Weekend Agenda: Travel Delayed Edition

Sorry for the delay, dear reader. Lucky is on the road in Hawaii, where Broadway news arrives at a more relaxed pace, and The Mick was having a battle extraordinaire with the Almeida Theater ticketing site all day Friday.  But fear not!  We have not forgotten there are some extremely important theater things that happened this week which need to be recapped.  For your perusal:

• Stuff we love seeing? Theaterpersons on our TVs. This week we learned that handsome, square-headed Will Chase will join SMASH in the fall, undoubtedly as someone’s handsome, square-headed boyfriend. Meanwhile, Raul Esparza will undoubtedly cause your television to overheat from Broadway-related hotness when he joins Patrick Wilson on A Gifted Man. If someone can’t figure out a way to write a Defying Gravity duet into this supernatural medical drama, we quit TV forever.
• Broadway composer and unintentionally hilarious rockstar-type person Billie Joe Armstrong got his ass kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight this week, because he was… showing too much of his ass, which was apparently spotted somewhere outside of his saggy pants. Frankly, we sort of love Billie Joe’s ass, but apparently a testy flight attendant disagreed. We also loved BJ’s immediate reaction to the attendant, which was quoted as, “Don’t you have more important things to do?” Thank goodness the answer was no, because we really needed to be entertained for that particular 15 seconds…
• Remember when we said that there’s never a good reason for Hugh Jackman not to be on Broadway? Well, he heard us. Us, and the deeply personal yearnings of your soul. His solo show starts October 25. Get in line for tickets now. And start placing bets on whether the Tony committee will reinstate the Best Special Theatrical Event award next year.
• Riedel also reports that The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess may not make the jump to Broadway this season.  Producers are apparently freaking out in the wake of Stephen Sondheim’s New York Times meltdown, which drove Brantley to Boston to cover the story and resulted in a less than stellar review.  We’re hoping this is an overreaction based on a bit of bad news and that everyone will calm the fuck down and change their minds.  But whatever the case, we are already tired of the debate over who’s to blame for Porgy getting derailed.
• Yet another gem in Riedel’s column?  Rumors have begun to circulate that the Donmar Warehouse could send its Jude Law-led production of Anna Christie stateside.  In general, we like to look at Jude and his beautiful blue eyes, so this is pretty exciting.  But we’re also hearing that Law and his co-star Ruth Wilson have some pretty scintillating chemistry, which makes the idea of this production all the more alluring.  We’ll be front and center.
• The first pictures have emerged from the Paper Mill Playhouse’s Newsies rehearsals and our hearts and lady bits are all aflutter.  We’re almost certain that lead Jeremy Jordan’s big voice, beautiful biceps and glowing, uneven smile could save not only the Newsies themselves, but also possibly the entire universe.  Like.  He could solve a climate crisis or something.  We’re smitten, to say the least.
• Matt Bomer and Bradley Whitford join the cast of Dustin Lance Black’s Proposition 8 drama, aptly entitled “8.”  We’re not entirely sure what Josh Lyman is going to be doing in the courtroom—threatening the opposition with dead fish a la Rahm Emanuel?—but sources say Mr. Bomer will be playing Cheyenne Jackson’s husband.  This obviously makes them the hottest imaginary married couple ever.  Anyone know who we have to sleep with to get tickets to this thing?
• You know what’s happening to The Craptacular in October, right? No, you don’t. Because we haven’t told you yet. We’re hopping across the pond to see some stuff in London town! We’re excited! Got ideas about what we should see once we get there, besides the bottoms of several dozen pint glasses? Tell us! We’re all ears.