{"id":318030,"date":"2026-08-10T20:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T20:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318030\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T20:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T20:14:20","slug":"julianne-moore-off-broadway-heated-rivalry-album-is-theater-too-too-solid-stageworthy-news-new-york-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318030\/","title":{"rendered":"Julianne Moore Off-Broadway. Heated Rivalry Album. Is Theater too too solid? Stageworthy News \u2013 New York Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the plays that opened this past week dramatized the stories of two New York City architectural landmarks, one an imposing structure of granite, wrought iron and pine (the Brooklyn Bridge), the other an imposition of glass and steel (The Vessel)<\/p>\n

This same week, two recently built theater buildings that promote themselves as architectural landmarks \u2013 the Perelman Performing Arts Center, and the Shed (which happens to be next door to The Vessel, in Hudson Yards) \u2013 have come under\u00a0\u00a0less than adoring scrutiny in an article entitled \u201cThe hyperflexible theater and its limits<\/a>\u201d by New York magazine\u2019s architecture critic Justin Davidson. Both theaters were designed to be configured in different sizes and shapes depending on the show (\u201cIn the nearly three years since the center opened, it has used 28 different setups\u2026 [which] keep renegotiating the relationship between audience and performers.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are trade-offs for transformability, and one of them is the pure pleasure in being there.\u00a0A sense of welcome,\u00a0comfort, and glamour are usually obligatory in new cultural buildings; here, so much focus, money, and square footage has gone into the technical capacities that there\u2019s not much left for seducing the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

This provokes a larger question about real estate and New York theater. How many theater companies have been seduced by the supposed glory of possessing their own piece of New York\u2026and suffered unintended consequences, financial and otherwise? How important is theater the building to theater the art form? This brings up so many other current issues, such as 1. the rising prices and failing success of Broadway, 2. the rise of pro-shots and, especially, 3. the supposed death of\u00a0American nonprofit theater movement (\u201cthe big buildings agreed with the bigger building\u2026No one thought to call a storefront\u2026\u201d) See links to essays below.<\/p>\n

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

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The Pass\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The revival of this 12-year-old English play about a closeted footballer might seem well-timed to take advantage of the heightened interest both in gay athletes (thanks to a certain TV series) and in the world of soccer (coming as it does in the tailwind of this year\u2019s World Cup.)\u2026But \u201cThe Pass\u201d is something of a tease \u2014 sexy, twisty, suspenseful, but also downbeat and misleading. Full Review<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Vessel<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 150-foot spaceship in the middle of Manhattan, a stairwell to nowhere, a $200 million monumental misfire that New Yorkers love to mock. The Vessel is a troubled tourist attraction ready-made to deconstruct. It might feel natural to do so comically. But playwright Brendan George focuses instead on the real tragedy connected to the structure \u2013 within the two years after its opening in 2019, four people jumped from it to their deaths \u2013 and the imagined effect on three fictional characters hired to make sure such tragedies do not keep on happening\u2026 Full Review<\/a><\/p>\n

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Brooklyn\u2019s Bridge<\/a><\/p>\n

The building of the Brooklyn Bridge is a remarkable story; in some ways a ghastly one. \u201cBrooklyn\u2019s Bridge,\u201d an earnest and largely workmanlike musical, deserves respect for wanting to give some of the bridge\u2019s unsung heroes a chance to sing. Emily Roebling (portrayed by Sarah Joyce) is the central character, having wound up in effect in charge during eleven of the thirteen years it took to complete this monument to ingenuity and persistence. But \u201cBrooklyn\u2019s Bridge\u201d employs a large, competent cast to go beyond simple biography. Full Review.<\/a><\/p>\n

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How Jeremy Jordan Changes \u2018Just in Time\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJust in Time\u201d is much the same show (with Jeremy Jordan as Bobby Darin rather than Jonathan Groff) \u2013 it looks the same.. it sounds much the same \u2013 but when I saw it again recently, the cast change somehow made it feel to me like a completely different show.
At first, this didn\u2019t make much sense to me. Jeremy Jordan and Jonathan Groff have much in common. They were born within four months of one another, they are both talented musical theater stars who act as well as they sing; they even each had supporting roles in TV musical series \u2013 Jordan in Smash and Groff in Glee. But I landed on what I suspect may account for my differing reaction\u2026<\/p>\n

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

Three Broadway shows closed this weekend. Two more close this month<\/a><\/p>\n

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Julianne Moore\u00a0will star in \u201cFaydra,<\/a>\u201d a new play by Sarah Ruhl, directed by\u00a0Les Waters, opening February 25, 2027\u00a0\u00a0at New York City Center in an MTC production: Aphrodite aims her bow at Faydra and lets an arrow of love fly. Nothing is the same. Mostly because the object of Faydra\u2019s sudden, all-devouring lust is her soon-to-be stepson.<\/p>\n

