Seat Filler: NYC Theater Guide for August 2012

Our man on the New York theater scene brings it on with Broadway’s first transgender teen, goes into Central Park’s woods with Denis O’Hare, finds a gay skeleton in John Stamos’s closet, pops in on Marilyn Monroe in purgatory, and much more.

BY Brandon Voss

August 29 2012 6:00 AM ET

Bring It On: The Musical
Boosted by Andy Blankenbuehler’s breathtaking choreography, this gleefully insipid musical — inspired by the 2000 flick about rival cheer squads — boasts a zingy original libretto by out Avenue Q book writer Jeff Whitty. The creative team also includes Next to Normal and In the Heights composers, but thank Whitty for La Cienega, the urban school’s matter-of-factly transgender hip-hop crew member played by out actor Gregory Haney.
St. James Theatre, through January 20.

Into the Woods
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony-winning musical about fractured fairy tales gets an unfocused but ultimately affecting revival against the magical backdrop of Central Park. Donna Murphy and Amy Adams add star power as the Witch and Baker’s Wife, but True Blood’s Denis O’Hare is the show’s soul, doubling in this bold new vision as the childless Baker and the father of a runaway boy who acts as the story’s imaginative Narrator.
Delacorte Theater, through September 1.