Best of the Week: Renthead Heaven, BOOP! Bursts Through, George Clooney Goes Live

There’s no doubt we’re at the starting line of an exciting spring season, with 18 plays and musicals set to open before the April 27 Tony Awards eligibility cutoff. With five of those shows welcoming audiences this week, it’s the perfect time to bring back our weekly datebook picks, featuring the whimsical illustrations of Tug Rice. This week, we’re celebrating icons in our midst—a Hollywood heavyweight, a musical theater songwriter who inspired a generation and a 100-year-old heroine who’s still serving plenty of boop-oop-a-doop. Here are the must-do events making this a great week on Broadway.
 

MONDAY, MARCH 10
SPOTLIGHT ON DEEP CUTS
The Jonathan Larson Project began as a nightclub act at 54 Below and now bursts onto the off-Broadway stage as a theatrical event that feels like a rightful offshoot of Rent, the show that made Jonathan Larson a legend. Opening tonight at the Orpheum Theatre—a stone’s throw from New York Theatre Workshop, where Rent was born—it’s a full-circle moment for fans. Mark, Roger and Mimi would have passed by this East Village landmark, just as Larson himself surely did. Directed by John Simpkins and conceived by Jennifer Ashley Tepper, with a formidable cast (Adam Chanler-Berat, Taylor Iman Jones, Lauren Marcus, Andy Mientus and Jason Tam), the show skips over biography in favor of what matters most: Larson’s talent. Aside from a brief intro video, it’s all about the music—deep cuts even diehard Rent fans probably won't recognize. But by the time you step back onto Second Avenue, you’ll have new favorite songs and a fresh urge to measure your life in love.
INFO: Limited run through June 1 at the Orpheum Theatre (126 2nd Avenue). Get Tickets 

TUESDAY, MARCH 11
SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT
In a crowded season for new musicals, BOOP! is making its mark as a family-friendly, sequin-dipped joy bomb. But don’t mistake fun for fluff—this stage debut of the iconic cartoon flapper is packed with dazzling stagecraft from director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, inventive storytelling by librettist Bob Martin, and a catchy score from chart-topping composer David Foster and lyricist Susan Birkenhead. Newcomer Jasmine Amy Rogers shines as Betty, balancing sass, smarts, and triple-threat talent in a performance that’s already earned acclaim. Watch her leap from black-and-white cartoons into a colorful New York City, joined by sidekicks Grampy (Stephen DeRosa) and dog Pudgy (brought to life by puppeteer Phillip Huber), as she encounters a cast of new characters, including Valentina (Tony winner Faith Prince), Dwayne (Ainsley Melham), Raymond (Erich Bergen) and Betty Boop super-fan Trisha (Angelica Hale). By Tony time, expect Betty Boop to have plenty more devotees.
INFO: Open run at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). Get Tickets

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12
CLOSE-UP ON CLOONEY
Hollywood icon George Clooney makes his Broadway debut tonight in Good Night, and Good Luck, bringing his signature charisma and gravitas to the theater season. Adapted from his 2005 film, the play is co-written by Clooney and Grant Heslov and directed by Tony winner David Cromer. With freedom of the press still a hot-button issue 70 years after the events of the play, the story remains as tense and urgent as ever, pulling audiences into the CBS newsroom as Clooney’s cigarette-smoking Edward R. Murrow takes on Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade. He’s joined by a powerhouse cast of real-life figures, including Glenn Fleshler as producer Fred Friendly (Clooney’s screen role), Clark Gregg as newscaster Don Hollenbeck, Carter Hudson and Ilana Glazer as secretly married reporters Joe and Shirley Wershba and Paul Gross as CBS chief William F. Paley. One of the most revered leading men of his generation, Clooney never said Broadway was a dream—but we’re sure glad he’s here.
INFO: Limited run through June 8 at the Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway). Get Tickets 

MONDAY, MARCH 10

• First preview of the revival of David Mamet’s greatest play Glengarry Glen Ross, headlined by Bill Burr, Bob Odenkirk and Kieran Culkin, coming to Broadway just eight days after winning an Oscar. | Palace Theatre | Get Tickets
• A few blocks south, Culkin’s Succession co-star Sarah Snook also starts in her one-woman high-tech take on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, which won her an Olivier Award. | Music Box Theatre | Get Tickets
• Jack O’Brien opens his Lincoln Center Theater staging of Ibsen’s Ghosts, featuring a stellar line-up of talent: Billy Crudup, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, Ella Beatty and, in his debut, Levon Hawke, son of Ethan and Uma, brother of Maya. | Newhouse Theatre | Get Tickets
• Jenn Colella returns to host Broadway Backwards, the annual benefit concert for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that transforms musical theater standards into queer anthems | Gershwin Theatre | More Info
• Broadway’s Leading Ladies: A Musical Celebration brings together an enviable line-up of talent including Tony-winning faves Jennifer Holliday, LaChanze, Lindsay Mendez and Jessie Mueller. | Town Hall | More Info

TUESDAY, MARCH 11

• Smash, the cult TV series about show people, arrives on Broadway with newfound comedic energy and top-notch musical theater talent like Robyn Hurder, Brooks Ashmanskas, Krysta Rodriguez, Kristine Nielsen and John Behlmann. | Imperial Theatre | Get Tickets
• An outrageously delicious cast will take on our friends from Rydell high for Vape! The Grease Parody, a benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund. They had us at "Jackie Hoffman as Rizzo." | Town Hall | More Info

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12
Last Call takes on the rivalry between Leonard Bernstein and Herbert Von Karajan, as the titans of classical music share a drink in a Vienna bar. The gender-bent twist? Helen Schneider and Lucca Züchner star. | New World Stages | Get Tickets

FRIDAY, MARCH 14
The eagerly awaited original cast album of Maybe Happy Ending, featuring the stunning score by Will Aronson and Hue Park, will drop out of the mail chute and into the hands of super-fans like myself. | More Info | Get Tickets

Illustrations by Tug Rice for Broadway.com