This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, December 10
Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, by Timothy Allen McDonald, Christopher Gatelli & Paul William, directed & choreographed by Gatelli, featuring Colin Trudell (Emmet Otter), Cass Morgan (Ma Otter. Jordan Brownlee (Tiny Squirrel/Doc Bullfrog), Kevin Covert (Mayor Fox), LaVon Fisher-Wilson ), Mrs. Mink/Hetty Muskrat), Matt Furtado (Skippy Squirrel/Yancy Woodchuck/Stan Weasel), Jakeim Hart (Harvey), Steven Huynh (Wendell/Weasel), Maggie Lakis (Mrs. Fox), Anney Ozar (Nutella Squirrel/Old Lady Possum), J. Antonio Rodriguez (Charlie/Will Possum), and James Silson (Jiffy Squirrel/Fred Lizard), opens at Off-Broadway’s New Victory Theatre.
The FolgerTheatre‘s A Medieval Christmas concert opens at DC’s St. Mark’s Church (available both in-person and on-demand).
Holigays Are Here…Again concert opens at The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.
“Being the Ricardos,” written & directed by Aaron Sorkin, featuring Nicole Kidman (Lucille Ball), Javiar Bardem (Ricky Ricardo), Nina Arianda (Vivian Vance), JK Simmons (William Frawley), and Christopher Denham (Donald Glass), with Tony Hale (Jess Oppenheimer), Alia Shawkat (Madelyn Pugh), and Jake Lacy (Bob Carroll Jr.), with Clark Gregg, Linda Lavin, Robert Pine, John Rubenstein, and Chirstopher Denham, released in movie theaters. Note: Available Dec. 21 on Amazon Prime.
“Reopening Night,” a new documentary covering The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Jocelyn Bioh’s Merry Wives, begins streaming on HBO and HBO Max.
“Brick By Brick, Putting It Together: The Broadway Set Miniatures of Henry Lee,” which displays the iconic sets of Company, Follies, The Phantom of the Opera, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd , in miniature for re-created with LEGO bricks, concludes its display at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Saturday, December 11
Dear Evan Hansen, featuring Jordan Fisher (Evan Hansen), Gabrielle Carrubba, Jessica Phillips, Christiane Noll, David Jeffery, Ivan Hernandez, Jared Goldsmith, and Phoebe Koyabe, and Zachary Noah Piser, Reese Sebastian Diaz, Nathan Levy, Dan Macke, Jane Pfitsch, Talia Simone Robinson, Asa Somers, Josh Strobl, and Nicole Van Giesen, with Linedy Genao and Mateo Lizcano, resumes performances at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical, directed by Alex Timbers, featuring Liisi LaFontaine (Satine), Jamie Bogyo (Christian), Clive Carter (Harold Zidler), Jason Pennycooke (Toulouse-Lautrec), Simon Bailey (The Duke), Elia Lo Tauro (Santiago), Sophie Carmen Jones (Nini), Zoe Birkett (Arabia), Jonathan Bishop (Baby Doll), and Timmika Ramsay (La Chocolat), with Femi Akinfolarin, Robson Broad, Ian Carlyle, Jonathan Cordin, Anthony Cragg, Katie Ella Dunsden, Adam Gillian, Luke Jackson, Alicia Mencía, Ciro Lourencio Meulens, Georgia Morgan, Melissa Nettleford, Ian Oswald, Craig Ryder, Tinovimbanashe Sibanda, Katie Singh, Ope Sowande, Tanisha Spring, Toyan Thomas-Browne, Amy Thornton, Misty May Tindall, Jon Tsouras, Tommy Wade-Smith, and Lily Wang, opens at London’s Piccadilly Theatre.
She Loves Me, directed by Robert Hastie, featuring Alex Young (Amalia Balash), David Thaxton (Georg Nowack), Marc Elliott (Ladislav Sipos), Andy Coxon (Steven Kodaly), Kaisa Hammarlund (Ilona Ritter), Karle Seth (Zoltan Maraczek), Lewis Cornay (Arpad Laszlo), and Adele Anderson (Head Waiter), with Zac Adlam, Michael Anderson, Kamau Davis, Lawrence Guntert, Samantha Hull, Exme Laudat, and Gleanne Purcell-Brown, begins previews at London’s Crucible Theatre.
