Today’s Highlights:

  2026 Emmy Awards ceremony  airs at 8 PM ET/5 PT.

  Pre-Existing Condition, by Marin Ireland, directed by Maria Dizzia, featuring (in a rotating cast), Lupita Nyong’o, Edie Falco, Phillipa Soo, Harni Nef, Susannah Flood, Greg Keller, Dael Orlandersmith, Sarah Steele, and more, opens at Off-Broadway’s Greenwich House Theater.

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  Grace Notes quiz:            ?????????????

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  Grace Notes quiz answers:

Grace Notes will return Monday October 5.

Today’s Highlights:

  The Lady, Or The Tiger reading, written & directed by Jeffrey Lieber, featuring Rob Morrow and Tim KeKa, at at 7 PM at  TheaterWorks Hartford.

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  Batter Up! by Jim Bernhard

Provide the missing baseball terms in these show song titles.

Scroll down for the answers…

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   Jason robert Brown’s The Last Five Years will run Sept. 25 – Oct. 4 at Pleasantville, NY’s Arc Stages, directed by Adam Pascal.

  Andrew Kober and Lili Thomas.

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   The Best Medicine, by Amy Judd Lieberman, will run Sept. 19 – Oct. 11 at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Jane E. Unger.

  Caroline Aaron.

  Free-spirited Rachel finally trades her independence for a long-term marriage. At last, she’s found a connection worthy of commitment with conviction! That is, until the universe decides to test her.

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   Pre-Existing Condition, by Marin Ireland, will begin previews Sept. 1 and open Sept. 14 at the  Greenwich House Theatre (27 Barrow St.), directed by Maria Dizza.

(rotating): Lupita Nyong’o, Edie Falco, Phillipa Soo, Hari Nef, and Susannah Flood.

  The play centers on an unnamed woman named A, exploring the quiet challenges and everyday indignities of moving forward after a life-altering relationship.

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  The filmed version of Broadway’s Fallen Angels, directed by Scott Ellis, will arrive in movie theaters on Oct. 22.

  Rose Byrne (Jane Banbury), Kelli O’Hara (Julia Sterroll), Tracee Chimo (Saunders) Mark Consuelos (Baurice Duclos), Tracee Chimo Saunders (Saunders), Christopher Fitzgerald (Will Banbury), and Asif Mandavi (Fred Sterroll), with Tina Benco, Max Gordon Moore, Christopher Innvar, and Laura Shoop.

   Click here for the official trailer.

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   Rogue Artists Ensemble will present the world premiere of Robin Gerber’s  The Best Medicine, to run Sept. 19 – Oct. 11 at the Odyssey Ensemble, directed by Jane E. Unger.

   Caroline Aaron.

   Free-spirited Rachel finally trades her independence for a long-term marriage. At last, she’s found a connection worthy of commitment with conviction! That is, until the universe decides to test her. In this laugh-out-loud open-hearted solo show.

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   The Feel Good Story, by Mark Wilding, directed by Charlie Mount, will run Oct. 2 – Nov. 8 at Theatre West.

  Samantha Greory (Felicity Davenport), Jill Remez (Leslie Fing), Danielle Weeks (Taylor Griffin), Clara Rodriguez (Marorie Dombrowski),  John Combs (Mitch Dombrowski), Steve Nevil (Gerald Botts), and Bella Balsamo (Jenna Rubin), with Casey  Alcloser, and Paul Gunning.

    It’s a year after six brave Americans escaped the Hand of God, the most notorious group of terrorists on the planet. The heroes have gathered for a reunion on a 60 Minutes–type news magazine. We’ll come to find out that not all was as it seemed during their captivity. In addition, the hostages are making demands that could scuttle the broadcast. Will they get to tell their harrowing story to America or not?

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  The filmed production of Broadway’s Fallen Angels will arrive in movie theaters Oct. 22.

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  Out With A Bang, by Tony Pasqualini, continues through Sept. 6 at Pacific Resident Theater, directed by Andrew Weyman.

  Sarah Brooke (Betty Amalfitan),  Robert Lesser (Daniel Katzenberg), and Tony Pasqualini (Eddie).

  Eddie Cappiello is trapped, living out his life in the Out With A Bang Senior Living Community. His ex-wife Betty – recently widowed from her second husband – arrives at his door one day and asks him to help her get revenge on a neighbor who has made her life intolerable. Eddie, longing to reawaken the love that the two of them once had, makes the fateful decision to assist in the endeavor. He enlists his good friend and next-door neighbor, a former Israeli accountant and professional mourner, Daniel. The three of them devise a dangerous and blatantly illegal plot to deal with her recalcitrant neighbor.

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   Water for Elephants will run Sept. 8 – 27 at the Pantages Theatre, directed by Jessica Stone.

   Zachary Keller (Jacob Janikowski), Helen Krueshinski (Marlena), Robert Tully (Mr. Jankowski), Connor Sullivan (Augsust), Javier Garcia (Camel), ruby Giggs (Barbara), Grant Hunneycutt (Wade), and Tyler West (Walter), with Fran Alvarez Jara, Yves Artieres, Chris Carsten, Adam Fullick, Nancy Gutierrez, Ella Huestis, Sam Kellar-Long, ZaKeyia Lacey, Andrew Meier, Marina Mendoza, John Neurohr, Bradley Parrish, Carl Robinett, Summer Severin, Serafina Walker, and Yemie Woo.

   After losing what matters most, a young man jumps a moving train unsure of where the road will take him and finds a new home with the remarkable crew of a traveling circus, and a life—and love—beyond his wildest dreams. Seen through the eyes of his older self, his adventure becomes a poignant reminder that if you choose the ride, life can begin again at any age.

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   The Best Medicine, by Robin Gerber, will run Oct. 7 – Nov. 10 (opening Oct. 10) at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Jane E. Unger.

