Dear Theater Fans, Nancy Coleman here — a print editor and fellow theater fan. I’m filling in for Nicole Herrington for this newsletter and the next one. It’s been a quiet week on Broadway, but London theatergoers are in for a bustling summer, Matt Wolf reports. There is a star-studded array of plays, including John Lithgow in “career-best form” as the author Roald Dahl in “Giant,” and Rosamund Pike in a new work from the team behind “Prima Facie.” There are musicals that have been a long time coming: “Sing Street,” whose Broadway stint was thwarted by the pandemic, and Disney’s “Hercules,” which we’ve been following since its summer as a Public Works production in Central Park. Not to mention buzzy adaptations (Matt has seen “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” four times), New York transfers (more “Stereophonic,” anyone?) and dinosaur parodies (any show called “Hold On to Your Butts” certainly has my attention). Back in New York, Elisabeth Vincentelli dove into the return of “Heathers,” whose mercilessly catchy score has propelled it to cult-classic status in its own right, and highlighted 11 other shows Off Broadway to explore. And Michael Paulson reported on the producer Scott Rudin’s return to Broadway this fall with the play “Little Bear Ridge Road,” starring Laurie Metcalf. The production will be the first by Rudin since reports of his bullying behavior toward assistants and others emerged in 2021. Jesse Green ventured upstate to Garrison, N.Y., for Hudson Valley Shakespeare’s revival of “The Matchmaker,” the Thornton Wilder play on which “Hello, Dolly!” is based. Jesse also reviewed Charlotte Runcie’s debut novel, “Bring the House Down,” which draws on her experience as an arts journalist to skewer bad men, and bad theater, in the aftermath of a character’s scathing review. (“How cruel may a critic be?” Jesse writes. “I ask for a friend.”) We’re also remembering the lives of several theater heavyweights this week: the prolific producer Paul Libin; Ronald Ribman, whose surreal plays mined the absurdity of moral ambiguity; Mark Brokaw, who directed works by Kenneth Lonergan and Paula Vogel; and Richard Greenberg, the sharp playwright behind “Take Me Out.” I leave you this week with two of my favorite things: sweet onstage proposals, and the cow from “Into the Woods.” After a performance of the Sondheim musical in Phoenix, the actors playing Cinderella and the Baker made things official, with an assist from a ring-bearing Milky White. Our heartfelt congratulations go out to Dani Apple and Nick Barakos. Please reach out to us at theaterfeedback@nytimes.com with suggestions for stories or to offer your thoughts about our coverage. And urge your friends to subscribe to this newsletter. Have a wonderful, theater-filled week, Like this email?Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up here.
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