Today’s Highlights:
The Prom national tour, directed & choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, featuring Kaden Kearney (Emma), Kalyn West (Alyssa Greene), Courtney Balan (Dee Dee Allen), Patrick Wetzel (Barry Glickman), Emily Borromeo (Angie Dickinson), Bud Weber (Trent Oliver), Sinclair Mitchell (Mr. Hawkins), Ashanti J’Aria (Mrs. Greene), And Shavey Brown (Sheldon Saperstein), Gabrielle Beckford, Ashley Bruce, Maurice Dawkins, Jordan De Leon, James Caleb Grice, Megan Grosso, Marie Gutierrez, Chloe Rae Kehm, Braden Allen King, Brandon J. Large, Alexa Margo, Christopher McCrewell, Adriana Negron, Marcus Phillips, Lexie Plath, Zoë Brooke Reed, Thad Turner Wilson, and Josh Zacher. opens at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.
The Public Theater‘s As You Like It FREE production, adapted by Shaina Taub, directed by Laurie Woolery, featuring Damion Allen (William), Tristan André (De Boys/Attendant), Ato Balankson-Wood (Orland0), Lori Brown-Niang (Agent), Brianna Cabrera (Silvia), Darius de Haas (Duke Senior), Bianca Edwards (Phoebe), Rebecca Naomi Jones (Rosalind), Jonathan Jordan (Andy), Renrick Palmer (Oliver), Eric Pierre (Duke Frederick), Idania Quezada (Celia), Christopher M. Ramirez (Touchstone), and Shaina Taub (Jaques), with Amar Atkins, Sean-Michael Bruno, Danyel Fulton, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Pierre Harmony Graves, Trevor McGhie, Mike Millán, Bobby Moody, Edwin Rivera, Kevin Tate, and Claudia Yanez, with Amar Atkins, Sean Michael Bruno, Danyel Fulton, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Pierre Harmony, Trevor McGhie, Mike Millán, Kevin Tate, and Claudia Yanez, begins previews at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre.
Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson, featuring Mark Rylance (Johnny “Rooster” Byron), Mackenzie Crook (Ginger), Kemi Awoderu (Pea), Alan David (The Professor), Shane David-Joseph (Mr. Parsons), Gerard Horan (Wesley), Ed Kear (Davey), Charlotte O’Leary (Tanya), Indra Ové (Dawn), Jack Riddiford (Lee), Barry Sloane (Troy Whitworth), Niky Wardley (Linda Fawcett), and Eleanor Worthington-Cox (Phaedra), with Kobe Champion-Norville, Jesse Manzi, Matteo Philbert while Abigail Green, Amanda Gordon, Callum Sheridan-Lee, Greg Snowden, and Anthony Taylor, closes at London’s Apollo Theatre.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Aug. 7.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “If you want to help the American theatre, don’t be an actress, be an audience.” ~Tallulah Bankhead
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Complete casting has been announced for 1776, which fun Sept. 16 – Jan. 8, 2023 (opening Oct. 6) at Roundabout‘s American Airlines Theatre, directed by Jeffrey L. Page & Diane Paulus, with music supervision by David Chase.
The cast includes multiple representations of race, ethnicity, and gender; they identify as female, transgender and nonbinary.
Crystal Lucas-Perry (John Adams), Gisela Adisa (Robert Livingston), Nancy Anderson (George Read), Becca Ayers (Col. Thomas McKean), Tiffani Barbour as (Andrew McNair), Carolee Carmello (John Dickinson), Allyson Kaye Daniel (Abigail Adams/Rev. Jonathan Witherspoon), Elizabeth A. Davis (Thomas Jefferson), Mehry Eslaminia (Charles Thomson), Joanna Glushak (Stephen Hopkins), Shawna Hamic (Richard Henry Lee), Eryn LeCroy (Martha Jefferson/Dr. Lyman Hall), Liz Mikel (John Hancock), Patrena Murray (Benjamin Franklin), Oneika Phillips (Joseph Hewes), Lulu Picart (Samuel Chase), Sara Porkalob (Edward Rutledge), Sushma Saha (Judge James Wilson), Brooke Simpson (Roger Sherman), Salome B. Smith (Courier), Sav Souza (Dr. Josiah Bartlett), and Jill Vallery (Caesar Rodney), with Ariella Serur, Grace Stockdale, and Imani Pearl Williams.