  Caroline Aaron

  A new play about love, marriage & Parkinsons.  A laugh-out-loud, open-hearted solo show about caregiving, marriage, resilience and unexpected joy. A free spirit who has long prized her independence, Rachel has finally found a relationship worthy of commitment. Then the universe decides to test her. That “in sickness and in health” vow becomes a distant memory when Rachel’s husband is diagnosed with a progressive, incurable disease, and she’s thrust into the job she’s least suited for: self-sacrificing caregiver. A stand-up comedy class becomes her salvation and a portal to a transformative truth about life and connection. More than a romantic comedy.

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  Answers :  Batter Up! by Jim Bernhard

1-F. “Betty’s Pitch” from Sunset Boulevard

2-E. “Hit It, Lorraine” from 70, Girls, 70

3-I. “Catch My Garter” from The Happy Time

4-J. “Run and Tell That” from Hairspray

5-A. “The Lambeth Walk” from Me and My Girl

6-B. “Throw That Girl Around” from Swing!

7-G. “Steal With Style” from The Robber Bridegroom

8-C. “When Young at the Bar You First Taught Me to Score” from The Beggar’s Opera

9-H. “Slide Some Oil to Me” from The Wiz

10-D. “Strike Up the Band” from My One and Only

This Weekends’ Highlights:

Friday, August 28

   Good Grieff: Stories and Song, a 3-day installation and performance series, featuring Sara Barellis, opens at Lincoln Center Theatre.

  The Snow Goose, world premiere by Scott Gilmour & Claire McKenzie, directed by Marshall Paile, feauring Eric Graise (Philip Rhayader), Ashlyn Maddox (Frith), Ally Bonino (Harper), Sam Sherwood (The Bard), Charlie Webb (Wilf), David Aron Damane (Garrick), Gabriel Marcus Omlor (Farley), Ayanna Nicole Thomas (Clara), Amy Nillner Larsen (Mrs. Frumsey), and Ayanna Nicole Thomas (Clara), with Alan Chandler, Matthew Davies, Leah Hofmann, Kiersten Kelly, Sophia Anna O’Brien, Patrick Tombs, John Viggiano, Sam Hoffman and Jessica Money, Alan Chandler, Matthew Davies, Leah Hofmann (Lead Puppeteer), Kiersten Kelly, Sophia Anna O’Brien, Patrick Tombs, John Viggiano, Sam Hoffman, and Jessica Mone., opens at CT’s Goodspeed Musicals.

Saturday, August 29

  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, opens at LA’s A Noise Within.

  Hungry Woman, by Melissa Maney, directed by Daniella Caggiano, featuring Julia Lester, Zoe Dean, and Sophie Zmorrod, opens at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse.

  Labell & less, by Lea Lachey & Drew Lachey, directed by Drew Lachey, featuring Justin Daxt Bobbs, Nasir Butler, Antonio Davis, Micah Day, Abby Docherty, Diana Hutchinson, Iz Lachey, Kendall Maley, Colton Smith, and Kiwi Villalobos, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s The Duke on 42nd Street & New 43nd Studios (229 W. 42nd St.).

  Pasadena Pops‘  Music of the Night: Andrew Lloyd Webber & Friends concert, conducted by Hugh Panaro, and featuring Hugh Panaro, Valeri Perri, and Scarlett STrallen, at  7:30 PM at the LA county Arboretum.

  did you charge your phone for the end of the world?, written & directed by Fletcher Michael , featuring Sean Hayes, Lucy Boisvert, Collin Dennis, and Fletcher Michael, closes at Off-Broadway’s Kraine Theater.

  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, closes at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.

Sunday, August 30

  Hungry Woman, by Melissa Maney, directed by Daniella Caggiano, featuring Julia Lester, Zoe Dean, and Sophie Zmorrod, opens at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse.

  Good Grieff: Stories and Song, a 3-day installation and performance series, featuring Sara Barellis, closes at Lincoln Center Theatre.

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   Purpose,  by Branden Jacobs Jenkins, will run Sept. 10 – Oct. 11 (opening Sept. 16), at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion, directed by  Josiah Davis.

  Ezra Knight (solomon Jasper), Phyllis Yvonne Stickney (Claudine Jasmer), Omar Chancellor Jasper), Ugo Chukwu (Solomon Junior), MarHadoo Effeh (Morgan Jasper), and  Kalyne Cole (Aziza Houston), with  Chris Everett, Kiera Prusmack, Omar Robinson, and Joshua Wolf Coleman.

  The explosive and wildly entertaining new play from Tony winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, diving headlong into the life of a prominent and influential political dynasty.  Encircled by civil rights leaders, pastors, and congressmen for decades, the Jasper family is a foundational pillar of Black American society. That is, until their youngest son returns home with an unexpected dinner guest, and their carefully curated existence begins to fracture.

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  Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes concert will take place Oct. 1 at 7:30 PM at at NYC’s 92nd Street Y.

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   The Fallen, world premiere of a new Western drama by Rita Lewis, will begin preview Oct. 10 and open at the Chain Theatre, directed by Ken Wolf.

  Christopher Whalen (Joseph Adams), Bill Morton (Henry Nash), Jessica Luhmann  (Lily Nash), Cameron Parker (Lucas), Chelsea Clark (Abigail Nash), Nathan Cusson (Will), and Gabriella Russo (Sarah Adams).

   A new Western drama about two broken families whose lives converge on the Colorado frontier. Joseph Adams is a Colorado farmer haunted by the family he left behind. Lily Nash is a fierce young woman struggling to find freedom from a home scarred by violence. When their paths cross, each is forced to confront the past and the family they can no longer run from. Bound by secrets and the choices of the past, they must find the courage to face what has torn them apart.

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  Musical Theatre Gild‘s Here’s to Us!,celebrating the Guild’s 30 Years, conceived & created by Kim Huber & Michael Kostroff, on Sun. Oct. 11 at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage.

  Elizabeth Adabale, Eydie Alyson,  Eilen Barnett, Anastasia Barzee, and Roger Befeler.

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   All My Sons will run  Sept. 18 – Oct. 18 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Scott Edmiston.

