See These Broadway Shows While They Last

As always, January is a brutal month for Broadway, which unfortunately gets a chilly reception from the ticket-buying public. The tourists have all gone home following the December holiday season, and locals are staying in the warmth of their homes as they recover from the financial blow dealt by all that Christmas and Chanukah merriment. Knowing this, Broadway producers frequently decide in advance that they will close their more monetarily troubled shows in early January. This year, those doomed Broadway shows include Burn the Floor and The 39 Steps (closing January 10), and Shrek the Musical and Superior Donuts (closing January 3). The limited-run shows In the Next Room and Irving Berlin's White Christmas will also be shuttering in January. So if you have been dragging your feet on seeing any of these Broadway shows, be sure to get tickets while you can. Even these plays and musicals might not be discounting right over the Christmas holiday, but for most of them you can get good discounts on tickets for January performance dates.

Broadway Shows Get Grammy Nods

The Grammy Award nominations were announced yesterday, and the Best Musical Show Album category was almost entirely made up of Broadway musicals. The nominated show recordings were: Ain't Misbehavin' (30th anniversary cast recording featuring American Idol's Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis), Hair (Broadway revival cast album), 9 To 5 The Musical (featuring a score by country music superstar Dolly Parton), Shrek The Musical (Original Broadway cast recording), and West Side Story (new Broadway revival cast recording). If you want to hear what the fuss is about, three of the musicals - Hair, Shrek, and West Side Story - are still playing on Broadway. The winners of the Grammy for Best Show Album will be announced in January.

Shrek Starts Broadway Performances

The new stage musical version of Shrek starts performances on Broadway today. Brian d'Arcy James, who has been on Broadway in many shows including Titanic and Sweet Smell of Success, stars as Shrek himself, and Sutton Foster (most recently seen on Broadway in Young Frankenstein) plays Princess Fiona. The big green musical will have its official opening at the Broadway Theatre on December 14.

Cirque Dreams Closes On Broadway

Today is the last day of Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy's Broadway engagement at the Broadway Theatre. The limited run show will now continue a national tour that will take it to Texas next. As for the Broadway Theatre, its next tenant will be what is almost sure to be a giant Broadway hit, the new stage musical version of Shrek.

Casting For Broadway Shrek Announced

At last, after a long casting process, Broadway has its Shrek. Broadway and New York theater regular Brian d'Arcy James (Titanic, Sweet Smell of Success) will play the big green ogre -- presumably with some sort of fat suit and make-up, as James is neither large, nor green. Chester Gregory II (Cry-Baby, Tarzan, Hairspray) will play Donkey, the character voiced memorably by Eddie Murphy in the Shrek films. And John Tartaglia, best known for playing puppets Princeton and Rod in the original Off-Broadway and Broadway companies of Avenue Q, will be Pinocchio. As previously announced, Sutton Foster (currently on Broadway in Young Frankenstein) will play Princess Fiona.

Shrek Will Open At The Broadway Theatre 12/14

The new Broadway musical version of Shrek has announced its official opening date and theater. Shrek will start preview performances at the Broadway Theatre (currently occupied by The Color Purple) on November 8, with a December 14 opening. So far, Young Frankenstein's Sutton Foster has been cast as princess Fiona and Broadway regular Christopher Sieber will be playing Lord Farquaad, but it is not yet known who will be playing Shrek himself.

Shrek Is Coming To Broadway In November 2008

One book and three successful film incarnations later, Shrek is finally hitting Broadway this Fall in the form of a stage musical. Shrek The Musical will premiere at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in an engagement from August 14 to September 21 before arriving on Broadway in November. Directed by Jason Moore, Shrek has a book by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and a score by Jeanine Tesori.