Tales from the Wings: Celebrating Lincoln Center Theater

With all of the announcements about the re-opening of Broadway shows, what better time to take look back and a look forward at the storied history of Lincoln Center Theater. Tales from the Wings: A Lincoln Center Theater Celebration will do just that beginning on Thursday, May 13th at 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT.

This one-hour event will feature archival performance footage and new interviews with stars of some of their most popular and awarded productions.

The shows and performers being featured include:

Patti LuPone talking about the 1987 revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. The show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won three including Best Revival of a Musical. LuPone starred as Reno Sweeney.

Audra McDonald reminiscing about the 1984 revival of Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The show was nominated for five Tony Awards and won all five including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for McDonald. This was the first of McDonald’s six Tony Awards (so far).

Rosemary Harris discussing the 1996 revival of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. Joining Harris in the cast were John Carter, George Grizzard, Mary Beth Hurt, Elaine Stritch and Elizabeth Wilson. The production received 7 Tony Award nominations and won three including Best Revival of a Play.

I saw this production and can tell you this was absolutely theater at its best.

Steven Pasquale sharing memories from A Man of No Importance. This musical played in the Mitzi Newhouse Theater and featured a book by Terrence McNally with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Amongst the cast were Roger Rees, Faith Prince and Jessica Molaskey.

Paulo Szot talking about the 2008 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. This Bartlett Sher production was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven of them including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Szot. Co-starring with him was Kelli O’Hara as Nellie Forbush with Danny Burstein, Matthew Morrison and Loretta Ables Sayre. Szot made his Broadway debut in South Pacific.

Seth Numrich telling stories from the 2011 production of the play War Horse. Nick Stafford adapted Michael Morpurgo’s novel for this show that received five Tony Award nominations and won all five including Best Play

Ruthie Ann Miles reminiscing about another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. This revival is from 2015 and found Kelli O’Hara as Anna Leonowens and Ken Watanabe as The King of Siam. Bartlett Sher’s production received 9 Tony Award nominations and won four including Best Actress in a Musical for O’Hara and Best Revival of a Musical.

Bartlett Sher sharing memories of the play Oslo by J.T. Rodgers. The play received 7 Tony Award nominations and won two including Best Play. Jennifer Ehle and Jefferson Mays starred in the play.

Jordan Donica talks about the 2018 revival of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady. Donica played Freddy Eynsford-Hill in Bartlett Sher’s revival that was nominated for 10 Tony Awards. This was a terrific production (which I saw with Laura Benanti who assumed the role of Eliza Doolittle after Lauren Ambrose left the show), but it only received a single Tony Award for Catherine Zuber’s costume designs.

As for the looking forward part of the show, this should include previews of the musical Flying Over Sunset and an opera by Ricky Ian Gordon based on Lynn Nottage’s play Intimate Apparel with Nottage writing the libretto. Both were postponed due to the pandemic.

Flying Over Sunset will begin previews at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on November 4th in advance of an official opening on December 6th. Intimate Apparel will begin previews at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on January 13th in advance of an official opening night on January 27th.

Resident Director Lileana Blain-Cruz will offer this segment of Tales from the Wings.

There will also be an appearance by playwright Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced; Junk).

There is no charge to watch the show, however registration is required. Tales from the Wings will be available for viewing through Sunday, May 23rd on Lincoln Center Theater’s YouTube channel.

Photo: Patti LuPone in Anything Goes (Photo by Brigitte Lacombe/Courtesy Lincoln Center Theater)

Update: This post has been updated with opening dates for Flying Over Sunset and Intimate Apparel

2nd Update: This post has been updated to include the extension of the availably of the show until May 23rd.