   Laura Marie Duncan (Kate Keller), Boll Bootos (Joe Keller), Mark Souza (Chris Keller), Josephine Moshiri Elwood Ann Deever), Allison Beaurgard (Sue Baliss), Chris Heuisler (Dr. Jim Baliss), Quinton Kappel (George Deever), Cara Clough (Lydia), Eric McGowan (Frank Lubey), and Julisan Hirshfield (Bert).

  Summer 1947. Joe Keller, a self-made businessman and respected pillar of the community, lives with his wife Kate in an idyllic neighborhood. It’s a good life even though their younger son, Larry, is still missing after the war. When their oldest son Chris announces his intention to marry Larry’s childhood sweetheart, deeply buried truths find their way to the surface, forcing the Keller’s — and their entire community — to reckon with themselves. Inspired by a true story, Arthur Miller’s classic drama explores how decisions result in untold consequences.

Today’s Highlights:

  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by John Gordon & Ruby Rich, featuring Sam Andrews (Snug & Mote), Kaleb Baker (Demetrius), Martin Challinor (Puck),  Aaron Cirillo (Lysander), Isabel Criado (Hermia), Robert Daniel (Flute), Catherine Desciak (Hippolyta / Mustardseed), Caroline Feduccia (Starveling / Cobweb), Rosalind Joyce (Snout / Peaseblossom), Julianne Lorndale (Helena), James Mackey (Oberon / Theseus), Abdullah Naser (Nick Bottom),  Ruby Rich (Titania), and Tony Savage Thorn (Egeus / Peter Quince), opens at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T/New York Theatres.

  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, closes at LA’s Odyssey Theatre.

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   The LA Women’s Theatre Festival will present Encore! on Fri. Oct. 16 at 7 PM at the Glorya Kaufman Community Center (Glorya Kaufman Community Center, 10858 Culver Boulevard, Culver City), hosted by Terrie Silverman and Jenny Cadena.

Katie  Chin, Vanessa Cruz, Sarai Hicks, Marissa Mahoney, Rheagan Wallace.

  An evening of solo theatre and dance performances (participants TBA)

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  Rebecca Chace’s Obit will run Sept. 17 – Oct. 4 at Theater for the New City, directed by Will Steinberger.

  Richard Topol and Carolyn Holding.

 When an advance-obituary writer arrives to interview a college president about his life and legacy, a routine professional encounter becomes an armed interrogation. She is carrying a gun, a grievance, and the power to decide how the world will remember the man she holds responsible for ruining her family.

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   The Latino Theater Company will present  The Dance and the Railroad, by David Henry Hwang, to run Oct. 1 – Nov. 1 (opening Oct. 3) at at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, directed by Katherine Chou.

  Leonard Wu  and Scott Keiji Takeda

  Lone and Ma are immigrant laborers building the transcontinental railroad during the Chinese Railroad Workers’ Strike of 1867. The two men form an unexpected bond through their shared love of Chinese opera. Together, they practice the ancient art form atop a mountain in the Sierra Nevada, finding connection and a sense of possibility even as their fellow workers below confront brutal labor conditions, isolation and cultural displacement. A play about labor, identity, friendship and the power of artistic expression.

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   Obit, by Rebecca Chace will run  Sept. 17 – Oct. 4 at Theater for the New City, directed by Will Steinberger.

   Richard Topol (Philip Stern, the college president) and Carolyn Holding (journalist Maya Hawthorne and her long-dead mother, Angela).

  President Stern is also an art monster, who hopes this interview will solidify his legacy with a glowing obituary in the Times. What follows is a cat and mouse game in which the armed journalist demands answers from the man who ruined her life years earlier.  The two characters engage in an intricate dance of charm and cruelty, vulnerability and shame. The deck is stacked in favor of the obituary writer, because the subject will never be able to read what she writes.  But she may never actually find out why he ruined her mother, which in turn ruined Maya.  It’s a play of interrogation, professional power, and control of a person’s legacy that explores whether revenge can ever produce truth. You can come for the revenge, stay for the suspense, and leave arguing about justice.

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   Manhattan Theatre Club has announced its  Broadway 2026-27 season:

Dates, casting, and additional information TBA.

  Celebrity Autobiography at the Imperial Theatre

  Paranormal Activity, directed by Felix Barrett

  School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play, directed by Whitney White

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   Purpose, by Branden  Jacobs-Jenkins, will run Sept. 10 – Oct. 11 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, directed by Josiah Davis.

  Phyllis Yvonne Stickney (Claudine Jasper), Ezra Knight (Solomon Jasper),  Ugo Chukwu (Soloman “Junior” Jasper), Haradoo Effeh (Morgan Jasper),  OMari K. Chancellor (Nazareth Jasper), and Kalyne Ashley Coleman (Aziza Houston).

   A wildly entertaining new play, diving headlong into the life of a prominent and influential political dynasty.  Encircled by civil rights leaders, pastors, and congressmen for decades, the Jasper family is a foundational pillar of Black American society. That is, until their youngest son returns home with an unexpected dinner guest, and their carefully curated existence begins to fracture. Don’t miss this searing and hilarious exploration of faith, class, ambition, and heritage.

   Off-Broadway’s MCC Theatre  has announced its 2026-27 season:

Casting TBA.

  Anon, by Anne Washburn (begins Sept. 2026.), directed by  Anne Kauffman.  . when a   gay Pride flag  unfurled across the street from Jeanie, an increasingly Tick toker, in a suburban Texas, two seemingly different households… freak out. How well do you know the people you live among, in an America where the line between fantasy and reality has become increasingly optional.

   The Heart Sellers, (Jan. 27 dates TBA)  by Lloyd Suh, directed by  May Adrales.    When Jane and Luna, two immigrant strangers, meet on Thanksgiving in 1973, they decide to spend this strange, new holiday together over an evening full of shared laughs, dreams, and a frozen turkey that refuses to thaw.

   What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (June 2027 dates TBA), directed by Anne Kauffman.

