This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, July 17
* Dancers Responding to AIDS‘ Virtual Fire Island Dance Festival benefit, featuring Ayodele Casel, Larry Kiegwin, Stephen Petronio, Al Blackstone, Kyle Abraham, Garrett Smith, and many more, livestreamed at 7 PM ET.
* Metropolitan Opera’s Porgy and Bess, directed by James Robinson, hosted by Audra McDonald, featuring Eric Owens (Porgy), and Angel Blue (Bess), with Alfred Walker (Crown), Frederick Ballentine (Sportin’ Life), Latonia Moore (Serena), Golda Schultz (Clara), Donovan Singletary (Jake), and Denyce Graves (Maria), streams at 9 PM on PBS (check local listings).
* “Stars in the House,” a “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” reunion, with Rachel Bloom, Skylar Astin, Donna Lynne Champlin, Vincent Rodriguez III, and Gabrielle Ruiz, at 8 PM ET here.
* “The Perfect Fit” album release party, by 13-year-old Joshua Turchin, featuring Laura Benanti and Nikki Renee Daniels, at 7 PM ET here.
* “The Perfect Fit” EP concept album, by 13–year-old Joshua Turchin, featuring Laura Benanti, Nikki Renée Daniels, Joshua Turchin, Carly Gendell, Grace DeAmicus, Ellie Kim, Swayam Bhatia, Lily Brooks, Luke Islam, Audrey Bennett, and Fabi Aguirre, released digitally here.
Saturday, July 18
* Mercy for Animals benefit concert, featuring Eva Nobelzada, Alistair Brammer, Brittney Johnson, Lindsay Pearce, Gus Halper, Zara Devlin, Rory Max Kaplan, Christina Bennington, Cami Petyn, Chloe Temtchine, April Sampé, Ethan Gold, Stephanie Braganza, Gabrielle Reyes, Ace Anderson, Dorian Maey, Halo Kitsch, Mark Batak, Katie Buxton, Drew Harrisberg, Lloyd Daniels, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Jade Novah, Shea Diamond, Sarah Jeffery, Jamie Campbell Bower, DAWN, Jade Novah, Persia White, Ricky Garcia, Jordan Rodrigues, Sarah Grey, Nick Hargove, and Jack Duarte, streamed at 5 PM on Facebook (also July 19).
* Heros of the Fourth Turning reading, by Will Arbery, featuring Jeb Kreager, Julia McDermott, Michele Pawk, Zoë Winters, and John Zdrojeski, at 7 PM ET here.
Sunday, July 19
* Mercy for Animals benefit concert, featuring Eva Nobelzada, Alistair Brammer, Brittney Johnson, Lindsay Pearce, Gus Halper, Zara Devlin, Rory Max Kaplan, Christina Bennington, Cami Petyn, Chloe Temtchine, April Sampé, Ethan Gold, Stephanie Braganza, Gabrielle Reyes, Ace Anderson, Dorian Maey, Halo Kitsch, Mark Batak, Katie Buxton, Drew Harrisberg, Lloyd Daniels, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Jade Novah, Shea Diamond, Sarah Jeffery, Jamie Campbell Bower, DAWN, Jade Novah, Persia White, Ricky Garcia, Jordan Rodrigues, Sarah Grey, Nick Hargove, and Jack Duarte, streamed at 5 PM on Facebook.
* Bucks County Playhouse “Playhouse Live” featuring Lorin Latarro’s interview with Rob McClure, at 7 PM ET.
* The Dramatist Guild’s “Making Your Online Reading a Success” FREE webinar, at 2 PM PT here.
**********************
London’s Theatre Royal Stratford East presentation of 846, written by 14 playwrights, directed by Ola Ince, will be available for listening on Aug. 6 here.
Casting TBA.
Playwright Roy Williams brought together 14 writers to respond artistically to George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter Movement. From this came 846 – a collection of short pieces. Each is a standalone exploration of racial inequality and oppression, but together they form a powerful tapestry of voices.
**********************
Video: Les Miz medley, featuring the Ida Girls London (Georgi Mottram, Wendy Carr, Jasmine Faulkner and Sarah Vaughan). Gorgeous.
**********************
All performances of Hamilton from Sept. 8, 2020 – Feb. 28, 2021 have been cancelled at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre.
New dates: Apr. 6 – June 27, 2021 and Oct. 12, 2021 – Jan. 2, 2022.
Additional details TBA.
**********************
The Black Theatre United coalition will present“Our Voices, Our Votes, Our Time,” moderated by Viola Davis, on Fri. July 24 at 7 PM ET. Register here.
Stacey Abrams and Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean.
**********************
Highlights from 3-D Theatrical productions at CA’s Ceritos CPA:
Video: Kinky Boots (2020)
Video: Shrek, The Musical (2019)
**********************
“Howard,” a film about the life & career of Howard Ashman, will premiere Aug. 7 on Disney+, directed by Don Han.
