Many of the plays delighting audiences are revivals of modern classics, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (starring Kathleen Turner); The Glass Menagerie (with Jessica Lange); and Glengarry Glen Ross (with Alan Alda).
Other plays that have picked up rave reviews — and Tony awards earlier this month — include The Pillowman, starring Jeff Goldblum, Spamalot, a musical Monty Python adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols, and John Patrick Shanley’s tense drama Doubt.
Tickets are easy to find, and booking online before you travel is a cinch (see below). Here, we select the best shows, and ask Ben Brantley, the hugely influential chief theatre critic of The New York Times, for his verdict.
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What to see
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin take the parts of warring spouses Martha and George, made famous by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, in Edward Albee’s 1962 classic. Irwin won a Tony for best performance by a leading actor in a play.
Brantley’s verdict: “It’s wonderful. I was sceptical about Turner after her turn in The Graduate, but she and Irwin are brilliant together, totally fresh. This is a revival in the truest sense — it finds new life in the play, rather than just resurrecting it.”
Where: at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street; 00 1 212-239 6200). Tickets £25.50-£50.50.
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THE PILLOWMAN
Jeff Goldblum and Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Charlotte Gray) star in a dark, taut and violent thriller penned by the Irish writer Martin McDonagh. Winner of two Tonys this year.
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Brantley’s verdict: “The most original play to open on Broadway in a long time. It’s utterly compelling and creeps under your skin. Goldblum does very well.”
Where: at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street; 239 6200). Tickets £39.50-£53.
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
David Mamet’s Pulitzer-winning 1983 study of cut-throat office politics is revived for the first time on Broadway with Alan Alda, Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) and the Tony-winning Liev Schreiber.
Brantley’s verdict: “It’s a nasty play, but it’s done here with such energy and such a vibrant rhythm, and with a wonderful ensemble, it’s fabulous. Alan Alda can be smug at times, but here he’s great.”
Where: at the Bernard B Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street; 239 6200) until August 28. Tickets £25.50-£50.50 (standing room £14.50 from the box office on the day of the show).
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
In this new production of Tennessee Williams’s 1945 play about the tearing apart of a family during the Depression, double Oscar-winner Jessica Lange stars alongside Christian Slater.
Brantley’s verdict: “I know that a lot of British critics have enjoyed this, but I hated it. It is miscast and lopsided. Lange’s performance is totally misconceived.”
Where: at the Ethel Barrymore Theater (243 West 47th Street; 239 6200) until July 17. Tickets £39.50-£50.50.
DOUBT
Scooping four Tonys this year, Doubt examines abuse in the Catholic church. Written by John Patrick Shanley, it stars Cherry Jones (Signs, The Horse Whisperer) and Brian F O’Byrne (Million Dollar Baby).
Brantley’s verdict: “I liked it very much. It’s a short play, pretty tight, with only four characters, but it’s solidly built, with a lot of room for ambiguity. It leaves you with lots to think about.”()
Where: at the Walter Kerr Theater (219 West 48th Street; 239 6200). Tickets £14.50-£50.
SPAMALOT
The surprise hit of 2005, Spamalot is a musical based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Adapted by Eric Idle and directed by Mike Nichols, it stars David Hyde Pierce (Niles in Frasier), Tim Curry (Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show) and Hank Azaria (the voice of Moe the bartender in The Simpsons). Spamalot won three Tonys, including best musical.
Brantley’s verdict: “They do a pretty good job, but it’s like a fan-club convention. The audiences know all the jokes and laugh before the punch lines. There are plenty of digs at Andrew Lloyd Webber-style musicals, which might go down well with British audiences.”
Where: at the Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street; 239 6200). Tickets £20-£56.
How to do it
HOW TO GET TICKETS
Booking online is easy. Start at one of the two official Broadway websites — www.livebroadway.com and www.ilovenytheater.com — both of which offer details of shows and links to secure booking pages at Telecharge (www.telecharge.com).
