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This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, April 12
The Comeuppance, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Erin Ting, featuring Yolanda Kettle, Ferdinand Kingsley, Tamara Lawrance, Katie Leung, and Anthony Welsh, opens at London’s Almeida Theatre.
Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer, directed by Laura Gordon, featuring Josh Bates, Will Blum, Madeline Calais-King, Scott Campbell, Cate Castelli, Ellen Grace Diehl, Victoria Alev Duffy, Liz Huff, Dylan Ireland, Shunté Lofton, Steve Marvel, Gavin Michaels, Alfredo Ruiz, Jonathan Smoots, September Stanton, Owen Connor Stout, and Price Waldman, opens at Cleveland Playhouse.
Prelude to a Kiss, world premiere by Craig Lucas, Sean Haartley & Daniel Messé, directed by David Ivers, featuring Hannah Corneau (Rita), Jonathan Gillard Daly (Julius), Julie Garnyé (Leah), Jimmie “J.J.” Jeter (Taylor), James Moye (Rita’s Dad), Chris McCarrell (Peter), DeAnne Stewart (Angie), and Karen Ziemba (Rita’s Mom), with Bella Hicks, Robert Knight, Caroline Pernick, Tristan J. Shuler. Rachel Lykins and Robert Zelaya, opens at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Rep.
Churchill, by Ronald Keaton, starring David Payne, opens at St. Louis‘ Westport Playhouse.
High Maintenance, world premiere by Peter Ritt, directed by Stan Zimmerman, featuring Tommy Dickie (Thesbot Prime), Kris Frost (Alan), Alex Ingram (Samm), Ivy Khan (Laura), Merrick McCartha (Gus), Christian Prentice (Roger), and Amy Tolsky (Vera), opens at North Hollywood’s Road on Magnolia.
Ophelia, written & directed by Stefan Marks, featuring Deborah Geffner (Mom), Tatus Langton (Her), and Stefan Marks (Son), with Amy Braddock, opens at LA’s Odyssey Theatre.
Staff Meal, by Abe Koogler, directed by Morgan Green, featuring Jess Barbagallo (Server), Susannah Flood (Mina), Hampton Fluker (Waiter), Greg Keller (Ben), Erin Markey (Vagrant), and Coral Peña (Server), with Stephanie Berry, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons.
Million Dollar Quartet, directed by Tim Seib, featuring Will Riddle (Carl Perkins), David Lee Elkins (Johnny Cash), Garrett Forrestal (Jerry Lee Lewis), L J Benet (Elvis Presley), Summer Breer (Dyanne), Benny Lipson (Jay “Brother Jay” Perkins), Lonn Hayes (W.S. “Flude” Holland), and Adam Poole (Sam Phillips), previews at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West.
Cabaret On the Rocks benefit concert, in support of Out Boulder County, with music direction by John McDaniel featuring Hugh Panaro and Latrice Royale, at 8 PM at Colorado’s Boulder Theater.
Saturday, April 13
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, by August Wilson, directed by Chuck Smith, featuring A.C. Smith (Herald Loomis), Harper Anthony (Reuben Mercer), Anthony Fleming III (Jeremy Furlow), TayLar (Bertha Holly), Gary Houston (Rutherford Selig), Kylah Jones (Zonia), Nambi E. Kelley (Mattie Campbell), Krystel V. McNeil (Molly Cunningham), Tim Rhoze (Bynum Walker), Shariba Rivers (Martha Loomis) and Dexter Zollicoffer (Seth Holly), with Sean Blake, Stacie Doublin, Kristin E. Ellis, Anthony Irons, Bill McGough, Jean-Luc Nazaire, André Teamer, and Riley Lauren Wells, begins previews at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
Sweeney Todd concert presentation, directed by Tom Quaintance, featuring Rod Gilfry (Sweeney Todd),Donna Lynne Champlin (Mrs. Lovett), Matt Leisy (Tobias), Amy Owens (Johanna), John Riesen (Anthony), Chuck Cooper (Judge Turpin), Cree Carrico (Beggar Woman), and Richard Torxell (Pirelli), with Stormie Trviño, at 7:30 PM at Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall.
Sunday, April 14
Lempicka, by Carson Kreitzer & Matt Gould, directed by Rachel Chavkin, featuring Eden Espinosa (Tamara de Lempicka), Amber Iman (Rafaela), Andrew Samonsky (Taduesz Lempi), George Abud (Marinetti), Natlalie Joy Johnson (Suzy Solidor), Zoe Glick (Kizette), Nathaniel Stamply (Baron), and Beth Leavel )Baroness), with Mariand Torres, Alex Aquilino, Lauren Blackman, Stephen Brower, Kyle Brown, Holli’ Conway, Abby Matsusaka, Jimin Moon, Khori Michelle Petinaud, Ximone Rose, Nicholas Ward, Veronica Fiaoni, Michael Milkanin, Mary Page Nance, and Julio Rey, opens at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre.