Alan Menken, Jodi Benson, Paige O’Hara, and Don Han.
The documentary, which uses vintage photographs and video footage in lieu of newly-shot talking head interviews, also offers behind-the-scenes glimpses at Ashman on the job, including a look at Beauty and the Beast recording sessions with Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach performing “Be Our Guest.” The film covers Ashman’s life from his early years in Baltimore to his New York theatre career and time at Disney, where he is credited as the major driving force behind the company’s animation renaissance of the early 1990s. After contributing a song to Disney’s 1988 film “Oliver and Company,” Ashman saw an opportunity in animation to create a style of movie musical that was largely absent since the early 1970s.
Video: Trailer
**********************
Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater will present a full-length audio production of Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is, to run July 23-26, directed by James Ijames.
Danielle Leneé (Racine), Brett Ashley Robinson (Anaia), Melanye Finister (She), Akeem Davis (Chuck Hall), Anthony Martinez-Briggs (Scotch), Aaron Bell (Riley), Taysha Marie Canales (Angie), and Lindsay Smiling (Man).
A mother’s dying wish jump starts the journey of scorned twin sisters Anaia and Racine, who go on a cross-country adventure to exact righteous revenge.
**********************
The Catskills’ Forestburgh Playhouse has announced its 75 and Thrive Broadway Concert Series, all at 7:30 PM ET, in compliance with local social distancing measures:
* Kyle Taylor Parker (July 18)
* Nicholas King (July 24)
* Tom Hewitt and Edward Staudenmayer (July 25)
* Kate Baldwin (Aug. 1)
* Morgan James (Aug. 8)
* Alice Ripley (Aug. 22)
All attendees will be able to relax and enjoy the magic of live entertainment with social distancing measures enforced. The shows will take place in the theater’s gardens with tent and lawn seating available along with an outdoor bar. Picnic baskets packed with tasty food and refreshing cocktails will be available for pre-order. Ticket holders will receive guidelines and protocols prior to arrival and will be seated in comfortable, socially distanced locations. All events will last one hour, without intermission. Restrooms will be available and a restroom attendant will be present to ensure proper adherence to safety protocols.
**********************
Off-Broadway’s Playwright Horizons has announced its 2021 season, with all female directors. Dates TBA.
* What to Send Up When It Goes Down, by Aleshea Harris, directed by Whitney White. A play-pageant-ritual-homegoing celebration in response to the physical and spiritual deaths of Black people as a result of racialized violence.
* Selling Kabul, by Sylvia Khoury, directed by Tyne Rafaeli. Taroon once served as an interpreter for the US military in Afghanistan. Now the Americans — and their promise of safety — have withdrawn, and he spends his days in hiding, a target of the increasingly powerful Taliban. On the eve of his son’s birth, Taroon must remain in his sister’s apartment or risk his life to see his child.
* Tambo & Bones, by Dave Harris, directed by Taylor Reynolds. Tambo and Bones are 2 characters in a minstrel show. They soon come to realize that they are, in fact, just two characters in a minstrel show. This realization brings them great distress. All they want is some quarters and a nap. They decide there is only one solution: they must find and kill the source of all their troubles.
* Wish You Were Here, by Sanaz Toossi, directed by GT Upchurch. Nazanin and her friends are on the brink of adulthood. As they prepare for a wedding, outside their living room the Iranian Revolution simmers and threatens to alter the course of their lives.
**********************
Video: Liz Callaway performs “Another Hundred People” (1983)
**********************
Frozen will begin previews Apr. 2, 2021 and open Apt. 14 at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Samantha Barks (Elsa), Stephanie McKeon (Princess Anna), Craig Gallivan (Olaf), Obioma Ugoala (Kristoff), Richard Frame (Lord Weselton), Oliver Ormson (Prince Hans), and Ashley Birchall (Sven), with Joshua St. Clair, Lauren Chia, Cameron Burt, Izzy Snaas, Monica Swayne, Jason Leigh Winter, Hannah Fairclough, Emily Lane, Gabriel Mokake, Emily Mae Walker, Jeremy Batt, Leisha Mollyneaux, Justin-Lee Jones, Jak Skelly, Jacqui Sanchez, and Jacob Maynard.
**********************
Broadway Sings for Joe Kennedy III, in conjunction with the Campaign for Kennedy for Massachusetts, will take place Tues. July 21 at 6 PM ET here, directed by Debbie Gravitte. A Q&A will follow the 30-min. concert, moderated by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Sara Bareilles, Kelli O’Hara, Andrew Barth Feldman, Alli Mauzey, and Dee Roscioli, along with cast members from Broadway’s Wicked, Dear Even Hansen, Hamilton, and Waitress.
Christopher Jackson, Rosanne Cash, Harvey Fierstein, Judy Collins, Rita Moreno, and Solea Pfeiffer.