Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon and more big stars go Off-Broadway in 2014
Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, born on Nov. 16, 1977. Credit: Getty Images
Past weeks have been festooned with ritualistic celebrations of many special things. Acknowledgment of Off-Broadway, alas, is seldom one of them. Even though theaters beyond Times Square gave me five of my 10 most memorable stage experiences of 2013, the adventurous nonprofits and other small houses can easily get lost in the crush of big-Broadway, big-movies, big-concerts -- in other words, big money.
But when Cherry Jones ends her Broadway run in "The Glass Menagerie," she heads right back Off-Broadway for Sarah Treem's "When We Were Young and Unafraid," beginning previews May 22 at Manhattan Theatre Club. Maggie Gyllenhaal continues the remarkable indie-theater side of her career in Penelope Skinner's "The Village Bike," beginning previews May 21 at MCC Theater. And if you've never seen Michael Shannon away from HBO and movies -- and, especially, if you have -- you probably won't want to miss him in Ionesco's creepy "The Killer" at the Theatre for a New Audience, where previews begin May 17.
There is far too much to list, but here is some of the theater I'm counting on to get me beyond winter and beyond Broadway.