The 21st annual The 24 Hour Play Broadway Gala, written by Aimee Mann, christopher oscar peña, Dave Harris, J. Holtham, Jonathan Coulton, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Kristoffer Diaz, Gracie Gardner, Lily Houghton, Mario Correa, Michael Mitnick, Rachel Axler, Steve Yockey, Talene Monahon, and Warren Leight, directed by Elizabeth Williamson, Gordon Greenberg, Jaki Bradley, Mia Walker, Michael John Garcés, Neil Pepe, Patricia McGregor, Sarna Lapine, Sean Daniels, and Victor Malana Maog, featuring Aimee Mann, Anna Chlumsky, Jessica Hecht, Midori Francis, Nia Vardalos, Sherri Saum, Amy Hargreaves, Anna Suzuki, Baron Vaughn, Bill Heck, Eve Lindley, Joel Marsh Garland, Mary McCann, Merle Dandridge, Russell G. Jones, Shaunette Renee Wilson, and Susannah Perkins, both live & livestreamed at 8 PM ET (location for in-person option provided upon ticket purchase). 
here.
Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles‘ A Holiday Homecoming concert, 8 PM PT at UCLA’s Royce Hall (also tomorrow at 2 PM PT).
One More For The Road, an authentic re-enactment concert honoring the musicals of Frank Sinatra, with a full 32-piece orchestra, starring Bob Anderson, at 7 PM ET at Carnegie Hall.
“The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Steven Spielberg, Rachel Zedler, Samantha Williams, Melba Moore, Tony Yazbeck, and more, airs at various times through the U.S. (also on Dec. 12) Check local listings here.
Sunday, December 12
Cabaret, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, featuring Eddie Redmayne (Emcee), Jessie Buckley (Sally Bowles), Omari Douglas (Cliff Bradshaw), Liza Sadovy (Fraulein Schneider), Elliot Levey (Herr Schultz), Stewart Clarke (Ernst Ludwig), and Anna-Jane Casey (Fraulein Kost), with Josh Andrews, Emily Benjamin, Sally Frith, Matthew Gent, Emma Louise Jones, Ela Lisondra, Theo Maddix, Chris O’Mara, Daniel Perry, Andre Refig, Christopher Tendai, Bethany Terry, Lillie-Pearl Wildman, and Sophie Maria Wojna, opens at London’s Playhouse Theatre.
Lisa Howard: What Christmas Means To Me concert, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 54 Below.
The 2021 Kritzerland Holiday Show concert, directed by Bruce Kimmel, featuring Bill Hayes, Maegan McConnell, Kerry O’Malley, Adrienne Stiefel, Robert Yacko, Alexa Margolis, and Aja Purkin, at 7 PM PT at Studio City’s Feinstein’s at Vitellos.
Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles‘ A Holiday Homecoming concert, at 2 PM PT at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
“The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Steven Spielberg, Rachel Zedler, Samantha Williams, Melba Moore, Tony Yazbeck, and more, airs at various times through the U.S. Check local listings here.
Pretty Woman: The Musical, directed & choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, featuring Aimie Atkinson (Vivian Ward), Danny Mac (Edward Lewis), Rachel Wooding (Kit De Luca), Bob Harms (Happy Man/Mr. Thompson, Neil McDermott (Philip Stuckey), and Mark Holden (James Morse), with Jemma Alexander, Andy Barke, Kimberly Blake, Katie Bradley, Oliver Brenin, Olivia Brookes, Alex Charles, Olly Christopher, Ben Darcy, Hannah Ducharme, Nicholas Duncan, Paige Fenlon, Damon Gould, Alex Hammond, Tom Andrew Hargreaves, Anthony Hewitt, Matt Jones, Serina Matthew, Katie Monks, Joanna Woodward, and Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke, closes at London’s Savoy Theatre.
Cullud Wattah, by Erika Dickerson-Despenza & Canidice C. Jones, directed by Canids C. Jones, featuring Crystal Dickinson (Marion), Lizan Mitchell (Big Ma), Ta’Neesha Murphy (Plum), Andrea Patterson (Ainee), Alicia Pilgrim (Plum), Chavez Ravine, and Lauren F. Walker (Reese), with Chavez Ravine and Jenean Farmer, closes at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
Baby, directed & choreographed by Ethan Paulini, featuring Julia Murney (Arlene), Elizabeth Flemming (Lizzie), Johny Link (Danny), Jamila Sabares-Klemm (Nicki), Robert H. Fowler (Alan), and Danielle Summons (Pam), with Jorge Donoso, Marisa Kirby, and Jewell Noel, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatrelab (357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor).
Middletown, by Dan Clancy, featuring Didi Conn, Donny Most, Loretta Swit, and Adrian Zmed, closes at Off-Broadway’s Actors Playhouse.
to the yellow house, world premiere by Kimber Lee, directed by Neel Keller, featuring Alton Alburo, Frankie J. Alvarez, Marco Barricelli, DeLeon Dallas, Deidrie Henry, Brooke Ishibashi, and Paco Tolson, with Grayson Heyl, Noah Israel, Noah Keeling Jada Alston Owens, Natalia Quintero-Riestra, and Jordan C. Smith, closes at La Jolla Playhouse.
