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Welcome back, Hello Again. Michael John LaChiusa’s musical about sex in the 20th century has been a cult favorite since it first hit the Lincoln Center stage in 1993, and its long-awaited film version premieres on November 8. To whet your appetites, here is an exclusive sneak preview of the scene that Broadway fans may be most excited to see: the one between Tony Award hoarder Audra McDonald (Porgy and Bess) and the marvelously acerbic Martha Plimpton (Raising Hope).
Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that McDonald and Plimpton are both ladies. That’s not a mistake! Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s scandalous 1897 play La Ronde, Hello Again is structured as a daisy chain of sexual encounters: The first scene features a prostitute and a soldier, the second a soldier and a nurse, the third a nurse and a college boy, and so on. LaChiusa’s version ups the conceptual ante by setting each encounter in a different decade. And although there was gay content in the original musical, the film expands the queer palette considerably. The Senator—originally a male character—is now played by Plimpton; McDonald is her mistress, an actress.
In addition to McDonald and Plimpton, the cast of the movie includes Cheyenne Jackson, T.R. Knight, Rumer Willis, Nolan Gerard Funk, Jenna Ushkowitz, Tyler Blackburn, Sam Underwood and Al Calderon. The screenplay is by Cory Krueckeberg; Tom Gustafson directs.
Hello Again will play for just a few nights at select movie theaters across the country; in New York City, they include the AMC Empire in Times Square as well as locations in Kew Gardens, Williamsburg, Cobble Hill and the Upper West Side. Click here to find the theaters closest to you.
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