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   A live taping of Confessions of a Sugar Baby, written & performed by Allison Dayne, and directed by Cameron Lopez, will take place Fri. Sept. 25 at 8 PM at Santa Monica’s The Crow (2525 Michigan Ave., with free parking, at Bergamot Station Arts Center).

  A raw, fiercely comedic 60-minute solo show, every word true. When an uninsured 29-year-old actress collapses and is given eight months to live,the hospital demands $800,000 in cash upfront at a predatory 785 interest rate, her parents have already liquidated their retirement for her father’s cancer, and her trust-fund boyfriend declines: “I don’t think it’s healthy for me to help you fix your financial needs. I’m a feminist.” She refuses to take on the debt, even if it means dying: “The moment you have debt, you’ve invited someone to own you. And I’m not interested in being owned at all.” Then a clinic nurse gives her the only useful advice of her diagnosis: “You’re a white girl with a fat ass in Atlanta. You know what to do.”

Today’s Highlights:

Relax … let go … let fly…

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  Reviews for Paranormal Activity at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre.

Click here for all the reviews.

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   Broadway Grosses for the week ending Aug. 26.

Click here for the complete analysis.

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   The Lion King will run Dec. 17 – Feb. 13, 2027 at the Pantages Theatre, directed by Julie Taymor.

  Peter Hargrave (Scar), David D’Lancy Wilson (Mufasa), Zama Magudulela (Rafiki), Nick Cordileone (Timon), Nick La Medica (Zazu), Danny Grumich (Pumbaa), Gilbert Comally )Simba), Thembelihle (Cele), Forest Van Dyke (Banzai), Martina Sykes (Shenzi), and Sam Linda (Ed).

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  The Hope Theory, written & performed by Helder Guimarães, will run Sept. 9 – Dec. 6 at NY City Center, Stage 2, directed by Frank Marshall.

   As a Portuguese immigrant, storyteller, and sleight-of-hand magician, Helder Guimarães arrived in America at age 29. Wide-eyed and full of ideas, he discovers a fascinating puzzle of cultural and professional challenges to solve while he tries to build a home, this riveting one-man show interweaves sleight-of-hand illusions and life stories from Guimarães’ experience immigrating to the U.S. and aspiring for a life in magic.

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   Candide will run Nov. 21 – Dec. 13 at LA Opera,  conducted by Lina González-Granados, and directed by Francesca Zambello.

 Duke Kim (Candide), Meghan Picerno (Cunegonde), Patti LuPone (Old Lady), Mario Manzo ( (Maximilian / Father), Kristen Choi (Paquette), Katie Trigg (Baroness / Vanderdendur), Vinícius Costa (James / Martin), Samuel Wallace (Cacambo), and Bernard Holcomb (Barron/Don Issachar/Govenor), with Erin Alford,  Erin Alford, Andrea Beason, Julia Harnett, Amber Liekhus, Peter Murphy, and David Prottas,

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   Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s Benefit Concert will take place Sat. Oct. 10 at 8 PM at The  Historic Private Estate in Toluca Lake, CA, with the Pacific Jazz Orchestra.

Click here for more information and tickets.

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   The world premiere of Ava Pickett’s Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy will run Sept. 3 – Oct. 10 at Stratford East, directed by Lisa Spirling.

  Michelle Dockery (Helen) and Laura Aikman (Cee).

   Years after she walked out on her family, Helen has returned home after a war fought in her name. Her husband celebrates, her childhood friend Cee does not. Over the course of this first fragile night of peace time, wounds reopen, loyalties fracture and the true cost of a woman’s choice to leave her life is made clear.  A play about friendship, motherhood, and what happens when the woman whose face started a war, returns home to finish it.

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  The world premiere of Judd Lieberman’s Shells will run Sept. 19 –  Oct. 11 at the  Greenway Court Theatre, directed by Stephanie O’Neill.

  Zachary Bones, Sol Marina Crespo, Eric Fagundes, Liesel Hanson, Caeden Healander, Sarah Mass and Napoleon  Tavale.

  Judd Lieberman’s personal experience with a neighbor who pulled a loaded gun and shot her, unprompted — and the lasting impact of that violation on her life and how gun violence affects the world around her. We are telling this story through an absurdist lens—the play is funny, playful, and surreal while being true and of this moment.  In the aftermath of an unexpected encounter with a violent neighbor, Evvy is just trying to get back to work. But now she has a wound, and the world around her may never be normal again…or maybe it never was. Inspired by a true story, Shells is an absurdist dark comedy utilizing puppetry and physical humor about coping with the farce and devastation of gun violence in an increasingly chaotic reality.

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    Theater for the New City‘s  Dream Up! Festival will  present John Harney’s Somewhere, Virginia, to run Sept. 8-12, directed by Anna Rebek.

   Jake Steinberg, Janelle Clayton, Chase Cortland Erwin, and Laura Whittenberger.

  Haunted by the past, Young Washingtonians confront the future.

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  Pasadena Pops will present. Music of the Night: Andrew lloyd Webber & Friends will take place Sat. Aug. 29 at 7:30 PM at the LA county Arboretum, conducted by Hugh Panaro.

  Hugh Panaro, Valeri Perri, and Scarlett Strallen.

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   The world Premiere Engagement The Case-B00k of C. Auguste Dupin.  Adapted and directed by John Strysik, will  run Sept. 17- Oct. 18 at Theatre Forty.

  Todd Andrew Ball, Randall Craig, Patrick Grant, Michael Mullen and Caroline Quigley.

  With Edgar Allan Poe’s creation of the character of C. Auguste Dupin, the master of the macabre forever changed crime fiction. Dupin was the first modern detective. He was the archetype for literary sleuths Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, solving seemingly unsolvable crimes with logic and astonishing deductions. This play brings together Poe’s three spellbinding Dupin Mysteries: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter for an engrossing evening of murder, mayhem and meerschaum pipes.

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    A Celebration of Rodgers & Hart will take place Mon. Oct. 5 at 7:30 PM at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), directed by Danny Mefford

  Lilli Cooper, Darren Criss, Michael Feinstein, Santino Fontana, Myles Frost, Elizabeth Gillies, Caissie Levy, Lizzy McAlpine, Molly Ringwald, Awa Sal Secka, and more TBA.

