‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Harry Potter’ are set to rule Broadway

right here are the people, shows and activities sure to seize broadway’s interest in 2018.

abracadabra: the “harry potter” carnival is headed to city, and tickets are going speedy: on every occasion a brand new block goes on sale for “harry potter and the cursed toddler,” they’re long past within an hour or so, and the improvement is racing past $20 million. there were lawsuits about the complicated ticketing gadget, designed to deter scalpers, however production assets say they’re operating out the kinks.

the nearly six-hour play, finished in two components, begins performances march sixteen at the lyric theatre, which is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. sleepy 43rd street between broadway and eighth is set to come to be “harry potter” land, whole with enthusiasts coming in individual.

search for j.okay. rowling on beginning night time, and certainly one of the largest parties of the season.

bots and brokers: broadway’s struggle with price tag scalpers will ratchet up this year as every facet attempts to outfox the opposite. the attorney fashionable cracked down on bots closing 12 months, so scalpers paid human beings to stand on-line at box workplaces and scoop up as many tickets as they may. (theater proprietors set limits but can’t refuse to sell a price tag to all people, even supposing they believe them of scalping.) the ones aren’t ladies in elsa costumes inside the line on the st. james, wherein “frozen” opens in march.

ticket fraud is on the upward thrust, as properly. ushers inform me that theatergoers arrive simplest to discover that the price tag they sold on craigslist is phony. and they are furious.

“it’s getting in reality unpleasant available,” one usher says. “and people take their anger out on us.”

broadway’s new queen: bette midler — who whipped up $50 million in price ticket sales last 12 months for “hey, dolly!” — is ready to relinquish her throne. i expect the subsequent occupant could be tina fey. she’s performed a tremendous task adapting her popular film “mean girls” to the level. the tryout in washington, dc, become a sellout, and the production have to arrive on the august wilson with at least $15 million within the until. nevertheless, fey’s first-rate-tuning the show, and composer jeff richmond and lyricist nell benjamin are adding new songs.

first rate dames: call me an anglophile, however i will’t wait to see diana rigg and glenda jackson on broadway this year. rigg is playing henry higgins’ mom in “my fair female,” whilst jackson is tackling one of the most hard roles in the american theater — a, as the hard old lady is referred to as, within the revival of edward albee’s “three tall women.”

rigg hasn’t been on broadway considering that she won a tony as medea in 1994. jackson hasn’t been right here on account that she played girl macbeth in 1988.

i’m inviting both dames to tea at the whitby inn. (it’s very popular right now with touring british theater royalty.) i guess they have tales to tell!

beantown, here we come: maximum of broadway may be on the acela to boston this summer season for the reopening of the colonial theatre. rodgers and hammerstein wrote a great deal of the rating to “oklahoma!” on the colonial. michael bennett choreographed “who’s that girl” (the “reflect range”) from “follies” on its level. tommy music hunkered down there and turned a stinker called “my one and best” right into a broadway hit.