This Month in Theater: October 2008

BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL
This could be the most popular show on Broadway this fall, so it might be a good idea to catch it in previews. Already a huge hit in London and Sydney, the music is by Elton John, the book and lyrics by Lee Hall, and it’s directed by the magnificent Stephen Daldry, who helmed the original movie. The story is centered on a young lad in an English coal-mining town who wants to become a dancer, and the young hero and his schoolmates are played by three rotating casts, to comply with child labor regulations.
Imperial Theater, 249 W. 45th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Oct. 1, opens Nov. 13.

SPEED-THE-PLOW
Speed-the-Plow is a revival of the 1988 David Mamet peek into the unseen world of Hollywood moviemaking and its seamy maneuverings. The cast alone is worth a trip: Raul Esparza (The Homecoming), Jeremy Piven (Emmy winner for Entourage) and Elisabeth Moss (also an Emmy winner, for Mad Men). Neil Pepe, the artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company, will direct.
Barrymore Theater, 243 W. 47th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Oct. 3, opens Oct. 23.

THE FOURPOSTER
The Keen Company, well known for their solid staging of large cast revivals, takes on this two-character play by Jan De Hartog about a husband and wife and the four seasons of their married life. It won the Tony Award for best drama in 1952 and was later made into a film and a hit musical, renamed I Do, I Do. Blake Lawrence directs Todd Weeks and Jessica Dickey (pictured above) from their wedding night forward.
Clurman Theater, 410 W. 42nd St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Oct. 7, opens Oct. 19–Nov. 22.

NIGHTMARE: BAD DREAMS COME TRUE
For five Halloweens running, the imaginative and devilish director Timothy Haskell, along with the creative artists of Psycho Clan, have been staging a haunted house walk-through experience in an old school on the Lower East Side. Last year’s version was their scariest yet, filled with adrenaline-pumping surprises. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
CSV Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk St., (212) 352-3101. Sept. 26–Nov. 8. $30.

KINDNESS
My favorite drama last season was Adam Rapp’s Bingo With The Indians at The Flea Theater. It had some particularly nasty dialogue and some innocence-shattering moments. Rapp, a Pulitzer finalist for Red Light Winter, and one of the sharpest playwrights around, returns this fall with a four-character play that he also directs. Mom (Annette O’Toole) and her son (Christopher Denham) flee her crumbling marriage in Illinois and wind up in a Times Square hotel. Mom takes the kindly taxi driver (Ray Anthony Thomas) to a Broadway Rent-like musical, while the son hooks up with a potentially dangerous woman down the hall (Katherine Waterston, yes, Sam’s daughter ). Don’t be surprised if the title seems ironic.
Playwright’s Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Sept. 26, opens Oct. 13-Nov. 2.