Gun & Powder, by Angelica Chéri & Ross Baum, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, featuring Rickens Anantua, Reed Campbell, Carrie Compere, Meghan Olivia Corbett, Joann Gilliam, Francesca Granell, Aaron Arnell Harrington, Mary Claire King, Malik Shabazz Kitchen, Rayshun LaMarr, Zonya Love, Tiffany Mann, Tony Perry, Adam Roberts, Hank Santos, Christine Shepard, Katie Thompson, Aurelia Williams, and Jason SweetTooth Williams, opens at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse.
Fat Ham, by James Ijames, directed by Sideeq Heard, featuring Nikki Crawford (Tedra), Chris Herbie Holland (Tio), Billy Eugene Jones (Rev/Pap), Adrianna Mitchell (Opal), Marcel Spears (Juicy) Benja Kay Thomas (Rabby) and Matthew Elijah Webb Larry), opens at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Brooklyn Laundry, world premiere written & directed by John Patrick Shanley, featuring Cecily Strong (Fran), David Zayas (Owen), Florencia Lozano (Trish), and Andrea Syglowski (Susie), closes at Off-Broadway’s NY City Center.
Primary Stages‘ production of Charles Busch’s Ibsen’s Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy, directed by Carl Andress. featuring Charles Busch (Suzannah Ibsen), Thomas Gibson (Wolf), Jen Cody (Gerda), Christopher Borg (George Elstad/The Rat Wife), Judy Kaye (Magdalene Thoresen), and Jennifer Van Dyck (Hanna Solberg), with Kate Hampton, closes at Off-Broadway’s 59 E. 59 Theaters.
Without You, Anthony Rapp‘s autobiographical solo show closes at Boston’s Wimberly Theatre.
Churchill, by Ronald Keaton, starring David Payne, closes at St. Louis’ Westport Playhouse.
A Permanent Image, by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Andrew Weyman, featuring Phil Cass (Martin), Terry Davis (Carol), Scott Jackson (Bo), and Dalia Vosylius (Ally), closes at Venice, CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre.
The Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh, directed by Brian Allman, featuring Steven O’Brien (Katurian), Daniel T. McCann (Tupolski),, Paul Ian Stanley (Ariel), and Kimberly DeMarse (Michal), closes at LA’s Broadwater Main Stage.
Faithless, world premiere by John Klein, directed by Maria Gobetti, featuring John Idakitis, Jon Sprik, Melissa Ortiz, and Josee Gourdine, closes at Burbank’s Victory Theatre Center.
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Reviews for The Outsiders at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green) For many young misfits and wannabes, “The Outsiders,” published in 1967, is still a sacred text… it spoke with eyewitness authority to teenage alienation… now seem like exhibits in a midcentury angst museum… These tender qualities argue against stage adaptation, as does Francis Ford Coppola’s choppy, murky 1983 movie… Harshness tempered with naïveté is central to its style and argument. To turn the novel into a Broadway musical, with the gloss of song and dance that entails, would thus seem a category error worse even than the film’s… and yet the musical…has been made with so much love and sincerity it survives with most of its heart intact… Also key to the show’s power is the director Danya Taymor’s rivetingly sensorial approach to the storytelling…
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …This new Broadway musical… is not all I had hoped… The show loses its narrative thread in a second act where the requisite narrative tension dissipates instead of intensifying and the show, which lacks the humor of the structurally similar Newsies, gets stuck in an overly introspective and melancholic loop. It’s understandable why: the source novel is proudly reflective and ruminative but musicals invariably have to be fueled by action, emotional change and resolvable determination… The bottom line is that you are not led to feel enough for the three orphaned Curtis boys, all trying to survive here in the cruel world after losing their parents in a car crash…
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): Danya Taymor’s production brings fire and rain to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre… The deluge arrives during the climactic rumble scene, perversely transforming this coming-of-age story about brotherhood and the gravitational pull of class into an Abercrombie & Fitch photoshoot. It adds nothing to the story… For the record, there is plenty that is right… The score (by Justin Levine and Jamestown Revival’s Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) starts out especially strong with the rousing opener “Tulsa ’67”… From the very beginning, Danya Taymor’s production has purpose, momentum, and a strong point of view. So how does it all derail over the course of two-and-a-half hours?… I won’t entirely blame Levine and Adam Rapp’s book, which is a vast improvement on Francis Ford Coppola’s treacly film adaptation… the composers working hard…seem bored by the assignment, and consequently so are we.
