Happy St. Patrick’s Day and welcome to BEST BETS: March 17th – March 23rd. We’re nearing the end of the 2024-2025 theater season in New York, so there are several shows opening this week on my list.
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB – Schoenfeld Theatre – New York, NY – Now- January 4th
Perhaps you’ve heard the 1997 album of the same name that celebrated Cuban standards as performed by Ibrahim Ferrer, Orlando “Cachaoito” Lopez, Omara Portuondo; Compay Segundo and more. Wim Wenders directed the 1999 documentary of the same name.
The joy of this music and the passion of its performers is now a Broadway musical.
Bookwriter Marco Ramirez, choreographers Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck and director Saheem Ali are the creators behind Buena Vista Social Club.
I’d be hard-pressed to imaging there’s a livelier show on Broadway this season – just listen to the original album. The 22-person cast and 9-piece band have big shoes to fill. I have high hopes for this show and hope that the creative team have done much more than create another jukebox musical.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
BECKETT BRIEFS – Irish Repertory Theatre – Now – March 30th STREAMING
Three short plays by Samuel Beckett were filmed and are now available for streaming through March 30th.
The short plays are Not I, Play and Krapp’s Last Tape. Reviews were unanimous in their praise for the whole production, but F. Murray Abraham in Krapp’s Last Tape is undeniably the main attraction here. Worth noting is that the entire production garnered extraordinary reviews.
Not I stars Sarah Street and Roger Dominic Casey in the story of deaf woman who hears voices at the age of 70 and is quite surprised as to whose voice she is hearing.
Play stars Street, Casey and Kate Forbes in a story about three members of a love triangle.
Krapp’s Last Tape is a one-man play in which Krapp (Abraham) is engaged in a conversation with his younger self whose thoughts were preserved on tape recordings.
Ciarán O’Reilly directed.
For streaming tickets and more information, please go HERE.
OPERATION MINCEMEAT – Golden Theatre – New York, NY – Now – August 18th
The real-life Operation Mincemeat was a clever ploy by the British during World War II in which a dead man was dressed as a naval officer, given a fake name and equally fake documents that suggested that the Allies were going to invade Greece and Sardinia. The reality was they were going to invade Sicily and liberate it. And they did.
What better story to use as the subject matter of a very broad musical comedy? David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts (members of the SplitLip comedy troupe) thought so and the results yielded the 2024 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jak Malone.
Joining Malone for the Broadway production are his fellow-original castmates David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Hodgson and Roberts. Robert Hastie directs.
Who doesn’t need a damn good night of humor today? I know I do.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
PURPOSE – Helen Hayes Theatre – New York, NY – NOW – July 16th
Last season Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. He’s back on Broadway with Purpose which began its life at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. In fact, that production is the one audiences can now see.
Purpose tells the story of the Jasper family. Though the family legacy is storied with roles in civil rights, politics and religion, they aren’t perfect. Family secrets and their imperfections are revealed when their youngest son, Nazareth, comes home with a stranger to the family.
Phylicia Rashad directs Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis, Jon Michael Hill, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix and Kara Young.
I saw Appropriate last season and can’t wait to see Purpose.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
WE HAD A WORLD – New York City Center– New York, NY – Now – May 11th EXTENDED
Playwright Joshua Harmon received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Nomination for Prayer for the French Republic. He’also the playwright of Skintight, Significant Other and Bad Jews.
His latest play is about a grandson who is requested by his dying grandmother to write a brutally honest play about their family. No pretense. No sugar coating.
She wants it “as bitter and vitriolic as possible.” Sounds like my kind of grandmother!
Trip Cullman directs Andrew Barth Feldman, the phenomenal Joanna Gleason and Jeanine Serralles.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
LEIF OVE ANDSNES US TOUR – Multiple Venues – March 21st – April 1st
Norwegian pianist Andsnes begins a brief US tour this week with the acclaimed musician performing works by Grieg, Geirr Tveitt and Chopin.
He’ll be performing Grieg’s Sonata, Op. 7; Tveitt’s Sonata No. 29, Op. 129, “Sonata Etere” and Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28.
No doubt Chopin’s preludes will be the anchor of the program and the most popular of the works being performed, but I’d enjoy seeing Andsnes performing Tveitt’s only surviving piano sonata. It’s 30-minutes in length, is a more modern work (having been published in the 1950s) and is a challenging work.
The tour begins at Kimmel Cultural Center in Philadelphia on March 21st. He’ll go to Shriver Hall in Baltimore on March 23rd; Carnegie Hall in New York on March 25th; Severance Music Center in Cleveland on March 27th; Ordway Center in St. Paul on March 28th; the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo, CA on March 30th and concludes at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley on April 1st.
For tickets and more information, please click on each venue’s name above.
That’s all for Best Bets: March 17th – March 23rd. Enjoy your week and go see a show!
Main Photo: The Broadway company of Buena Vista Social Club (Photo by Matthew Murphy)