This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, Aug. 21
Hairspray, directed by Robbie Roby, featuring Ginger Minj(Edna Turnblad), and Kaitlyn Louise Smith (Tracy Turnblad), with Jamie Torcellini, Altamiece Carolyn Cooper, Michael Starr, Hannah Sedlacek, Will Savarese, Kathryn Brunner, Jamonté D. Bruten, Madeleine Doherty, Dave Pierini, Olivia Elease Hardy, and Sara Gettelfinger, opens at Broadway Sacramento.
Saturday, Aug. 22
A Month in The Country, by Brian Friel, directed by Lyndsey Turner, featuring Sophie Okonedo (Natalya Petrovna), Thomas Arnold (Arkady Islayev), Jessica Brindle (Katya), Susan Brown (Anna Islayeva), Rachelle Diedericks (Vera Aleksandrovna), Patrick Gibson (Aleksey Belyayev), Mark Hadfield (Herr Schaaf,), Michael Hodgson (Alfanasy Bolshintsov), Jonathan Livingstone (Matvey), Alistair Petrie (Michel Rakitin), Daniel Rigby (Ignaty Shpigelsky), and Amanda Wilkin (Lizaveta Bogdanovna), opens at London’s Donmar Warehouse.
Love, Loss, and What I Wore concert, directed by Dana Schwartz, featuring Julie Dove, Patrika Darbo, Amir Levi, Jill. Remez, and Roni Paige, opens at North Hollywood’s Sawyer’s Playhouse (11301 Camarillo St.),
Enemy of the People, newly adapted, directed by Bart DeLorenezo, featuring Jay Paulson, Jason McBeth, Cara Mitsuko, Dennis Dun, DeJuan Christopher, Clay Hollander, and Lauren Campedelli, opens at LA’s Odyssey Theatre.
A Walk on the Moon, by Pamela Gray & Ann Marie Milazzo, directed by Sheryl Kaller, featuring Talia Suskauer (Pearl Kantrowitz), Max Chernin (Marty Kantrowitz), Sam Gravitte (Walker), and Andréa Burns (Lillian), closes at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre.
Shakespeare in the Park’s Winter’s Tale, directed by Daniel Sullivan, featuring Teagle F. Bougere (Camillo), Chuck Cooper (Old Shepherd), Matthew Eby ( (Mamillius/Time), Raúl Esparza (Leontes), Isabela Ferrer (Perdita), Katie Griffith (Mopsa), Alex Hernandez (Cleomenes), Michael Khalid Karadsheh (Young Shepherd), Daniel Kyri (Florizel), Aubie Merrylees (Archidamus), Jennifer Mogbock (Emilia), Gilbert Owuor (Polixenes), Lily Rabe (Hermione), Matthew Russell (Dion), Steven Skybell and (Antigonus/Autolycus), with Heschel Bay Peter Douskalis, Denise Kolodja, Violeta Picayo, Bianca Rogoff, Michael Thanh Tran, and Jackson Whitman, closes at Central Park’s Delacorte theatre.
Sunday, August. 23
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, by August Wilson, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, featuring Kai A. Ealy, Bert Emmett, Alex Morris, Gerald C. Rivers, Amber Liekhus, Jamar Gilbert, Francis Edemobi, Matt Moyer, Jim Nardina, and CJ Obilom, begins previews at LA’s A Noise Within.
Birthright, by Jonathan Spector, directed by Teddy Bergman, featuring Hale Appleman, Molly Bernard Eli Gelb, Abbi Jacobson, Liz Larsen), Nate Mann, and Zoë Winters, closes at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater.
Hungry Woman, by Melissa Maney, directed by Daniella Caggiano, featuring Julia Lester, Zoe Dean, and Sophie Zmorrod, closes at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse.
Love, Loss, and What I Wore concert, directed by Dana Schwartz, featuring Julie Dove, Patrika Darbo, Amir Levi, Jill. Remez, and Roni Paige, at North Hollywood’s Sawyer’s Playhouse (11301 Camarillo St.)
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The World Goes Round will run Sep. 11 – Nov. 1 at Milwaukee Rep, directed & choreographed by Kelly Faulkner.
