This Month in Theater: January 2009

YOU'RE WELCOME AMERICA: A FINAL NIGHT WITH GEORGE W. BUSH
In Will Ferrell’s one-man show, directed by Ferrell's long-time collaborator Adam McKay (Step-Brothers, Talladega Nights, Anchorman), Ferrell poses as the unrepentant, soon-to-be-ex prez. This, Ferrell's Broadway debut, promises to be a cleansing of the national palate, after eight years of bad taste. Word from the West Coast, where the show was recently performed in un-advertised run-throughs, is that Ferrell is brilliant, hilarious and unrestrained. Previews begin on the day Obama is inaugurated.
Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Jan. 20, opens Feb. 5 – March 15.

UNDER THE RADAR
This is the fifth year of the Mark-Russell-curated festival of new, alternative shows from around the world. Featuring plays, dance, cabaret and performance art pieces, Under the Radar celebrates the experimental and a hope for theater and performance of the future. First Love is an early novella by Samuel Beckett, that the Gare St. Lazare Players from Ireland turn into a play with a black humor brogue. Sight, the sense that dying people tend to lose first, is a monologue written and directed by Tim Etchells, that gives one an opportunity to spend an hour with downtown’s finest actor, Jim Fletcher.
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., (212) 967-7555, Jan. 7-18. All shows at the Public are $15, and there are a number of other shows at partnering venues, like The Chelsea Art Museum, HERE and Webster Hall. Go to www.publictheater.org for a complete sked.

THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN
This is an early play by the multi-talented, four-time Tony Award nominated dramatist, Martin McDonagh, directed by Tony-winner Garry Hynes. McDonagh, who has moved on to film (his first, a short, won an Oscar, and his second, a feature, In Bruges, a violent comedy about two English hit-men in Belgium, was a sleeper hit of this past year), evidently had movies in the back of his mind when he penned this play. Set in 1934, with a cast of nine, the play centers around a Hollywood filmmaker’s attempt to make a movie on an island off the west coast of Ireland. A crippled local man is selected for a part in the film.
Atlantic Theater Company, 336 W. 20th St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Dec. 19, opens Dec. 21 – March. 1.

THE THIRD STORY
Any play by Charles Busch, the queen of camp theatrics, is worth seeing, especially if he is playing one of the leading female roles. Here, the other leading lady is the husky-voiced Kathleen Turner, who rocked Edward Albee’s world in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff on Broadway in 2005. Carl Andress directs this one, about a mother-son screenwriting team who flee Communist-obsessed 1940’s Hollywood for stodgy Omaha. Other colorful characters include a horny princess, a wily witch and a lady mobster.
Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Jan. 14, opens Feb. 2 – 28.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD AND THE WINTER'S TALE
The Bridge Project is a collaboration between British and American actors, theater companies and movie makers. Here, Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road) directs both a Tom Stoppard adaptation of the Chekov classic and one of Shakespeare’s not-often-done romances. The casts for both plays include big-name thespians, like Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack, Richard Easton, Rebecca Hall, Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke.
BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St., (718) 636-4100. Jan. 2 – Mar. 8.

Pictured above: Will Ferrell as George W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live"; Aaron Monaghan and Kerry Condon in “The Cripple of Inishmaan.”