Thrilling New Chance to Get Queasy Is Planned for Coney Island

N.Y.C. Economic Development Corp. The new Thunderbolt roller coaster, shown in  an artist rendering, is slated to open next year on Coney Island. It will be taller and faster than the Cyclone.

It won’t exactly be THE Thunderbolt, but it will definitely be the Thunderbolt: The city announced on Tuesday that a new roller coaster would open on Coney Island next year on the site of the old Thunderbolt, the roller coaster that once rivaled the Cyclone and makes a famous appearance in “Annie Hall.”

The new Thunderbolt, to be built and operated by the owner of (the new) Luna Park at Coney Island near West 16th Street, will be faster, taller and longer than the Cyclone, if less lovably rickety.

The whole ride will be 125 feet tall and more than a third of a mile long, and riders will be pulled up 110 feet and dropped down into a series of “elements and inversions” at speeds up to 65 miles an hour, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

“The ride will then make its return through a series of ‘bunny hills’ that will give riders a floating sensation until the train returns,” the city said in a news release. More renderings can be seen here.

Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times In 1969, Fred Moran and his mother, Mollie Moran, posed outside their house, which was beneath the Thunderbolt. Mr. Moran managed the roller coaster, which his father had built.

The original Thunderbolt operated on the site from 1925 until 1982 and was torn down by the Giuliani administration - illegally, a federal jury found - in 2000.

The house below the Thunderbolt, the fictional childhood home of Alvy Singer in “Annie Hall,” burned down in 1991. There are no plans to rebuild it.

Aaron Jackson/Associated Press By 2000, the Thunderbolt was derelict and doomed.

Broadway Mainstays Will Be Part of Encores! Off-Broadway Series

City Center’s Encores! series may be exploring Off Broadway this summer, but Broadway talent is coming along for the ride. Tony winner Anika Noni Rose and nominees Raul Esparza, Judy Kuhn, Danny Burstein and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are among those starring in “The Cradle Will Rock,” the inaugural show in the new Encores! Off-Center series. The production, directed by Sam Gold, will run July 10 to 13.

First developed in 1937 with funds from the Federal Theater Project, a branch of the Works Progress Administration, “Cradle Will Rock” features music, lyrics and book by Marc Blitzstein. The original production, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down four days before opening - many believed because of the show’s pro-union themes â€" though it eventually played both on and Off Broadway, and was immortalized in a 1999 Tim Robbins movie.

The Encores! Off-Center cast will also include Eisa Davis, Peter Friedman, Martin Moran and Henry Stram.

Staten Island Community Gets Back Its Library Much Improved

Jonathan Blanc/New York Public Library The new addition to the Stapleton, Staten Island, branch library, which reopened Tuesday after a four-year renovation.

Finally, post-Hurricane Sandy, Staten Islanders have something to cheer about: Local civic leaders and elected officials joined executives of the New York Public Library on Tuesday in opening the newly renovated Stapleton branch, which, at 12,000 square feet, is now more than double its original size.

The library, at 132 Canal Street, combines the original 4,800-square-foot Carnegie-financed branch built in 1907 with a 7,000-square-foot addition that has reading rooms, lounges, computer access and a community room.

New York Public Library The Stapleton branch of the library in the early 1900s. It opened in 1907.

The renovation, which cost $15.2 million and took four years and was designed by Andrew Berman Architects and overseen by the City’s Department of Design and Construction, brings a much improved library to one of the island’s poorer neighborhoods.

Jonathan Blanc/New York Public Library Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, spoke at the branch’s reopening ceremony.

Steve Herman/New York Public Library What shall this library bear be called?

“We know how much the residents of Stapleton wanted and needed their library back,” said Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, “and we’re so happy to say that it’s back and better than ever, now able to adequately serve the needs of this community.”

The Stapleton branch also has a new permanent boarder - an orphaned Teddy bear found outside the building several months ago as the staff prepared to return. The bear still needs a name. Suggestions?

Tony Win Gives Box Office Boost to ‘Kinky Boots’

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Stark Sands and Annaleigh Ashford in “Kinky Boots.”