Joe Kinosian, RJ Christian, Paula Gaudier, Jillian Louis, Brett Ryback, and Tiffany Topol.
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Musical Theatre Guild‘s concert presentation of Here’s to Us!—The Musical Theatre Guild Celebrates 30 Years, conceived & created by Kim Huber & Michael Kostroff, will take place Sun. Oct. 11 at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, written by Michael Michael Kostroff, and directed by Kim Huber, with music direction by Brad Ellis.
Elizabeth Adabale, Eydie Alyson, Eileen Barnett, Anastasia Barzee, Roger Befeler, Jennifer Bennett, Patrick Beller, Teri Bibb, Jill Marie Burke, Melissa Lyons Caldretti, Barbara Carlton Heart, Stan Chandler, Will Collyer, Karen Culliver, Lauren Curet, Tami Damiano, Matthew Patrick Davis, Susan Edwards Martin, Melissa Fahn, Joshua Finkel, Tal Fox, Ashley Fox Linton, Spencer Frankeberger, Zachary Ford, Julie Garnyé, James Gleason, Jason Graae, Jennifer Gordon, Scott Harlan, Damon Kirsche, Carol Kline, Maura M. Knowles, Michael Kostroff, Valarie Larsen, Brian Kim McCormick, Kevin McMahon, Dana Meller, Mia Michaud, Barbara Minkus, Domonique Paton, Lisa Picotte, Teri Ralston, Trisha Rapier, Jenna Lea Rosen, Glenn Rosenblum, Brent Schindele, Chelsea Morgan Stock, Chantal Tribble, Mary VanArsdel, Shannon Warne, Paul Wong, Robert Yacko.
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The world premiere of Anon -A Tempest at our Kitchen Table, by Anne Washburn, will run Sept. 25 – Nov. 1 (opening Oc.t 14) at MCC Theatre, directed by Anne Kauffman.
Jeff Biehl, Crystal Finn, Andrew Garman, and Jeremy Shamos.
The play centers on terminally online TikToker Jeanie after a gay pride flag is unfurled in front of the home across from hers in her sheltered Texas suburb. As the fantasy and reality of living in 21st-century America collide, she is forced to question how well she actually knows the people she lives amongst.
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The Music Man, will run Oct. 27 – Nov. 8 at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Joshua Bergasse.
Elliott Andrews (Professor Harold Hill), Elizabeth D’Aiuto (Marian Paroo), Paul Urriola (Marcellus Washburn), Savannah Stevenson (Mrs. Paroo), Patrick Blashill (Mayor Shinn), Emmanuelle Zeesman (Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn), Dylan Patterson (Winthrop Paroo), Addie Jaymes (Amaryllis), Michael Santora (Charlie Cowell), Charles Antenen (Tommy Djilas), and more TBA.
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Something Rotten continues through Aug. 23 at the St. Louis Muny, directed by Rob Ruggiero.
Matt Doyle (Nick Bottom), Matt Doyle (Nick Bottom), Will Burton (Nigel Bottom), Jacob Dickey (William Shakespeare), Bryonha Marie (Bea), Elizabeth Teeter (Portia), Lara Teeter (Brother Jeremiah), Adam Heller (Shylock), and more.
Click here to watch highlights.
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Laura Benanti in Concert will run Oct. 1-4 at LA’s The Wallis.
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The world premiere of Mfoniso Udofia’s Creation Stories and All the Important Importants will begin previews Sept. 15 and open Oct. 1 at the Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater, directed by Tamilla Woodard.
Svannah Comodore, Donetta Lavinia Grays, Abigail Onwunali, and Justyce Taylor.
Centering on a midlife Black woman pulled between her many selves—child, future daughter, artist, possible mother—the play pulses with longing as its heroine races against the clock and the limits of her own body. Moving across time and space, from ancestor to AI, from dream cycle to IVF cycle, through music and ritual, Udofia weaves her own surprising folktale on the cost of creation and the impossible work of becoming.
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Little Women will run Nov. 6-22 at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West, directed & choreographed by Cate Caplin.
Jenna Lea Rosen (Jo March) and more TBA.