This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, August 13
Durang!, 4 one-act plays by Christopher Durang, directed by Kristin Towers-Rowles, featuring Michelle Bonebright-Carter, Megan Cochrane, James Everts, Shayna Gabrielle, Don Lovato, Michael J. Marchak, Michael Mullen, Will Potter, Chris Ramirez, Jen Talton, Neil Unger, and Mouchette Van Helsdingen, opens at LA’s Crown City Theatre.
“Respect,” the Aretha Franklin biopic, starring Jennifer Hudson and Audra McDonald, with Heather Headley Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Skye Dakota Turner, Kimberly Scott, Titus Burgess, and Marc Maron, opens in movie theaters.
“Reflect” album, by Tom Kitt, featuring Adrienne Warren, Mandy Gonzalez, Michael McElroy, Jenn Collela, Danny Burstein, Javier Muñoz, Lauren Patten, Jerry Dixon, Elizabeth Stanley, Heidi Blickenstaff, Brian d’Arcy James, Pearl Sun, and Kitt’s own children Julia and Michael Kitt, released here.
Saturday, August 14
“Broadway: Beyond The Golden Age” documentary, airs at 9 PM on PBS (check local listings), featuring Elaine Stritch, Donna McKechnie, Candy Brown, Baayork Lee, Jerry Orbach, and many more.
Welcome Back! A Starry, Starry Night at the Argyle Theatre gala concert, hosted by Evan Pappas, with special guests Joe Iconis and Robert Rokicki, and featuring Gina Naomi Baez, Courtney Balan, Inga Ballard, Tiffan Borelli, Elizabeth Broadhurst, Hunter Brown, Todd Buonopane, Eddie Egan, Corri Farbstein, Katy Geraghty, Angel Harrison, Kimberly Immanuel, Robert Anthony Jones, Jillian Louis, Warren Nolan Jr., Jason Simon, Ryan Gregory Thurman, and Rose Van Dyne, at 7:30 PM ET.
Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles‘ GMCLA Gala, hosted by Carson Kressley, with special guests Shoshana Bean, Andra Day, and Aftershock, at 8 PM PT a private home in Los Angeles.
“Broadway Profiles with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Tony Yazbeck James Lapine, Anthony Veneziale, Afra Hines, Kaila Mullady, and Aneesa Folds. streams for FREE here.
Sunday, August 15
A Thousand Ways (Part Two): An Encounter, by Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone, closes at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
The Wolves, by Sarah DeLappe, directed by Lila Neugebauer, featuring Paola Sanchez Abreu, Mia Barron, Brenna Coates, Jenna Dioguardi, Samia Finnerty, Midor Francis, Lizzy Jutila, Sarah Mezzanotte, Tedra Millan, and Susannah Perkins, concludes FREE streaming at Lincoln Center Theatre.
57 Chevy, by Cris Franco, directed by Jesse Perez, starring Ric Salina, concludes streaming at San Diego Rep.
The Marilu Henner Show closes at PA’s Buck’s County Playhouse.
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Video: Stars in the House, with 5, 6, 7, 8…. DANCE, with guest host Diane Kelber, and special guest Sandy Duncan. (1:43:19)
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Complete casting has been announced for Come From Away, which will resume performances Sept. 21 at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
De’Lon Grant, Joel Hatch, Caesar Samayoa, James Seol, Q. Smith, Pearl Sun, Rachel Tucker, Astrid Van Wieren Emily Walton, Jim Walton, Sharon Wheatley, Paul Whitty, Josh Breckenridge, John Jellison, Tony LePage, Monette McKay, Happy McPartlin, and Julie Reiber. Note: beginning Oct. 8, Petrina Bromley (Bonnie) will return to the production.
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Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater will present The Devil is in the Details — A Tribute to Tony Walton on Thurs. Aug. 25 at 5 PM ET, hosted by Melissa Errico.
Alec Baldwin, Kate Burton, Stephen Schwartz, Jerry Zaks, and more TBA.
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Samuel French has announced the winners of the 2021 Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, chosen from 750 submissions worldwide. The six plays will be published and available for licensing by Samuel French in the 46th edition of its Off Off Broadway collection.
