THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS
This is a new version, by director Diane Paulus and playwright Susan Lori-Parks,of the steamy, Southern musicalfilled with bluesy, time-slowing classic songs, like "Summertime" and "ItAin't Necessarily So." Four-time Tony Award winner Auda McDonald plays the put-upon Bess, with the scandalous past, who side-steps herformer lover, Crown (Philip Boykin), and the colorful troublemaker, SportingLife (David Alan Grier), as she tries to make a new life with the crippled butgutsy Porgy (Norm Lewis). Set onCatfish Row in South Carolina, it ought to make anyone forget winter weather.
The Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St.,Ticketmaster, (877) 250-2929, previews Dec. 17th, opens Jan. 12.
WIT
This is arevival of the first and only produced play by Washington, D.C. native MargaretEdson, a sixth grade public school teacher, who also worked in the cancer and AIDS inpatient unitof a research hospital. It openedoff-Broadway in 1998, logged over 500 performances, and won the 1999 PulitzerPrize, as well as Best Play by all the theater award groups. Tony and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Nixon, hair shorn for the role,plays a poetry professor undergoing experimental treatment for cancer, with asupporting cast of eight.The play'sgot humor, heart and courage, and is directed by Lynne Meadow for The ManhattanTheatre Club.
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St.,telecharge.com, 212-239-6200, previews Jan. 5, opens Jan. 26 - Mar. 11.
WORLD OF WIRES
Anyshow by 2011 Guggenheim fellow Jay Scheib is going to have elements of thefuture, both scriptwise and theatrically. His brand of theater always seems tobe ahead of everybody else. Thisis his new adaptation of Welt am Draht, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1973 sci-fiTV series, based on Daniel Galouye's 1962 novel, Simulacron-3. The core idea is that we might all beones and zeroes in someone else's immaculately programmed world. So, are we living in a computersimulation? Scheib and hiscast of six powerful actors, and his imaginative set designer, will give thatthought a go.
The Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St., 212-255-5793,thekitchen.org/wire, Jan. 6- 21.
GOB SQUAD'S KITCHEN (YOU'VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD)
This show, from a UK/Berlin-based troupe of young and daringexperimental theater makers, was a big hit at last year's Under The RadarFestival, and was my choice for Best Play of 2011. Their take-off point is an Andy Warhol movie, The Kitchen,which they replicate (somewhat) both live and on video; but then they take theshow to places you never see coming, and (if you're like me) will knock you outin the most satisfying of ways. When I saw the show last January, I felt I'd seen a true masterpiece oftheatrical possibility. Long liveGob Squad!
Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., 212-967-9555,publictheater.org, previews Jan. 19, opens Jan. 23 - Feb. 5.
CATTYWAMPUS AND AWAY UNIFORM
The Incubator Arts Project has been well-servingindependent artists who create original work for a few years now, and theirinstincts and support are strong. For their January Other Forces Festival, they bring us two top theaterartists, Robert Cucuzza and Tina Satter.
In Cattywampus, The Transit Authority's writer/directorCucuzza reinvents August Strindberg's Miss Julie in the modernday setting of a used car lot. HisJulie (Jillian Lauren), disappointed sexually and otherwise with her used cardealer husband, sets out to seduce the lot's car detailer (D.J. Mendel). Julie Crockett provides a countrywestern score.
In Away Uniform, representing her Half Straddle troupe,Satter gives us a companion piece to her delightful Pony Palace/Football, whereagain, sports and teammates are the focal point. Her cast of three are top-notch downtown actors: JessBarbagallo, Emily Davis and Pete Simpson. Chris Giarmo provides the music.
St. Mark's Church, 131 E. 10th St. (at 2nd Ave.), incubatorarts.org,theatermania, 212-352-3101, Cattywampus, Jan. 5- 21; Away Uniform, Jan. 6-10.
