Broadway-goers will soon get to spend A Night With Janis Joplin. As the New York Times reports, the concert-as-theater-piece will open on the Great White Way this fall after touring the U.S. for the last two years. The show, which stars Mary Bridget Davies as the ’60s icon, will begin holding previews at the Lyceum Theater on September 20. Opening night has been set for October 10. The announcement came on Wednesday (June 26) from producers Daniel Chilewich and Todd Gershwin (great-nephew of George and Ira Gershwin) in association with Joplin’s estate.
Written and directed by Randy Johnson, A Night With Janis Joplin premiered in 2011 at Portland Center Stage (via the Hollywood Reporter) and has since hit in Washington, D.C., Pasadena, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. Davies has earned strong reviews for her performance, which, of course, requires her to sing many of Joplin’s classic hits, including “Piece of My Heart,” “Ball and Chain,” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Peter Marks, theater critic for the Washington Post, praised the production, writing, “It’s a portrait, more than anything else, of a romance: a singer in love with the cleansing embrace of the crowd.”
Davies first earned the part in 2005, beating out 150 other actresses, according to the Associated Press. She has also appeared in another Joplin-focused stage show, Love, Janis, and the musical revue It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. On stage with Night, she is accompanied by an eight-piece band and a trio of back-up singers. Additional casting details are yet to be revealed.
