GRACE NOTES: Friday, April 21, 2023

This Weekend’s Highlights:

Friday, April 21

The Rembrandt, by Jessica Dickey, directed by Maria Mileaf, featuring Ephraim Birney (Dodger/Titus), Bill Buell (Simon/Homer), Michael Chenevert (Henry/Rembrandt), Brandon Espinoza (Jonny/Martin), and Amber Reauchean Williams (Madeline/Henny), opens at TheaterWorks Hartford.

Joy and Pandemic, world premiere by Taylor Mac, directed by Loretta Greco, featuring Ella Dershowitz (Young Pilly), Stacy Fischer (Joy / Pilly), Breezy Leigh (Melanie / Marjorie), Marceline Hugot (Rosemary), and Ryan Winkles (Bradford), with Thomika Bridwell, Rebecca Whitney Klein, Alexander Platt, and Marina Re, opens at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion.

Missed Opportunities, by Jillian Leff’, directed by Ignacio Navarro & Madylin Sweeten Durrie, featuring Bridget Avildsen, Macedonia Bullington, Kathleen Guevara, Silas Jean-Rox, Sydney Jenkins, Benjamin Marshall, Sean Mazur, and Nate Thurman, opens at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble.

The Motive and the Cue, by Jack Thorne, directed by Sam Mendes, featuring Johnny Flyn (Richard Burton), Mark Gatiss (John Gielgud), Tuppence Middleton (Elizabeth Taylor), and Janie Dee (Eileen Herlie), with Aaron Anthony, Tom Babbage, Allan Corduner, Elena Delia, Ryan Ellsworth, Phoebe Horn, Aysha Kala, Luke Norris, Huw Parmenter, David Ricardo-Pearce, David Tarkenter, Kate Tydman, Laurence Ubong Williams, and Michael Walters, begins previews at London’s Lyttelton Theatre.

Sweeney Todd, directed by Jay Woods, featuring Yusef Seevers (Sweeney Todd), Anne Allgood (Mrs. Lovett), Deon’te Goodman (Anthony Hope), Leslie Jackson (Johanna), Nik Hagen (Tobias Ragg), Sean David Cooper (Judge Turpin), Jason Weitkamp (The Beadle), Porscha Shaw (Beggar Woman), and Anthony Webb (Adolfo Pirelli), with Ethan Carpenter, John Coons, Ann Cornelius, Alyza Delpan-Monley, Joel Domenico, Eric Jensen, Alexander Kilian, Cassi Q Kohl, Trina Mills, Bianca Raso, Cameron Widmark, Brandon O’Neill, Beth DeVries, Mark Emerson, Miranda Antoinette, Kooper Campbell, and Casey Raiha, begins previews at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre.

The King and I, directed by Glenn Casale, featuring Paul Nakauchi (King), Anastasia Barzee (Anna), Joan Almedilla (Lady Thiang), Alan Ariano (The Kralahome), Eric Badiqué (Phra Alack), Richard Bulda (The Interpreter), Cristyn Dang (Simon of Legree), Arielle Dettmer (Angel George), Emma Gong-Koiso (Princess Ying Yaowalak),Luke Naphat (Prince Chulalongkorn), Ethan Le Phong (Lun Tha), Michael Rothhaar (Captain Orton), Callula Sawyer (Topsy), Oliver Stewart (Louis Leonowens) Angel Srittmater (Little Eva), Kevin Symons (Sir Edward Ramsey), Chad Takeda (Uncle Thomas), Michiko Takemasa (Eliza), and Paulina Yeung (Tuptim), with Johnisa Breault, Joven Calloway, Harry Cho, Andrea Dobbins, Lauren Han, Eleen Hsu-Wentlandt, Linda Igarashi, Jonathan Kim, Kevin Kulp, Francesca Ling, Saki Masuda, Jee Teo, Bernice Wang, and Ryan Wong, and many more, previews at CA’s La Mirada Theatre.

Ariana DeBose in concert, at 7:30 PM at the London Palladium.

