he feels about his own humble origins may stand in the way.

McDormand has plenty of stage cred. She did "North Atlantic" Off Broadway last year, starred in "The Country Girl" on Broadway in 2008 and played Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire," also on Broadway, back in 1988.

But for devoted theatergoers, this opening is more about the playwright than the actors. "Good People" is by David Lindsay-Abaire, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama just a few years ago for "Rabbit Hole," about a mother grieving for her dead child. So hopes are high for another deeply moving drama laced with Lindsay-Abaire's signature wit.

This is a limited run, scheduled to close April 24. The cast also includes Tate Donovan and Estelle Parsons. The director is Daniel Sullivan, who gave us the Al Pacino-Lily Rabe "Merchant of Venice" earlier this season.

Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 West 47th Street, telecharge.com. Previews begin Feb. 8. Opens March 3.


Up Next: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about four other Broadway openings in March: "Arcadia," "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," "The Book of Mormon" and "Ghetto Klown." Then search to read about shows from "The Addams Family" to "Angels in America," plus items about the "Spider-Man" accidents and the interview Stephen Sondheim gave to Stephen Colbert.

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'Ghetto Klown'?

(Fourth in a series of eight items about Broadway openings in March 2011.)

GHETTO KLOWN

John Leguizamo is back with a new high-energy solo show. He's given us "Mambo Mouth" and "Spic-O-Rama" Off Broadway, then "Freak" and "Sexaholix . . . A Love Story" on Broadway. His shows have won Obie and Drama Desk Awards. He actually acted with other actors in a Broadway play in 2008, doing David Mamet's "American Buffalo." But now he's back with his first one-man special in almost a decade.

In "Ghetto Klown," which is planned as a 12-week limited engagement (to mid-June), he promises to talk about growing up in Queens (Jackson Heights), his early avant-garde stage-acting career and what it was like making big Hollywood movies. Those big movies include "Carlito's Way," "Romeo + Juliet," "The Happening," "Moulin Rouge," "Die Hard 2" and "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar." He's also very well known to small children as the voice of Sid the sloth in the "Ice Age" movies. But those little moviegoers are probably not the ideal audience for "Ghetto Klown."

Fisher Stevens is directing.

Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45thStreet, ghettoklownonbroadway.com. Previews begin Feb. 21. Opens March 22.


UP NEXT: GOOD PEOPLE


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about three more Broadway openings in March: "Arcadia," "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" and "The Book of Mormon." Then search to read about notables from Edward Albee to Liza Minnelli.

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'The Book of Mormon'?

[Third in a series of eight items on Broadway openings in March 2011.]

THE BOOK OF MORMON

If you recognize the cute kid above as Butters, then you know about "South Park." And the fabulous news for fans of this wickedly funny long-running (since 1997) Comedy Central series is that its wickedly funny creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have written a Broadway musical.

It's "The Book of Mormon," in which two young Mormon missionaries who want to save the world are sent to Uganda. All we can guarantee is that the humor will be decidedly irreverent and wildly politically incorrect. Their partner in this venture is Robert Lopez, a co-creator of "Avenue Q," the Tony Award-winning musical that features funny songs about racism, sexual orientation, pornography and puppets having sex.

Keep in mind that Parker and Stone have written a musical before. Some people considered the 1999 feature film "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" one of the great movie musicals. And one of its numbers, "Blame Canada," was nominated for the best song Oscar.

The cast includes Josh Gad, Nikki M. James and Andrew Rannells. Parker's co-director is Casey Nicholaw, who directed "The Drowsy Chaperone" and choreographed "Spamalot."

But are Parker and Stone, who created "South Park" when they were in their 20s, arrogant? Are they confident that "The Book of Mormon" will be a huge commercial and critical hit? "We're pretty sure we're going to get our asses kicked," Parker told Michael Riedel of The New York Post last spring. We really, really, really hope not.

Eugene O'Neill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, bookofmormonbroadway.com. Previews begin Feb. 24. Opens March 24.

UP NEXT: GHETTO KLOWN

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about two more shows opening in March: "Arcadia" and "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo." Then search to read about stars like Bernadette Peters, Sean Hayes, Katie Finneran, Mark Rylance, David Duchovny and Nicole Kidman.

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo'?

[Second of eight in a series of items about Broadway openings in March 2011.]

BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO

The inimitable Robin Williams (not shown here), making his Broadway debut, will be the star box-office attraction here. What could be more fun for Williams's TV and movie fans than seeing him as the ghost of a dead tiger wandering through war-torn Iraq making trenchant observations? The zoo gets blown up by a bomb. The tiger gets loose. He bites off somebody's hand. And that's the end of him, except for the afterlife, which turns out to be a fascinating place/thing.

But for theatergoers who can be drawn to a play simply because it's an amazing play, the Hollywood name wouldn't have been necessary. Rajiv Joseph (above), a nice boy from Cleveland with a master's from N.Y.U., is best known so far for his Off Broadway play "Animals Out of Paper." But this script, which started out at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, Calif., in 2009, is wilder and bigger and braver. Moises Kaufman, a nice boy from Venezuela, is the director. He's best known for having written "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde" and having directed "I Am My Own Wife."

What they give us is a story about big, serious topics like the legacy of violence (America's as well as the Saddam Hussein regime's) and, seriously, the meaning of life. But it's told with details as wacky as Williams himself, like the appearance of the ghost of Uday Hussein and one man's search for a solid gold toilet seat, which he wants to cash in on and start a new life.

Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, bengaltigeronbroadway.com. Previews begin March 11. Opens March 31.

UP NEXT: THE BOOK OF MORMON

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about another big March opening, "Arcadia." Then search to read about shows like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "A Little Night Music" and stars like Nicole Kidman, Mark Rylance, David Duchovny and Zoe Kazan.

