Have a spectacular holiday. GRACE NOTES will return Tuesday, July 5!
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This Weekends Highlights:
Friday, July 1
The Tempest, directed by Deborah Warner, featuring Dickie Beau (Ariel), Gary Sefton (Stephano), William Chubb (Gonzalo), Stephen Kennedy (Trinculo), Nicholas Woodeson (Prospero), Pierro Miel-Mee (Ferdinand), Tanvi Virmani (Mirana), Natalie Winsor (Francisca), Finbar Lynch (Antonio), and Luke Mullins (Sebastian), opens at the UK’s Theatre Royal Bath.
Dear Evan Hansen national tour, featuring Anthony Norman (Evan Hansen), Stephanie La Rochelle (Zoe Murphy), Jessica E. Sherman (Heidi Hansen), Kelsey Venter (Cynthia Murphy), Nikhil Saboo (Conor Murphy), John Hemphill (Larry Murphy), Jared Goldsmith (Jared Kleinman), Ciara Alyse Harris (Alana Beck), and Sam Primack (Evan Hansen alternate), with Haile Ferrier, Matthew Edward Kemp, Coleen Sexton, Daniel Robert Sullivan, and Keely Vasquez, opens at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.
The Nutty Professor, by Rupert Holmes & Marvin Hamlisch, directed by Marc Bruni, featuring Max Crumm (Julius Kelp/Buddy Love), Elena Ricardo (Stella Purdy), Klea Blackhurst (Miss Lemon), Mel Johnson Jr. (Harrington Winslow), and Jeff McCarthy (Dr. Warfield), with Parker Aimone, Alyssa Carol, Jillian Hope Ferguson, Joseph Harrington, Fernel Hogan, Corinne Munsch, Chase Peacock, Larkin Reilly, Ethan Rogers, Vanessa Sierra, Kyra Louise Smith, Jordan Stephens, Jake Urban, Jerome Vivona, and Blake Zelesnikar, opens at ME’s Ogunquit Playhouse.
NAATCO‘s Queen, by Madhuri Shekar, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar, featuring Stephanie Janssen, Ben Livingston, Keshav Moodliar, and Avanthika Srinivasan, closes at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T.
Murder on the Orient Express, adapted by Ken Ludwig, directed by Annika Boras, featuring Diana Coates (Countess Andrenyi), Emjoy Gavinco (Mary Debanham), Park Krausen (Greta Ohlsson), Gregory Linington (Monsieur Bouc), Will Mobley (Hector MacQueen), Adam Poss (Michel), Gail Rastorfer (Helen Hubbard), Steven Rattazzi (Hercule Poirot), Barbara Robertson (Princess Dragomiroff), and Jonathan Wainwright (Colonel Arbuthnot/Samuel Ratchett), closes at Milwaukee Rep.
Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland closes at Milwaukee Rep‘s Stackner Cabaret.
Saturday, July 2
Legally Blonde, directed by Lucy Moss, featuring Courtney Bowman (Elle Woods), Michal Ahomka-Lindsay (Emmett), Lauren Drew (Brooke), Vanessa Fisher (Vivienne), Isaac Hesketh (Margot), Nadine Higgin (Paulette), Alȳbeta Matyšákoya (Enid), Eugene McCoy (Callahan), Grace Mouat (Pilar), Alistair Toovey (Warner), and Hannah Yun Chamberlain (Serena), with Gabriela Benedetti, Lucca Chadwick-Patel, Jasmin Colangelo, Allie Daniel, Joe Foster, Dominic Lamb, Esme Laudat, Liam McEvoy, Billy Nevers, Ashley Rowe, Shakira Simpson, Biancha Szynal, and Paulo Teixeira, closes at London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Emily Skinner: A Broad with a Broad, Broad Mind concert closes at NYC’s 54 Below.
We Shall Someday concert presentation, by Harrison David Rivers & Ted Shen, directed by Kelli Foster Warder, featuring Benjamin Harold Moore, Nova Y. Payton, Emmanuel Elliot Key, and Drake Leach, concludes at DC’s Signature Theatre.
