Revived musicals and hefty dramas put the spring into new theater lineup
The start of the second half of Broadway's 2000-01 season today means it isn't only "springtime for Hitler and Germany."
The musical-comedy The Producers, based on the 1968 film about crooked impresarios mounting a purposely tasteless show on the Nazis, is just one of 13 new Broadway productions that will raise their curtains in the coming weeks.
March 15
Design For Living
English actor Alan Cumming (Cabaret) says he isn't worried about having to measure up to the blithe and spirited performances of Design for Living's original 1933 cast: Noel Coward, who also wrote and directed the comedy, plus the legendary acting team of Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt.
"Not really - it's not like anyone has seen the original," says Cumming, who plays one of three decadent bohemians searching for love in London, Paris and New York.
"I don't really feel the pressure, like I did on Cabaret or doing Hamlet," he adds. "With something like this, you can make the role your own without any reservations, and it's quite liberating." (American Airlines Theater, to May 6.)