The setting for Illinoise, Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury’s emotionally supercharged reinterpretation of the 2005 Sufjan Stevens concept album, is various locations across the Land of Lincoln — a cornfield, a hiking trail, a woodland clearing, the suburban home of a serial killer, a small town in the middle of nowhere, the top of a skyscraper and, of course, Chicago, with an out-of-state detour to New York City. But the real setting of this thrilling dance-musical-concert hybrid, alternately rhapsodic and shattering, is our collective youth.
Without a word of spoken dialogue, the show pulls us into late adolescence, a time when love, anguish and everything in between are felt perhaps with the greatest intensity. The book co-written by director-choreographer Peck and Drury (who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her brilliant meta-theatrical race inquiry, Fairview) is skillfully shaped yet invisible in the best sense of undiluted physical, sensorial and elemental storytelling.
Without a word of spoken dialogue, the show pulls us into late adolescence, a time when love, anguish and everything in between are felt perhaps with the greatest intensity. The book co-written by director-choreographer Peck and Drury (who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her brilliant meta-theatrical race inquiry, Fairview) is skillfully shaped yet invisible in the best sense of undiluted physical, sensorial and elemental storytelling.
- 4/26/2024
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
April on Broadway, to mangle a phrase from a showtune classic, is bustin’ out all over with no fewer than 14 new plays and musicals set to open before the April 25 Tony Award eligibility cutoff date. So crowded are the final weeks of the 2023-24 theater season that three days each will see the openings of two shows, a Broadway rarity.
Check this page to see Deadline’s takes. Whether you use this page as a guide or as an invitation to argue, drop by often for the latest on Broadway’s offerings. And there’ll be plenty of offerings indeed — here’s the schedule of April openings: The Outsiders (April 11), Lempicka (April 14), The Wiz (April 17), Suffs (April 18), Stereophonic (April 19), Hell’s Kitchen (April 20), Cabaret (April 21), Patriots (April 22), The Heart of Rock and Roll (April 22), Mary Jane (April 23), Illinoise (April 24), Uncle Vanya (April 24), Mother Play (April 25), The Great Gatsby (April 25).
Below...
Check this page to see Deadline’s takes. Whether you use this page as a guide or as an invitation to argue, drop by often for the latest on Broadway’s offerings. And there’ll be plenty of offerings indeed — here’s the schedule of April openings: The Outsiders (April 11), Lempicka (April 14), The Wiz (April 17), Suffs (April 18), Stereophonic (April 19), Hell’s Kitchen (April 20), Cabaret (April 21), Patriots (April 22), The Heart of Rock and Roll (April 22), Mary Jane (April 23), Illinoise (April 24), Uncle Vanya (April 24), Mother Play (April 25), The Great Gatsby (April 25).
Below...
- 4/26/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Update, with vocalists announced: Illinoise, the acclaimed dance-musical stage adaptation of Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 concept album Illinois, will transfer from Off Broadway’s Park Avenue Armory to Broadway’s St. James Theatre next month, arriving just a day before this season’s Tony Award eligibility cut-off date.
The musical, with direction and choreography from Justin Peck and a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, begins performances with a matinee at the St. James on Wednesday, April 24, which will serve as the engagement’s Tony-qualifying opening performance. Broadway reviews will be embargoed to Friday, April 26, a day after the April 25 Tony cut-off.
In a busy late-season Broadway schedule unrivaled in memory, Illinoise becomes the 14th show scheduled to open between April 11 and April 25. Three of those dates will see not one but two shows open: Patriots and The Heart of Rock and Roll on April 22; Illinoise and Uncle Vanya on...
The musical, with direction and choreography from Justin Peck and a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, begins performances with a matinee at the St. James on Wednesday, April 24, which will serve as the engagement’s Tony-qualifying opening performance. Broadway reviews will be embargoed to Friday, April 26, a day after the April 25 Tony cut-off.
In a busy late-season Broadway schedule unrivaled in memory, Illinoise becomes the 14th show scheduled to open between April 11 and April 25. Three of those dates will see not one but two shows open: Patriots and The Heart of Rock and Roll on April 22; Illinoise and Uncle Vanya on...
- 3/19/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s not hard to imagine what Justin Peck heard in Sufjan Stevens’s 2005 album Illinois that convinced him that the music pulsated with possibilities for dance. Illinois, with its orchestral textures, surprising mixed-meter rhythms, and impressionistic instrumental interludes, is an explosively varied 75 minutes of music as Stevens’s lyrics traverse the history, geography, and iconography of the Prairie State. At its best, Peck’s stage adaptation, which arrives at the Park Avenue Armory following a run at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, suggests that rapturous movement was somewhere inside Stevens’s songwriting from the start.
In Illinoise (the show’s title follows the stylized spelling on the album’s cover), a 14-piece band including three featured vocalists, pay thoughtful homage to Stevens’s original arrangements. Since Stevens played over 20 instruments on Illinois, watching the full band, led by Nathan Koci, can feel like the songwriter’s solo artistry has fragmented...
