Normally, the announcement of replacement actors in Broadway shows is not big news. But everything connected to Hamilton is big news.
Already learned earlier this summer was that longtime Alexander Hamilton alternate Javier Mu帽oz would assume the title role after Lin-Manuel Miranda left the show on July 9. Now Mu帽oz knows who he鈥檒l be playing opposite.
As his nemesis Aaron Burr will be Brandon Victor Dixon, most recently of the soon-to-close Shuffle Along. (File under: when one door closes, a window opens somewhere.) He will begin mid-August. Joining the cast July 11 as Hamilton鈥檚 wife Eliza will be Lexi Lawson. They replace the exiting Leslie Odom, Jr. and Phillipa Soo, respectively.
Miranda, Odom, Jr. and Soo all play their final performances July 9. Ensemble member Ariana DeBose, who originated the role of the Bullet and has been with the production since its Off-Broadway run at the Public, also departs the show July 9.
Not every performer who won a Tony Award a month ago is leaving. Staying with the show will be Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson and Ren茅e Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler. Moreover, Christopher Jackson, who originated the role of George Washington, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds are all staying put.
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Interesting career developments will not cease to visit the departing Hamilton stars. Leslie Odom, Jr., who has expressed a desire to work on his musical career, will perform a series of intimate, late-night concerts at the McKittrick Hotel in New York City. He will be performing from his recently released self-titled jazz album, which includes reinterpretations of 鈥淟ook for the Silver Lining,鈥� 鈥淭he Guilty Ones鈥� from Spring Awakening, Rodgers and Hammerstein鈥檚 鈥淟ove Look Away鈥� and 鈥淎utumn Leaves.鈥�
His residency at the McKittrick鈥檚 Manderley Bar will play three consecutive Thursday nights July 14-28.
Phillipa Soo鈥檚 next project is more surprising. She is writing the foreword to a new child-aimed biography of the real-life character she plays, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (called Eliza in the show).
Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children鈥檚 Books, will publish Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, a picture book biography by Margaret McNamara. Publication is scheduled for fall 2017.
Eliza had an interesting life apart from her marriage to Hamilton. She founded New York City鈥檚 first private orphanage, raised funds to build the Washington Monument and preserved her husband鈥檚 legacy.
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Roundabout Theatre Company has announced additional casting for Stephen Karam鈥檚 new adaptation of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which will arrive on Broadway this fall under the direction of Simon Godwin.
As previously reported, film star Diane Lane will play the central figure of prima donna Ranevskaya in the play.
Lane will be joined by Joel Grey, the musical theater legend who rarely does plays. He will play the aged servant Firs. Also cast are Celia Keenan-Bolger (as Varya), Tavi Gevinson (Anya), the teenage fashion icon who has been steadily raking up theater credits in recent seasons, stage veteran John Glover (Gaev) and Harold Perrineau (Lopakhin).
The Cherry Orchard will begin previews September 15 and open October 16 for a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theatre.
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Whenever a red-hot problem is gripping the nation, you need a theatre artist like Mike Daisey, who is adept as churning out cutting, contemporaneous monologues at breakneck speed.
Daisey is back this summer with The Trump Card, a new solo piece about you-know-who. The show will chronicle presidential candidate Donald Trump鈥檚 story from his early days to his current place in the political election.
He will premiere the show at Philadelphia鈥檚 FringeArts festival July 14 and 21, then perform the show July 24 and August 28 at Joe鈥檚 Pub, his usual home in New York, and August 2-7 at Woolly Mammoth in Washington.
The colorful production notes state, 鈥淒aisey takes on the reigning world heavyweight of self-mythologizing, the short-fingered vulgarian who captured a nation鈥檚 heart through bullying, charm, one-syllable explosions, and occasionally telling the brutal truth.鈥�
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New York City鈥檚 current cutthroat real-estate market doesn鈥檛 have much patience for tried and traditional New York institutions anymore. (Witness the imminent death of the iconic restaurant The Four Seasons, which is being kicked out of its longtime home in the Seagram鈥檚 Building this month.)
So it comes as no surprise that The Lambs, New York City鈥檚 oldest club for actors and other theatrical folk, had been having a bit of trouble with its landlord lately. The club, which was founded in 1874, had been facing a steep rent increase and was considering the possibility of having to move or even close for good.
However, recent news is that the club is close to an agreement with its landlord to stay at its 3 West 51st Street home. That landlord? None other than the Women鈥檚 National Republican Club, which wanted a 50 percent rent increase.
The club stated that it looks like the Lambs will be able to stay in its current location for at least another three years. If they did move, it wouldn鈥檛 be the first time. The club has moved several times during its history. It spent many years at 128 West 44th Street, but was forced to move in the 1970s when it found itself unable to pay the mortgage. The building was converted into the Chatwal Hotel in 2011. The restaurant on the site is known as the Lambs Club.
