This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, April 28
Gypsy, directed by Jenn Thompson, featuring Judy McLane (Momma Rose), Talia Suskauer (Louise), Philip Hernandez (Herbie), Laura Sky Herman (Dainty June), Emily Jewel Hoder (Baby June), and Cameron Blake Miller (Baby Louise), with Gabriel Amato, Romelda Teron Benjamin, Kelly Margaret Berman, Amahri Edwards-Jones, Carlos Velasquez Escamilla, Thomas Goldbach V, Sunny Lauren Hoder, Victoria Huston-Elem, Edward Juvier, Meadow Nguy, Bianca Belle Palana, Maddie Robert, Ben Sears, Michael Starr, Geoffrey Wade, David Cochise Williams, Valerie Wright, Brianna Ascione Anthony DaSilva, and Chacha (Chowsie the dog), opens at CT’s Goodspeed Musicals.
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, opens at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre.
The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett & Wendy Kesselman, directed by Stan Zimmerman, featuring Genesis Ochoa (Anne Frank), Emiliano Torres (Otto Frank), Aris Alvarado, Rebecca Asquino, Gladys Bautista, Mariangelica Cuervo, Charlie Farrell, David Gurrola, Danny Pardo, and Raquenel, opens at Burbank’s Colony Theatre.
the ripple, the wave that carried me home, by Christina Anderson, directed by Tamilla Woodard, featuring Jennean Farmer, Marcus Henderson, Chalia La Tour, and Adrienne S. Wells, begins previews at Yale Rep.
Saturday, April 29
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, by Christopher Durang, directed by Victoria Pearlman, featuring Brad Greenquist, Cyndy Fujikawa, Martha Hackett, Miranda Wynne, Zach Kanner, and Tania Getty, opens at Venice, CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre.
Grey House, by Levi Holloway, directed by Joe Mantello, featuring Laurie Metcalf (Raleigh), Titiana Maslany (Max), Paul Sparks (Henry), Sophia Anne Caruso (Marlow), Millicent Simmonds (Bernie), Cyndi Coyne (The Ancient), Colby Kipnes (Squirrel), Alyssa Emily Marvin (A1656), and Eamon Patrick O’Connell (The Boy), begins previews at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre.
Celebration Theatre‘s A New Brain, by William Finn & James Lapine, directed by Khanisha Foster, featuring Amanda Kruger (Gordon Schwinn), Yassi Noubahar (Roger Delli-Bovi), Gina Torrecilla (Mimi Schwinn), Sadé Ayodele (Rhoda), Richardson Cisneros-Jones (Mr. Bungee), Whitney Avalon (Lisa), Jason Ryan (The Minister), Mitchell Johnson (Dr. Jafar Berensteiner), Gabi Van Horn (Nurse Nancy/Waitress), and Ryan O’Connor (Nurse Richard), Hannah Crews, Tal Fox, Emily King Brown, Laura Obiorah, Jason Ryan, Sal Sabella, and Mitchell Johnson, begins previews at LA’s LGBT Center.
Black Superhero, by Danny Lee Wynter, directed by Daniel Evans, featuring Ben Allen, Dyllón Burnside, Dominic Holmes, Eloka Ivo, Danny Lee Wynter, Ako Mitchel, and Rochenda Sandall, closes at London’s Royal Court Theatre.
Ain’t Misbehavin’, directed & choreographed by Jeffrey Page, featuring Miya Bass, Paris Bennett, Jay Copeland, Judith Franklin, and Will Stone, closes at Westport Country Playhouse.
Sunday, April 30
The Realistic Joneses, by Will Eno, directed by Judy Hegarty-Lovett, featuring Faline England (Pony), Sorcha Fox (Jennifer), Conor Lovett (John), and Joe Spano (Bob), opens at Laguna Playhouse.