Noir, world premiere by Duncan Sheik & Kyle Jarrow, directed by Darko Tresnjak, featuring Christy Altomare (Scarlet), Adam Kantor (The Neighbor), Morgan Marcell (The Wife), Sinclair Daniel (The Kid), David Guzman (The Husband), Clifton Samuels (The Boss), and Voltaire Wade-Greene (The Goon), closes at Houston’s Alley Theatre.
Sunday, July 3
Saturday Night Fever, directed & choreographed by Karen Babcock Brassea, featuring Dorian Quinn (Tony Manero), Natalie Kastner (Stephanie Mangano), Daniella Castoria (Annette), Bryce Bayer (Bobby C.), Ryan Mulvaney (Monty/Mr. Fusco), Jonathan Santos (Joey), William Nelson (Double J.), Benji Godley-Fisher (Gus), Jonathan Van Dyke (Frank Manero), Judy Mina-Ballard (Flo Manero), Ayres (Kaplan) (Linda Manero), Patrick Murray (Frank Manero Jr.), Erika Harper (Pauline), Dwan Hayes (Candy), Presley Nicholson (Connie), and Ava Cusiter (Doreen), with Haley Ayers, Kristen Daniels, A.J. Love, Ellery Smith, Lucy Swinson, Kyle Uraniak, and Katie Van Horn, opens at Laguna Playhouse.
10 Years of New Writers Celebrating 54 Below’s 10th Anniversary livestreamed concert, with writers Joey Contreras, Amanda D’Archangelis & Sami Horneff, Drew Gasparini, Joe Iconis, Kait Kerrigan & Bree Lowdermilk, Ryan Scott Oliver, Murphy Taylor Smith & Emerson Mae Smith, and Georgia Stitt, and performers Mariah Lyttle, Wren Rivera, Gabriella Joy Rodriguez, Analise Scarpacti, and Alyssa Wray, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 54 Below.
Skylar Astin (Seymour) concludes his run in Little Shop of Horrors at Off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre Upstairs.
The Orchard, conceived, adapted & directed by Igor Golyak, featuring Jessica Hecht (Lubov Ranevskaya), Mikhail Baryshnikov (Anton Chekhov / Firs), Anna Baryshnikov, Juliet Brett, Darya Denisova, John McGinty, Nael Nacer, and Mark Nelson, closes at Off-Broadway’s Baryshnikov Arts Center.
King James, world premiere by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Kenny Leon, featuring Glenn Davis (Shawn) and Chris Perfetti (Matt), closes at LA’s Mark Taper Forum.
Cabaret, directed by James Vásquez, featuring Jelani Remy (MC), Aline Mayagoitia (Sally Bowles), Bruce Landry (Cliffor Bradshaw), Jennifer Smith (Fraulein Schneider), Kevin Ligon (Herr Schultz), Tera C. MacLeod (Fraulein Kost), and Tim Fuchs (Ernst Ludwig), with Matt Allen, Shelby Finnie, Aurore Joly, Caroline Kane, Kathy Liu, Connor McRory, Christian Elán Ortiz, Antonia Raye, Adam Rogers, and Georgia Monroe, closes at CT’s Goodspeed.
Pretty Woman tour, directed & choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, featuring Adam Pascal (Edward Lewis), Olivia Valli (Vivian Ward), Jessica Crouch (Kit De Luca), Kyle Taylor Parker (Happy Man/Mr. Thompson, and Matthew Stock (Philip Sutckey), with Nella Cole, Michael Dalke, Nico DeJesus, Christian Douglas, Danny Drewes, Alex Gibbs, Em Hadick, Joshua Kenneth Allen Johnson, Chris Manuel, Alexa Xioufaridou Moster, Kaylee Olson, Amma Osei, Jonathan Ritter, Becca Suskauer, Kelsee Sweigard, Matthew Vincent Taylor, Brent Thiessen, Bria J. Williams, and Imani Pearl Williams, closes at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.
The Outgoing Tide, by Bruce Graham, directed by Nike Doukas, featuring Andrew Barnicle, Leo Marx, and Linda Gehringer, closes at CA’s North Coast Rep.
