This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, August 11
Peter Pan Goes Wrong, by Mischief Company, directed by Adam Meggido, featuring Barltley Booz, Matthew Cavendish, Bianca Horn, Harry Kershaw, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Ellis Morris, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill, Nancy Zamit, Stephen James Anthony, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Fred Gray, and Brenann Stacker, with special guests Bradley Whitford (Aug. 9-20), and Daniel Dae Kim (Aug. 30 – Sept. 10), opens at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.
The Bridges of Madison County, directed by Hunter Foster, featuring Kate Baldwin (Francesca) and Nicholas Rodriguez (Robert), with Bart Shatto (Bud), Thomas Cromer (Michael), Emily Pellecchia (Carolyn), Giuliana Augello (Marion/Chiara), Mark S. Megill (Charlie), Nikki Yarnell (Marge), and Sealth Grover (Paolo), Natalie Myrick, Lucy Horton, Lara Hayhurst and Rutledge Varley, opens at PA’s Bucks County Playhouse.
Unnerving Berlin cabaret, by Sophie Thomason & Taubert Nadalini, directed by John Snow, featuring Taubert Nadalini, at 8 PM at LA’s Odyssey Theatre.
Dear England, world premiere by James Graham, directed by Rupert Goould, featuring Joseph Fiennes (Gareth Southgate), Gina McKee (Pippa Grange), Josh Barrow (Jordan Pickford), Gunnar Cauthery (Gary Lineker), Will Close (Harry Kane), Crystal Condie (Alex Scott), Will Fletcher (Jordan Henderson), Sean Gilder (Sam Allardyce), Darragh Hand (Marcus Rashford), John Hodgkinson (Greg Clarke), Adam Hugill (Harry Maguire), Albert Magashi (Jadon Sancho), Kel Matsena (Raheem Sterling), Abdul Sessay (Bukayo Saka), Lewis Shepherd (Dele Alli), Paul Thornley (Mike Webster), Tony Turner (Greg Dyke), and Ryan Whittle (Eric Dier), closes at London’s National Theatre.
Saturday, August 12
P3 Theatre Company‘s The Red Suitcase, world premiere by Jiggs Burgess, directed by Del Shores, featuring Emerson Collins (Pogue), Kristen McCullough (April), Bruce Melena (Bud), Charlotte Louise White (Grandma Evans), Mat Hayes (Player 1), Pam Trotter (Player 2), and Tiago Santos (Player 3), open at Hollywood’s Broadwater Theatre Main Stage.
Next to Normal, directed by Michael Longhurst, featuring Caissie Levy (Diana Goodman), Trevor Dion Nicholas (Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine), Jamie Parker (Dan Goodman), Eleanor Worthington-Cox (Natalie), Jack Wofe (Gabe), and Jack Ofrecio (Henry), begins previews at London’s Donmar Warehouse.
On Cedar Street, world premiere by Emily Mann, Carmel Dean, Lucy Simon & Susan Birkenhead, directed by Susan H. Schulman, featuring Stephen Bogardus (Louis Waters), Lana Gordon (Ruth Clark), C. Wild Handel (Young Girl), Hayden Hoffman (Mamie Moore), Ben Roseberry (Gene Moore), Dan Teixeira (Russell Beckman), lauren Ward (Addie Moore), and Lenny Wolpe (Lloyd Beckman), with Zooey Bayles), begins previews at MA’s Berkshire Group.
Brokeback Mountain, play by Ashley Robinson, directed by Jonathan Butterell, featuring Mike Faist (Jack), Lucas Hedges (Ennis), Emily Fairn (Alma), Paul Hickey (Older Ennis), and Martin Marquez (Joe/BillJack’e Father), with Rob Alexander-Adams, Tom Mahy, and Sophie Reid, closes at London’s @sohoplace.
Sunday, August 13
Pay the Writer, by Tawni O’Dell, directed by Karen Carpenter, featuring Ron Canada (Cyrus Holt), Marcia Cross (Lana Holt), Bryan Batt (Bruston Fischer), Steven Hauck (Jean Luc), Miles G. Jackson (Young Bruston/Taz), Garrett Turner (Young Cyrus), Danielle J. Summons (Gigi), and Stgephen Payne (Homeless Man), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre. 
This is a benefit performance for the WGA.
Can’t Help Lovin’ Jerome Kern concert, featuring La Tanya Hall, Margo Seibert, Robbie Lee, and Billy Stritch, at 5 & 7:30 PM at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club.
Second Stage Theater‘s Toros, by Danny Teiera, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, featuring Abubakr Ali, Frank Wood, and Juan Castano, closes at Off-Broadway’s McGinn/Cazale Theater.