Head Over Heels, adapted & directed by Jennie Koons, featuring Alaska 5000, Lea DeLaria, Yurel Echezarreta, Tiffany Mann, and Shanice Williams, closes at Pasadena Playhouse.
The Enigmatist, written & performed by David Kwong, closes at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Cinderella, by Rossini, conducted by Roberto Pavilion, featuring Serna Malfi (Angelina/Cinderella), Levy Sekgapane (Don Ramiro), Rodion Pogossov (Dandini), Alessandro Corbelli (Don Magnifico), Ildebrando D’Arcangelo (Alidoro), Erica Petrochelli (Clorinda), and Gabriela Flores (Tisbe), closes in person & streaming at LA Opera.
The Last Five Years, by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Leigh Barrett, featuring Jared Troilo (Jamie) and Kira Troilo (Cathy), closes at Boston’s Lyric Stage.
Pump Boys & Dinettes, directed by Daryl Brooks, featuring Rafe Bradford (Eddie), Shantel Cribbs (Prudie Cupp), Ian Custer (Jim), Frederick “Ricky” Harris (L.M.), Melanie Loren (Rhetta Cupp), and Billy Rude (Jackson), with Caitlin Dobbins, J.J. Smith, and Kelan Smith, closes at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
Playwrights’ Arena & Skylight Theatre Company’s A Hit Dog Will Holler world premiere, by Inda Craig-Galván, directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, featuring Donna Simone Johnson, Kacie Rogers, and Cheri Vandenheuvel, closes at LA’s Skylight Theatre.
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Company at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): … If there was ever a good time to dislike Company, now isn’t it. But let’s face it, the revival that opened on Thursday night at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater is not the Company Sondheim and the book writer George Furth (along with the director Hal Prince) unleashed on Broadway in 1970. Sure, the score remains great, and there are a few perfectly etched performances in supporting roles, especially Patti LuPone’s as the undermining, pickled Joanne… what was once the story of a man who is terrified of intimacy becomes something much less interesting: the story of a woman who is justifiably tired of her friends… now Bobbie instead of Bobby, and played by the winsome Katrina Lenk — no longer hears the busy signal of missed emotional connections that pulsed through the songs in their original incarnation. This time, what accompanies her as she studies five partnerships and samples three lovers is the ticking of a biological clock. Reframed that way, and with heaps of oversize symbolic baggage piled on top, the story comes to seem overwrought and incoherent… Too bad that Lenk, so beguiling in The Band’s Visit and Indecent, is not as lucky, both miscast and mishandled… So I guess I’m sorry-grateful. Sorry for not liking this version of Company better — and grateful to Sondheim for providing the chance to find out.
Broadway News (Charles Isherwood): …the absolutely dazzling Broadway revival of Company… directed by Marianne Elliott — or rather thoroughly reimagined by Marianne Elliott — scrubs away the date-stamps on this 1970 musical, with a book by George Furth, so thoroughly that the show seems as if it was written yesterday. While maintaining the original’s eternally relevant themes, of emotional uncertainty and the risks and rewards of the married state, the production refreshes them… The actors cast in these roles — most notably the estimable Patti LuPone as Bobbie’s oldest friend, Joanne — as well as those playing Bobbie’s trio of boyfriends, give virtually flawless performances… Broadly speaking, “Company” is a musical meditation on emotional ambivalence, the sense that “the road you didn’t take,” to quote a Sondheim lyric from another show, might have been preferable to the one you are on… This is not a run-of-the-mill revival… It infuses new life into a classic show with such intelligence, wit and care that it could, and should, become a template for future productions.
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …the world has changed since 2006 and it has not been pretty for love and unity. And in director Marianne Elliott’s new production… The ode, and thus the message of the show, which also stars Patti LuPone, is not that you have to love someone else despite the cost, it’s that a single person most importantly needs to know herself… no question that this revival is a perfect match for the Broadway moment… And they decouple the American musical from its perennial belief in the power of love. Pity… Love is love is love is love… You really don’t see a lot of mutual feeling in the show, at least not in a way you can believe. Most of the supporting cast.. are playing caricatures of couples. That’s not a criticism of their performances, which mostly are excellent, but a statement of the show’s belief in the you-must-rely-on-yourself doctrine over the possibility of love among equally flawed souls… Which brings us to LuPone. Her visceral, showstopping, rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch,” performed as her character, Joanne, sits perched in a grinding nightclub, is simply extraordinary…
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): …Marianne Elliott’s imaginatively trippy update of Company… While staying faithful to the original material, Elliott and Sondheim tweaked lyrics, visual references and Furth’s book scenes, transforming the show into a portrait of a contemporary single woman… the revival resurfaces as a rejuvenated triumph, mounted with insights both touching and stinging, and a canny understanding of the complicated mechanics of a show that takes place largely in the abstract. Elliott brings a pleasingly light touch as she guides an ensemble of top-notch New York stage regulars to hit every note of comedy and poignancy… The production is so vibrant, so alive and stimulating, reconceived with such cleverness and humor, that even a conspicuously miscast lead doesn’t cancel out its pleasures. That would be Katrina Lenk… she seems jarringly wrong for Bobbie, regardless of the character’s gender. Without the sense of an ache inside for something more emotionally satisfying…the internal conflict that drives the show has a fuel shortage… Joanne, magnificently played by Patti LuPone in an imperious star turn to be treasured… So in a show as deeply anchored in ambivalence as Company, who better than this fabulous, ferocious creature to snap Bobbie out of her inertia?
