This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, April 15
International City Theatre‘s A Doll’s House, Part 2, by Lucas Hnath, directed by Trevor Biship-Gillespie, featuring Jennifer Shelton (Nora), Eileen T’Kaye (Anne Marie), Scott Roberts (Torvald), and Nicolette Ellis (Emmy), opens at Long Beach’s PAC.
Prima Facie, by Suzie Miller, directed by Justin Martin, starring Jodie Comer, begins previews at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre.
Marys Seacole, by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Nadia Latif, featuring Kayla Meikle (Mary Seacole), Déja J. Bowens (Mamie), Llewella Gideon (Duppy Mary, Esther Smith (Miriam, Olivia Williams (May), and Susan Wooldridge (Merry), begins previews at London’s Donmar Warehouse.
A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder, directed by Spiro Veloudos, featuring Leigh Barrett, Tersa Winner Blume, Neil A. Casey, Aimee Doherty, Jennifer Ellis, Kate Klika, Lori L’Italien, Todd McNeel Jr., Karen Murphy, Robert St. Laurence, Phil Tayler and Jared Troilo, begins previews at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston.
Asolo Rep‘s Knoxville, world premiere by Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens, directed by Frank Galati, featuring Jason Danieley (James Agee), Hannah Elless (Mary Follet), Paul Alexander Nolan (Jay Follet), Ellen Harvey (Aunt Hannah Lynch), Nathan Salstone (Andrew Lynch), Sarah Aili (Sally Follet), Natalie Venetia Belcon (Jessie), Dwelvan David (Ferryman/Dr. Dekalb), Jack Casey (Rufus Follet), Barbara Marineau (Cathering), William Parry (Joel), Abigail Stephenson (Victoria), Joel Waggoner (Ralph Follet), and Scott Wakefield (Man at the Scene), with Alan Chandler, Sade Crosby, Ian Johnston, Patricia M. Lawrence, and Sharon Pearlman, begins previews at FL’s FSU Center for the Performing Arts.
Jaime Lozano’s Songs by an Immigrant concert, featuring Andréa Burns, Eden Espinosa, Shereen Pimentel, Florencia Cuenca, Nicholas Edwards, Javier Ignacio, Mauricio Martínez, and Marina Pires, at 7:30 PM ET at Lincoln Center‘s Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse.
Saturday, April 16
Dream Girls, directed by Anthony Stockard, featuring Katelan Corprew (Deena Jones), ShaaNi Dent (Lorell Robinson), Amorise White (Effie Melody White), Zipporah Gatling (Michelle Morris/Stepp Sister), Michael Giamille (Jimmy Early), Khan’El (Curtis Taylor Jr.), Adam Moskowitz (C.C. White), Myles Whitaker (Marty), William Belvin (Tiny Joe Dixon), Michael Alston (Mr. Morgan/Jerry Dwight/Stage Manager), Keighton Bell (Tru-Tone), and Aniyah Blair-Young (Stepp Sister), with Shevette Bryant, Micah Cook, Corasha ‘Coco’ Dent, Anthony Faulkner, Juan Purdie, Mikayla Revell, Xavier Smith, and Anthony Mark Stockard, opens at Virginia Stage.
Impro Theatre‘s Jane Austen Unscripted, directed by Sara Mountjoy-Pepka and Paul Rogan, featuring company members, opens at Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre (in the outdoor garden).
Both And (a play about laughing while black), world premiere written by & starring Carolyn Ratteray, directed by Andi Chapman, opens at Pasadena’s Boston Court.
The New York Theatre Community (24 institutions) presents New York Theatre Artists for Ukraine, offering FREE livestream readings & conversations from 10 AM – 10 PM ET via HowlRound.
Once On This Island, directed by Pascale Florestal, featuring Peli Naomi Woods (Ti Moune), Becky Bass, Jonathan Gallegos, Kira Sarai Helper, Lovely Hoffman, Christina Jones, Kenny Lee, Reagan Massó, Malik Mitchell, Davron S. Monroe, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Anthony Pires Jr., and Kira Troilo, closes at Boston’s Speakeasy Stage.
Sunday, April 17
The Minutes, by Tracy Letts, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, featuring Tracy Letts, Blair Brown, Jessie Mueller, Ian Barford, K. Todd Freeman, and Austin Pendleton, with Cliff Chamberlain, Danny McCarthy, Sally Murphy, Jeff Still, and Noah Reid, opens at Broadway’s Studio 54.
Pan Asian Rep‘s Citizen Wong, by Richard Chang, directed by Ernest Abuba & Chongren Fan, featuring Bonnie Black, Shing Chung, Scott Klavan, Nick Jordan, Malka Wallick, and Tobias Wong, opens at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T./New York Theatres.
A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder, directed by Spiro Veloudos, featuring Leigh Barrett, Tersa Winner Blume, Neil A. Casey, Aimee Doherty, Jennifer Ellis, Kate Klika, Lori L’Italien, Todd McNeel Jr., Karen Murphy, Robert St. Laurence, Phil Tayler and Jared Troilo, opens at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston.