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  The Snow Goose, world premiere by Scott Gilmour & Claire McKenzie, directed by Marshall Paile, will run Aug. 28 – Oct. 18 at CTs Goodspeed Musicals,

  Eric Graise (Philip Rhayader), Ashlyn Maddox (Frith), Ally Bonino (Harper), Sam Sherwood (The Bard), Charlie Webb (Wilf), David Aron Damane (Garrick), Gabriel Marcus Omlor (Farley), Ayanna Nicole Thomas (Clara), Amy Nillner Larsen (Mrs. Frumsey), and Ayanna Nicole Thomas (Clara), with Alan Chandler, Matthew Davies, Leah Hofmann, Kiersten Kelly, Sophia Anna O’Brien, Patrick Tombs, John Viggiano, Sam Hoffman and Jessica Money, Alan Chandler, Matthew Davies, Leah Hofmann (Lead Puppeteer), Kiersten Kelly, Sophia Anna O’Brien, Patrick Tombs, John Viggiano, Sam Hoffman, and Jessica Mone.

   On the windswept coast of England an unlikely bond forms between Philip, a reclusive artist shunned by society, and Frith, a resilient young woman, when they rescue a wounded snow goose. With World War II looming, their friendship allows her to imagine a life beyond her village, and him to confront his own humanity as he sets sail on a daring journey to save soldiers trapped at Dunkirk.

Today’s Highlights:

  Paranormal Activity, by Levi Holloway, directed by Felix Barrett, featuring Cher Álvarez (Lou), Travis A. Knight (James), Shannon Cochran (Carolanne), and Andrea Syglowski (Etheline Cotgrave,) with Caron Buinis, Caroline Hendricks, and Michael Holding, opens at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre.

  Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Matthew Gardiner, featuring Jason Gotay (Franklin Shepard), Melanie Field (Mary Flynn), and Jake Loewenthal (Charly Kringas), opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.

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   Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, by Duncan Sheik & Leah Nanako Winkler, will begin previews Sept. 25 and open  Oct. 1 at, directed & choreographed by Rob Ashford at The Night Egg at the Culture Club (530 W. 27th St.).

  Anne Caruso (Colette,) Cory Jeacoma Léon Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Nana), Andy Bakun (Sakae), and Jenny Powers (Madame), with Leanne Antonio, Kailin Brown,  Michael Everett, Elsa Keefe, Jaedynn Latter, Austin Lesch, Nika Lindsay, Caleb Marshall, Jessie Peltier, Michael Starr, and Thomas Winter.

   A daring new musical about Colette, a witty young dreamer in 20th-century Paris, who finds her power through writing. While working at an elusive maison close called Night Egg, she begins chronicling the fantasies, confessions, and private sorrows of her eccentric clients, slowly transforming herself from object to observer—turning perversions into art. But underneath her sharp intelligence and growing independence, Colette has her own perversion she cannot outrun: a lingering, destructive attachment to Léon (Jeacoma), her childhood love, whose toxic hold on her continues to blur the line between devotion and self-destruction.

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   September 10, by Art Sheman, directed by by Art Shulman, will run Sept 11 – Oct 4 at Studio City’s Two Roads Theatre.

   Michael Berckart, Ezra Black, Jane Bonem, Andrew Edmondson, Jillian McWhirter, Tammy Mora, Skel Osmani, Morry Schorr, Sandra Tucker, Marcia Woodridge and Harout Yesayan.

  One evening a woman confesses to her husband that she’s been unfaithful. The date is September 10, 2001. The next morning, their private crisis is eclipsed by a national tragedy — best known as 9/11. As the couple watches coverage on television, and works through their relationship, we meet various ordinary people affected by the event: a sportswriter, a firefighter, a woman rediscovering her faith, a graffiti artist, a street vendor selling American flags, an evangelist, and others.

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  The world premiere of Ann Washburn’s Anon will run Sept. 25  – Nov. 21 at MCC Theatre, directed by  Anne  Kauffman.

   Jeremy Sahamos, Crystal Finn, Jeff Bieh. Ander Garman, and Pzabel Mar.

  When a gay pride flag is unfurled across the street from Jeanie, an increasingly online TikToker in a suburb in Texas, two seemingly different households…freak out. How well do  you know the people you live among, and with, in an America where the line between fantasy and reality has become increasingly optional?

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   LA’s Actors’ Gang has announced it’s 2026-27 season:

Casting & additional information TBA.

     Two Gentlebots of Verona (continues through Aug. 30)

   The women of Lockerbie (Sept. 10-27), by Deborah Brevoort, directed by Chirstin Harris

   Children of the Winter Kingdom (Nov. 19 – Dec. 19), by Adam Dugas and Mary Eileen O’Donnell

   The Adding Machine (Jan. 21 – Mar. 13, 2027), by Elmer Rice.

   Further Fractured Fables (Apr. 17 – May 29)

   The Exonerated (May 6 – Jun 19)

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    The Great Gatsby is offering  2-for-1 tickets Dec. 8-20 at the Broadway Theatre.

Use code 241BSHOW for for  standard 2-for-1 tickets, or code UPBWSHOW if you want to select upgraded seating options.

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   Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon will run Sept 9 – Nov.. 2 at Amas Musical Theatre, directed by directed by David Zippel. (Froth),

  Hilary Kole, John Pagano and Ava Locknar.

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     Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon will return Sept. 16  – Nov. 29  (opening Sept. 16) at the Margorie S. Deane Lilttle Theater, directed by David Zippel.

    Hilary Kole, John and Pagano, Tay-Tynisa Wilson.

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   Measure for Meaure will run Sept. 22–Nov. 1 at DC’s Folger Theatre, directed by Psalmayene 24.