New York Theatre Guide (Joe Dziemianowicz): The Outsiders, an always earnest and intermittently gripping new musical at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, boasts elements that will make you sit up and take notice… Director Danya Taymor’s energizing staging is one of them, while a choral moment so rousing it takes you by surprise is another. Brody Grant, a Broadway newcomer whose emotion-etched acting and vocals point to a bright star in the making, is another source of bragging rights… The score by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Levine is uneven… Choreographers Rick and Jeff Kuperman put the show in gymnastic, muscular motion. The climactic gang war surges in such stylized, cinematic fashion that my audience actually cheered. Despite its flaws, The Outsiders is ready to rumble…
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The national tour of Back to the Future will launch June 6, directed by John Rando. Click here for the complete tour schedule.
Don Stephenson (Doc Brown), Caden Brauch (Marty McFly), Burke Swanson (George McFly), Zan Berube (Lorraine Baines), Cartreze Tucker (Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry), Ethan Rogers (Biff Tannen), and Luke Antony Neville (Principal Strickland), with Joshua Abbott, Emily Applebaum, Tade Biesinger, Ina Black, Brittany Bohn, Luther Brooks IV, Alyssa Carol, Jenny Dalrymple, Laura Sky Herman, Will Jewett, Ben Lanham, Kiara Lee, Dwayne P. Mitchell, Zoe Brooke Reed, Fisher Lane Stewart, and Ross Thompson.
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Ronnie Larsen’s The Actors will run Apr. 27 – June 1 (opening May 8) at Theatre Row, directed by Stuart Meltzer.
Ronnie Larsen (Ronnie), Jeni Hacker (Jean), Allen Randall Rickman (Claire), Gabriell Salagado (Actor jay), and Jason Guy (Real Jay).
A man, grief-stricken by the death of his Mother, hires actors to come to his house a few times a week and be his family. But things don’t go quite as he planned.
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Video: Highlights from Paper Mill Playhouse’ Gun & P0wder.
The production, currently in previews, opens Apr. 14. See the listing in the Highlights section above.
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A new production of Rent will run Aug. 21 – Sept. 8 in Japan, directed by Trey Ellett. Click here for additional information,
Koji Yamamoto (Mark), Alex Boniello (Roger), Crystal Kay (Maureen), Chabely Ponce (Mimi), Jordan Dobson (Angel), and Aaron A. Harrington (Collins), with DevinRé Adams, Alana Cauthen, Travon Moore, Tori Palin, Stephen Rochet, James Schoppe, RYO, Kirk Lydell, and Analise Rios, and more TBA.
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Click here for Boston’s 41st Elliot Norton Award nominations.
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Provincetown Playhouse has announced its Summer Town Hall Concert Series:
Audra McDonald & Seth Rudetsky (May 26)
Claybourne Elder (July 7)
Jinkx Monsoon (July 14)
Denée Benton (Aug. 4)
Bianca del Rio (Aug.18)
Melissa Errico (Aug. 24)
Marilyn Maye (Aug. 25)
Indigo Girls (Sept. 1)
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Complete casting has been announced for Ahrens & Flaherty’s Lucky Stiff, to run May 3-12 at the AMT Theatre, directed by Robert W. Schneider, with choreography by Gerry McIntyre, and music direction by Miles Plant.
Patrick Brady (Harry), Missy Dowse (Annabell), Janine LaManna (Rita), and Robert Anthony Jones (Vinnie), Anania (Dominique), Narisa Budnick (Landlady), Alexander Carney (Uncle Anthony), Quinn Corcoran (Bellop), Eric Michael Gillett (Luigi), and Richard Rowan (Solicitor).
An offbeat, hilarious murder mystery farce, complete with mistaken identities, six million bucks in diamonds, and a corpse in a wheelchair. The story revolves around an unassuming English shoe salesman who is forced to take the embalmed body of his recently murdered uncle on a vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he succeed in passing his uncle off as alive, Harry Witherspoon stands to inherit $6,000,000. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn… or else his uncle’s gun-toting ex.
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Off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre will present 10-minute plays from This Is Not A Dream, on Mon. May 6, directed by Jodie Markell.
Anna Brovarna, Taya Fedorenko, Uliana Klimchuk, Tanya Kostyniuk, Asia Pshenychna, Sasha Sereda, and Karina Syrota.
Performers TBA.
Each play tells the story of people seeking connection and hope during wartime.
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Gingold Theatrical Group will present Noel Coward’s I’ll Leave It to You script-in-hand reading on Mon. Apr. 29 at 7 PM at Symphony Space, directed by David Staller.
Aaron Lee Battle, Susan Cella, Veanne Cox, Dan Domingues, Devin Kessler, Susannah Perkins, Vishaal Reddy, Thomas Jay Ryan, and Evie Shuckman.
The story of a widow with five grown children who turns to her mysterious millionaire brother for help. When he announces that he is doomed to die, and that he will leave his money to the family member who has made the most of their life before he leaves, comedy ensues.