Skip to content
Arts & Culture
Link copied to clipboard

Broadway Beat | Thoughts before the Tony Awards — and best bets in New York theater all summer

"Moulin Rouge! The Musical" begins previews June 28. Aaron Posner's "Life Sucks!" moves uptown.

Lower Merion's Gideon Glick is nominated for a Tony Award for his role as Dill in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Lower Merion's Gideon Glick is nominated for a Tony Award for his role as Dill in "To Kill a Mockingbird."Read moreMatthew Murphy

Lower Merion’s own Gideon Glick is nominated for a Tony Award as best supporting actor in To Kill a Mockingbird. His friends and family will be watching Sunday night — some from the audience in Radio City Music Hall on June 9, and some from home.

The actor told me by email this week that he’s been thrilled to play Dill, the Finch family’s neighbor, in Aaron Sorkin’s Broadway adaptation of the Harper Lee classic.

“I love Dill with my entire being,” he said. “I love his sense of adventure, his optimism, his grand sense of self, but most of all I love his sensitivity, empathy, and deep sense of right and wrong.”

As adults playing the role of children, he and his castmates Celia Keenan-Bolger (Scout, also nominated) and Will Pullen (Jem) worked together to understand their young characters’ motivations.

“What do children do in the South in the 1930s? There’s no television — it’s hot and they’re bored. Imagination and telling stories are what spark them,” he said. “The hope is that when you root all your choices psychologically, the audience will forget they’re watching adults.”

Glick called Tony-nominated director Barlett Sher “the best kind of director, who champions freedom” and lets actors develop their characters over time “in a long, beautifully nuanced conversation that always changes and never ends.”

What’s it like to be swept into the Tony excitement? Glick called the experience “unbearably exciting. I’ve been watching the Tony Awards since I was a kid.”

“I came of age in New York City and this community,” he added. “To be recognized by them takes my breath away.”

New shows and summer one-offs

  1. Moulin Rouge! The Musical, adapted from the movie, will begin previews June 28 at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th St.) ahead of a July 25 opening night.

  2. Life Sucks!, Aaron Posner’s knockoff of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, has just transferred to the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd St.) from an earlier run at the Wild Project in the East Village. The show, which runs through Sept. 1, follows Posner’s terrific Stupid F#*@king Bird, a knockoff of Chekhov’s Seagull.

  3. Barry Manilow will begin performances on July 26 (through Aug. 18) at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (205 W. 46th St.), part of the ongoing “In Residence” program at the historic Broadway house.

  4. New York City Opera’s free summer series in Bryant Park presents a special Pride in the Park concert Wednesday, June 12, with a sneak peek at the upcoming world premiere, Stonewall. Later this summer, see Bizet’s Carmen, scheduled for Aug. 26. Details are at nycopera.com/parks.

  5. If the infamous Naked Cowboy isn’t enough for you, consider Broadway Bares: Take Off, this year’s starry edition of spectacular striptease. The show, to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, plays twice on June 16 at the Hammerstein Ballroom (311 W. 34th St.), with performances at 9:30 p.m. and midnight. Details are at broadwaycares.org,

  6. Sweet Charity is being presented June 17 in a star-studded, orchestra-accompanied one-night-only concert performance starring Santino Fontana (the Tootsie of Tootsie). The venue is the Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, 129 West 67 St. Details are at kaufmanmusiccenter.org.

  7. Stephen Sondheim joins composer Jason Robert Brown (The Bridges of Madison County) and Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit) in a June 24 concert at the Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., benefiting Brady United Against Gun Violence. Details at thetownhall.org

Free on the plaza

Broadway actors and composers perform their own original music 5–7 p.m. Tuesdays in June and July at Broadway Plaza (between 46th and 47th Streets), beginning June 11. The lineup for the Broadway Buskers series includes everyone from veteran ensemble members to those now making their Broadway debuts. The detailed schedule is at timessquarenyc.org