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, newly adapted by Terry Truck & Anne Tournié, and directed & choreographed by Tournié, will run Mar. 4 – Aug. 4 (opening Mar. 17) at the Broadway Theatre.
Lionel Zalachas (The Little Prince), Aurélien Bednarek (The Aviator), Chris Mouron (The Narrator), Laurisse Sulty (The Rose / The Snake alternate), Adrien Picaut (The Businessman / The Switchman), Antony Cesar (The Vain Man), Andre Kamienski (The Drunkard), Marcin Janiak (The Lamplighter), Srilata Ray (The Snake), Dylan Barone (The Fox / The King), Marie Menuge (Ensemble, The Rose / The Drunkard alternate), and Joän Bertrand (Ensemble, The Fox / The King alternate), with George Sanders, William John Banks, Madison Ward, and Jayesh Palande.
The production will be filled with spectacle, dance, aerial acrobatics, and groundbreaking videomapping technology.
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Todd Almond: A Pony for Christmas, celebrating his new album, will take place Mon. Dec. 13 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Chelsea Table + Stage.
Betty Buckley.
“A Pony for Christmas” is a folk-pop take on the classic holiday album, featuring both original compositions and Almond’s unexpected renditions of Christmas standards.
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The world premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire & Jeanine Tesori’s Kimberly Akimbo has been extended through Jan. 15 at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company, directed by Jessica Stone.
Victoria Clark, Steven Boyer, Justin Cooley, Olivia Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan II, Michael Iskander, Alli Mauzey, Bonnie Milligan, and Nina White.
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Freestyle Love Supreme will launch its national tour on Jan. 21 at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater.
Andrew Bancroft (Jelly Donut), Jay C. Ellis (Jellis), Aneesa Folds (Young Nees), Kaila Mullady (Kaizer RÖzeé), Morgan Reilly (Hummingbird, Chris Sullivan (Shockwave), and Veneziale (Two Touch).
Click here for the complete tour schedule.
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Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West has announced its 2022 season. Creative teams, casting, and additional information TBA.
The Andrews Brothers (Feb. 11-17)
Spamilton (Mar. 25 – Apr. 10
Grease (July 8-24)
Damn Yankees (Oct. 15-31)
Cinderella (Dec. 2-18)
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PBS (link TBA) will air “Stars on Stage From Westport Country Playhouse” in January on 3 consecutive Fridays at 9 PM (check local listings). All three concerts were recorded live over the summer at Connecticut’s Westport Country Playhouse, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2021.
* Gavin Creel (Jan. 7)
* Shoshana Bean (Jan. 14)
* Brandon Victor Dixon (Jan. 21)
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Video: Jessica Vosk sings from Evita in rehearsal for The Seth Concert Series.
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Ed Barnes will teach a new online course, “SONGBOOK 6: Six Classics of the Great American Songbook,” at Julliard, as part of the schools’ Extension Division, to run Thursdays Feb. 10 – Mar. 24 from 5:30 – 7 PM ET. Click here for more information and to enroll. Open to all.
A behind-the-scenes look at six of the most iconic and finely-crafted songs ever written, exploring how and why they were created, the melodic and rhythmic elements that makes each tick, and the secrets to their enduring success.
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“Jagged Little Pill: The Novel,” based on the musical, will be released Apr. 26, 2022 in hardcover and ebook. 
here.
Coauthored by the show’s creators and YA author Eric Smith, the book draws on the musical’s story, giving readers deeper glimpses of the characters. The Novel follows the intertwining lives of five teens whose world is changed forever after the events at a party. Frankie, Jo, Phoenix, Nick, and Bella are suburban teens facing their own personal challenges and the struggle of growing up and carving out your own identity. The book alternates between their points of view, digging into the questions that drive the musical’s plot. Each of their stories intersects when Bella is sexually assaulted-and it looks like the perpetrator might get away with it. Jagged Little Pill: The Novel is a story about the power of voicing your pain, standing up for what’s right, and finding healing and connection.