   Renea S. Brown (Isabella), Nathan Darrow (The Duke), JaBen Early (Claudio), Jonathan Feuer (Lucio), Sean Fri (Provost), Maryanne Henderson (Juliet),Ahmad Kamal (Pompey), Lee Osorio (Angelo), Chinai Routté (Mistress Overdone/Francisca), Ryan Sellers (Elbow), John Sygar (Froth), Holly Twyford (Escalus), and Renee Elizabeth Wilson (Mariana).

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   Video:  Matt Werner’s Burning Man the Musical is now avaialble to watch for free.

. Morgan Siobhan Breen (Molly), Tally Sessions (Bill the Billionaire), aMax Crum (Chad), Michelle Duffy (Hazel the Hippie), and Troy Iwata (joe).

  Follow Molly, a promising young tech grad, as she returns to the playa of Black Rock City – this time employed by the very tech company that, unbeknownst to her, seeks to destroy it. After being given the task of acquiring drugs for her boss’s exclusive party, Molly finds herself on a journey inward – and through the community of Burning Man – finds her truest self.

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My apologies for the unusually short newsletter today.  Tech issuses.

Today’s Highlights:

Relax … let go … let fly…

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    World Leaders by Jim Bernhard

Provide the missing world leader in these show titles.

Scroll down for the answers.

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   The world premiere of Mark Wilding’s The Feel Good Story America Needs Right Now will run Oct. 2 – Nov. 8 at Theatre West, directed by Charlie Mount.

  Samantha Gregory (Felicity Davenport), Jill Remez (Leslie Finch), Danielle Weeks (Tayylor Griffin), Clara Rodriguez (Marjorie Dombrowski), John Combs (Mitch Dombrowski), Steve Nevil (Gerald Pott), and Bella Balsamo (Jenna Rubin).

  It’s a year after six brave Americans escaped the Hand of God, the most notorious group of terrorists on the planet. The heroes have gathered for a reunion on a 60 Minutes–type news magazine. We’ll come to find out that not all was as it seemed during their captivity. In addition, the hostages are making demands that could scuttle the broadcast. Will they get to tell their harrowing story to America or not?

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  Windows, by Tawni O’Dell, will run Sept.  10 & 12 at Arizona Theater Company, directed by Mitchell Maxwell.

   Bryan Batt, Peter Bradbury, Bob Cuccioli, Jeffrey Donovan,  Priscilla Lopez, Alyssa Melani, Jesse Nager, Gayle Samuel, Cheryl Stern, Rachel York, and, Rachel Zatcoff.

  Fear, hilarity, anger, loss, and love unfolding behind curtains, blinds, broken glass, and bars. Whether navigating the self-reflection of isolation, or the unease of a chance meeting between strangers in need, or the simple realization of how much we value our most basic connection with others, Windows delves into the devastation and new beginnings found in a world forced to face an abyss together but alone. What we each endured as individuals when time suddenly stood still may have differed, but we were all changed by the experience. Our characters reshaped. For better or worse.

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   Our Sinatra, A Musical Celebration will run Sept. 11 – Nov. 29  (opening Sept. 15), at The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater (10 West 64th S.), directed by Kurt Stamm.

  Eric Comstock, Christopher Gines and Hilary Kole.

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    The 2026 New Works Selected has been announced, to take place Sept. Sept. 18-19  at CA’s Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West.

Participating works:

  A Collectible Sensation, by Amy Engelhardt, Ben Zeadman, Arianna Rose & Amy Engelhardt.

   A Folklorico Superhero Musical,with music, lyrics, and book by Jesse J. Sanchez.

  A Collectible Sensation, Amy Engelhardt, and  Arianna Rose, and Miss Hysteria, Ben Zeadman, and book and lyrics by Laura Schein, and Zapata.

  A Folklorico Superhero Musical, by  Jesse J. Sanchez.

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  Buyer & Cellar, by Jonathan Tolins, will run Oct. 7 – 25 (opening Oct. 10) at Santa Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre, directed by Jamie Torcellini.

   Brian McDonald

  Alex is an out-of-work actor, who lands the strangest gig of his life: working in the private shopping mall that Barbra Streisand built in the basement of her Malibu estate. As he tends to the antique doll shop, gift wrapping station, and frozen yogurt counter in the deserted mall, his only customer is Barbra herself. What begins as a surreal job becomes an unexpected friendship as Alex navigates the absurd reality of playing shopkeeper to one of the world’s biggest stars. Jonathan Tolins‘ solo comedy is a witty, warm, and wonderfully theatrical meditation on celebrity, consumerism, and the price of living in someone else’s fantasy.

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 Memoirs of Amorous Genetleman, by Lea Nanako Winkler Duncan Sheik, &  Lah Nanako Winkler will begin previews Sept. 25  at open Jan. 3, 2027  The Night Egg’ at the Culture Club, directed & choreograph by Rob Ashford. 

  Sophia Anne Caruso (Colettez0,  Cory Jeacoma ((Léon),  Nkeki Obi-Melekwe ( Nana, Andy Bakun (Sakae), and Jenny Powers (Madame), with Leanne Antonio), Kailin  Brown,  Michael Everett , Elsa Keefe, Jaedynn, Austin Lesch, Nika Lindsay, Caleb Marshall, Jessie Peltier, Michael Starr, and Thomas Winter.

  Colette (Caruso), a witty young dreamer in 20th-century Paris, finds her power through writing. While working at an elusive maison close called Night Egg, she begins chronicling the fantasies, confessions, and private sorrows of her eccentric clients, slowly transforming herself from object to observer—turning perversions into art. But underneath her sharp intelligence and growing independence, Colette has her own perversion she cannot outrun: a lingering, destructive attachment to Léon (Jeacoma), her child.

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  Answers:  World Leaders by Jim Bernhard

1-D. The Chinese Prime Minister, play by Enid Bagnold

 2-J. The Selling of the President, musical by Bob James, Jack O’Brien, and

Stuart Hample

3-G.   The Elder Statesman, play by T. S. Eliot

4-C.  The Sultan of Sulu, musical by George Ade and Alfred C. Wathall

5-I.  The Sleeping Prince, play by Terence Rattigan

6-B.  Exit the King, play by Eugene Ionesco

7-H.  The Queen and the Rebels, play by Ugo Betti

8-F.  The Emperor Jones, play Eugene O’Neill

9-E. The Governor’s Son, musical by George M. Cohan

10-A.  Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, play

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.

