Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

Lots of casting news this week; scroll down for more news, including a new play from Annie Baker and a new musical from Billie Joe Armstrong. Casting News Film —The cast for Nocturnal Animals , the follow up from fashion designer Tom Ford 's excellent directorial debut, A Single Man , is starting to come together. According to various trade papers, Jake Gyllenhaal ( Constellations , Nightcrawler ), Amy Adams ( Big Eyes , Her ) and Joaquin Pheonix ( Her , Inherent Vice ) will appear in the film, with Gyllenhaal and Adams leading the cast. George Clooney is a producer of the movie, which is based on Austin Wrgiht 's novel, Tony and Susan . The Film Stage has more. Television —The talented Krysta Rodriguez ( First Date , Smash ) will appear in the second season of the ABC Family series, Chasing Life . The series focuses on April (Italia Ricci), a young women battling cancer. Rodriguez, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and is chronicling her recovery on...

Sometimes, there's a revival of a show because the moment is absolutely right—the stars (i.e., constellations, not celebs) align, the politics of the day are right and the theatre-going audience is ripe for a particular message (think: the 2009 revival of Hair ). Sometimes, there's a revival because anything goes (think: the 2011 revival of Anything Goes ). This splendid revival of On the 20th Century , the first-ever Broadway revival of the musical, is the anything goes kind: too much fun to pass up. Based on plays by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur and Bruce Millholland, this zany musical comedy comes courtesy of book writers and lyricists Betty Comden + Adolph Green ( On the Town ) and composer Cy Coleman ( Sweet Charity ), with additional material by Marco Pannette and Green's daughter, lyricist Amanda ( Hands on a Hardbody ). The action is set on a train (the Twentieth Century, to be exact), which is chugging along from Chicago to New York. Aboard is theatr...