Saturday, April 22

Vámonos, by Julissa Contreras, directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo, featuring Cindy Peralta, Yohanna Florentino, Angela Reynoso, Kiara Lauren, Cesar J. Rosado, Denzel Rodriguez, and Ansi Rodriguez, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Intar Theatre.

York Theatre Company‘s Vanities – The Musical, by Jack Heifner & David Kirshenbaum, directed by Will Pomerantz, featuring Jade Jones (Mary), Amy Keum (Kathy), and Hayley Podschun (Joanne), with Olivia Kaufmann, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at Saint Jean’s.

Sunday, April 23

Prima Facie, by Suzie Miller, directed by Justin Martin, starring Jodie Comer (Tessa), opens at Broadway’s Golden Theatre.

Murder on the Orient Express, adapted by Ken Ludwig, directed by Casey Hushion, featuring Leanne Antonio (Mary Debenham), Gisela Chípe (Countess Andrenvi), anthony Cochrane (Hercule Poirot), Donna English (Princess Dragomiroff), Stephanie Gibson (Greta Ohlsson), Alex Mandell (Hector MacQueen), Graham Stevens (Michel/Headwaiter), Mark Jude Sullivan (Col. Arbuthnot/Samuel Ratchett), Evan Zes (Monsieur Bouc), and Karen Ziemba (Helen Hubbard, with Emily Harvey, Kelsey Rainwater, Alex Syiek, and Price Waldman, opens at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse.

Red Bull Theater‘s Titus Andronicus reading, directed by Jesse Berger, featuring Amara James Aja (Marcello/Officer), Jenny Bacon (Isabella/Antonelli/Lawyer), Lisa Birnbaum (Vittoria Corombona), Robert Cuccioli (Monticelso/Office/Physician), Edward O’Blenis (Gasparo/Francisco’s Man/Court Officer/Conjuror), Daniel Oreskes (Brachiano), Cherie Corinne Rice (Zanche/Giovanni), Socorro Santiago (Cornelia/Matron, Doctor Julio), Tommy Schrider (Flamineo), Derek Smith (Lodovico / Camillo), and T. Ryder Smith (Francisco de Medici), at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre. Also, the on-demand streaming option continues throughApr. 30.

Gingold Theatrical Group’s Shakespeare Sonnet Soiree 2023 live online party, with special guests Bryan Batt, Nick Cearley, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, George Dvorsky, Ann Harada, Loren Molina, Kerry O’Malley, Christine Pedi, Laila Robins, Michael McCorry Rose, Stephen Schwartz, Thom Sesma, Steven Skybell, Michael Starobin, Renée Taylor, Mary Testa, and more, at 6 PM HERE.

Woman of the Year, directed by Robert W. Schneider, featuring Janine LaManna (Tess Harding), John Leone (Sam Craig), Eric Michael Gillett (Gerald), Rebecca Spigelman (Helga), Kelly Lester (Jan), and Jake Urban (Alexi), Sarah Mackenzie Baron (Ballet Mistress), Andrew Eckert (Chip Salisbury), Jeremy Konopka (Ellis), Tony Romero (Abbott), Timmy Lewis (Phil), and Eddie Marco (Pinky), Marcus Canada (Maury), with Tyler Mell and Nicole Weitzman, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.

Clyde’s, by Lynn Nottage, directed by Taylor Reynolds, featuring Wesley Guimarães (Rafael), Cyndii Johnson (Letitia), Louis Reyes McWilliams (Jason), April Nixon (Clyde), and Harold Surratt (Montrellous), with Lorrain Kanyike, Gunnar Manchester, Javier David Padilla, closes at Boston’s Huntington Theatre.

