Fight Club

In a Broadway revival of the celebrated play Art, three men see how much pressure their friendship can take.

- Adrienne Miller

STRESS TEST

FROM FAR LEFT: Bobby Cannavale (in a Boglioli suit), James Corden (in a Valentino jacket), and Neil Patrick Harris (in a Tom Ford jacket) star in Art, by playwright Yasmina Reza, opening on Broadway in September. Sittings Editor: Michael Philouze.

On the hottest day in New York in over a decade, James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris, and Bobby Cannavale—the cast of the first Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza’s play Art—have gathered in a lower Manhattan studio space. Corden has recently flown in from London, and the men are only on their third day of table work, with full rehearsals not set to begin for another month. Joining them at the read-throughs have been the playwright, Reza herself, in from Paris, and the veteran stage director Scott Ellis, recently known for his Broadway revival of Doubt. The studio does not seem to be much cooler than the sweltering street. Corden and Harris are in shorts; Cannavale, in long pants and a baseball cap, looks, frankly, a bit overheated. Even the patch of exposed brick on the studio wall seems to be sweating.

Art, which opens for previews on August 28 and is set for a limited run from September 16 to December 21 at the Music Box Theatre, marks a kind of homecoming. For Corden, it’s his first Broadway appearance since his Tony-winning turn in One Man, Two Guvnors in 2012. Harris, too, hasn’t taken a major stage role since his electrifying Tony Award-winning performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2014. And Cannavale, an Emmy winner and a seasoned (and hilarious) stage presence known for his Tony-nominated roles in Mauritius and The Motherf**ker with the Hat, hasn't been seen on Broadway in seven years. The show is no minor commitment, professionally or personally.