Most tickets are priced between £25 and £52.50. On top of that, you will pay service fees and handling charges, typically £5 per ticket. If you buy online, you can collect the tickets from the theatre.
Before picking a seat, you’ll need a few translations: the orchestra is the stalls, the mezzanine (or loge) is the dress circle and the balcony is the upper circle. Some theatres have second balconies (the gods).
LAST-MINUTE BOOKINGS
If you aren’t too fussed about what you see, go to the Theatre Development Fund (221 0885, www.tdf.org), which has two booths selling same-day tickets at up to half price. One is on Times Square, at Broadway and 47th Street (Mon-Sat 3pm-8pm, Wed and Sat 10am-2pm, Sun 11am-closing). The best time is 5pm-7pm, when “rush tickets” — returns and any still unsold — come from the theatres. The other booth is downtown, on South Street Seaport’s Pier 17, at the junction of John and Front Streets, and gets much less crowded (Mon-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 11am-4pm). Unlike the Times Square booth, it also sells matinee tickets for the following day. If there is a particular show you want to see, it might be worth going directly to the box office on the day. Even if the performance is sold out, you may be able to get standing-room tickets for about £15. If you can’t bear to stand, ask the concierge at your hotel to work his magic — you’ll be expected to tip handsomely.
OTHER ATTRACTIONS
Central Park hosts several music and arts festivals over summer. The Public Theater (260 2400, www.publictheater.org) presents Shakespeare in the Park: As You Like It (until July 17) and a musical adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona (August 16 to September 11). Most tickets are distributed free from 1pm on the day of the show, on a first come, first served basis, from the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. A few are sold in advance. In its 20th year, Central Park SummerStage (360 2777, www.summerstage.org) presents an eclectic line-up of music, film, dance and spoken-word events. For some background to Broadway, Gray Line (397 2600, www.coachusa.com) runs a daily six-hour Showbiz Insiders Tour, which includes backstage tours of Radio City Music Hall and the New Amsterdam Theatre (£44; meet at 777 8th Avenue, between 47th & 48th Streets).
WHERE TO STAY
The area around Times Square was once the armpit of Manhattan. Now it is clean, safe and buzzing again. The spectacular 45-storey Westin New York (921 9575, www.westin.com), at 270 West 42nd Street, has doubles from £168 in July, while Hotel 41 (703 8600, www.hotel41. com), at 206 West 41st Street, has doubles from £116. If you’d prefer to be based downtown, 60 Thompson (431 0400, www.60thompson.com), in SoHo, has gorgeous doubles from £208, while the Holiday Inn Downtown (966 8898, www.holidayinnnewyork.com), at 138 Lafayette Street, has doubles from £94. For a real cheapie, try a £55 double, B&B, at the Larchmont (989 9333, www.larchmonthotel.com), on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.
GETTING THERE
Travelocity (0870 111 7060, www.travelocity.co.uk) has flights to Newark from Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester, with fares from about £500 in July. Or try Ebookers (0870 010 7000, www.ebookers.com) or Opodo (0871 277 0091, www.opodo.co.uk). Aer Lingus (0818 365000, www.aerlingus.com) flies from Dublin to JFK; from €886.
Coming soon... hot openings to look out for on Broadway
ONE OF THE most hotly anticipated musicals to arrive on Broadway this summer is Lennon, which weaves together 27 of the great man’s songs. It could be a stinker, but at least
it will be fun seeing the cast grappling with those Scouse accents. Previews from July 7.
An even bigger buzz surrounds a revival of Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Odd Couple, which will reunite Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, co-stars of the Broadway mega-hit The Producers. Previews don’t begin until October 4, but advance sales are already closing in on £10m. Book now at www.onlineseats.com.
From November, Gabriel Byrne will star in Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet,
at Studio 54, and Harry Connick Jr will lead a revival of The Pajama Game, the classic 1950s Doris Day musical.