A new version of Annie Proulx’s short story, “Brokeback Mountain,” is coming to London’s West End, and it will star BAFTA-nominated Mike Faist (he was Riff in Spielberg’s “West Side Story”) and Academy Award-nominated Lucas Hedges (“Manchester by the Sea”). And it’s something of a musical, or, as it’s being called, “a play with music,” which suggests to us that it’s less “Rent” and more… well something less traditionally musical-theater-ish. Adapted by Ashley Robinson, with songs by gay songwriter and lead vocalist of the band The Feeling, Dan Gillespie Sells, who composed the music for “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” the Jonathan Butterell-directed production (he directed the film version of “Jamie”) will take the stage at Sohoplace Theatre for a 12-week run beginning May 10. We’re very pleased to see Lucas Hedges return to more queer material after his moving performance in “Boy Erased,” and hopeful that this new staging makes its way back to the United States.
‘The L Word’ is dead. Long live ‘The L Word’
None of Showtime’s TV series have been renewed yet since the announcement that all of the network’s content is getting folded into Paramount+, and that spells the end of “The L Word: Generation Q,” which has been cancelled after three seasons. Call it the broken promise of the streaming explosion, when a glut of new “content” made keeping up with new shows an impossible task, only to have corporate entities come along and destroy what they created. But die-hard “L Word” fans are allowed to hope for more anyway, as Ilene Chaiken is developing a full reboot of the series, with the working title “The L Word: New York.” What little information there is suggests a full reboot with all new characters in a new city. After all, lesbians are paying extremely high rents everywhere, so why not find out which glammy ones are competing with Sarah Jessica Parker for extremely expensive shoes and pigeon-shaped clutch purses in Manhattan? Stay tuned for more as this one, as it’s still in the earliest stages of development.
Luke Macfarlane joins Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne for ‘Platonic’
We were hoping to see Luke Macfarlane move on from “Bros” to more comedy — he was, quite frankly, underappreciated in that film — and now it’s happening. He’s joined the cast of the upcoming sitcom “Platonic,” which stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne. It’s been a long time coming for this one — it got a series order in October 2020 — and it reunites Byrne and Rogen after co-starring in “Neighbors” and “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.” They’ll play platonic friends who reunite in middle age after a long time apart, upending their lives and other relationships in the process. Macfarlane joins the supporting cast that includes Tre Hale (“Love and Monsters”), Carla Gallo (“Bones”), and Andrew Lopez (“Blockers”). The 10-episode season drops on Apple TV+ May 24, so summer comedy television is already shaping up.
Sam Green and JD Samson explore ‘32 Sounds’
Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Sam Green (“The Weather Underground”) and queer electronic musician JD Samson, of the bands Le Tigre and MEN, have an unusual collaborative project quietly dropping into your friendly neighborhood arthouse cinema very soon. It’s a documentary called “32 Sounds” and it explores the experience of sound from a variety of angles: inside the womb, bird calls, Foley artists, weather, John Cage’s legendary “silent” composition “4:33,” and more. As the sounds roll out, the film references artists and scientists from Isaac Newton to Laurie Anderson, creating a collage of sensory input. It’s the kind of aural experience that’s going to be best experienced in an immersive theatrical setting — think the 2022 Tilda Swinton-starring arthouse sensation “Memoria” from queer filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, but in a somewhat less trippy package. This is one for the art-queers, who always deserve a little treat but never find it at the multiplex. It opens April 28 in New York, with more cities to follow.
Romeo San Vicente can’t quit you.