Cardinal, Greg Pierce’s anodyne take on urban decay and gentrification, offers a breezy but no less pointed version of the tragedy and melodrama in plays like Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park and Lynne Nottage’s Sweat. Staged by Kate Whoriskey, this world premiere at off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre also offers a dream…

Armie Hammer, enjoying plaudits for his starring role in Oscar-buzzy Call Me By Your Name, will make his Broadway debut in June, starring with Tom Skerritt (Picket Fences) in Young Jean Lee's dark comedy Straight White Men. Anna D. Shapiro, a Tony winner for 2008’s August: Osage County and artistic director of Chicago…

Even before taking over its just-purchased Broadway flagship, the Helen Hayes Theatre, the estimable off-Broadway company Second Stage has lined up major talent for its upcoming 37th season, with help from nonprofit friends up Boston way. Diane Paulus (<a title="Kelsey Grammer Hooks The Crowd In 'Peter Pan' Prequel…

UPDATE SATURDAY MORNING: Adds information from Second Stage, plus press release, below story. Second Stage theater confirmed Saturday Deadline’s exclusive report that its purchase of the Helen Hayes Theatre was completed yesterday. Second Stage said that renovation of the theater will begin next year, under the…

Sherie Rene Scott, the actress and singer who created the role of a struggling young wife in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years (soon to be released as a feature film by Richard LaGravanese), is re-teaming with writer Dick Scanlan on Whorl Inside A Loop, set to premiere in August at off-Broadway’s Second Stage…

UPDATE, 2:40PM: Adds speculation about a direct move to Broadway, below: Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre just announced that it no longer will be producing the new musical American Psycho, the adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel and feature film that is trying to make its U.S. debut. Benjamin Walker, who…

EXCLUSIVE: I’m hearing that Benjamin Walker, the much-lauded star of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the loopy historo-musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, has landed the title role in the upcoming U.S. premiere of American Psycho the musical. The role of Patrick Bateman was created on film in 2000 by Christian…

Off-Broadway powerhouse Second Stage will present the U.S. premiere of the much praised (and much debated) American Psycho, the musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel (and 2000 Christian Bale-starring film) about excess, murder and flashing the right labels. The show — with music by Duncan Sheik, book by…