MARCH 12, 2025

Hello, Whisperites,

If you’re not in a Broadway production that started previews this week, have you double-checked? The spring season is upon us, with the first performances of Glengarry Glen Ross, Dorian Gray, Boop!, Smash, and as of tonight, Good Night, and Good Luck all squished up against one another. (In the lead for the annual Stage Whisperer prize for wildest first preview gift: Smash, with a signed poster of Ivy Lynn billed above the title in Bombshell.) Meanwhile, Othello continues to make so much money (we didn’t have anything new to say about that in the grosses chat, sorry), and Hamilton has joined the list of productions canceled at the Kennedy Center. Off Broadway, the Atlantic has made a tentative deal with IATSE. 

And somehow we’re also in the middle of Monday performance season. This week, I dropped by a taping of PBS’s Broadway's Leading Ladies concert, hosted by Bebe Neuwirth, with a slate of guest presenters that included Baayork Lee, Kelly Bishop (with a hilarious story about how seeing Elaine Stritch sing in Company made her confident that she too could sing), and Priscilla Lopez, and a suite of musical performances. Jessie Mueller and Lindsay Mendez brought back “Mister Snow,” Kate Baldwin nailed “Back to Before,” and Mandy Gonzalez did both Sunset’s “As If We Never Said Goodbye” and Gypsy’s “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” As my colleague Rebecca Alter whispered, she was “crossing the aisle.” 

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JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN

COMES TO BROADWAY IN 1 WEEK

“A revelation – at turns a literary critique, a loopy comedy, a study of rural America, and a Taylor Swift appreciation post.” –The New York Times

Five young women are about to shed light on some of the darkest secrets in their one stoplight town. Sadie Sink stars in this new play from Kimberly Belflower and Tony Award®-winning director Danya Taymor (The Outsiders).

Get Tickets at JohnProctoristheVillain.com

This week’s grosses are here! Jason P. Frank, Jackson McHenry, and Zach Schiffman discuss.

Jason P. Frank: It’s so strange to see Gypsy playing to just 79 percent capacity but also making over $1 million. Jackson, what's the strategy there?

Jackson McHenry: My guess is you don't want to set the expectations of discounts because it would devalue the brand and you hope people will be buying for the same price point en masse soon (I guess when Tony press rolls out), but it’s an interesting gambit. I remember shows like A Beautiful Noise and Tina having similarly shaped grosses at times.

Zach Schiffman: Pretty strong week for everyone across the board. Spring break?

Jackson: Things are looking up! Also just more and more theaters have shows in them, which is fun. And Wicked is seemingly getting a little boost from its new cast while continuing to just rake it in. 

LOOKING FOR A GREAT SHOW TO SEE?

Visit our theater calendar for a complete list of shows.

By Sara Holdren

Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran in A Streetcar Named Desire at BAM. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

The woman behind me gasped when Paul Mescal’s shirt came off. Meanwhile, I was getting a little breathless over Tennessee Williams. There are certain plays that, no matter the production, leap straight through your ears to your soul every time. Like listening to a Mozart aria, the experience is astonishing even if the performer isn’t quite a match for the material. But how much more thrilling it is when the whole orchestra is tuned up and ready for the downbeat, poised to pump life into a deathless score. That’s the case with Rebecca Frecknall’s swift, muscular revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, now visiting BAM after an Olivier-showered London run. Mescal, the bedroom-eyed star of Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and the Gladiator sequel, might be a big part of the draw — and his Stanley Kowalski is certainly a performance to raise pulses — but what’s really exciting is that he’s far from throwing off the balance of the show. Neither he nor the production’s Blanche DuBois, played by the elfin powder keg Patsy Ferran, is a preening soloist, subordinating their fellow actors. Instead, Frecknall revivifies Streetcar as a true ensemble piece — a haunting jazz symphony with a devastating trio at its center.

➽ Lea Michele, who was last seen on Broadway in the 2022 revival of Funny Girl, will embark on an eight-city tour titled Straight From Carnegie Hall this spring.

➽ The Queen of Versailles will open at the St. James Theatre in fall 2025. 

➽ Improv rap show Freestyle Love Supreme will return to NYC for two performances at The Gramercy Theater March 19 and 21. 

BROADWAY PERFORMANCES BEGIN MARCH 20.

“An urgent new play about a group of students battling for the right to be the narrators of their own lives” (The New York Times), John Proctor Is the Villain comes to Broadway for a limited time only next week. Be first to see this powerful, bitingly funny new play that questions the stories and norms which have been perpetuated for generations. 

Get Tickets at JohnProctoristheVillain.com