Yellow Face, by David Henry Hwang, directed by Telly Leung, featuring Hansel Tan (DDH), Pascal Pastrana (Marcus), Alan Ariano (HYH/others), Liam Yates (Announcer/others), Brook North (Stuart Ostro/others), Ali Evarts (Jane/others), and Kylie Robinson (Leah Anne Cho/others), with Tedd Szeto, Ada Change, and Gul Allen, closes at Theatre Raleigh.
Monday, July 4
A Capitol Fourth concert, directed & conducted by Jack Everly, with special guest Chita Rivera, and featuring Darren Criss, Emily Bear, Loren Allred, Yoland Adams, Gloria Gaynor, Keb’ Mo’, and more, airs at 8 PM on PBS (check local listings).
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Reviews for Hamlet, directed by Robert Icke, at NYC’s Park Avenue Armory:
New York Stage Review (David Finkle): William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, first seen around 1600, has evoked innumerable responses in the 400-plus years since it leaped into action—or inaction as its title character focuses on—but I wonder if it’s ever been accused of conjuring boredom… director Robert Icke has accomplished the dubious feat… Not that this Hamlet…is boring start to finish, as boring as Claudius (Angus Wright) speaking several of his speeches with hands in pants pockets… Sometimes this Hamlet springs to sudden life but for reasons that are more disorienting than anything enlivening…
The Wrap (Thom Geier): The young British director Robert Icke comes to classic material bursting with ideas — and they pay off in a big way in his engaging and often revelatory new modern-dress production… Icke shows careful consideration not only for Shakespeare’s text, but for how it plays to modern audiences — and seeks to find ways to bridge the four-century gap in our understanding of the characters… He’s helped by a top-notch ensemble… a keen grasp of the Bard’s poetry as well as the psychological nuances of the characters… Alex Lawther shows a noteworthy self-assurance as the dithering Danish prince…
Observer (David Cote): Robert Icke’s production of Hamlet…is nearly four hours and it’s mostly Hamlet throwing a weird little fit… running a punitive 3 hours and 40 minutes… Instead we sit through a sensitive but finally underwhelming turn by young British TV star Alex Lawther… a pouty waif swallowed up by Icke’s brutalist vision… Absent a dynamic and aggressive center, Icke’s Hamlet must keep our attention with its various gimmicks and interpretations, which are admirable in their A-student aura of confidence, if none of them particularly fresh.
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The world premiere of Matte O’Brien & Matt Vinson’s Anne of Green Gables will run July 15 – Sept. 4 (opening July 27) at CT’s Goodspeed, directed by Jenn Thompson.
Juliette Redden (Anne Shirley), Michelle Veintimilla (Diana Barry), Sharon Catherine Brown (Marilla Cuthbert), Aurelia Williams (Rachel Lynde), Pierre Marais (Gilbert Blythe), and D.C. Anderson (Matthew Cuthbert), with Emily Agy, Jarred Bedgood, Tristen Buettel, Giovanni Da Silva, Amanda Ferguson, Patrick Oliver Jones, Nick Martinez, Morgan McGhee, Jenna Lea Rosen, Avery Sobczak, Elaine Cotter, and Sam Pickart.
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Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre has announced its 2022-23 season (dates, directors, and casting TBA):
Sunset 1919, an outdoor ritual memorializing Eugene Williams, whose tragic murder at 29th Street Beach marked the beginning of the 1919 Chicago race riots.
What to Send Up When It Goes Down, by Aleshea Harris, a vibrant necessary soul-stirring event in residence as Lookingglass Theatre.
Five Short Films (titles TBA), celebrating each of Chicago’s 50 Wards.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, adapted from Hans Christian Anderson’s work
Villette, world premiere by Matthew C. Yee, which is a tale of First Generations Asia American Renegades.
Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon, world premiere by Matthew C. Yee, which is a tale of two First Generation Asian American Renegades.
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Mike Bartlett’s Cock has been extended through July 9 at LA’s LGBT Center, directed by Taubert Nadalini.