A Little Night Music, directed by David Lee, featuring Merle Dandridge (Desirée Armfeldt), Michael Hayden (Fredrick Egerman), Jodi Long (Madame Armfeldt), Sarah Uriarte Berry (Countess Charlotte Malcolm), Chase Del Rey (Henrik Egerman), Makara Gamble (Frederika Armfeldt), Adam James King (Frid), Ruby Lewis (Petra), Ryan Silverman (Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm), Kaley Ann Voorhees (Anne Egerman), Georgia Belmont (Mrs. Nordstrom), Jared Bybee (Mr. Lindquist), Kimberly Dawson (Mrs. Segerstrom), Oriana Falla (Mrs. Anderssen), Arnold Geis (Mr. Erlanson), Brandon Borkowsky (Bertrand), Mikaela Celeste (Osa), and Danny Cron (Ingmar), Audrey Williams (Mala), with Christianna Rowader, opens at Pasadena Playhouse.
Plagues for the Plague Year, featuring the music & plays of Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by & choreographed by Niegel Smith, performed by Edward Astor Chin, Rona Figueroa, Leland Fowler, Danyel Fulton, Greg Keller, Orville Mendoza, Lauren Molina, Joe Osheroff, Danea Osseni, Suzan Lori Parks, Nathan M. Ramsey, and Martin Solé, closes at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
Regretfully, So The Birds Are, by Julia Izumi, directed by Jenny Koons, featuring Sasha Diamon (Illy), Gibson Frazier (Cam the Snowman), Kristine Nielsen (Elinore), Sky Smith (Neel), Pearl Sun (Srey), and Shannon Tyo (Mora), closes at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons.
Red Bull Theater‘s Titus Andronicus live & livestreamed readings, directed by Jesse Berger, featuring Patrick Page (Titus Andronicus), Elizabeth Marvel (Tamora), and Dion Johnstone (Aaron the Moor), with Teagle F. Bougere, Jason C. Brown, Juliana Canfield, Zachary Fine, Jason Butler Harner, Maurice Jones, Howard Overshown, and Socorro Santiago, concludes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
Michael R. Jackson in Concert closes at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater.
Dear Liar, by Jerome Kilty & George Bernard Shaw, directed by Charlotte Moore, featuring Melissa Erico and David Staller, closes at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
Eleanor and Alice – Conversations Between Two Remarkable Roosevelts, by Ellen Abrams, directed by Frances Hill, featuring Trezana Beverley (Elianor Roosevelt) and Mary Bacon (Alice Roosevelt Longworth), closes at Off-Broadway’s Urban Stages.
TheaterWorks USA‘s Dog Man: The Musical, by Devin Del Aguila & Brad Alexander, directed by directed & choreographed by Jen Wineman, featuring DeShawn Bowens, L.R. Davidson, Martin Landry, Jamie LaVerdier, Marcus Montgomery, Brian Owen, Dan Rosales, Crystal Sha’nae, and Markia Nicole Smith, closes at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages.
Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life, by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan, featuring Bonnie Black, Nigel Gore, Amy Michelle, Zaven Ovian, and Erika Vetter, closes at Off-Broadway’s Flea Theater.
An American in Paris, directed & choreographed by Jeffry Denman, featuring Sareen Tchekmedyian (Lise), Luke Hawkins (Jerry), Louis Pardo (Adam), Michael Bullard (Henri), Leslie Stevens (Madame Baurel), Rebecca Ann Johnson (Milo Davenport), and many more, closes at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West.
The Lifespan of a Fact, by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell & Gordon Farrell, directed by Simon Levy, featuring Ron Bottitta, Inger Tudor, and Jonah Robinson, closes at LA’s Fountain Theatre.
Karen Mason’s Back…And All That Jazz concert, directed by Barry Kleinbort, closes at Chicago’s Davenport’s Piano Bar & Cabaret.
