In Photos: 2007 Spring Broadway Preview

By Amy Somensky Mar 9, 2007, 23:45 GMT

A question that has been asked from previous Broadway seasons is where have all the plays gone? The question has been more of a complaint in recent years. Taking a look at this season's crop of new productions, producers have been listening. Of the sixteen new shows opening, 11 are plays. This season, many may be wondering where have all the musicals gone.

The theater clubs are offering a variety of new shows this year. Roundabout began its new season with their revival of Prelude to a Kiss which opened on March 8th at the American Airlines. Their musical offering is a new production of 110 in the Shade starring Audra McDonald opening at Studio 54 on May 9th. Manhattan Theatre Club is offering a new production featuring the music of Kurt Weill starring Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy. LoveMusik opens on May 3rd at the Biltmore.

No new Broadway season would be complete without a few London transfers. This season is no different. First up is the Old Vic production of A Moon For the Misbegotten starring Kevin Spacey and Eve Best opening at the Brooks Atkinson on April 8th. Up next is the acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of Frost/Nixon with Michael Sheen as David Frost and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon. The play opens April 22nd at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater. Finally, the National Theatre's Coram Boy opens at the Imperial Theater on May 2nd.

Three other new musicals are opening this season. A new Kander and Ebb musical, Curtains, opens March 22nd at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. David Hyde Pierce, Jason Danieley, and Debra Monk lead the production. Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil's The Pirate Queen makes its Broadway debut at the Hilton Theater on April 5th. Stephanie J. Block stars as the title role. Legally Blonde, starring Laura Belle Bundy as the bubbly, blonde, law student opens at the Palace Theater on April 29th.

This season does seem to be the season of the play. Seven more plays will open (two have already opened). The final part in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, Salvage, opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on February 18th. Also having already opened on February 22nd at the Belasco Theater is the revival of R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End starring Boyd Gaines, Jefferson Mays, and Hugh Dancy. Opening this month, on the 11th, is Talk Radio at the Longacre Theater starring Liev Schreiber as controversial radio host Barry Champlain. Vanessa Redgrave is bringing Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking to the Broadway stage on the 29th at the Booth Theater. April brings Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Inherit the Wind to the Lyceum Theater on the 12th. Starring as Henry Drummond is Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy as Matthew Harrison Brady. In May, the final two plays open. Terrance McNally's Deuce opens on the 6th at the Music Box Theater. Angela Lansbury and Marion Seldes star as two former doubles tennis legends. Finally, the last play in August Wilson's 10 play chronicle of the African American experience in the 20th century, Radio Golf, opens on the 8th at the Cort Theater.

Visit the gallery to the right for an image view of the Spring 2007 season on Broadway.

February
2/18 - The Coast of Utopia Salvage at the Vivian Beaumont
2/22 - Journey's End at the Belasco

March
3/8 - Prelude to a Kiss at the American Airlines
3/11 - Talk Radio at the Longacre
3/22 - Curtains at the Al Hirschfeld
3/29 - The Year of Magical Thinking at the Booth

April

4/5 - The Pirate Queen at the Hilton
4/8 - A Moon For the Misbegotten at the Brooks Atkinson
4/12 - Inherit the Wind at the Lyceum
4/22 - Frost/Nixon at the Bernard B. Jacobs
4/29 - Legally Blonde at the Palace

May

5/2 - Coram Boy at the Imperial
5/3 - LoveMusik at the Biltmore
5/6 - Deuce at the Music Box
5/8 - Radio Golf at the Cort
5/9 - 110 in the Shade at Studio 54