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Elizabeth McGovern’s Ava: The Secret Conversations will run Apr. 4 – May 7 (opening Apr. 13) at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel.
Elizabeth McGovern, and more TBA.
Ava Gardner is working with ghost writer Peter Evans on what was to be her tell-all biography, a real-life troubled project that was ultimately abandoned until portions of Evan’s work and notes were published following his death in 2012.
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Video: Arielle Jacobs performs “Speechless” from Disney’s Live-Action “Aladdin”
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Ain’t No Mo’, written by & starring Jordan E. Cooper, will begin previews Nov. 3 and open Dec. 1 at the Belasco Theatre, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.
The piece dares to ask the incendiary question, “What if the U.S. government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?”
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42nd Street will run Sept. 16 – Nov. 6 (opening Oct. 5) at CT’s Goodspeed Musicals, directed & choreographed by Randy Skinner, with music direction by Adam Souza.
Max von Essen (Julian Marsh), Kate Baldwin (Dorothy Brock), Blake Stadnik (Billy Lawlor), Carina-Kay Louchiey (Peggy Sawyer), David Jennings (Abner Dillon), Patrick Oliver Jones (Pat Denning), E. Clayton Cornelious (Bert Barry), Lisa Howard (Maggie Jones), Eloise Kropp (Annie Reilly), and Lamont Brown (Andy Lee), with Willie Clyde Beaton II, Sarah Dearstyne, Berklea Going, Candice Hatakeyama, Danielle Jackman, Edward Juvier, Taylor Lane, Brian Shimasaki Liebson, Brady Miller, Christian Probst, and Christopher Shin with swings Kirsty Fuller and Derek Luscutoff.
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Charles Kirsch’s Backstage Babble Live! will take place Tues. Sept. 6 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by Michael Lavine.
Beth Fowler, Brenda Braxton, Charles Busch, Meg Bussert, Len Cariou, Jill O’Hara, Brad Oscar, Christine Pedi, Kurt Peterson, and Lee Roy Reams.
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Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear have cancelled the London concert of their Unofficial Bridgerton Musical.
Previously set for September 20 at Royal Albert Hall, the move follows Netflix’s legal action seeking to stop future performances and recover profits derived from the unauthorized musical adaptation of the streaming series and books on which the series is based.
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LA’s Geffen Playhouse has announced its 2022-23 season:
The Inheritance (Part 1 & Part 2) (Sept. 13 – Nov. 27), by Matthew López, directed by Mike Donahue, featuring Nic Ashe, Bill Brochtup, Tantoo Cardinal, Juan Castano, Jay Donnell, Eric Flores, Israel Erron Ford, August Gray Gall, Adam Kantor, Eddie Lopez, Kasey Mahaffy, Miguel Pinzon, Avi Roque and Tuc Watkins.
Mindplay (Nov. 8 – Dec. 18), world premiere by Vinny DePonto & Josh Koenigsberg, directed by Andrew Neisler, starring Vinny DePonto. A love letter to the imperfect mind. Theater-maker and mentalist Vinny DePonto leads us on a raucous romp through the back channels of our innermost thoughts, exploring the fragmented and flawed nature of our memories, and asks us to question whether we can trust the voice inside our heads. In the spirit of the Geffen’s long tradition of magic comes an entirely new theatrical event in which your thoughts play a leading role.
The First Deep Breath (Jan. 31 – Mar. 5, 2023), by Lee Edward Colston II, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Pastor Albert Jones and his family are proud leaders of the Mother Bethel Baptist Church and pillars of their community. Plans are being made for a special memorial service to honor their late daughter Diane on the sixth anniversary of her passing. But when Abdul-Malik, the eldest son whom Albert blames for her death, returns home from prison, the family’s veneer begins to crack as shocking revelations come to light.