The Saviour, world premiere by Deirdre Kinahan, directed by Louise Lowe, featuring Marie Mullen and Jamie O’Neill, closes at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields, directed by Mark Bell, featuring Bartley Booz (Dennis), Joseph Anthony Byrd (Jonathan), Peyton Crum (Robert), Mara Davi (Sandra), Matt Harrinton (Chris), Kai Almeda Heath (Annie), Alex Mandell (Max), and Akron Watson (Trevor), with Brett Cassidy, Kullan S. Edbert, and Brendon Haaangenson, closes at the Kennedy Center.
Disco Fever concert, featuring Kaiyla Gross and Tobias A. Young, closes at DC’s Signature Theatre.
Guys & Dolls, directed by Darren Lee, featuring Lesli Margherita (Miss Adelaide), Matt Saldivar (Nathan Detroit), Nikki Renée Daniels (Sarah Brown), Jeff Kready (Sky Masterson), John Treacy Egan (Nicely-Nicely Johnson), Herschel Sparber (Big Julie), Chris Laitta (General Cartwright), Richard McBride (Lt. Brannigan), Jeffrey Howell (Arvide Abernathy), Aaron Calligan-Stierle (Benny Southstreet), Richard McBride (Lt. Brannigan), and Brady Patsy (Angie the Ox), withAndres Acosta, Grace Arnold, Ryan Cavanaugh, Bobby M. Davis, Zephaniah Divine, Austin Taylor Dunn, Kylie Edwards, Mathew Fedorek, Zanna Fredland, Michael Greer, Jessica Ice, Jolina Javier, Caroline Kane, Alex Manalo, Tay Marquise, Brittany Pent Rohm, Filip Przybycien, Austine Schulte, Ben Sears, and Allan Snyder, closes at Pittsburgh CLO.
The 39 Steps, adapted by Patrick Barlow, directed by Johanna McKenzie Miller, featuring Gavin Lee, Zuhdi Boueri, Tom Ditrinis, Caitlin Gallogly, Madeline Baird, Jordon Dell Harris, Ryan Michael Hamman, and Sawyer Smith, closes at Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre.
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion, starring Linda Purl, closes at Pinehurst, NC’s JTC 2023 Summer Theatre Festival.
WestFest, a FREE celebration of new short plays, closes LA’s Theatre West. Reservations not required.
Not Another Deaf Story, written & directed by Hilari Scarl and Monique Holt, featuring Deaf actors: Marc Bowman, Holly Crowe, Lori Dunsmore, Mary Kim Hoang, Justin Jackerson, Tommy Korn, Gabriel Silve, and Amber Zion… and Hearing actors Cindy Baer, Brian Edward Campbell, Bert Emmett, Gabriel Gomez, Doug Haverty, Julie Pearl, Gita Reddy and Deb’e Taylor, closes at North Hollywood’s Lonny Chapman Theatre.
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Reviews for The Shark is Broken at Broadway’s Golden Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …After seeing The Shark Is Broken, a play about that disastrous shoot, you may wonder…whether it might not have been better to cast the movie with mechanical humans… There’s a perfect replica of the Orca bobbing prettily on a C.G.I. sea, and costumes minutely matched to the film… But these details do not on their own create much dramatic interest. Plots consisting of hurry-up-and-wait rarely do. Were it not for its curious meta-story, the play would be little more than a pleasant diversion: 95 minutes of bloodless, toothless, Hollywood-adjacent dramedy.
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead): …Shaw and Brightman give laugh-inducing performances in their respective roles as the constantly sparring Robert Shaw (Colin Donnell) and Richard Dreyfuss (Alex Brightman), with Donnell coming in a distant third in his well-executed but underwritten and snoozy role as Scheider. With spot-on comedic timing, these three are the reason the show works at all… That’s because The Shark Is Broken has little in the way of a plot or dramatic tension — and nothing in the way of a shark (like Godot, it gets talked about a lot, but it never appears).
Daily News (Chris Jones) …“What psychological insights into Shaw might we be offered?” I wondered on the way into the theater? “What deep-dive revelations await from a creative act that would appear to be both hubristic and profoundly courageous?” The younger Shaw must have had a window into his father that would have eluded most biographers. Or so you’d think. Alas, the show doesn’t deliver much at all… Not only is the low-stakes script dull and pedestrian, but the characters change not at all, despite the premise of three wild men sitting in a boat, waiting not for Godot but sharks and Spielberg…But in the end, there’s not a lot here: No crazy shark puppets, little sense of the raging seas nor of tormented, insecure actors — not much for the eye to see and very little happening that you don’t anticipate just five or 10 minutes into the show.
