This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, April 19
Stereophonic, by David Adjmi & Will Butler, directed by Daniel Aukin, featuring Will Brill (Reg), Andrew R. Butler (Charlie), Juliana Canfield (Holly), Eli Gel (Grover), Tom Pecinka (Peter), Sarah Pidgeon (Diana), and Chris Stack (Simon), opens at Broadway’s Golden Theatre.
Do Re Mi, by Betty Comden, Adolph Green & Garsin Kanin, directed by Robert W. Schneider, featuring Ian Lowe (Huey Cramm), Rebecca Spigelman (Kay Cramm), Caitlin Belcik (Tilda Wheeler), Tyler Okunski (Wheeler), Erick Michael Gillett (Fatso), John Leone (Skin), and Richard Rowas (Brains), with Caleb Funk, Mallory Nolting, and Kaylee Verble, opens at Off-Broadway AMT Theater.
Eddie Izzard’se Hamlet solo show opens at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip, by Michelle Tyrene Johnson, directed by Jazmine Nichelle, featuring Dominique Howard, Princess Ja’Net, Brieyonna Monét, Jazmine Nichelle, Elena Nicholson, and Tasia Williams, opens at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble.
Jersey Boys, directed by T.J. Dawson, featuring Noah Rivera (Frankie Valli), Taubert Nadalini (Bob Gaudio), Blake Burgess (Nick Massi), Chris Fore (Tommy DeVito), Gian Raffaele DiCostanzo (Joey), Adam Lendermon (Bob Crewe), Marlana Dunn (Mary Delgado), Maggie Ek (Francine), Michael Ray Fisher (Barry Belson), Mel Mehrabian (Lorraine), Dominic Pace (Gyp De Carlo), Quintan Craig (Hank Majewski), and Johnny diGiorgio (Norman Waxman), with Joe Abraham, Dayna Sauble, and Eran Scoggins, previews at CA’s La Mirada Theatre.
Saturday, April 20
Hell’s Kitchen, by Alicia Keys & Kristoffer Diaz, directed by Michael Greif, featuring Shoshana Bean (Jersey), Brandon Victor Dixon (Davis), Kecia Lewis (Miss Liza Jane), Chris Lee (Knuck), and Maleah Joi Moon (Ali), Chad Carstarphen (Ray,) Vanessa Ferguson (Tiny), Jakeim Hart (Q,) Jackie Leon (Jessica), Nyseli Vega (Millie), Lamont Walker II (‘Riq), and Rema Webb (Crystal), with Reid Clarke, Chloe Davis, Nico DeJesus, Timothy L. Edwards, David Guzman, Raechelle Manalo, Sarah Parker, Niki Saludez, Desmond Sean Ellington, Badia Farha, Gianna Harris, Jade Milan, Susan Oliveras, Oscar Whitney Jr., Takia Hopson, Onyxx Noel, Aaron Nicholas Patterson, William Roberson, and Donna Vivino, opens at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre.
Red Bull Theater‘s Macbeth workshop performances, directed by Nathan Winkelstein, featuring Jason C. Brown, Stephen Moyer, Kristine Nielsen, Jason O’Connell, Olivia Reis, Miriam Silverman, Derek Smith, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Raphael Nash Thompson, and Ayana Workman, opens at Off-Broadway’s Sheen Center.
Jersey Boys, directed by T.J. Dawson, featuring Noah Rivera (Frankie Valli), Taubert Nadalini (Bob Gaudio), Blake Burgess (Nick Massi), Chris Fore (Tommy DeVito), Gian Raffaele DiCostanzo (Joey), Adam Lendermon (Bob Crewe), Marlana Dunn (Mary Delgado), Maggie Ek (Francine), Michael Ray Fisher (Barry Belson), Mel Mehrabian (Lorraine), Dominic Pace (Gyp De Carlo), Quintan Craig (Hank Majewski), and Johnny diGiorgio (Norman Waxman), with Joe Abraham, Dayna Sauble, and Eran Scoggins, opens at CA’s La Mirada Theatre.
The Keep Going Songs, by The Bengsons, directed by Caitlin Sullivan, featuring Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Claire Tow Theater.
Theater Breaking Through Barriers‘ I Ought to Be in Pictures, directed by Nicholas Viselli, featuring Makenzie Morgan Gomez, Pamela Sabaugh, and Chris Thorn, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
Patti Lupone: A Life in Notes in concert at 7:30 PM at LA’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
The Absolute Adele Tribute concert, starring Jennifer Cella, at 8 PM at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater.
Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom, directed by Erwin Maas, featuring Len Cariou (Morrie) and Chris Doming (Mitch), closes at Off-Broadway’s St. George’s Episcopal Church.
A Mirror, by Sam Holcroft, directed by Jeremy Herrin, featuring Jonny Lee Miller (Čelik), Tanya Reynolds (Mei), Geoffrey Streatfeild (Bax). and Samuel Adewunmi (Adem), closes at London’s Trafalgar Theatre.
Sunday, April 21
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Mary Jane, world premiere by Amy Herzog, directed by Anne Kauffman, starring Rachel McAdams, opens at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, featuring Eddie Redmayne (Emcee), Gayle Rankin (Sally Bowles), Bebe Neuwirth (Fraulein Schneider), Ato Blankson-Wood (Cliff Bradshaw), Steven Skybell (Herr Schultz), Henry Gottfried (Ernst Ludwig), Natascia Diaz (Fraulen Kost/Fritzie), Gabi Campo (Frenchie), Ayla Ciccone-Burton (Helga), Colin Cunliffe (Hans), Marty Lauter (Victor), Loren Lester (Herman/Max), David Merino (Lulu), Julian Ramos (Bobby), MiMi Scardulla (Texas), and Paige Smallwood (Rosie), with Hannah Florence, Pedro Garza, Christian Kidd, Corinne Munsch, Chloé Nadson-Enriquez, and Karl Skyler Urban … along with the Prologue Company, which includes Alaïa, Will Ervin Jr., Sun Kim, Bryan Longchamp, Deja McNair, Ida Saki, and Spencer Weidie, opens at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre.
Tartuffe, directed by Richard Baird, featuring Kandis Chappell (Mme. Pernelle), Shanté Deloach (Mariane), Rogelio Douglas III (Damis), Bo Foxworth (Orgon), Katie Karel (Dorine), Melanie Lora (Elmire), Kate Rose Reynolds (Flipote/Police Officer/Laurent), Bruce Turk (Tartuffe), Jared Van Heel (Valere/M. Loyal), and Christopher M. Williams (Cleante), opens at Laguna Playhouse.
Galilee, 34, by Eleanor Burgess, directed by Davis McCallum, featuring Amy Brenneman (Miriam of Nazareth), Erick Berryman (Yacov of Nazareth), Christopher Cruz (Linus/Stranger), Teresa Avia Lim (Miri of Magdala, Sharon Omi (Elishiva), Benjamein Pelteson (Shimon of Bethesida), Jeremy Rabb (Mattiyahu/Ezra, and Raviv Ullman (Saul of Tarsus), opens at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Rep.
Jenna, Merle & Friends benefit concert (in support of Harvest Home), directed & hosted by Jenna Ushkowitz and Merle Dandridge, featuring Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cheyenne Jackson, Katie Lowes, Kevin McHale, Austin McKenzie, Adam Shapiro, Tracie Thoms, Carly Thomas Smith, Kim Dawson, Rachel Bay Jones, Carly Hughes, Ty Taylor, and Troy Baker, at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage.
Songbook Sundays: It Might As Well Be Rodgers & Hammerstein concert, with music direction by Tedd Firth, featuring Karrin Allyson, Jenn Gambatese and Tyreek McDole, at 5 & 7:30 PM at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Jazz Club.
Renee Fleming in Conversation with David Rubenstein: Music and Mind, at 7:30 PM at NYC’s 92NY.
Doubt, directed by Scott Ellis, featuring Amy Ryan (Sister Aloysius), Liev Schreiber (Father Flynn), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Mrs. Muller), and Zoe Kazan (Sister James), closes at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre.
Five: The Parody Musical, by Shimmy Braun, Moshiel Newman Daphna & Billy Recce, directed & choreographed by Jen Wineman, featuring Anyae Anasia (Ivana), Gabriella Joy Rodriguez (Marla), Jaime Lyn Beatty (Melania), Gabi Garcia (Stormy), and Hannah Bonnett (Ivanka), closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre 555.
Red Bull Theater‘s Macbeth workshop performances, directed by Nathan Winkelstein, featuring Jason Bown, Jason C. Brown, Stephen Moyer, Kristine Nielsen, Jason O’Connell, Olivia Reis, Miriam Silverman, Derek Smith, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Raphael Nash Thompson, and Ayana Workman, closes at Off-Broadway’s Sheen Center.