Audible Theater‘s presentation of Coal Country, by Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, directed by Blank, featuring Mary Bacon, Amelia Campbell, Kym Gomes, Ezra Knight, Thomas Kopache, Michael Laurence, Deirdre Madigan, and Carl Palmer, closes at Off-Broadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre.
Catch Me If You Can, directed by Molly Smith, featuring Christian Thompson (Frank Abagnale Jr.), Nehal Joshi (Carl Hanratty), Jeff McCarthy (Frank Sr.), Rhett Guter (Roger Strong), Hayley Podschun (Brenda Strong), Alexandra Frohlinger (Carol Strong), and Stephanie Pope (Paula), with Cara Rose DiPietro, Jermiah Ginn, Candice Hatakeyama, Ryan Lambert, Jody Reynard, Kyra Louise Smith, Kristin Yancy, Brianna Latrash, Bryan Charles Moore, and Brett-Marco Glauser, closes at DC’s Arena Stage.
Bhangin’ It: A Bangin’ New Musical, world premiere by Mike Lew, Rehana Lew Mirza, Sam Willmott & Deep Singh, directed by Stafford Arima, featuring Ari Afsar (Mary), Aryaan Arora (Mohan), Bilaal Avaz (Amit), Jesse Bhamrah (Gobind), Brandon Contreras (Billy), Laura Dadap (Constance), Henry Walter Greenberg (Noah), Jason Heil (Wallace), Terrance Johnson (Jake), Jaya Joshi (Sunita), Madison McBride (Lily), Anu Mysore (Shetal), Amey Natu (Big Bob), Alka Nayyar (Rekha), Zain Patel (Varun), Devi Peot New Mary), Vinithra Raj (Preeti), and Ramita Ravi (Shilpa), with Nikki Mirza, Gerry Tonella, and Levin Valavil, closes at La Jolla Playhouse.
Jesus Christ Superstar, directed by Daniel C. Levine, featuring Caitlin Kinnunen (Mary), Brett Stoelker (Jesus), and Avionce Hoyles (Judas), with Chris Balestriere, Corinne Broadbent, Reggie Bromell, Susie Carroll, Ben Cherington, Randy Donaldson, Courtney Long, Marlena Hilderly Lopez, Kelly MacMillan, Michael McGuirk, Val Moranto, Ariel Neydavoud, Andrew Stevens Purdy, Isaac Ryckeghem, Sonya Venugopal, Cole Wachman, and Caitlin Witty, closes at Ridgefield’s A Contemporary Theatre of Connecticut.
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Reviews for American Buffalo at Broadway’s Circle in the Square:
NY Times (Jesse Green): … the electric revival…Teach is embodied with coiled and then terrifyingly uncoiled ferocity by Sam Rockwell, making a great occasion of a great role… Laurence Fishburne in a beautifully considered performance… Bobby, played by the angelic if underpowered Darren Criss… To see American Buffalo now, in a time when everyone seems to talk like Teach, is to be unsurprised — and thus, in a way, more harrowed. What could be more terrible than to realize we’ve acclimated to the ideas the play introduced?… Yet this revival, its third on Broadway, is too compelling to permit complacency. Directed with gleeful energy by Neil Pepe…
NY Daily News (Chris Jones): …accomplished and all-in cast made up of Sam Rockwell, Laurence Fishburne and Darren Criss, working under the energized direction of Neil Pepe… The script is a work of genius, of course, and a much misunderstood masterpiece. But this revival — although lively and highly entertaining and far better cast than the 2008 attempt — doesn’t delve so deep into the real emotional core of the drama. Pity. It has the horses to do so… Pepe knows when to keep audiences in the dark. But what we don’t really see here is the battle for Bobby’s soul…
Variety (Daniel D’Addario): …revival laden with a great deal of historical clutter that might make it hard to see on its own terms… Mamet’s turn toward a strident sort of right-wing political outspokenness… it comes at a less-than-apt moment for this show, which already feels emptied of the vitality that characterizes the best of Mamet… this American Buffalo lacks the granularity and specificity to say much of anything, let alone make a case for its creator’s continued relevance… American Buffalo” is less about the execution of a scheme than about the ways its going wrong tears apart a group of three men who ought to be allies. But the coming-apart feels signposted, rigorously forecast.
Theatermania (Kenji Fujishima): …a new Broadway revival of one of his [David Mamet] most famous plays, American Buffalo, can’t help but feel just a tad out of step with current sociopolitical trends. That may matter to some theatergoers more than others… there are genuine pleasures to be had in witnessing these three skilled performers verbally parry and thrust with each other under the guidance of a director, Neil Pepe, whose experience with bringing Mamet’s distinctive vernacular to life onstage is everywhere evident… one of the chief delights of this revival lies in the palpable relish with which the cast attacks Mamet’s lines, which have not lost any of their raw poetry in the intervening decades…
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Reviews for Blues for an Alabama Sky at LA’s Mark Taper Forum:
LA Times (Charles McNulty): The plays of Pearl Cleage have left an impression of unfinished business… John Iacovelli, who has once again been enlisted to bring the play’s 1930 Harlem milieu to life. His gorgeously moody scenic design… Cleage sets up the world of the play with a novelist’s expansiveness. There’s no rush to establish a central conflict… The pace can feel sluggish at points but the relationships of the characters sustain our interest even when their individual storylines seem stalled or muddled.
