The Week in Grosses
1. Wicked ($1,314,391)
2. Jersey Boys ($1,164,277)
3. Mary Poppins ($933, 745)
4. The Lion King ($815,332)
5. Spamalot ($754,713)
All data compiled from Broadway.com.
Doubt comes to Boston
The national tour of Doubt arrived at Boston's Colonial Theatre Tuesday for a two-week sit-down that will end next Sunday, Feb. 18. The drama, which captured the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for best drama and the 2005 Tony Award for best play, is written by John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar at the 60th annual Academy Awards for his original screenplay Moonstruck. The production is head-lined by two-time Tony Award winner Cherry Jones, who revisits her award-winning performance as Sister Aloysius. Doug Hughes, who is repeating his directing duties for the production, won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play.
The production's official Website offers this description of the play, "Doubt takes place at St. Nicholas, a Catholic church and school in the Bronx in 1964. Sister Aloysius, the school principal, suspects the young, charismatic Father Flynn of improper relations with one of the male students. Convinced that the priest will be blindly protected by the church hierarchy, Sister Aloysius sets out to take him down herself. The play examines the line between gossip and truth, discipline and compassion, certainty and doubt." Look for a review in next week's column.
As one door closes, another one opens
The Las Vegas production of the Mel Brooks musical The Producers, that revolutionized Broadway when it won a historic 12 Tony Awards following its 2001 opening, opened at the Paris Las Vegas resort on Friday. The show, which stars Tony nominee Brad Oscar in the role of Maz and David Hasselhoff in the role of Rodger DeBris, has been trimmed to 90 minutes to appeal to Vegas audiences. Meanwhile, across the country, producers of the Broadway production of David Hare's The Vertical Hour announced that the show will now close on March 11, three weeks earlier than planned. Set to recoup its initial investments that week, the play will close "in order to maintain that advantageous financial position for the play's investors …" according to a statement issued to Playbill.com. The current tenant of the Music Box Theatre features direction by Sam Mendes and performances from four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, both in their Great White Way debuts.
Spring Break
