There’s a lot happening in New York this spring from Eric Clapton playing the Garden to Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo heading to the Great White Way. Here’s what to see live in New York City in March.
ERIC CLAPTON PLAYS THE GARDEN
MARCH 19–20
Why it’s big: It’s Eric Clapton’s first North American show for 2017. The performances will be a celebration of his 50 years in music. Didn’t Clapton say “this is it” on his last tour? Well, yes…. Celebrating his 70th birthday in 2015, Clapton wrote in the program notes for one of his performances: “I swear this is it, no more…. I know I’ve been threatening retirement for the last 50 years, but I didn’t think I’d ever really want to stop. I love what I do and always have done, but over the last few decades, I’ve found what I was always really looking for, a loving family who love me just the way I am, which means I can relax and rest when I need to, and more and more I treasure the beauty of that….” And no…in those notes, he also wrote, “Hopefully, I might be able to remember and breathe some life into this old stu …in truth believe me, with these great guys to play with, I’ll be having the time of my life!”
Special guests: Grammy-winning guitarists Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan will perform at the shows.
When and where: Sunday, March 19, and Monday, March 20, at Madison Square Garden. (If you miss the New York performances, you can catch Clapton at The Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 25, or Sunday, March 26. Because of high ticket demand, Clapton will also return to the Garden September 7 and 8) For more information about the shows (presented by Chase), visit thegarden.com; ticketmaster.com
BROADWAY BOUND
This spring, the Great White Way offers revivals of several well-known hits, welcomes off-Broadway favorites, and debuts an exciting new play showcasing the rivalry between two cosmetic titans.
Beginning February 9: Glenn Close reprises her Tony Award–winning role depicting Norma Desmond, the silent- lm screen star aching for a comeback, in Sunset Boulevard, based on the 1950 Billy Wilder movie (sunsetboulevardthemusical.com).
Beginning February 23: Jake Gyllenhaal teams up with Annaleigh Ashford in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sunday in the Park With George, which chronicles the life of painter Georges Seurat during the months leading up to the completion of his most famous painting, A Sunday A ernoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 (thehudsonbroadway.com).
March 2: The Roundabout Theater Company’s off-Broadway hit Significant Other comes to the Booth Theater with Gideon Glick, Barbara Barrie, and Lindsay Mendez in the leads. With this show, Joshua Harmon, a well-reviewed new playwright (Bad Jews), looks at relationships with a gimlet eye, acknowledging that while people change, what do you do “if everyone is changing faster than you?”
March 9: Sally Field and Joe Mantello tackle Tennessee Williams’ 1947 classic The Glass Menagerie.
March 16: The Price, written by iconic playwright Arthur Miller, gets a new staging by the Roundabout Theatre Company with Mark Ruffalo, Tony Shalhoub, and Jessica Hecht heading up the production.
March 23: After staging a revival of his hit Miss Saigon, Cameron McIntosh brings the musical to Broadway with Jon Jon Briones portraying The Engineer and Eva Noblezada as Kim (saigonbroadway.com).
April 6: Patti LuPone plays Helena Rubinstein and Christine Ebersole takes on the part of Elizabeth Arden in the new play War Paint (book by Doug Wright; music and lyrics by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie), chronicling the rivalry between two cosmetic titans (warpaintmusical.com).
April 13: Bartlett Sher directs Jennifer Ehle, Daniel Jenkins, and Jefferson Mays in Oslo, written by J.T. Rogers about the historic 1993 Oslo Accords, which just completed a successful run off Broadway (lct.org).
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