I've never gotten to see the Complete Works of Shakespeare/America (Abridged) - I heard they were fantastic and really funny.
Hugh is outrageous at ad-libbing. If someone came in late when he was in The Boy From Oz, he was all over them. He'd get a spotlight on them, ask them why were late, let them know what they missed (which usually included him telling them he did the first song naked - which was of course
not true), then a few songs later he would check back on them and ask if they were caught up.
And none of them were plants, which made it even funnier. People did show up late on purpose to try and get him to stop, which is definitely what the guy who shouted about X-Men was doing, and he paid dearly for it - Hugh spent the first 15 minutes of Act 2 giving the guy dance lessons. The guy was practically hiding under his seat for the rest of the show.
The last time I saw it, a glass broke on stage and a stagehand ran out with a broom to try and clean it up. Hugh not only stopped the show, he introduced the stagehand to the audience, then took the broom from him and said he'd clean it up himself. As he swept up the broken glass (and dragged out some poor woman backstage with a dustpan to help) told the audience that someone was drinking in between shows that day.
Next to Normal is supposed to be fantastic -it's actually playing right next door to A Steady Rain, which is the play Hugh and Daniel Craig are starring in (although that ends on Sunday). Luckily I work in NY and grew up in the area, so I've been going to Broadway shows since I was 5.
Spiderman could be interesting on stage - it's directed by Julie Taymor, who did such an amazing job with The Lion King. And it's got U2 music, you can't go wrong with that.