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Reviews for Broadway’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window at Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre:
Note:
NY Times (Jesse Green): [from the 2022 Off-Broadway production — no new review for the Broadway run] …Its hailstorm of ideas remains stunning — and aptly painful if, as a proud progressive, you’re struck in the face by the ice of its wit. But as human drama goes, and despite fine performances by Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan, it’s hard to discern a satisfying emotional shape in all the weather. It’s blurry…Anne Kauffman’s production…her staging moves the story toward its surreal edges in an attempt to give breathing room to Hansberry’s complexities… Brosnahan hits all the right notes as Iris… But as the contrasting energies that joined the Brusteins — Jew and gentile, sophisticate and bumpkin — begin to go haywire, Isaac, otherwise deft and charming, cannot find a way to merge Sidney’s laissez-faire liberalism with his period-typical yet vile sexism…
New York Stage (Frank Scheck): Art, as well as life, can be messy. And no more so than Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window… And it’s easy to see why, as this play revolving around white bohemian characters in Greenwich Village feels overstuffed and overwritten with its dense profusion of subplots and themes. Its messy unwieldiness may well be the result of Hansberry’s illness which prevented her from doing the rewriting that might have brought it into sharper focus… And yet, it still bursts with vivid theatrical life and provocative ideas which are as well realized as they probably could ever be in the current revival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, also directed by Kauffman. Featuring a stellar cast led by marquee names Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan…
Theatermania (David Gordon): …Hansberry, 34, was dying of pancreatic cancer as it was being produced on Broadway, and she was unable to make changes… led by the terrific Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan — brings Hansberry’s words to life with the urgency of something written yesterday. Sure, it’s a little hirsute (and at three full hours, extremely wearying), but the whole thing is just so alive that it’s nothing short of dazzling… Hansberry writes with the fervor of someone trying to get all her feelings out before it’s too late; because of that (and the probable lack of edits due to her illness), The Sign has a shagginess it can’t shake… But the warts are part of the charm… as Hansberry dares her characters (and especially the audience) to confront their own actions and inactions, and the realization that we all can be bought and sold without considering the ramifications…
Theatrely (Juan A. Ramirez): …starring the unimpeachable Oscar Isaac in the title role, with the fine Rachel Brosnahan playing his wife Iris… not a very good play. It is bloated with stock characters—the foppish writer, the melodramatic prostitute, the apathetic bohemian—and mostly bereft of insightful revelations, compelling plot, or justification for its near three-hour runtime… these diversions, for the most part, crowd out a coherent thesis… Despite committed performances from its cast … this overlong production, under Anne Kauffman’s slippery direction, never keeps its sights on any one target long enough to find anything interesting to say…
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The 2023 Tony Awards nominations will be announced Tues. May 2 at 9 AM ET on YouTube.
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Cambridge’s A.R.T. has announced its 2023-24 season:
The Half-God of Rainfall (Sept. 8-24), by Inua Ellams, directed by Taibi Magar. 
The story of a demigod basketball player propelled from his home village in South West Nigeria to the NBA playoffs and the London Olympics, to the ire of Zeus.
Real Women Have Curves (Dec. 8 – Jan. 15, 2024 ), world premiere by Joy Huerta, Benjamin Velez & Lisa Loomer. The musical follows a first-generation child of Mexican immigrants torn between joining the family garment business or embarking on her own dream of attending college in NYC.
Becoming a Man (Feb. 16 – Mar. 10), world premiere by P. Carl, directed by P. Carl & Diane Paulus. The play tracks Carl’s journey from life presenting as a girl to a queer woman, and ultimately an out trans man.
Gatsby (dates TBA), world premiere by Martyna Majok, Florence Welch & Thomas Bartlett, directed by Rachel Chavkin, with choreography Sonya Tayeh.
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Beauty and the Beast will run June 22-30 at the St. Louis Muny, directed by John Tartaglia, with choreography by Patrick O’Neill, and music direction by Ben Whiteley.
Ashley Blanchet (Belle), Ben Crawford (Beast), Claybourne Elder (Gaston), Ann Harada (Mrs. Potts), Kelvin Moon Loh (Lumiere), Eric Jordan Young (Cogsworth), Holly Ann Butler (Babette), Tommy Bracco (LeFou), Harrison White (Muarice), Debby Lennon (Madame de la Grande Bouche), and Michael Hobin (Chip), and more TBA…
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Complete casting has been announced for Candrice Jones’ Flex, to begin previews June 23 and open July 20 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.