* All Things Considered, It Was Probably the Most Production Meeting the Escondido Unified School District PTA Ever Had, by A.J. Diddy
* DOGS OF SOCIETY, by Julia Grogan
* By Grace, Pt. 2, by Agyeiwaa Asante
* Grieved, by Jahquale Mazyck
* pearl apple penguin, by Aisling Towl
* Kitchen Design, by Suzanne Willett.
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Stanley Wayne Mathis’ new play, Preachin’ to the Choir/An Inconvenient Truth, will stream for FREE on Mon. Sept. 13 at 6:30 PM ET here.
Tina Fabrique (Neighborhood Nana), Richard Crandle (Justice Jamal Obata), Kimberly JaJuan (Aneeda Ancestry), and Matthew Morgan.
A multimedia memorial “choreo-poem,” following a young BLM documentary student and activist, Justice Jamal Obatala, as he attends the Annual Afro Punk Festival in New York City. This year’s celebration takes him on a unique path when he befriends a homeless woman known throughout the community as Neighborhood Nana. The entire experience is documented on his cell phone, but is he the documenter or the documented?
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“David Byrne’s American Utopia,” directed by Spike Lee, will play in movie theaters for one night only on Sept. 15.
The stage version will receive a Special Tony Award.
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“The Fabulous Invalid” will air its 100th, and final, episode on Sept. 28 here.
Special guests TBA.
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Tony Bennett has cancelled his Fall 2021 tour dates.
Bennett, who just turned 95, was diagnosed in 2016 with Alzheimer’s Disease.
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Together Apart, 10 mini-musicals about one life-changing year, in support of The Actors Fund, featuring Julie Bowen, Josh Hamilton, Ann Harada, JoBeth Williams, Lisa Loeb, and more, continues streaming on Broadway On Demand.
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Long Beach Opera has announced its 2022 season:
Stimmung (mar. 19, 20, 26 & 27), by Karlheinz Stockhausen, directed by Alexander Gedeon, and conducted by Jenny Wong.
Quando (Project “o”) (Apr. 23 & 24), new short film & live production, created by Derrell Acon.
Giustino (May 21, 22, & 22), by George Frideric Hadel, adapted by Sheeley Washington, directed by James Darrach, and conducted by Christopher Rountree.
The Central Park Five (June 18, 29 & 25), by Anthony Davis & Richard Wesley, directed by Desean Terry.
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The 2nd episode of “Brian Stokes Mitchell: Crossovers Live” will air live on Mon. Aug. 30 at 8 PM ET on Stellar, and also on demand here.
Marc Shaiman and Megan Hilty.
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Joel Kim Booster’s “Fire Island,” directed by Andrew Ahn, is currently in development. The film is expected to stream on Hulu and Disney+ in 2022.
Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho, Conrad Ricamora, Nick Adams, Bradley Gibson, James Scully, Matt Rogers, Tomas Matos, and Torian Miller.
The modern-day rom-com centers on two best friends who set out to have a legendary summer vacation at Fire Island.
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Off-Broadway’s Public Theater has announced its 2021-22 season:
The Visitor (Oct. 7 – Nov. 21, opening Nov. 4), world premiere by Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey & Kwame Kwei-Armah, directed by Daniel Sullivan, with choreography by Lorin Latarro, featuring David Hyde Pierce (Waiter), Ari’el Satachel (Tarek),Jacqueline Antaramian (Mouna), and Alysha Deslorieux (Zainab), with Robert Ariza, Anthony Chan, Delius Doherty, C.K. Edwards, Will Erat, Sean Ewing, Ahmed Maksoud, Dimitri Joseph Moïse, Takafumi Nikaido, and Paul Pontrelli, with more TBA. The new soul-stirring new musical is based on the acclaimed film, “The Visitor,” by Thomas McCarthy. Widowed and living alone, Walter is a college professor whose life has lost a sense of purpose. When Tarek, a vivacious drummer, and Zainab, an iron-willed jewelry maker, enter his life in the most unexpected circumstances. Walter is swept up into their struggle to stay in American that they have made their home, but seeds to cast them out.