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Heated\u00a0Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody\u00a0will release an original cast album on September 18. A single of \u2018Gym Song\u2019 is now available everywhere you stream and download music. (See video of \u201cGym Song\u201d below)<\/p>\n

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In celebration of the New York City Center run of \u201cIn The Heights,\u201d a special event on August 23 at the United Palace will offer 5,000 of tickets at $28\u00a0\u00a0to those who register at the event any time from 9am to 12pm.. The free community event celebrates the neighborhood that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegr\u00eda Hudes\u2019s musical, featuring music, food vendors, merchandise giveaways.<\/p>\n

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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee\u00a0<\/a>announces third and final e-l-o-n-g-a-t-i-o-n of its run\u00a0now through Sunday, October 11\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The insufficiently heralded David Greenspan will star as poet and scholar A. E. Housman looking back at his life and unrequited love in a revival of Tom Stoppard\u2019s \u201cThe Invention of Love<\/a>\u201d Sept 17 \u2013 Oct 3 at Theaterlab.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brandon Victor Dixon and Audra McDonald in \u201cShuffle Along, or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed\u201d<\/a>, 2016<\/p>\n

Among the rich offerings of the\u00a0Lincoln Center 2026-2027 season<\/a>: A one-night-only reunion on September 27 of the\u00a0\u00a02016 cast\u00a0and creative team\u00a0for \u201cIn Concert: Shuffle Along, or\u00a0the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed\u201d\u00a0\u2013 part of the\u00a0Legacies of San Juan Hill festival<\/a>. Other series of interest to theatergoers:\u00a0American Songbook<\/a>, and\u00a0Lincoln Center Immersive<\/a><\/p>\n

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Anna D. Shapiro has been appointed dean and director of the drama division at Juilliard. A\u00a0Tony winner in 2008 for directing August: Osage County and Steppenwolf\u2019s artistic director from 2015 to 2021, she currently runs the graduate directing program at Northwestern University. At Juilliard, where her tenure begins next July, she succeeds\u00a0Evan Yionoulis, who is now dean at Yale\u2019s School of Drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Memoriam<\/p>\n

Glen Hansard<\/a>, 56, co-songwriter of \u201cOnce\u201d
Elizabeth Smith<\/a>, 91, voice coach to acting royalty
Abbe Lane<\/a>, 94, Broadway dancer turned star vocalist<\/p>\n

THINKING THEATER<\/p>\n

The Rising Prices and Falling Success of Broadway<\/p>\n

London\u2019s West End is booming, and upstaging Broadway (Wall Street Journal<\/a>)
Why a Fabulous Broadway Show Can Fill Its Seats and Still Close by Naveen Kumar (New York Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Rise of the Proshots<\/p>\n

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Hadestown the Musical (the movie) was a hit. Other Broadway shows are taking notes (NPR<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Hadestown: The Musical\u2019 was only supposed to be in movie theaters for five days. But after its opening weekend brought in $10 million and the No. 3 slot at the box office, the theatrical run was extended indefinitely. Brett Sullivan\u2019s been directing proshots for more than a decade of musicals like \u201cBilly Elliot,\u201d \u201cNewsies\u201d and \u201cWaitress.\u201d And other hit musicals have gotten the proshot treatment too, like \u201cHamilton\u201d on Disney+. But none of those had the box office success of \u201cHadestown,\u201d $19 million and counting. It\u2019s now the highest grossing proshot in U.S. box office history\u201d<\/p>\n

The supposed death of the non-profit theater movement <\/p>\n

The Movement is Alive, Turn the Music Up, by Alexandra Meda (Network Ensemble Theaters blo<\/a>g)<\/p>\n

When Oskar Eustis announced he will step down from the Public Theater in 2028, the interview that followed handed the field an obituary. \u201cThe American nonprofit theater movement is over,\u201d he told the LA Times. \u201cIt\u2019s not coming back.\u201d The papers printed it like weather.
I read it on my phone in Boyle Heights and my face went hot. The heat of hearing a eulogy read for people who are sitting right there, alive, passing the rice\u2026.when the leader of the best-resourced nonprofit theater in America says the movement is over, he is describing the weather at one altitude. The LA Times took that forecast and rounded up the artistic directors of the biggest buildings in Los Angeles to confirm it, and the big buildings agreed with the bigger building.<\/p>\n

Somewhere in an entire feature about the death of a movement, no one called a storefront. No one called an ensemble. No one asked a culturally specific theater that has been producing for forty years on one percent of the Public\u2019s budget what dying feels like, or what building feels like either\u2026.he was looking from the wrong floor.<\/p>\n

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

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Watch Broadway in Bryant Park Week 3<\/a>: \u00a0MJ, The Outsiders, Operation Mincemeat, Two Strangers and Schmigadoon, as well as the long-running Off Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, now starring Ethan Slater and Betsy Wolfe.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the plays that opened this past week dramatized the stories of two New York City architectural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-318030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}