| Weekly Broadway Ticket Roundup
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK Trying for tickets to the hottest Broadway plays? Here is a roundup of info for all of the current offerings on Broadway. Below find a short show preview followed by the Broadway listings, which are current as of June 4, 2007.Terrence McNally's `The Ritz' returns to Broadway this fallTerrence McNally, who already has had two new plays done in New York this year ("Deuce" and "Some Men"), will get a Broadway revival of an earlier effort this fall. "The Ritz," first seen on Broadway in 1975, will be revived by the Roundabout Theatre Company. It will star Rosie Perez and Kevin Chamberlin. The play, a farce about a man (Chamberlin) hiding out from the mob in a gay bathhouse, opens Oct. 11 at the Roundabout's Studio 54. Perez will portray Googie Gomez, an entertainer in the bathhouse.
Magical Broadway nights
One of the most popular shows on Broadway, Mamma Mia, will come to London for five days, beginning Dec. 18. Mamma Mia is well-known for its ABBA music, such as Dancing Queen, Money, Money, Money and Take a Chance on Me. "I think everybody will enjoy Mamma Mia," said Broadway in London spokesperson Patrick Harrison. "This show is currently one of the hottest tickets in New York and London (England)." Illusionist David Copperfield (Jan. 15), Blast (Jan. 28-20), Chicago (Feb. 19-20) and Evita (March 10-11) round out the season. Blast, Chicago and Evita have a combined 14 Tony awards. "Lovers of the classic Broadway musicals will love Gypsy, Chicago and Evita," Harrison said. "Lovers of music will be blown away by Blast, while Cirque and David Copperfield will draw a non-typical theatre-going crowd to the John Labatt Centre." Last year, 2,000 subscriptions were sold for the season.
'Phantom' Menace? Don't Believe Your Eyes
As aging-mass-murderer-seduces- teenage-ingenue tales go, "The Phantom of the Opera" is tough to beat. The saga of Erik and Christine has been the basis of a best-selling book, several movies and, in its Andrew Lloyd Webber stage incarnation, has grossed more than $3 billion in worldwide ticket sales and become the longest-running musical in Broadway history. (It's now ensconced at the Kennedy Center Opera House through Aug. 12.) If the story seems mythical, perhaps that is because the original French novel (Gaston Leroux, 1911) is a version of a French fairy tale ("Beauty and the Beast"). Archetypes tell us something about ourselves, and "Phantom" floats on its dark romantic gloss, an ache of unrequited love. The genius of the production is its intricate marriage of plot, score and stagecraft.
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