Variety (David Benedict): …Co-written by and starring Ian Shaw, son of the original film’s co-star Robert, and armed with his father’s diaries, it offers an intriguingly unique angle. But like the sea during the famously nightmarish, 159-day shoot, much of the result is frustratingly becalmed… Both patient Demetri Goritsas (as a painstaking Roy Scheider) and high-energy Liam Murray Scott (as a self-obsessed, neurotic Richard Dreyfuss) prove themselves considerably more than lookalikes… Shaw and his co-writer Joseph Nixon…really writing is a character study of the three men… Alas, the show doesn’t deliver much at all…
Video: Highlights
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Martin Crimp’s adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac will run Sept. 5-24 at Kansas City Rep, directed by Nelson T. Eusebio III.
James Chen (Cyrano de Bergerac), Ito Aghayere (Roxane), Christopher Rivas (Christian), Khalif J. Gillett (Lignière/Montfleury), Jimmy Kieffer (De Guiche), Eileen Rivera (Leila Ragjeneau), and Bradley J. Thomas a( Bret), with Dri Hernaez, Nico Holguin, Craig Marcus Lindsay, and Will Porter.
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An Evening with Audra McDonald will take place Oct. 12 & 13 at NYC’s 92NY, with music direction by Andy Einhorn.
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Primary Stages will present Dig, written & directed by Theresa Rebeck, to run Sept. 2 – Oct. 22 (opening Sept. 20) at 59E59 Theaters.
Mary Bacon, Jeffrey Bean, Greg Keller, David Mason, Triney Sandoval, and Andrea Syglowski.
In a dying plant shop in a dying neighborhood, Roger receives a visitor from the past: Megan, the neighborhood screw-up, just out of rehab. He wants nothing to do with this disaster. Rebeck’s signature wit, intelligence, and depth bring us a riveting play that asks – can a soul beyond saving be saved?
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Video: Curtain speeches at the final performance of Broadway’s Parade. (13:50)
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Group Therapy, by Peter Lefcourt, directed by Terri Hanauer, has been extended through Aug. 27 at North Hollywood’s Theatre 68 Arts Complex.
Andy Hoff, Ashley Platz, and Marnina Schon, with Sawyer Fuller and Cat Masterson.
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Robert Briemeyer: Broadway Barfly will take place Wed. Sept. 6 at 9:30 PM at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by Brad Vieth.
Bianca Marroquin
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Video:”Building Momentum” from Rebekah Greer Melocik & Jacob Yandura How to Dance in Ohio (opening this Fall on Broadway), directed by Sammi Cannold. Dates, casting, and additional information TBA.
A heartfelt new musical about the desire to connect and the courage it takes to put yourself out into the world. At a group counseling center in Columbus, Ohio, seven autistic young adults prepare for a spring formal dance—a challenge that breaks open their routines as they experience love, stress, excitement, and independence. How to Dance in Ohio is a story about people on the cusp of the next phase of their lives, facing down hopes and fears, ready to take a momentous first step…and dance.
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Previously, the producers of the Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird sought to prevent small theaters around the country from staging an earlier dramatization of the novel.
Meanwhile, the publisher of the earlier adaptation of the novel was seeking the stop the Broadway version of To Kill a Mockingbird from being staged at a variety of venues. The New York Times has reported that a Federal District Court judge in New York decreed that Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation could be staged in venues throughout the country.
The new adaptation features a script written by Aaron Sorkin. The earlier adaptation features a script by Christopher Sergel, and has been staged in schools and community theaters for decades.
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The Sound of (Black) Music will take place Thurs. Nov. 9 at 7 PM at Lincoln Center.
Performers and additional information TBA.
The sounds of gospel funk, soul, and Afrobeat will come together to reimagine the Rodgers & Hammerstein score by Michael Mwenso and Jono Gasparro.
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The Playwrights Realm has announced complete casting for the world premiere of Emma Horwitz’s Mary Gets Hers, to run Sept. 11 – Oct. 7 at MCC Theater, directed by Josiah Davis.
Octavia Chavez-Richmond (Ephraim), Kai Heath (The Soldier), Susannah Perkins (Abraham), Claire Siebers (Master of the Inn), and Haley Wong (Mary).
The play is set in a funhouse, a slapstick vision of 10th century Germany, where a raging plague is turning people into foam — and follows an abandoned orphan named Mary, who is found by two overzealous hermits who scheme a saintly rescue mission to protect her purity at all costs.
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Jenn Colella: Out and Proud will take place Sept. 28 & 29 (both at 7 PM) at NYC’s 54 Below.