Cullud Wattah (Nov. 2 – Dec. 5, opening Nov. 17), world premiere by Erika Dikerson-Despenza, directed by Candis Ce. Jones, featuring Crystal Dickinson (Marion), Lizan Mitchell (Big Ma), Andrea Patterson (Ainee), and Alicia Pilgrim (Plum), with more TBA. Three generations of Black women live through the current water crisis in Flint, Michigan. It’s been 936 days since Flint has had clean water. Marion, a third-generation General Motors employee, is consumed by layoffs at the engine plant. When her sister, Ainee, seeks justice and restitution for lead poisoning, her plan reveals the toxic entanglements between the city and its most powerful industry, forcing their family to confront the past-present-future cost of survival. As lead seeps into their home and their bodies, corrosive memories and secrets rise among them. Will this family ever be able to filter out the truth?
Joe’s Pub Returns! (Oct. 5 – Dec. 31), featuring Justin Vivian Bond, Sondre Lerche, Martha Redbone and Her Bank of Funkateers, Kluge, Queen Ester, Malik Work, Taylor Mac, EPIC Players, The Bad Plus, The Skivvies, Yacine Boulares & The Habibi Festival Band, Kaoru Watanabe, Rec. Dr. Jacqui Lewis & Friends, Toshi Reagon & BIGLovely, Toshi Reagon & Lizz Wright, Nona Hendryx, Kate Rigg, Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force, Michael Mayo, Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, Bridget Everett & The Tender Moments, Peppermint, Joe McGinty & The Loser’s Lounge, Murray Hill, Yemen Blues, and Sandra Bernhard.
Plays for the Plague Year (), by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith. At one a personal story of one family’s daily lives as well as a sweeping account of all we faced as a city, a nation, and a global community. Brimming with humanity, the groundbreaking new work bears witness to what we’ve experienced and offers inspiration as we look ahead…
Altar No. 1 – ATEN (released beginning Sept. 22), a digital album by Daniel Alexander Jones. The piece uses our solar system as both metaphor and method for an immersive journey through the celestial, within and without, and invites you to take part in a dynamic new creative odyssey through the ever-expanding digital portal aten life.
The 18th Annual Under the Radar Festival (Jan. 12-23, 2022). A fully live in-person festival, with highlights including performances by the Devised Theater Working Group.
Out of Time (Feb. 2022), world premiere plays by Jaclyn Backhaus, Sam Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka, and Anna Ouyang Moench, directed by Les Waters.
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Harvey Fierstein‘s new book, “I Was Better Last Night,” will be released Mar. 1, 2022 by Penguin Random House.
A poignant and hilarious memoir from the cultural Icon, gay rights activist, and four-time Tony Award winner, revealing never-before-told stories of his personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, and of his fabled career. The book bares the inner life of this eccentric nonconforming child from his roots in 1952 Brooklyn, to the experimental worlds of Andy Warhol and the Theatre of the Ridiculous, to the gay rights movements of the 70s and the tumultuous AIDS crisis of the 80s, through decades of addiction, despair, and ultimate triumph.
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A Little New Music‘s next concert will take place Tues. Aug. 17 at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT here.
Jessica Fleitman and rick Bassett.
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Complete casting has been announced for the world premiere of Morgan Lloyd Malcom’s Typical Girls, to run Sept. 24 – Oct. 26 (opening Spt. 28) at the Crucible Theatre, directed by Róisín McBrinn.
Helen Cripps, Lucy Edkins, Lucy Ellinson, Eddy Queens, Alison Fitzjohn, Lara Grace Ilori, and Carrie Rock.
In a mental health unit inside a prison, a group of women discover the music of punk rock band The Slits and form their own group. An outlet for their frustration, they find remedy in revolution. But in a system that suffocates, can rebellion ever be allowed?
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Off-Broadway’s The Tank has announced the launch of “I’m So Hot,” an interactive, narrative storytelling app, which will be available for download beginning Mon. Aug. 23 in the Apple and Google Play stores. Click here for more information.
When everyone insanely hot, who cheats first in a relationship? In this interactive girly app-daptation of Marivaux’s La Dispute, a Prince captures hotties (like you) through a dating app to see who cheats first! It’s like olden day French reality TV — where you can snap selfies and slide into DMs, too.
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Video: Clip from Rick McKay’s documentary “Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age,” featuring Elaine Stritch, Donna McKechnie, Candy Brown, Baayork Lee, Jerry Orbach.