Fresh off winning the best musical Tony Award on Sunday night, the Broadway show “Kinky Boots” had its single-best day of ticket sales on Monday, taking in $1.25 million, a spokesman for the producers said. The show’s advanced ticket sales are “growing wildly,” the spokesman added, declining to provide specific figures, as “Kinky Boots” now attempts to catch up to the box office popularity of its chief competition at the Tonys, “Matilda the Musical.”

“Matilda,” which won four Tonys on Sunday to the six for “Kinky Boots,” has now passed $21 million in advance ticket sales for future performances, according to a spokesman for the show, an exceptionally high amount for a Broadway show. It was up $200,000 over its daily ticket sales on Monday as well, the spokesman added. “Matilda” has only 41 tickets left to sell for June performances, and a total of 950 available through early August. Advance ticket sales for “Kinky Boots” total roughly $10 million, meanwhile, according to that show’s spokesman.

The Tony Awards itself had a good night on Sunday: The show had its largest audience since 2009, drawing 7.24 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen figures.

While “Matilda” emerged from the bruising Tonys race in solid financial shape on Broadway, its producers have yet to make a final decision about whether to begin a national tour of the show. While most acclaimed musicals spin off touring productions a year after opening on Broadway, and while a “Matilda” tour is likely, its lead producer, Michael David, said in an interview on Tuesday that there was still “an art problem and a math problem that we have to solve.”

“We’ve done tours with child actors before, like ‘The Secret Garden’ and “The King and I,’ but never ones with as many kids as in ‘Matilda’ - 16 - or with kids so young,” said Mr. David, president of Dodgers Properties, the veteran Broadway producing group that is mounting “Matilda” with its original producer, the Royal Shakespeare Company of Britain. “How does one preserve the critical element of the production without doing harm to the children? We don’t foresee a serious reduction in their numbers.”

Referring to the show’s Tony-winning sets and lighting, he added: “The physical production of the musical is special, so how do we capture the essence of the production and make it mobile enough to get in and out of cities quickly and in a financially sound way, for just a week or two of performances?”

Mr. David said losing the best musical Tony - which he declined to analyze, calling it “an unproductive journey” - would not deter “Matilda” from touring. The director Matthew Warchus and the designers are now mulling the physical scale of a touring version, and considering changes to make the show easier to move, while the producers are talking to tour presenters in key cities about booking scenarios.

Some tour presenters say the “Matilda” team has been a tough negotiator, reluctant to play only a single week in small and medium-sized cities where presenters see demand for “Matilda” as low. But Mr. David said the producers would be flexible and would not want to stay too long and risk playing to empty seats.

“Kinky Boots” producers are planning a national tour to begin in September 2014 in Las Vegas, while a national tour of “Pippin,” which won four Tonys, is set to begin that month as well in Denver.

As for Broadway, “Matilda,” “Kinky Boots,” “Pippin” and several other shows are entering the summer tourist season in positions of strength. “Pippin” sold four times as many tickets as usual on Monday, while the best play winner “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” tripled its usual box office take for a Monday, according to the spokesmen for those shows.

Meanwhile, “The Assembled Parties,” which has been a modest draw, on Tuesday announced an extension until July 28, allowing more theatergoers to see Judith Light, who won a Tony for best featured actress in a play.

One show that was blanked at the Tonys, “Motown: The Musical,” may have benefited for its medley number on the CBS telecast: A spokesman said ticket sales were up by approximately $200,000 on Monday.

Separately, ticket sales for last week’s performances on Broadway were the best yet for “Motown,” which grossed $1,395,663; only “The Lion King,” “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon” and “Kinky Boots” (at $1.41 million) took in more money.

Over all, Broadway musical and plays grossed $23.4 million last week, compared to $25 million for the same week in 2012. Attendance at Broadway shows totaled 219,708, compared to 265,640 for the same week last season.

Statues Long Held by the Metropolitan Museum Return to Cambodia

Tang Chhin Sothy/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images Monks were among those who welcomed two statues being returned to Cambodia.

Two Cambodian statues that stood for a millennium in a remote Khmer Empire temple before spending two decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art arrived back in their homeland Tuesday to the plaudits of Cambodian officials, who plan to display them in Phnom Phen starting Saturday.