Today’s Highlights:

  Noises Off, by Michael Frayn, directed by Gordon Greenberg, featuring Erin Davie (Belinda Blair), Abby Leigh Huffstetler ( Poppy Norton-Taylor), Nehal Joshi (Garry Lejeune), Leslie Margherita (Dottie Otley), Orville Mendoza (Selsden Mowgray), James Josephe O’Neil (Frederick Fellowes), Geoff Packard (Lloyd Dallas), Jennifer Sánzhez (Brook Ashton), and Evan Alexander Smith (Tim Allgood), opens at MA’s Barrington Stage Company.

  Captain Show Biz free benefit reading, by Bruce Vilanch, featuring Lesley Ann Warren, Alec Mapa, Garrett Clayton, and more, at 8 PM at LA’s Harmony Gold.

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   Shelter in Place, by Henry Feldman, continues through Oct. 4 at Theatre Row, directed by Joan Kane.

   Mike Roche (Frank Bennett, the hotel keeper), Martin Revere (George Bennett, his father), Alyssa Simon (Heidi Murphty, the TV spychologist, Aaron Lamm (Sam Bennet, Frank’s son, and Haley Zale (Mildred Bennett, Frank’s Wife).

   A category 3 hurricane is heading toward the Pelican Bay Bed and Breakfast, but the real storm is brewing inside. A Gulf Coast innkeeper who, attempting to secure his bed and breakfast during a hurricane, finds himself trapped inside with the people who complicate his life the most.

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   Our Man in Santiago, by Mark Wilding, will run Sept. 10 – 20 at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Elizabeth Herron.

  Mark Irvingsen (Jack Wilson), Toby Guthrie (Daniel Baker), anfelina Ramirez (Maria Troncoso), allen Wasserman (Henry Kissinger), and Edward Giron (President Richard Nixon).

  A comic political spy thriller about a bothched 1970 operation in Chile.  Not everything goes smoothly. Especially regime change. Of course, when the CIA sends a glee club to overthrow Chile’s President, what can you expect next? The answer is OUR MAN IN SANTIAGO. Chile. 1973. After the first bungled attempt to overthrow President Allende, the CIA sends in two decidedly unsuitable agents to oust the Chilean President.

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   Rent continues through Sept. 13 at PA’s Bucks County Playhouse, directed & choreographed by Jennifer Weber.

   Austin Turner (Roger Davis), Sam Primack (Mark Cohen), Alysia Velez (Mimi Marquez), Owen Scales (Tom Collins,) David Merino (Angel Schunard), Veronica Otim (Joanne Jefferson), Tiernan Tunnicliffe (Maureen Johnson) and Kevin Trinio Perdido (Benjamin Coffin III), with Dré Hinds, Aubrey Jones, ack Hopewell, Michael Marrero, Lauren Soto, and Sunayna Smith.

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  Unconditional, A Musical Memoir, by William Mellon, will run Oct. 15 – 25  at Club La Mama, directed by Anne Kenny.

  Margot Rose

   The remarkable true story of two women who dared to build a family on their own terms. In a time when LGBTQ+ families had few roadmaps and even fewer legal protections, the story follows their years-long journey through fertility treatments, financial sacrifices, community support, and unwavering commitment to becoming parents until… the unspeakable happens. What begins as a deeply personal quest becomes a celebration of chosen family, perseverance, and the extraordinary things people will do for love.

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   Kaiju, by Dan Caffrey will run Sept. 22 – Nov. 1 (opening sSept. 25) at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre, directed by Ken Sawer.

  Leandro Cano, Cherish Monique Duke, Jon Snow, Gabie Faulkner, Noa Lev-Ari,  Billy Baker, Sapna Kumar, Ann Hearn, and Genki Hall.

  The play follows two 250-foot tall mythical monsters debating the morality of a citywide destruction they just caused, cutting back and forth with a group of human theatergoers aggressively arguing at a post-show talkback, serving as an audacious satire on ar t, destruction, and live performances.

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   Newsies will run Sept. 8-13 at (opening Sept. 9) at Kansas City Starlight, directed & choreographed by David Grindrod.

   Lucas Pastrana (Jack Kelly), Graham Rowat (Joseph Pulitzer), Aubrey Matalon (Katherine Plummer), Bryonha Marie (Medda Larkin), Andy Bakun (Davey), Ryan Jacobs (Crutchie), Carson Cornwell (alternating as Les), and Lucas Gutierrez-Sullenger (alternating as Less), Maddox Bane (Oscar Delancey, and Jake Bartley (Sepcs), with Tessa Brethowr.

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   Musical Theatre Guild  will present of Here’s to Us!—The Musical Theatre Guild Celebrates 30 Years on Sun. Oct. 11 at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, conceived and created by Kim Huber  & Michael Kostroff.

  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, and David Zack.

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  BBC Radio the Royal Court Theatre will celebrate  contemporary playwriting  with a new radio production of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children, to be curated by Mark Ravenhill, and broadcast across the UK onSat. Sept. 26 on BBC Radio 4 from 3 – 4:30PM.

  Anastasia Hille and Stanley Holloway.

  The play follows retired nuclear physicists Hazel  and Robin (Stanley Holloway), who wonder why their former colleague Rose (Emma Fielding) has turned up at their house near the damaged power station where they used to work. Over the course of the play, old alliances and divisions are exposed and it becomes clear that Rose has a challenging proposition for her old friends, as the play explores personal and professional responsibility within the context of a global crisis.

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   BBC Radio 4 & the the Royal Court Theatre will present a radio broadcast of Les Misérables on Sept. 26 – Oct. 2  from 3-4:30 PM, directed by David Byrne.

   Aimee Doherty (Madam Thenadier), Paul Mesendy (Mr. Thenardier), with Christopher Chew, Kristian Espiritu, and De’Lon Grant.

