Hampton Habitués

Good News Gossip About Our Notable Friends And Neighbors

How Suite It Is
After a few fits and starts, Amagansett’s Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker are finally back on the stage and starring in a revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite at the Hudson Theatre. The comedy triptych, featuring three different sets of characters in one-act plays set in Suite 719 at the Plaza, opened back in 2020 but had to shutter due to the beginning of the pandemic. Since, the production had to close again earlier this year when the show’s married-in-real-life stars both tested positive for Covid.

Directed by John Benjamin Hickey, this iteration of the classic theatrical has been extended through July 6. And though many of the concepts and constructs of this 1960s-based play show their age, it’s still a great opportunity to catch Broderick and Parker together on stage. Especially since they haven’t done it on Broadway since they starred in How to Succeed in Business Without Real Trying way back in 1996. Get tickets if you can.

Boffo Box Office
We’ve also got Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster in a smash revival of The Music Man. Now playing at the Winter Garden Theater, this tour-de-force show, directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, is most definitely worth the price of admission.  

Bursting with talent — with more than half a dozen Tony Awards between Jackman, Foster, Zaks and Carlyle — and with so many recognizable hits, this show is a must-see for fans of musical theater. Named by The Smithsonian Institution as one of the “great glories of American popular culture,” this memorable (one might say best-ever) version of the iconic Broadway musical will stage through November 2022.

Side note: Carlyle is also working on a new off-Broadway musical. It’s called Harmony and it was written by Hamptons habitué Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman.

Staging at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, the ensemble show is based on the true story of The Comedian Harmonists, a harmonizing singing group who sold millions of records, starred in dozens of films and packed concert halls around the world. And then World War II happened.

Gilded Glory 
We have to give it up yet again for Nathan Lane, who recently guest starred on HBO’s The Gilded Age. Playing what he calls “a silly snob,” the East Hampton resident brought the based-on-a-real-person character of Ward McAllister to life in such a memorable and entertaining way.

His haughty Southerner, obsessed with class and elitism, is credited with coining the term, “the Four Hundred,” which he deigned were the “only 400 people in fashionable New York Society.” Next up, the talented thespian will return as Teddy Dimas for season two of Hulu’s hit comedy Only Murders in the Building, which is said to be returning to the small screen this June.

Massive Talent
Speaking of scenery chewing, in the best possible way, be sure to catch East Hampton’s Neil Patrick Harris in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, now in theaters.

Starring Nicolas Cage as a fictionalized version of himself, the action-comedy places the actor in a desperate financial situation that can only be remedied when his agent, played by Harris, books him a million-dollar offer to attend the birthday party of a super fan. Touted as a star-turn vehicle for Cage, things spiral pretty fast in this escapist adventure, and in the most entertaining of ways.

More Than 15 Minutes
Who else is obsessed with The Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix? I don’t know about you but I could watch hours of this iconic artist just opening a can of soup, let alone painting one.

If you’re similarly minded, be sure to catch revealing six-episode series about the late legend and former Montauk resident. Told through his own words, courtesy of some artificial intelligence voice technology, this riveting story by executive producer Ryan Murphy and director Andrew Rossi really gets into the nitty gritty of Warhol’s psyche, courtesy his posthumously published diaries. It’s fascinating.