The weather outside is frightful… so spend some time indoors at the theatre this WEEK AHEAD!
Saturday, January 17
GO→ Cheyenne Jackson makes his Café Carlyle debut with the premiere of a new show entitled Eyes Wide Open. The intensely personal set explores the last few years of Jackson's life, which includes professional highs (like his roles in "Behind the Candelabra" and "30 Rock") and personal lows (like a divorce from his longtime partner and a battle with substance abuse). I got a sneak peek of the act when Jackson performed at Playbill's Broadway by the Sea this past December and the result is brutally honest and hauntingly beautiful. Through Jan. 24. (Café Carlyle, 35 E. 75th St., at Madison Ave. Info/tickets.)
Sunday, January 18
LAST CHANCE→ Michael C. Hall takes his last strut down the catwalk as the title glampuss in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The Emmy winner makes way for Hedwig's original star and co-creator John Cameron Mitchell, who will put the wig back on his head beginning Jan. 21. (Belasco Theatre, 111 W. 44th St., btwn. 6th & 7th Aves. Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets.)
LAST CHANCE→ The jukebox musical Motown, about Berry Gordy's evolution from fledgling songwriter trying to build a company from an $800 family investment to a music impresario who oversaw the creation of a new style of music, shutters on Broadway. The tuner, which features the best of Motown music, including hits made famous by Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, promises to return to Broadway this summer and is currently playing a national tour. (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 205 W. 46th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave. Info/tickets.)
LAST CHANCE→ A jukebox tuner of another kind, Rock of Ages, also sings goodbye to Broadway. Original Rock frontman Constantine Maroulis stars as a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit, who took a midnight train going anywhere. Hairbands like Journey, Bon Jovi, Poison, Styx and more provide the score for the musical comedy that spawned a starry Hollywood movie and thousands of mullet-loving groupies. Follow the cast of Rock of Ages as they document their final performance for Playbill on Instagram @playbill! (Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave. Info/tickets.) Monday, January 19
GO (FREE)→ Academic and Civil Rights advocate Dr. Cornel West keynotes Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute. The MLK Day public celebration, the largest of its kind in New York, includes a music tribute from Sandra St. Victor & Oya's Daughter and the New York Fellowship Mass Choir. (10:30 AM, tickets distributed at 8 AM, first come, first served, BAM. Info.)
Tuesday, January 20
PREVIEWS→ Tony-winning In the Heights composer Lin-Manuel Miranda's newest hip-hop flavored musical Hamilton reunites the Heights team — director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and co-star Christopher Jackson — to tell the epic story of Alexander Hamilton. Miranda plays the eponymous founding father who rose from an orphan to become one of the country's most influential voices—and whose ongoing feud with political rival Aaron Burr became the stuff of legend. Officially opens Feb. 17. (The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. Info/tickets.)
PREVIEWS→ Tony-winning director John Tiffany brings his critically-acclaimed vampire thriller, Let the Right One In, stateside. Tiffany is once again paired with his Once and The Glass Menagerie movement master, Steven Hoggett, for the creepy atmospheric drama based on the 2008 Swedish horror film. Officially opens Jan. 25. (Through Feb. 15, St. Ann's Warehouse, 29 Jay St., Brooklyn. Info/tickets.)
Wednesday, January 21
OUT OF TOWN TRYOUT→ Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt's fantastical 1975 novel about a young girl who falls in love with an immortal young man gets the musical touch via songwriters Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen (Burnt Part Boys) and The Book of Mormon's Tony-winning director Casey Nicholaw. The Broadway-aimed tuner stars newcomer Sarah Charles Lewis, Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Tony nominees Carolee Carmello and Terrence Mann. (Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St., Atlanta, GA. Info/tickets.)
Thursday, January 22
OPENING→ Things keep getting better for Into the Woods fans! Fast on the heels of a starry original cast reunion and a starry film remake comes two new productions that each put a different spin on Sondheim's fairytale mash-up musical. The first comes from Fiasco Theater that dramatically strips the musical bare, with a 10-person cast, a single piano and a lot of imagination. In Miami, Broadway regular Tituss Burgess follows in Bernadette Peters and Meryl Streep's footsteps to take on a gender-bending Witch for the Miami Carnival Theater's production of the musical. (Fiasco's production presented by the Rounabout Theatre Company, Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St., btwn. 6th & 7th Aves. Info/tickets. Miami Carnival Theater production, Carnival Studio Theater, 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL. Info/tickets.)
Friday, January 23
GO→ Another act I got a sneak peek at while on Broadway by the Sea is that of the incomparable Christine Ebersole. In Big Noise from Winnetka, the two-time Tony winner takes on her most eclectic set list to date — ranging from new takes on Broadway songs she helped make standards (like Grey Gardens) to dazzling re-workings of pop tunes from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye and Burt Bacharach. (Jan 21-31, 54 Below, 254 W. 54th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave. Info/tickets.)