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  Little Women will run Nov. 6 – 22 at Musical Theatre West at Long Beach’s Carpenter for the Performing Arts Center, directed & choreographed by Cate Caplin.

   Jenna Lea Rosen ( Jo March), and more TBA.

Today’s Highlights:

  Noises Off, directed by Gordon Greenberg, featuring Erin Davie (Belinda Blair), Abby Leigh Huffstetler (Poppy Norton-Taylor), Nehal Joshi (Garry Lejeune, )Lesli Margherita (Dottie Otley), Orville Mendoza (Selsden Mowbray), James Joseph O’Neil (Frederick Fellowes,) Geoff Packard (Lloyd Dallas), Jennifer Sánchez (Brooke Ashton), and Evan Alexander Smith ((Tim Allgood), opens at MA’s Barrington Stage Company.

  A new adaptation of An Enemy of the People, 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.

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  Broadway Grosses for the week ending Aug.16.

Click here for the complete analysis.

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   Arthur Miller’s All My Sons will run Sept. 18 – Oct. 18 at Lyric Stage Boston, directed by Scott Edmiston.

  Laura Marie Duncan, Josephine Moshiri Elwood, Allison Beauregard, Cara Clough, Julian Hirshfield, and Eric McGowan.

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  All these Pretty Things, written & performed by Tracey Yarad, will run Sept. 29 – Oct. 1 at Theatre Row, directed by David Deblinger.

  Mike Roche(Frank Bennett, the hotel keeper) Martin Revere (George Bennett, his father); Alyssa Simon (Heidi Murphy, the TV psychologist), Aaron Lamm (Sam Bennett, Frank’s son),  and Haley Zale (Mildred Bennett, Frank’s wife).

   When a 23-year marriage implodes, one woman turns heartbreak into a razor-sharp musical confession that’s as funny as it is fearless. #TrueStory Part memoir, part concert, part catharsis, All These Pretty Things is Tracey Yarad at her most vulnerable —and most powerful. What begins as a deeply personal unraveling becomes an outlandish, seemingly impossible dream brought to life. From Australia to New York City, this is a skin shedding story of reinvention, resilience, and radical honesty. Performed more than 80 times worldwide — including two seasons at Edinburgh — the show has left audiences floored, many moved to tears, others laughing out loud. Yarad’s ability to “bridge dreams into reality,” as one audience member described it, is one of her superpowers. Nuanced with razor wit and underscored by her skill as a world-class musician and songwriter, the evening unfolds like music itself: tension, release, resolution. A masterclass in turning poison into medicine and how to move on.

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  Broadway’s Ragtime closing performance shattered the Lincoln Center Theatre box office shattered its own box office record for the fourth time at the Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, by grossing $1,963,666.00 for 8 performances for the week ending Aug. 26.

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   Henry Feldman’s Shelter in Place will run Sept. 18 – Oct 4 at Theatre Row, directed by Joan Kane.

Mike roche (Frank Bennett, the inkeeper), Martin Revere (George Bennet, Frank’s Father), Alyssa Simon (Heidi Murphy (the TV psychologist), Aaron Lamm (Sam Bennet, Frank’s son), and Haley Zale (Mildred Bennett, Frank’s wife).

   A category 3 hurricane is heading toward the Pelican Bay Bed and Breakfast, but the real storm is brewing inside. When it rains, it pours.  Hurricane Claudia, a Category 3 monster, is heading toward the Pelican Bay Bed and Breakfast. Frank Bennett, its hapless, high-strung hotel manager, is preparing to both evacuate the place and sell it. An unexpected series of arrivals upends his carefully laid plans. His suicidal father comes to “help” but is quietly plotting to end his own life.  A famous female TV psychologist, fleeing a professional and personal crisis, holes up in the room off the lobby, seeking solitude. Frank’s flamboyant ex-wife seeks refuge after discovering that the muscular young man she left Frank for has abandoned her. Their twenty-year-old son is desperately in love and must convince his fiancee that he “comes from a good home” by reuniting his divorced parents. With a mandatory shelter-in-place order in effect, all these ragtag characters, including Frank himself, areforced to confront emotional storms they have been avoiding. A lifelong people-pleaser, Frank has spent years putting everyone else’s needs before his own. Now he finds himself confronting a question many members of the “sandwich generation” eventually face: when does he get his own turn? “Shelter Inn Place” comically explores the process of starting over, accepting family members for who they are, and finding happiness even when there’s nowhere else to go.

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   Out With A Bang, by Tony Pasqualini, continues through Sept. 6 at Venice, CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Andy Weyman.

  Brooke (Betty Amalfitano), Robert Lesser (Daniel Katzenberg), and Tony Pasqualini (Eddie Capiello).

Eddie Cappiello is trapped living out his life in the Out With A Bang Senior Living Community. When his ex-wife Betty – recently widowed from her second husband – arrives at his door one day and asks him to help her get revenge on a neighbor who has made her life intolerable, Eddie, longing to reawaken the love he and she once had, makes the fateful decision to help. He enlists his good friend and next-door neighbor, a former Israeli accountant and professional mourner, Daniel, and the three of them devise a dangerous and blatantly illegal plot to deal with her recalcitrant neighbor.

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  Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, by Duncan Sheik & Leah Nanako Winkler, will run Sept. 25 – Jan. 3, 2027 (opening Oct. 15) at “The Night Egg” at the Culture Club,  directed & choreographed by Rob Ashford.

  Sophia Anne Caruso (Colette), Cory Jeacoma (Léon), Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Nana), Andy Bakun (Sakae), and Jenny Powers  (Madame),  with Leanne Antonio, Kailin Brown, Michael Everett, Elsa Keefe, Jaedynn Latter, Austin Lesch, Nika Lindsay, Caleb Marshall),Jessie Peltier, Michael Starr, and Thomas Winter.

 Colette is a young woman workking in a brothel (maison close) in early 20th century Parris. She navigates a difficult life of satisfying eccectric clients, finds solace in writing, and struggles with a toxic romance.