In Illinoise (the show’s title follows the stylized spelling on the album’s cover), a 14-piece band including three featured vocalists, pay thoughtful homage to Stevens’s original arrangements. Since Stevens played over 20 instruments on Illinois, watching the full band, led by Nathan Koci, can feel like the songwriter’s solo artistry has fragmented...
- 3/8/2024
- by Dan Rubins
- Slant Magazine
Exclusive: Scripted podcast Live from Mount Olympus has added John Turturro to its cast.
The series, which was created by Julie Burstein and comes from the Onassis Foundation and Prx, tells the stories of stories of Greek myths.
The season will dramatize the story of Atalanta, who is abandoned at birth in the deep forest, where all expect her to perish. Instead, she’s adopted by a mama bear, who raises her as her own. As Atalanta grows, she knows she is loved but senses that she is different—she doesn’t look like her brother and sister, she runs on two legs faster than they can on four, she has no fur of her own. But if she’s not a bear, then what is she?
Artemis teaches the bear girl how to hunt, Athena teaches her the finer points of human society, and Atalanta becomes a skilled archer,...
The series, which was created by Julie Burstein and comes from the Onassis Foundation and Prx, tells the stories of stories of Greek myths.
The season will dramatize the story of Atalanta, who is abandoned at birth in the deep forest, where all expect her to perish. Instead, she’s adopted by a mama bear, who raises her as her own. As Atalanta grows, she knows she is loved but senses that she is different—she doesn’t look like her brother and sister, she runs on two legs faster than they can on four, she has no fur of her own. But if she’s not a bear, then what is she?
Artemis teaches the bear girl how to hunt, Athena teaches her the finer points of human society, and Atalanta becomes a skilled archer,...
- 4/11/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Broadway’s annual I Put A Spell On You concert-slash-party event to raise funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will go virtual this year due to the pandemic. The concert event, hosted by characters spoofing the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, will feature performers from such productions as Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Waitress, Mrs. Doubtfire, Moulin Rouge!, Mrs. Doubtfire, Hadestown and West Side Story.
The year’s pretaped event will stream for free on Thursday, Oct. 29, 8 pm/Et at broadwaycares.org/spell.
Created by and starring actor Jay Armstrong Johnson, I Put A Spell On You will include performances, choreography, and what organizers are calling “over-the-top costumes and makeup, unmatched production value and a healthy dose of Broadway magic.”
Hosted by the Hocus Pocus-inspired “Sanderson Sisters”, the show will include takes on iconic...
The year’s pretaped event will stream for free on Thursday, Oct. 29, 8 pm/Et at broadwaycares.org/spell.
Created by and starring actor Jay Armstrong Johnson, I Put A Spell On You will include performances, choreography, and what organizers are calling “over-the-top costumes and makeup, unmatched production value and a healthy dose of Broadway magic.”
Hosted by the Hocus Pocus-inspired “Sanderson Sisters”, the show will include takes on iconic...
- 10/8/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Casting for director Ivo van Hove’s upcoming Broadway revival of West Side Story was announced today by producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and David Geffen, with what they’re calling an unprecedented 23 actors making their Broadway debuts.
The production, with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s all-new choreography in place of the familiar moves of Jerome Robbins, begins performances on December 10 at the Broadway Theatre, with opening night set for February 6, 2020.
The cast will include Shereen Pimentel as Maria, Isaac Powell as Tony, Yesenia Ayala as Anita, Amar Ramasar as Bernardo, Ben Cook as Riff, Ahmad Simmons as Diesel, Danny Wolohan as Officer Krupke, Jacob Guzman as Chino, Kevin Csolak as A-Rab, Matthew Johnson (debut) as Baby John, Dharon E. Jones (debut) as Action, Zuri Noelle Ford (debut) as Anybodys, Daniel Oreskes as Doc, Pippa Pearthree as Glad Hand and Thomas Jay Ryan as Lt. Schrank.
The ensemble will include...
The production, with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s all-new choreography in place of the familiar moves of Jerome Robbins, begins performances on December 10 at the Broadway Theatre, with opening night set for February 6, 2020.
The cast will include Shereen Pimentel as Maria, Isaac Powell as Tony, Yesenia Ayala as Anita, Amar Ramasar as Bernardo, Ben Cook as Riff, Ahmad Simmons as Diesel, Danny Wolohan as Officer Krupke, Jacob Guzman as Chino, Kevin Csolak as A-Rab, Matthew Johnson (debut) as Baby John, Dharon E. Jones (debut) as Action, Zuri Noelle Ford (debut) as Anybodys, Daniel Oreskes as Doc, Pippa Pearthree as Glad Hand and Thomas Jay Ryan as Lt. Schrank.
The ensemble will include...
- 7/10/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
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