Annika Chavez, Dennis Delsing, Mathew Dunlop, and Sean Hemeon.
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The National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced its 34th Annual Festival of New Musicals, to run Oct. 20-21 at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages. Register here for FREE.
Baked! The Musical, by Jord Liu & Deepak Kumar. 
When she doesn’t receive the scholarship that would send her to her dream school, Jane Huang, with her best friend and the class degenerate, secretly builds a Chinese bakery cannabis edible empire.
Blackout, by Steven Gallagher & Anton Lipovetsky. On Aug. 14, 2003, Toronto was plunged into chaos when the largest blackout in North American history left millions stranded in the dark.
Get Out Alive, by Nikki Lynete, Matt Hennessy, Clay Bail, Malcom Fong, Slavic Livins & Zeke Macumber. This new autobiographical “afro-goth” musical raises mental health awareness through the lens of an underground concert. This true story shows that when life leads us to a bad place, we can always make it out alive.
King of Pangaea, by Martin Storrow. After a sudden loss shatters his world apart, twenty-one-year-old Christopher Crow travels back to the imaginary island of his childhood in hope of finding answers that will bring the pieces back together.
Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girl, by Sara Cooper & Lynne Shankel. The piece features an all-women+ cast, and an original through-composed 1920-2020s mashup score, in which the music tells the true story of the capitalist exploitation and knowing radium poisoning of workers by the U.R. Radium Corporation – and the women who fought back.
Pup! A Chew Story, by Marcus Terrell Smith & Robin Schäfer. Is finding a forever home at the heart of every dog? Or are they meant for greater things? the strength of friendship is put to the ultimate test when two inseparable companions – a tri-pawed pit bull and his chew toy – embark on a quest for a forever home in Hollywood.
The Female Pope, by Heather Christian & Shannon Burkett. A highly disputed story about a woman in the 9th century who rose to the papacy. A young girl’s father – desperate to keep her safe – disguises her as a boy, with the promise of an education. This unlocks a passion for learning that propels her to the most powerful position in the world – a stunning achievement that threatens the very existence of the Catholic Church itself.
The Pelican, by Will Lacker & Dylan Glatthorn. In the not-too-distant future, The Pelican Bar is almost all that remains of a Florida coastal town devastated by climate change. When a new category of hurricane approaches, the few offbeat residents that remain must make a choice: exchange their freedom for safety in a nearby Corporate City of risk the storm to keep their town alive.
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The national tour of Come From Away will run July 20 – Aug. 7 at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre.
Markia Aubrey, Kevin Carolan, Harter Clingman, Steffi, Didomenicantonio, Nick Duckart, Chamblee Ferguson, Christine Toy Johnson, Julie Johnson, James Earl Jones II, Kristen Peace, Danielle K. Thomas, Jeremy Woodard, and Jenny Ashma.
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Broadway World’s new web series, “Ms. Guidance,” has released its first episode (see below), written by James Ryan Calkwell, and directed by Van Hansis & Melodie Sisk.
Amber Gray, Van Hansis, Tyler Hanes, Ian Unterman, Calli Alden, and Adriane Lenox, with Mark Boyett, Sam Faulkner, Andrew Hollinger, Erin Kommor, Ginna Le Vine, Antonio Marziale, Ashley Austin Morris, Amy Russ, Nikki Snelson, Kit Williamson, Marco Zunino, Michael Urie, and Elliotte Crowell.
Video: Ep. 1: “Romeo and Jenny.” After a humiliating breakdown on a New York City stage, failed actress Jenny Bump returns to her fine arts high school for a fresh start as the new guidance counselor. Her first day is no homecoming.
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Albany’s Capital Rep has announced its 2022-23 season:
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Sept. 30 – Oct. 23, opening Oct. 4), by Gordon Greenberg & Steve Rosen.
The Wizard of Oz (Nov. 18 – Dec. 24)
Secret Hour (Jan, 27 – Feb. 19, 2023), world premiere by Jenny Stafford.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Apr. 14 – May 7)
Honky Tonk Angels (July 14 – Aug. 20)