The Poisoner, world premiere by M.M. Haney, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, featuring Shawn Randall (Ron Finder), Brett Diggs (Dwayne Davis), Gregory Connors Jack Burden), and Lizbeth Mackay (Olive Gaines), closes at Off-Broadway’s La MaMa’s Downtown Theatre.
Sanctuary City, by Martyna Majok, directed by Jacob G. Padrón & Pedro Bermúdez, featuring Sara Gutierrez (G), Edward Montoya (B), and Mishka Yarovoy (Henry), closes at Theaterworks Hartford.
Ensemble Theatre Company‘s The Lehman Trilogy, by Stefano Massini, directed by Oánh Nguyễn, featuring Troy Blendell, Chris Butler and Leo Marks, closes at Santa Barbara’s New Vic.
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Reviews for Suffs at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre:
New York Times (Jesse Green) Depicting extremes of human emotion, the oldest extant Western plays invited the citizens of ancient Greece to confront vital issues of contemporary justice. Only the men could act on them, though, because the women couldn’t vote… subwaying home, feeling jubilant yet dissatisfied, I couldn’t help mulling what the show says about the uses of theater 2,500 years later… I can’t imagine anyone who would not be thrilled to hear again, or for the first time, about the twisting path — the strategizing, lobbying, finagling, money-raising and course-correcting — that led to the joyful if incomplete victory… Suffs on Broadway is vastly improved… It has been beneficially recast and heavily rewritten… she uplifts enjoyable melody with structural craftiness, using song form to achieve narrative compression
NY Times (Maya Phillips): …Suffs has a hefty two-hour-and-45-minute running time, after all, and though the musical isn’t guilty of scolding, it is guilty of stifling an impressive — though exhausting — breadth of U.S. history through its contemporary lens… McLean’s jaunty performance introduces some of the few moments of levity in the musical; otherwise a general stiffness pervades the production. Maybe that’s because the whole production feels so attuned to the gender politics and protests of today, so aware of possible critiques that it takes on its subject with an overabundance of caution… In many ways Suffs lands like a clunky heir of the Public’s other big historical musical, Hamilton, borrowing some of its approaches to structure while trying to avoid the criticisms about its politics around women and slavery. But that’s the risk that comes with recasting history with today’s sensibilities in mind…
Variety (Marilyn Stasio): Oh, what mean and nasty things men said about women who dared to fight for the right to vote in America… the remarkable, epic new musical by Shaina Taub… played by a cast made up entirely of women and non-binary performers… Taub manages to dramatize the complex origins and contentious development of the women’s rights movement by filtering it through the political coming-of-age narrative of Alice Paul, one of its seminal leaders. Making this a genuine tour de force, the composer-lyricist-writer also plays this central role. For the most part, her passionate commitment gives her the thrust to pull it off, although I still look forward to seeing what other actors might bring to the part…
Theatermania (Rachel Graham): “The personal is political” is a second-wave feminist battle cry. With top notch performances, rousing musical numbers, and messaging the masses can get behind… Suffs starts strong, dropping us right in the conflict between the old guard and younger suffragists with the patriotic “Let Mother Vote” and the driving “Find a Way” in rapid succession. But Taub introduces so many characters that, despite everyone’s best intentions, we don’t fully connect with anyone. When it comes to why these women want the vote, they sing as a monolith about their mothers, their sisters, and their children, with no individual concerns to differentiate them… The cast is excellent.
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Amas Musical Theatre‘s A Lotta Night Music benefit concert will take place Mon. May 13 at 6 PM at NYC’s Baruch Performing Arts Center, directed by Jonathan Cerullo.
Patricia Birch, Len Cariou, and Butler Tibbits.
Ivy Austin, Brenda Braxton, Liz Callaway, Joanna Carpenter, Robert Cuccioli, Carole Demas, Dewitt Flemming Jr., Penny Fuller, Clint Hromsco, Kylie Kuioka, Erin Moore, Geoffrey Owens, Lee Roy Reams, and Cyndi Lauper.
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Philip W. Chung’s Unbroken Blossoms will run June 27 – July 21 (opening June 30) at East West Players, directed by Jeff Liu.