The Lonely Few (Feb. 28 – Apr. 9), world premiere by Rachel Bonds & Zoe Sarnak, featuring Lauren Patten and more TBA. Lila is getting by in her Kentucky hometown — scanning groceries at the Save-A-Lot, caring for her erratic brother, and living for Friday nights, when she plays a gig with her band The Lonely Few. And that’s enough. Or she thought it was, until Amy, an established musician ragged from the road, passes through and offers her a shot at something much, much bigger. But is Lila ready for the life she never dared to imagine?
Ava: The Secret Conversations (Apr. 4 – May 7, opening Apr. 13), written by & starring Elizabeth McGovern, directed by Mortiz von Stuelpnagel. “I either write the book or sell the jewels. I’m kinda sentimental about the jewels.” So says legendary Hollywood icon Ava Gardner (Elizabeth McGovern) to her ghost writer Peter Evans as they begin work on her tell-all biography that will shock Tinseltown. But as Peter attempts to glean the juicy details about her life story, her marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, and her turbulent relationship to Howard Hughes, an altogether different and unexpected journey unfolds in this theatrical glimpse into the private life of Hollywood’s original femme fatale.
The Mountaintop (June 6 – July 9), by Katori Hall, directed by Patricia McGregor
The Ants (June 20 – July 30), world premiere by Ramiz Monsef, directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. A breathtaking house on a hill — complete with the most state-of-the-art security that excessive wealth can buy — should feel like a refuge for Nami, whose recent firing and eviction have forced him to crash at his brother and sister-in-law’s luxury home. But on this dark and fateful night, a violent uprising outside leaves the three trapped in what they think is an impenetrable fortress. A horror play infused with darkly humorous social commentary.
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Video: “Inner Thoughts” from Between the Lines, at Off-Broadway’s Tony Kiser Theatre, featuring Vicki Lewis.
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Theresa Rebeck has replaced Bridget Carpenter as the book writer for the Broadway-aimed musical Working Girl, with music & lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. Christopher Ashley will direct.
Timeline and additional information TBA.
Working Girl is based on the Twentieth Century Fox motion picture written by Kevin Wade.
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Long Beach’s International City Theatre (link TBA) has announced its 2023 season:
tick, tick…BOOM! (Feb. 17 – Mar. 5), by Jonathan Larson.
Under the Skin (Apr. 28 – May 14), by Michael Hollinger. Lou needs a kidney. Yesterday. His daughter Raina’s got one to spare, but she’s also got issues. (Plenty of these.) Like, how come the sonofabitch had sex with so many women who weren’t her mother? Time leaps backward, forward and sideways. Secrets get aired and truths revealed.
Into the Breeches (June 7-25), by George Brant. It’s 1942, and the leading men of the local theater company in Long Beach, CA are fighting overseas. With “The Show Must Go On!” as their battle cry, a band of passionate, yet inexperienced, performers rally together to produce the theater’s season opener: an all-female version of Shakespeare’s ambitious Henry IV and Henry V. Will their production be a victory on the home front, or a target for rotten tomatoes?
Exit Wounds (Agu. 25 – Sept. 10), world premiere by Wendy Graf. The play looks behind the “ripped from the headlines” sensationalist story of a horrific tragedy to explore its effect on three generations of the perpetrator’s family. How do you find redemption when someone you love has committed a terrible crime? Can the families of the evildoers ever live a normal life again, or are they forever defined by the actions of one member?
Deathtrap (Oct. 20 – Nov. 5), directed by Jamie Torcellini.
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Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre has announced its Outdoor Summer Concert Series, to run Aug. 24-28, all at 8 PM PT on the theatre’s outdoor stage.
Joseph Leo Bwarie (Aug. 24)
Crystal Lewis (Aug. 25)
Ty Taylor (Aug. 26)
Alisan Porter (Aug. 27)
Don Most (Aug. 28)