Kushner play is bound for Broadway next spring

Despite mixed reviews in the Twin Cities and an attempt to keep national critics away from the Guthrie Theater, Tony Kushner's new play, "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures" will open on Broadway in spring 2010.

Guthrie director Joe Dowling confirmed Thursday that Kushner's new work will land on Broadway next year, with Scott Rudin as producer. He expects director Michael Greif and much of the cast to remain in place. "The play is likely to change more in its details than its overall shape," Dowling said.

National theater critics were asked not to come to Minneapolis next week to review the Pulitzer Prize winner's play at the Guthrie, which premiered May 22.

Two of the critics say they are puzzled and infuriated by what they call the Guthrie's mishandling of the situation. The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and other out-of-town media planned on having reviewers see the new play on June 5 or 6, a date that already had been pushed back after the Guthrie delayed the announced opening by one week.

"Initially, after it was postponed, I said to the press agent, I know what Tony is like, I don't want to book this plane ticket unless it's guaranteed," Times critic Ben Brantley said Thursday. "He assured me it was. I think that if a show is Broadway-bound, it has every right to have a gestation period away from our eyes, but you can't have it both ways. It's just odd behavior."

Brantley said he learned on Tuesday of the Guthrie's desire to have him skip the Minneapolis show.

"I'm sorry that Mr. Brantley feels offended," said Dowling, "but once it was decided that [the play] was going to go to New York, our New York press representative called to say, 'We think it might be a good idea, largely based on Tony's own desire to work on the play, that you wait and see it in New York."

Sam Sifton, culture editor of the New York Times, acknowledged that Brantley is "pretty put out by this, and at this moment I wouldn't want him reviewing my play," but added that "he'll be on the aisle for it when the show is ready to be reviewed by the national media."

Aware of Broadway protocol for critics, Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune still felt frustrated by the situation. "I was told I was welcome to come and write a feature, but not to write critically," he said. He refused to agree to those terms, saying, "I have a lot of trouble with that. New York producers have long been interested in protecting a play from critics until it's finished. When a play is at a major regional theater like the Guthrie, that can and should be the show, not always the New York staging. I think it's better when regional theaters push back a bit."

Guthrie stake on Broadway

While the Guthrie won't be producing the commercial version for Broadway, "we will have a stake in it, because we produced it first," Dowling explained.

For a nonprofit theater, a transfer of this kind -- the first of the Dowling era -- would be more about prestige than money.

Rudin has presented Kushner before. He was the lead producer of Kushner's musical, "Caroline, or Change," when it went to Broadway in 2004. Rudin's production company has a long list of movie and stage credits, including plays by August Wilson and Edward Albee.

"The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide" has received mixed reviews from Twin Cities critics. The Star Tribune's Graydon Royce praised the production and the acting, but said that wordy playwright Kushner "has not yet discovered his own purpose in writing this play."

In a brief interview in New York Thursday evening, director Greif said of the Broadway-bound play, "I hope to work on it some more."

Claude Peck • 612-673-7977. Staff writer Rohan Preston contributed to this story.