The Comedy of Errors, adapted & directed by Barbara Gaines, featuring Breon Arzell, Adia Bell, Melanie Brezill, Lillian Castillo, Dan Chameroy, William Dick, Keving Gudahl, Ora Jones Bill Larkin, Ross Lehman, Michael E. Martin, Steve McDonagh, Russell Marnagh, Susan Moniz, Robert Petkoff, Maya Vinice Prentiss, Greg Vinkler, and Bruce A. Young, with Isabella Abel-Suarez, Angelica Herndon, Benjamin Jenkins, Madison Kauffman, Jeff Kurysz, Matt Miles, Michael Joseph Mitchell, Ian Reed, and Jonathan Schwart, closes at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

The Shot, by Robin Gerber, directed by Michelle Joyner, starring Sharon Lawrence, closes at Long Branch’s New Jersey Rep.

Ensemble Theatre Company‘s The Children, by Lucy Kirkwood, directed by Jenny Sullivan, featuring Michael Butler, Linda Purl, and Nancy Travis, closes at Santa Barbara’s New Vic.

The Human Comedy, world premiere written & directed by Thom Babbes, featuring Eva Abramian, Rachael Maye Aronoff, David Atkinson, Tricia Cruz, Marc Elmer, Adrian A. Gamez, Ben Kientz, Bruce Ladd, Mitchell Lam Han, Kendall Lloyd, Finn Martinsen, Jessie Oriabure, Jack Sanchez, Tiago Santos, Brendan Shannoon, and Jessica Wochler, closes at LA’s Actors Co-op.

Kiss of the Spider Woman (the play), directed by Michael Michetti, featuring Ed F. Martin (Molina) and Adrían González (Valentin), closes at Pasadena’s A Noise Within.

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Reviews for The Thanksgiving Play at Broadway’s Helen Haye’s Theatre:

NY Times (Jesse Green): …for Larissa FastHorse, the author of The Thanksgiving Play, farce is not an end in itself. Rather, it is the hilarious envelope in which she delivers a brutal satire about mythmaking, and thus, in a way, about theater itself… In short, these are ridiculous figures — and yet not so ridiculous as to be unrecognizable. Nor, in Rachel Chavkin’s cheerfully cutthroat production for Second Stage Theater, are they even unlikable… so clever is FastHorse’s setup, and so thorough her twisting of the knife of woke logic.. In mesmerizing moments like this, FastHorse neatly sets up the tension between identity and the performance of identity — a tension she doesn’t resolve but upgrades over the course of the play to a full-scale paradox…

Theatermania (Hayley Levitt): Two public school teachers, an amateur yogi, and a Disneyland performer join forces to devise an educational Thanksgiving play for a group of elementary schoolers. The stakes could not be lower. They also could not be higher… performed by a quartet of expert nincompoops… we meet the white characters with staunch progressive values who are handed the impossible task of producing a culturally sensitive piece of theater about the Indigenous experience of the first Thanksgiving… Not one of them has ever met an Indigenous person…as far as they know. But no worries. These folks can perform enlightenment with the best of them… It’s a brilliant comedic premise that has aged like a fine wine since its 2018 off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons…

Time Out (Adam Feldman) The road to stagnation is paved with performatively good intentions in The Thanksgiving Play, a send-up of woke theater makers and their discomfort with nonwhite issues… That the show itself is being mounted, directed and acted by white people adds, perhaps, a layer of meta icing to the satirical cake… tightly directed by Rachel Chavkin… Finneran is a hoot as the dowdy and nervous Logan, and Carden brings knowing confidence to the dim-witted but professionally savvy Alicia… FastHorse effectively roasts her characters as turkeys, trussed by their own self-consciousness… What the play doesn’t do is provide much sense of a better solution to the questions that its hapless theater folks are stultified by…

Theatrely (Juan A. Ramirez): …a clueless but well-meaning satire… the foursome is far too blind to their intellectual shortcomings, for any meaningful critique to arise. Hijinks arise as they try to skirt around the white elephants in the room and come up with a way to still confront the country’s historical racism while remaining under budget… for the most part, it’s a succession of “Who’s on first?” bits that start to drag, despite the cast’s—including MVP Finneran…best efforts. Rachel Chavkin…here struggles to create slapstick out of a should-be drama of ideas… Running under 90 minutes, with agreeable performances across the board, The Thanksgiving Play is not a bad time. But without a distinct point of view, its bottom line of “Thanksgiving is problematic” renders it only a pleasant, toothless, pilgrimage to the theatre.