“We are happy and thrilled and so grateful to the Met museum for this historic decision,” said Chan Tani, Cambodia’s secretary of state, after a ceremony at the airport in Phnom Penh attended by government officials and by Maxwell Hearn, chairman of the Department of Asian Art at the Met.

Mak Remissa/European Pressphoto Agency The statues had been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1994.

The Met agreed last month to return the twin sandstone sculptures, known as the Kneeling Attendants, after Cambodia argued that they had been looted during the tumult of the country’s civil war. The statues had arrived at the museum in four pieces between 1987 and 1992 as a series of gifts from donors. The 200-pound statues had flanked a main doorway into the Met’s South and Southeast Asian art galleries since 1994.

Thomas P. Campbell, the Met director, said last month that the museum had been swayed by “facts that were not known at the time of the acquisition,” evidence that Mr. Tani described as “proof that the statues were brutally stolen after 1970.”

The statues came from a remote temple complex called Koh Ker, about 200 miles north of the capital. The temple is also the original site of a large statue of a Hindu warrior that is the subject of a federal lawsuit against Sotheby’s, which is seeking to sell the antiquity. American and Cambodian officials say the warrior statue and its twin, now at the Norton Simon Museum in California, were looted around at the same time as the Kneeling Attendants, allegations that Sotheby’s disputes.

Mumford & Sons Bassist Is Hospitalized

The bassist for the folk-rock band Mumford & Sons has been hospitalized with a blood clot in his brain that will require surgery, the band announced on its Web site on Tuesday.

The bass player, Ted Dwane, had been feeling unwell for several days and went to a hospital on Monday, where “scans revealed a blood clot on the surface of his brain that requires an operation,” the statement said. “We are being assured that he will recover quickly from surgery,” it said. It was unclear where Mr. Dwane was receiving treatment.

The band postponed shows in Dallas, outside Houston and New Orleans. No other cancellations were announced.

Mumford & Sons’s latest album “Babel” sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week and won album of the year at the Grammy Awards in February.

A Friendly Mugging

Dear Diary:

While walking quickly through the crowded Midtown streets en route to the 49th Street N train, I saw a roadblock on the corner of 50th and 8th, as several guys were selling their CD’s and taking up the whole sidewalk.

I decided to walk behind them, close to the curb, when one of them confronted me: “Man, I can’t you believe you just did that! You walked right behind our store.”

I looked back and realized he was referring to the small foldout table with a white tablecloth that held their various CD’s. I apologized and said I didn’t realize that it was their store.

He said, “Well, for disrespecting us, you gotta buy my CD.”

I looked into his angry eyes and realized that he was just an artist like me trying to sell his music. I asked him how much it was and he said, “Ten bucks.” I took out my wallet and grabbed a 20 when nine other rappers on the corner approached me and said: “You gotta buy ours, too. You disrespected all of us!”

I said, “I only have a 20, so I can only buy from two of you.” The left-out rappers pleaded, “How you gonna buy theirs, but not mine?”

At that point, I said: “You know what I do? I’m a comedian.” I showed them my composition notebook and said, “You see this? These are jokes.” One of them went, “For real?” I said, “Yup, I do the same thing you guys do.”

The rapper said, “He cool,” and let me proceed toward the subway, down 20 bucks.

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In Performance: ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’

In Performance is back in the studio after last week’s special Tony Awards videos, filmed on location in New York. Here, Elizabeth A. Davis and Duncan Sheik (“Spring Awakening”) perform “Shoes of Gold,” an original song written by Mr. Sheik for the Classic Stage Company’s new production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Caucasian Chalk Circle.” Ms. Davis plays Grusha, a poor kitchen maid, who answers the question: “If you really cared for your child, wouldn’t you want him to grow up rich?”

Recent videos in this series include Larry Pine performing a scene from Lucas Hnath’s play “A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney,” at Soho Rep, and Audra McDonald accompanying herself on piano to Adam Guettel’s “Migratory V,” from her new album “Go Back Home.”

Coming soon: Kate Mulgrew and Kathleen Chalfant in a scene from the play “Somewhere Fun,” and Steven Pasquale singing a number from the musical “Far From Heaven.”