Today’s Highlights:
Spamalot, directed & choreographed byJosh Rhodes, featuring Major Attaway (King Arthur), Amanda Robles (The Lady of the Lake), Nathaniel Mahone (Patsy), Steven Telsey (The Historian / Prince Herbert), Sean Bell (Sir Robin), Major Attaway (King Arthur), Amanda Robles (The Lady of the Lake), Nathaniel Mahone (Patsy), and Steven Telsey, (The Historian/Prince Herbert), with Delaney Benson, Jack Brewer, Claire Kennard, Lindsay Lee Alhady, L’Ogan J’Jones, Maddie Mossner, Emilie Renier, Mark Tran Russ, Meridien Terrell, and Graham Keen, opens at Kansas City’s Starlight Theatre.
Dear Evan Hanson, directed by Scott Schwartz. featuring Kenny Lee (Evan Hansen), Maya Days (Heidi Hansen), Olivia Foght (Zoe Murphy), Erik Houck (Connor Murphy), Heather Ayers (Cynthia Murphy), Gil Brady (Larry Murphy), and Josh Hoyt (Jared Kleinman), with Mackenzie Germain, Payton Thomas, Joseph Tore, Laura Elizabeth Flanagan, Mackenzie Germain, Payton Thomas, and Joseph Tortello, opens at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
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Theatre Communications Group has published David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters.
A raucous modern-day satire about community, change, and the battles we choose to fight. With his signature wit and humanity, Lindsay-Abaire explores what happens when a seemingly ordinary neighborhood dispute reveals the deeper tensions that shape the places we call home.
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Phantom of the Opera, directed by Seth Sklar-Heyn, continues through Aug. 9 at the Pantages Theatre, directed by Seth Sklar-Heyn.
Isaih Bailey (The Phantom), Jordan Lee Gilbert (Christine Daaé), Daniel Lopez (Raoul), Midori Marsh (Carlotta Giudicelli), William Thomas Evans (Monsieur André), Carrington Vilmont (Monsieur Firmin), Lisa Vroman (Madame Giry), Isiah Bailey (The Phantom), Jordan Lee Gilbert( Christine Daaé), Daniel Lopez (Raoul), Midori Marsh (Carlotta Giudicelli), William Thoma Evans ( Monsieur André), Carrington Vilmont (Monsieur Firmin), and Lisa Froman (Madam Giry).
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A benefit reading of Jeffrey Lieber’s The Lady, Or The Tiger will take place Monday, Aug. 31 at 7 PM at TheaterWorks Hartford, directed by the playwright.
Rob Morrow and Tim KeKay.
Set in an America that resembles the one we’re trending towards, two men find themselves hiding out in the abandoned restaurant of what was once a high-end Californian resort. Into their world comes a woman who might be an ally, or might be their undoing. A story about survival, love in the shadow of chaos, cooking with garlic (lots of garlic) and a meditation on the facility of hope in an increasingly unsettling world.
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Open Fist Theatre will present Marisol, by José Rivera, Sept 10. – Oct. 13 (openingSept. 12) at tAtwater Village Theatre, directed by Amanda Weier.
Jade Santana (Marisol) and Taylor Scott (Guardian Angel), with Barbara Lee Bragg, Hutchins Foster, Matthew Goodrich, Carmella Jenkins, Mara Michelle, Chima Rok, Jack Sharpe and Grace Soens.
As temperatures rise both literally and figuratively, are we as a species doomed? Can a broken society find its way back after everything falls apart? Rivera never loses his sense of humor, even in the darkest moments, and that balance of absurdity and compassion is what makes the play so compelling. Ultimately, Marisol is about discovering hope on the other side of rock-bottom devastation.
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Charles Dickens Copperfield! The New Musical, by Jeffrey Scharf, will begin previews Sept. 19 and open Oct. 19 at the Duke on 42nd Street, directed by Gabriel Barre.
Bobby Conte (David Copperfield), and more TBA.
The musical follows its resilient protagonist David from a difficult childhood through to adulthood. As a child, David endures the sadism of his stepfather Murdstone, the depredations of the villainous schoolmaster Creakle, and the mind-numbing routine of a London sweatshop. As an adult, he is visited by happiness and success as well as tragedy and loss.Along the way, he meets some of Dickens’ most memorable characters: including his formidable Aunt Betsey Trotwood, the loyal Peggotty family, the eccentric Mr. Micawber, the gentle Agnes Wickfield, the charming but reckless Steerforth, the naïve Dora Spenlow, and the deceitful UriahHeep. Through friendship, hardship, love, betrayal, and personal triumph, David discovers his identity and purpose in a story that celebrates resilience, compassion, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
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Hugh Jackman with the Chigago Philharmonic will take place Sun. Aug. 9 at 8 PM at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival.
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Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Matthew Gardiner, will run Aug. 25 – Nov. 1 at DC’s Signature Theatre.
Jason Gotay (Franklin Shepard), Melanie Field (Mary Flynn), Jake Loewenthal (Charley Kringas), Kerstin Anderson (Beth Spencer), Maria Rizzo (Gussie Carneige), James Whalen (Joe Josephson), Neal Gaensehals (Frank Jr.), with Joel Ashur (Jerome), Ben Beckley (Terry/Mr. Spencer), Lindsay Nicole Chambers (Scotty/Mrs. Spencer), Eric Easter (Ru), Jonah Ho’okano (Tyler), Stephen Russell Murray (Bunker), Beatrice Owens (Dory), Sarah Anne Sillers (KT), and Alondra Trinidad-Colon (Meg. Swings Austin Anderson, Kimberly Camacho, Sophia Early, with Max von Kolnitz and, and Henry Hampton Bedford).
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Readings of Jeff Baron’s visiting Mr. Green will take place Sat. Aug. 22 at 7 PM and Sun. Aug. 22 at 2 PM, directed by Howard Teichman, at Santa Monica’s Miles Memorial Playhouse (1130 Lincoln Blvd). 
here.
Mike Burstyn and Steven Schub.
An unlikely friendship that develops between a cranky, prejudiced Jewish widower, Mr. Green, and the young, gay corporate executive Ross Gardiner, who is sentenced to community service for almost hitting Mr. Green with his car. Over six months of required visits, the men, initially hostile to each other, begin to open up about their pasts, their family secrets, and their differing religious and cultural backgrounds, ultimately creating a bond that offers both hope and healing.