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David Byrn, Fatboy Slim & Alex Timbers’ Here Lies Love will begin previews June 17 and open July 20 at the Broadway Theatre, directed by Timbers, with choreography by Anne-B Parson, and music direction by J. Oconer Navarro.

Arielle Jacobs (Imelda Marcos – July 11 – Aug. 13), Conrad Ricamora, Jose Llana, Lea Salonga (Aurora Aquino), and more TBA.

The disco musical tells the story of former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos and her family’s rise and fall.

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Mozart’s Requiem, a 3-act performance, will take place Sat. Apr. 29 at 7 PM at Carnegie Hall.

Act 1: A Place Called Home, the world premiere of Bradley’s Ellingboe’s newest work

Act 2: The Music of Russell Robinson, led by conductor/composer Russell L. Robinson

Act 3: The Requiem, directed by conductor Kenney Potter.

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Paul Gordon’s The Gospel According to Heather will run June 14 – July 9 (opening June 22) at Theater 555, directed & choreographed by Rachel Klein, and music direction by Jonathan Bauerfeld.

Lauren Elder, Badia Farha, Maria Habeeb, Darron Hayes, Jeremy Kushnier, Maya Lagerstam, Wayne Wilson, and Brittany Nicole Williams, with Zach Rand, and Sarita Amani Nash… and more TBA.

Heather Krebs just wants a boyfriend. But how can she even navigate her way through high school if she might be the New Messiah? A small town in Ohio grapples with politic, religion, and teenage romance.

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Santa Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre Company will livestream the 3 final performances (Apr. 21-23) of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children, directed by Jenny Sullivan.

Linda Purl, Nancy Travis, and Michael Butler.

Set at a remote cottage on the coast of Britain after a tsunami wreaks havoc on a nuclear reactor, a married couple’s lives are further disrupted by the mysterious appearance of a long-lost colleague, who confronts them with a stunning moral dilemma: what does the older generation owe to those who are young?

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Carmen Cusack‘s new album, “Lay Your Hands On Me” will be released Apr. 25 on most platforms.

The album, which marks Cusack’s public debut as a singer-songwriter, is a rivival rock and pop blues-tinged 8-track piece, exploring her relationship to her childhood, and her journey from the deep south to Broadway.

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The world premiere of Eric Anderson’s Back Porch will run June 2 – July 9 at Burbank’s Victory Theatre Center, directed by Kelie McIver.

Karl Maschek, Isaac W. Jay, Cody Lemmon, Jordan Morgan, Eric Zak, and Jonathan Fishman.

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Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch & David Zippel’s The Goodbye Girl will run May 7-21 at J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company, directed by Zippel, with choreography by Gerry McIntyre, and music direction by Miles Plant.

Santino Fontana (Elliot), Sierra Boggess (Paula), Christopher Seiber (Character Actor), Debra thais Evans (Cosby), Lena Joshephine Marano (Lucy), Tara Radha Rajan (Melanie), Honor Blue Savage (Cynthia), Alyssa Isihara (Jenna), Emma Kantor Rhonda), and Jessica Ann Lawyer (Donna), with Daniel Pahl, Tony Collins, and Dan DeLuca.

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James Snyder in Concert will take place Thurs. Apr. 27 at 8:30 PM at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club, with music direction by Michael Orland.

Lesli Margherita, Audra Lee, and Sophie Pollono.

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An interview & audience Q&A with Raul Esparza will take place Tues. May 9 from 5:30 – 7PM at NYC’s Ripley-Grier Studios (Room 210), moderated by Michael Portantiere.

There will be a $5 ticket fee for non-Drama Desk members. Email your reservation request to michael@broadwaystars.com. Put RSVP Esparza event in the subject line… and state whether you are or are not a Drama Desk member… and how many are in your party.

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Lea Salonga in concert will take place Sat. Apr. 22 at 8 PM & Sun. Apr. 23 at 2 PM at Northridge’s Soraya.