{"id":18767,"date":"2025-10-27T18:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/18767\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:53:13","slug":"wicked-2-phantom-too-moonstruck-on-stage-stageworthy-news-new-york-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/18767\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicked 2, Phantom too. Moonstruck on stage. Stageworthy News \u2013 New York Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans like to be scared even during scary times; how else to explain Halloween, a deliberately scary theater festival<\/a>, and \u201cThe Phantom of the Opera,\u201d which persists beyond Broadway, with two unusual new New York productions, one of which opened this past week, available live on your computer screen. It\u2019s one of the five works of theater (a couple of the others scary in their own way) that I reviewed this past week, excerpted and linked below.<\/p>\n

One of the five is a revival of John Patrick Shanley\u2019s\u00a0\u201cItalian-American Reconciliation,\u201d\u00a0which is once again (as it was when it debuted four decades ago) overshadowed by \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0which is getting a one-night-only, first-time-ever, starry staged reading at Broadway\u2019s Music Box Theater on November 10, a benefit for New York Stage and Film.<\/p>\n

The interplay between stage and screen usually goes in the opposite direction. See below, for example, the \u201cfinal trailer\u201d of \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d \u2014 which, come to think of it, is scary too, or at least rated PG for \u201csome scary action.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clockwise from top left: Theater in Quarantine\u2019s Phantom of the Opera, Boxcutter Collective\u2019s Dimension Zero, Don Cheadle making his Broadway debut in \u201cProof,\u201d \u00a0Julia McDermott in \u201cWeather Girl,\u201d which is heading to Netflix.<\/p>\n

The Week in New York Theater Reviews<\/p>\n

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Playing Shylock<\/a><\/p>\n

Saul Rubinek long has wanted to play Shylock, a role that his father, a Yiddish actor and Holocaust survivor, never got a chance to play. But now that he has finally gotten to star in \u201cThe Merchant of Venice,\u201d the production is being canceled after today\u2019s performance because of community complaints that it is antisemitic. So, he comes out on stage fully dressed as an Orthodox Jew for the part, but rather than finish what\u2019s supposed to be the final performance, he lets loose to the audience about antisemitism, censorship, the history and the beauty of \u201cThe Merchant of Venice,\u201d and his own life as a Jewish actor. That is the premise and plot of \u201cPlaying Shylock,\u201d weaving together fact and fiction\u2026While there are some stirring and provocative moments, the enterprise is undermined by a script that revolves around a straw man argument about unfair attacks on \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d and is rife with dubious assertions.<\/p>\n

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Phantom of the Opera (yes, another one)<\/a><\/p>\n

A French novel, several silent horror films, a Broadway musical, a site-specific work of immersive theater: It all has led to\u2026.Joshua William Gelb\u2019s closet. \u201cMany people have asked why we are doing another Phantom of the Opera,\u201d Gelb said live on my computer screen. He gave an elaborate answer, but I was more focused on the chunks of monster makeup he was applying, to get ready for the latest Theater of Quarantine production livestreamed from the closet of his East Village apartment.<\/p>\n

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Dimension Zero<\/a><\/p>\n

Boxcutter Collective, whose founding members are alumni of\u00a0\u00a0Peter Schumann\u2019s venerable\u00a0Bread and Puppet Theater, describe their new show at HERE Arts Center as \u201ca sci-fi puppet-filled anti-capitalist musical theater spectacle.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To me, \u201cDimension Zero\u201d is first and foremost deliciously inventive and playful puppetry \u2014 spiced with musical numbers, sprinkled with politics, dished out in a\u00a0whimsical jumble of a plot.<\/p>\n

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Italian-American Reconciliation<\/a><\/p>\n

Much like the better-known \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0the production of \u201cItalian-American Reconciliation,\u201d directed by Austin Pendleton, offers real pleasure, if not lots of reliable real-life insights about affairs of the heart, with a fine five-member cast including the always-fabulous Mary Testa portraying comically operatic characters who feel love and pain deeply, often confuse the two emotions, and need to talk about it loudly and at great length.<\/p>\n

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Are The Bennet Girls Ok?<\/a><\/p>\n

The best thing to say about Bedlam\u2019s irreverent, sister-centered\u00a0\u00a0riff on \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d is that it demonstrates once again the enduring appeal of Jane Austen\u2019s centuries-old characters, even while playwright Emily Breeze has them saying and doing things \u2013 cursing and murder, for example \u2014 that would surely cause their original author to drop dead.<\/p>\n

The Week in New York Theater News<\/p>\n

Broadway Musicians Reach Tentative Agreement, Averting Strike (Hollywood Reporter<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Broadway Actors to Receive 3 Percent Pay Increase With New Contract: Breaking down the tentative agreement between Actors\u2019 Equity and the Broadway League. (Playbill<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Proof will open April 16 at Broadway\u2019s Booth Theater,\u00a0Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle, both making their Broadway debuts.<\/p>\n

There are now nine plays and musicals with completed dates and venues announced for the Spring 2026 Broadway season. (See my Broadway 2025 2026 Season Preview Guide<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Kate\u00a0Baldwin\u00a0and\u00a0Alex\u00a0Newell\u00a0will join the cast as \u201cRoxie Hart\u201d and \u201cMatron \u2018Mama\u2019 Morton\u201d, respectively. Kate Baldwin will take over the role beginning\u00a0November\u00a010, and Alex Newell will join the cast beginning\u00a0November\u00a017.<\/p>\n

Stage to Screen<\/p>\n

When Hollywood Depicts Broadway Genius, the Results Rarely Sing: The new Lorenz Hart biopic \u201cBlue Moon\u201d gets a lot right about the creation of musicals that a spate of 1940s films got wildly wrong. (NY Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Weather Girl<\/a>, \u00a0a solo play about the California climate apocalypse that was a hit at last year\u2019s\u00a0Edinburgh Festival Fringe and just finished a run at St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse, is, yes as rumored, becoming a Netflix series. \u201cThe Netflix version of \u201cWeather Girl\u201d will expand the scope of the action beyond Stacey and will include people she dates, members of her family and colleagues at the Fresno, Calif. TV station where she works.\u201d (Variety<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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\u201cWicked: Part One\u201d will make its Broadcast debut on NBC on\u00a0November 19, 2025, from 8 to 11:30 p.m. ET\/PT, two days before the sequel, Wicked: For Good, opens in movie theaters.<\/p>\n

Everything You Need to Know About WICKED: FOR GOOD (Broadway World<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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The Week\u2019s Theater Video<\/p>\n

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