Broadway World (Andrew Child): …there is nothing fresh, urgent, or timely about the piece… Phylicia Rashad’s staging lacks any nuance which may keep an audience invested… Tensions fall and punchlines are lost as every entrance is drawn out ten-fold… The runtime could be reduced at least by a quarter if we didn’t have to wait for every actor to walk forty feet before they’ve even entered the scene… So little happens in this play that it seems to be begging for intimacy…
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Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Spring Gala 2022 will take place Mon. May 23 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Cipriani’s.
Bobbie Olsen
Creative team and Performers TBA.
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Boston’s The Huntington has announced its 2022-23 season:
Sing Street (Aug. 26 – Oct. 2), by Enda Walsh, Gary Clark & John Carney, directed by Rebecca Taichman, with choreography by Sonya Tayeh.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Oct. 14 – Nov. 13), directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
Bhangin’ It: A Bhangin’ New Musical (Dec. 2 – Jan. 8, 2023), by Mike Lew, Rehanna Lew Mirza, Sam Willmott & Deep Singh, directed by Stafford Arima.
The Art of Burning (Jan. 13 – Feb. 12), by Kate Snodgrass, directed by Melia Bensussen. 
Mid-negotiation, modernist painter Patricia changes the terms of her “conscious uncoupling” with Jasaon. She wants full custody of their 15-year-old daughter Beth. Jason demands that her daughter decide, but mysteriously Beth did show up for school.
K-I-S-S-I-N-G (Mar. 3 – Apr. 2), by Lenelle Moïse, directed by Dawn. M. Simmons. Lala makes fine art on the back of pizza boxes. A sweet and sticky summer inspires her to romance Dani, a budding feminist – and Albert, his smooth-talking twin.
Clyde’s (Mar. 31 – Apr. 30), by Lynn Nottage.
Joe and Pandemic (Apr. 21 – May 21), by Taylor Mac, directed by Loretta Greco. The play questions how our passions regarding family, art, and war impact the very meaning of our lives.
…and one more TBA.
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Scooter Pietsch’s Windfall will run May 31 – June 19 (0pening June 4) at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater, directed by Jason Alexander.
Spencer Garrett (Glenn Brannon), Ro Boddie (Galvan Kidd), Badia Farha (Kate Rearden), Abigail Isom (Hannah Higley), Stalia Thiesfield (Jacqueline Vanderbilt), and Dylan S. Wallach (Chris Hart).
Five office workers in Columbus, Ohio toll under the heavy hand of a maniacal boss and dream of a better life. When the boss’s antics become too much to bear, they bet their every last cent on a one-billion-dollar lottery jackpot. But the prospect of winning brings out the worst in these best friends.
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A screening of he new documentary, “Keeping Company With Sondheim,” will be followed by a conversation, on Mon. May 23 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 92Y.
Katrina Lenk, Patti LuPone, and Marianne Elliot.
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Porchlight Music Theatre‘s Chicago Sings Sondheim will take place Mon. May 23 at 5:30 PM CT at Chicago’s Musem of Contemporary Art, directed by Michael Weber, with music direction by David Fiorello.
Larry Adams, Neala Barron, Brianna Borger, Justin Brill, Christine Bunuan, Lydia Burke, Billy Dwyer, Andres Enriquez, Nancy Godinez, Cecilia Iole, Paul-Jordan Jansen, Mark David Kaplan, Parker Guidry, Clare Kennedy, Becky Keeshin, Nik Robinson, Lorenzo Rush Jr., Laura Savage, Kelan M. Smith, and Genevieve Thiers.
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Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage will run May 12-29 (opening May 13) at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Peter Allas.
Lisa LoCicero, Matthew Downs, Jack Esformes, and Leilani Smith.
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An Evening with Laura Benanti will take place Fri. Apr. 29 at 8:30 PM CT at St. Louis’ Sheldon Concert Hall.
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An Intimate Evening with Carol Connors will take place Thurs. May 19 at 8:30 PM PT at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club, hosted by Dan Gore.
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Darren Criss welcomed his first child with wife Mia Swier on April 11. They have named the baby Bluesy Belle Criss.
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Principal casting has been announced for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, to run Aug. 12-18 at the St. Louis Muny, directed & choreographed by Josh Rhodes, with music direction by Sinai Tabak.
(Jason Gotay (Joseph), Jessica Vosk (Narrator), Eric Jordan Young (Jacob / Potiphar / Guru), and Mykal Kilgore (Pharoah), with more TBA.
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BC/EFA will present it’s annual Broadway Backwards concert on Mon. May 23 at 8 PM ET at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre.
Creative team and casting TBA.
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Ariana DeBose will star in in Jen Rivas-DeLoose’s new film “Two and Only.”
Complete casting, timeline, and additional information TBA.
A bisexual, Latinx twist on “By Best Friend’s Wedding.”