If You See Only One Broadway Show This March: Maybe 'Arcadia'?

THE depths of winter are quiet times on the Great White Way, at least in terms of new shows. Just about everything that opened this fall has closed. There's only one big opening in January ("The Importance of Being Earnest") and one in February (but it's "Spider-Man" and nobody really knows what's going to happen there). So let's look ahead to March, which will bring at least eight openings, all of them noteworthy one way or the other. Here we go, one at a time:

ARCADIA

Sexy actors and brilliant writing? We'll be getting both with the revival of Tom Stoppard's glorious "Arcadia" at the Ethel Barrymore. Billy Crudup (above, in "The Metal Children" last spring), who was in the original 1995 production, returns, this time playing Bernard Nightingale, the British literary type who's out to prove that Byron killed a fellow poet in a duel at a certain very grand country house back in 1809.

Raul Esparza (possibly the hottest Bobby that "Company" ever saw) plays Valentine Coverly, a postgrad student of mathematics and chaos theory. Grace Gummer, yet another of Meryl Streep's daughters, makes her Broadway debut as Valentine's sister.

The joy of "Arcadia" is that while Nightingale is absolutely sure he's figuring out exactly what happened in 1809, we get to see the actual events and to relish just how wrong he is. Vincent Canby, our greatly missed colleague from The New York Times, reviewed the original Lincoln Center production 15 years ago and liked the London production better but declared the play "Tom Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and, new for him, emotion."

The cast also includes Tom Riley, David Turner and Lia Williams. David Leveaux is directing.

Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, telecharge.com. Previews begin Feb. 25. Opens March 17.

Up Next: "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo."



WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to check out some unofficial awards for the best and worst of 2010. Then search to read about dozens of stars stars, including Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones, Cherry Jones and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

'Spider-Man' Accident Guy Forgives Everybody; Whole Cast Exudes Love and Confidence

AFTER THE FALL Christopher Tierney appearing on "CBS2News" to discuss his Dec. 20 accident in the musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

EVERY young actor and actress dreams about it: doing something on Broadway that makes him or her, overnight, the toast of the town. But cute Christopher Tierney, 31, certainly did it the hard way. On Dec. 20, at a preview performance of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," a stunt went wrong and Tierney fell some 30 feet, into a basement beneath the stage, breaking four ribs and three vertebrae and fracturing his scapula, his elbow and the back of his head.

He was the fourth actor to be injured during "Spider-Man" previews, and there was a great outcry within the theater community. Maybe, observers said, this $65 million high-tech musical was taking far too many risks. Maybe Julie Taymor, the director, should pull the plug. Maybe Bono and the Edge, the U2 stars who wrote the music, should at least speak up about how things were being handled. After all, Natalie Mendoza, who was playing Arachne the spider villain, had just quit the show because of safety concerns. (She suffered a concussion during the first preview when a weighted rope hit her on the head.)

So when word came that Tierney was going to be "breaking his silence," as television announcers put it, those of us who don't know what to think were hoping he would shed some light on what had happened and what was or wasn't being done about the problems backstage.

If you caught the first hour of ABC's "Good Morning America" today, you know that's not exactly what happened. The personable host George Stephanopoulos beamed at his all-star panel of five and did a press-release Q-and-A about what he referred to breathlessly as "the most technically ambitious Broadway show ever."

We learned that Tierney feels "fantastic." That Jennifer Damiano, who plays Mary Jane, considers him "the strongest dude I ever met." That Patrick Page, who plays the Green Goblin, wishes people could see "the care that Julie [Taymor] takes" with her cast, and that T.V. Carpio, who is taking over the role of Arachne, isn't worried about safety at all. Reeve Carney, the star Spider-Man (Tierney is one of several actors who play the superhero in stunt sequences), said, "We do appreciate everyone's concern."

Tierney did recall one thing about the moment the accident happened. "I tried to grab the edge of the stage," he said, "but I had too much inertia."

"Good Morning America" had been scooped, at least locally in New York, by the 11 o'clock broadcast of "CBS2News" last night. On that program, the reporter Dana Tyler talked at length with Tierney about his experience.

Not unexpectedly, he praised the show's crew, one of whom committed the human error (not affixing his tether to the stage properly) that caused his fall. "These guys, they know safety," he said. "The wires have 9,000 pounds of tension strength." He recalled that during the fall he was aware that he would have to turn to avoid landing on his head, a move that may have saved his life. "And then I kind of passed out."

He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital on the East Side of Manhattan for surgery. He's now at N.Y.U.'s Rusk Institute for physical therapy.

Tierney was all about enthusiasm and positive thinking, describing himself as "overjoyed to be working on the show" and predicting that he'd be "back in the show in no time." His most telling comment to Tyler was a response to the many voices calling for Taymor to close the show before further injuries -- or worse -- occur.

"Not a single actor in this show has ever said, 'Somebody's going to die -- you've got to stop,' " he told Tyler. And although it's what you'd expect a guy who wants his job back to say, it sounded a lot more convincing than most of the "GMA" comments did.

After the interview, the program's co-anchor Maurice DuBois asked if Tierney wasn't even considering legal action against the production. But Tierney had already told Tyler: "It's completely water under the bridge. Forgiven and forgotten."


"Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, Bono and the Edge, directed by Taymor, Foxwoods Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100, spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com. Now in previews. Opening night: Feb. 7, 2011.


WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read about some of the best and worst in New York theater in 2010. Then search to read about stars from Liza Minnelli to Robin Williams, playwrights from Lynn Nottage to Edward Albee, shows from "Driving Miss Daisy" to "Brief Encounter" and a little of this and that.