Brittany Bellizeare, Christina Clark, Renita Lewis, Erica Matthews, Ciara Monique, and Tamera Tomakili.
The play follows an Arkansas all-girls high school basketball team in 1997, juggling aspirations of going in the WNBA and the pressures of being young, Black, and female in rural Arkansas.
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2023 Drama Desk Award Nominations. Click here for the complete updated list.
Winners will be announced the week of May 29, with a ceremony to follow on June 6.
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A world premiere invitation-only staged reading of Joe DiPietro, Ryan O’Connell & Val Vidoda’s Miss Foxhole 1975 will take place Wed. May 10 at 7:30 PM at CA’s La Mirada Theatre, directed by Kari Hayter.
Bella Hicks (Jill), Jenna Byrd (Erica), Jenna Lea Rosen (Kimmy), Wyn Moreno (Wendell), Andy Umberger (Captain Mitchell), Trent Mills (Cadet Bukowski), Adrian Villegas (Babyface), James Everts (Cadet), James Tolbert (Cadet), Zach Santolaya (Cadet), and James McHale (stage directions).
A true story. In the summer of 1975, 20-year-old Jill Morgenthaler excitedly joined the first class of women admitted to cadet training at Fort Bragg, NC. But Jill and her fellow females are quickly confronted by one unanticipated challenge after another, including the biggest indignity of all: and order to participate in a beauty pageant for the pleasure of the camp’s 50,000 male cadets.
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L.A. Theaterworks will present a live audio production of The Great Gatsby, May 19-21 at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre, adapted by Anna Lyse Erikson, and directed by Rosalind Ayres.
Casting TBA.
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& 
NYC’s 92Y will present a performance of Kimberly Akimbo followed by a discussion, on Thurs. May 11 at 7:30 PM at Broadway’s Booth Theatre, moderated by James Lapine.
Victoria Clark, Justin Cooley, Steven Boyer, Alli Mauzey, Bonnie Milligan, Olivea Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan, Michael Iskander, and Nina White.
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Video: James Corden’s final Crosswalk the Musical, with special guests Jane Krakowski and Josh Gad.
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David J. Glass’ Love + Science will run May 26 – July 6 (opening June 4) at New York City Center, directed by Allen MacLeod.
Jonathan Burke and Matt Walker, with Thursday Farrar, Ryan Knowles, Tally Sessions, Imani Pearl Williams, and Adrian Greensmith.
In New York City, two gay medical students form a connection while working in the same retrovirology lab. But then the HIV/AIDS epidemic erupts and they suddenly find themselves on different paths and their relationship upended. Questions are raised about their values as scientists and doctors and their responsibilities as gay men as they try to love and hope while facing a crisis and the realities of scientific progress.
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Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep has announced its 2023 Gala – All My Loving: The Lyrics of Paul McCartney, will take place Mon. June 12 at 7 PM at NYC’s Town Hall, directed & arranged by Charlotte Moore, with a full orchestra & chorus directed by John Bell.
Simon Lorne
Michael Cerveris, Melissa Errico, Peter Gallagher, Kathryn Gallagher, Amber Gray, Kylie Kuioka, Ciarán, Sheehan, and more TBA.
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Broadway Bets, offering a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament, in support of of BC/EFA, will take place Mon. May 22 at 6 PM at NYC’s Sardi’s Restaurant. The game will begin at 7 PM.
An open bar will be available through the entire event. For those wanting to observe the game without partaking in it, guest passes are available, which will include access to other casino games and opportunities to win prizes.
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Elizabeth Dement’s No Place Like Gandersheim will run May 13 – June 25 (opening May 20) at the Skylight Theatre, directed by Randee Trabitz.
Lauren Gaw, Shannon Holt, Jamey Hood, and Charrell Mack.
Roz in a nun and a newbie playwright in medieval Germany whose love of God is exceeded only by her passion for the theater. With the help of her fellow nuns, Roz presents her brazen feminist comedy for the most important critic, the Holy Roman Emperor. His rejection of her work catapults Rox on a time-warping journey through contemporary Hollywood and into the unknown.