A spring of big-name actors set for Broadway

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA

AP Drama Writer

updated 8:50 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2009

NEW YORK - After a spate of January closings, Broadway can't wait to get to March and April when a surprisingly large parade of star-driven plays will open.

Consider some of names being employed to entice audiences into theaters: Jane Fonda. Jeremy Irons. Joan Allen. James Gandolfini. Geoffrey Rush. Susan Sarandon. Angela Lansbury. Rupert Everett. Nathan Lane. Bill Irwin. Matthew Broderick. David Hyde Pierce. And more.

The big question: In an increasingly expanding recession, will people come?

The two-and-a-half months following New Year's are glum at Broadway box offices even in the best of times. The holidays are over. Children are back in school. People are broke — and this year they are more broke than usual.

"We're in tricky economic times right now, there's no question," says Thomas Schumacher, head of Disney Theatricals, which has three shows on Broadway — "The Lion King," "Mary Poppins" and "The Little Mermaid."

"It's hard to tell the real story. It isn't that simple."

Those widely trumpeted January closings happened for a variety of reasons: long-running productions that simply had run their course, limited-engagement holiday shows and then a few that actually hadn't gotten strong enough reviews to survive. And now their replacements are starting to crank up, with most of Broadway's three dozen theaters booked with shows this spring.

Plays, both new and old, are mostly following the game plan that made financial hits out of such fall offerings as "All My Sons," "The Seagull" and "Speed-The-Plow": limited runs with big names.

Jane Fonda, James Gandolfini among stars
Jane Fonda, who hasn't been on Broadway in 45 years, leads off the new-play arrivals with "33 Variations" by Moises Kaufman, best known for his work on "The Laramie Project" and "Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde." The actress plays a Beethoven expert looking at the master's obsession with a certain piece of music and her relationships with her own family. The drama arrives March 9 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen follow in "Impressionism," a world premiere by Michael Jacobs about the romance between a photojournalist and a New York gallery owner. The curtain rises March 12 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage" was a big hit for Ralph Fiennes and Janet McTeer in London last year, and the New York edition, opening March 22 at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre, has an equally starry cast: James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden. They play two liberal, middle-class couples who come together after their children get into a fight.

"Irena's Vow" makes the journey to Broadway after its success last fall off-Broadway. Tovah Feldshuh portrays the title character, a Polish Catholic who risks her life to save Jewish refugees during World War II. The opening is March 29 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

"reasons to be pretty" was also an off-Broadway hit last year. And now Neil LaBute's verbal slugfest about the emotional price tag of physical beauty arrives at the Lyceum Theatre April 2. The cast includes Marin Ireland, Steven Pasquale, Piper Perabo and Thomas Sadoski.

Few new musicals
New musicals will be rare — none perhaps wanting to compete at Tony Award time in June with that British juggernaut "Billy Elliot," the fall's big musical hit. Three are set before May.

Up first will be something even rarer — an original show not based on a movie, play, novel, comic strip, video game or a jukebox catalog. It's called "The Story of My Life," a two-character 90-minute musical about two old friends, one a successful writer who moves away; the other, a bookstore owner who stays behind. Will Chase and Malcolm Gets star. "Life" opens Feb. 19 at the Booth Theatre.

"Rock of Ages" pulls its score from the greatest rock anthems of the 1980s, with songs popularized by such performers as Journey, Bon Jovi, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar and more. A transfer from off-Broadway, the show revolves around the efforts to save a legendary rock club. Look for "Rock of Ages" April 7 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

"9 to 5: The Musical" brings another big-name composer to Broadway, Dolly Parton. She has written the score for the stage version of her hit movie about workplace revenge, female style. Megan Hilty, Stephanie J. Block and Allison Janey star in the roles played on screen by Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. The office politics officially commence April 30 at the Marquis Theatre.

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