Gavin Kawin Lee (James Leong), Ron Song (Moon Kwan), Alexandra Hellquist (Gish/Gilda), Ton Song (Moon Kwan), Arye Gross (D.W. Griffith), Alexandra Hellquist (Lillian Gish/Gilda), and Conlan Ledwith (Richard Barthelmess), with Paul Dateh, Ty Aldridge, and Valeries Rose Lohman.
The story of the silenced voices behind the real silent film “Broken Blossoms.” This play is a historical reimagining of the making of the boundary-breaking Hollywood classic that shines a light on the collateral damage in the search for “authentic” representation, and asks what price we pay for our art.
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Red Bull Theater‘s The Rover, by Aphra Behn, will run Apr. 26-27 at at the Sheen Center, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch.
Amara James Aja, Isabel Arraiza, Francois Battiste, Kelley Curran, Santino Fontana, Rebecca S’Manga Frank, Andy Grotelueschen, Lauren Karaman, Will Rogers, and Jon Norman Schneider.
It’s Spain, during carnival, and anything can and does happen. Two Spanish sisters don masks and take to the streets, one to reunite with her true love, the other to find a man and evade her fate at the nunnery. Enter a trio of English rakes looking for kicks, and we get raucous and raunchy Restoration comedy at its best. From the pen of the first professional female playwright comes a play that challenges 17th-century notions of marriage, while asking timeless questions of sexual politics. How far will women go, to follow their hearts’ desire? And just how badly can men behave, before they have to put a ring on it?
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Video: Highlights from the Entertainment Community’s Annual Gala.
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Fiddler on the Roof will run Nov. 8 – Dec. 1 (opening Nov. 9) at CA’s La Mirada Theatre (link TBA), directed by Lonny Price, with choreography by Lee Martino.
Jason Alexander (Tevye) and more TBA.
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Garry M. Kluger & Rick Simone-Friedland’s Private Parts will run May 31 – June 2 at Theatre West (link TBA), directed by Laura James.
David Baer, Apurv Khanna, Mimi Kmet, Pamela Najera, Alexandria Sanders, Megan Smith, and Monika Vidakovic.
A collection of personal true stories, some funny and some moving, that make a difference. There is nothing more powerful than the truth, in life and in art. The sharing of true and personal stories is a gift to the ones who share and the ones who receive. It is a connection that brings us together with renewed energy and makes us all value the memorable moments in our own lives.
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A screening of the London production of Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue, directed by Sam Mendes, will take place Apr. 27 & May 25 (both at 3 PM) at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre.
Mark Gatiss (John Gielgud) and Johnny Flynn (Richard Burton).
1964: Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title role in an experimental new Broadway production of Hamlet under John Gielgud’s exacting direction. But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel.
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Suzan-Lori Parks’ Sally & Tom, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, has been extended through May 16 at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
Sheria Irving (Luce/Sally), Gabriel Ebert (Mike/Tom), Sun Mee Chomet (Scout/Polly), Leland Fowler (Devon/Nathan), Kristolyn Lloyd (Maggie/Mary), Alano Miller (Kwame/James), Kate Nowlin (Ginger/Patsy), and David Petzold (Geoff/Cooper/Colonel Carey/Mr. Tobias).
An indie theater company is staging a depiction of the highly fraught relationship between liberty advocate Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved lover Sally Hemings.
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A reading of Peter Filichia’s Larry: The Big-Time Broadwater Producer will take place Mon. Apr. 29 at 7 PM at New Jersey’s American Theater Group, directed by Joe Mancuso.
Collin Kelly-Sordelet, Laura Swanson, Keith Strunk, Dawn Gaynor, Samantha Soybel, Paul O’Connor, and William Lawson.
Young Bostonian Larry Greenstein wants to invest in Broadway shows. He attends a backers’ audition and falls in love with an actress cast in the play and pledges $10,000—money he doesn’t have.
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Open-Door Playhouse will present its next short play in podcast form, One World, which will debut May 16 online, directed by Bernadette Armstrong.
Camille Ameen and Elaine Mello.
Weeks after her father’s passing, Ellie and her mother Janet take a few moments to relax outside as the day draws to a close. Distracted by the wide variety of birds that fill the trees around them, Janet seems unaware of Ellie’s discomfort. What starts as a casual conversation soon turns to a heated discussion about Ellie’s frustration about not being told the truth about the seriousness of her father’s illness.