While musicals will probably always be king on Broadway, two of the hottest tickets for the 2014-2015 season are “It’s Only a Play” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” While both shows’ casts seem to be patron magnets, they couldn’t be more different.
The revival of Terrence McNally’s “It’s Only a Play” took the “Ocean’s Eleven” casting approach and congregated as many big names as they could fit on one stage. From movie stars like Rupert Grint to television stars like Megan Mullally to stars of the stage like Nathan Lane, “It’s Only a Play” is bursting with positively blinding star power.
It’s no surprise audiences flock to star-studded shows. Not only do they give the audience the opportunity to sit right in front of the personalities they could only dream of meeting, they also give audiences the promise of some utterly fantastic performances – after all, these performers didn’t get famous by being mediocre. Not only that, but when so many respected artists agree to work on a project such as this, there is an overwhelming feeling that the work itself must have some great artistic value, and anyone would be a fool not to be the first in line to see it.
On the flip side, the inventive and visually stunning “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” stars a company made up mostly of unknowns including Alexander Sharp, a Juilliard graduate who is making his professional theater debut with the leading role in a play that tied the all-time record of most Olivier awards won in its London production.
While “Curious Incident” can’t light up a city with the stars on its marquee, it does promise something tantalizingly exciting by presenting a show of such promise with relatively unknown actors. Audiences are drawn to these types of performances because there’s always hope that instead of seeing the stars of yesterday revive an old classic, they’ll be able to see a star born in an exciting new work.
Theater has a reputation of both showcasing big stars and creating them. It’s nearly impossible to choose between a star-studded “It’s Only a Play” or a wistfully promising “Curious Incident.” Whether you’re seeing the first gleam of a star’s light or its final blaze of glory before fading into the darkness, there is nothing more entertaining than theatrical stargazing.
