This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, July 23
Theater Works Hartford‘s Walden, written by & starring Amy Berryman, directed by Mei Ann Teo, opens at Hartford’s Riverfront Recapture.
First Date filmed production, by Alan Zachary, Michael Weiner & Austin Winsberg, directed by Meg Fofonoff, featuring Diana DeGarmo, Ace Young, Kevin Massey, Nick Cearley, Jennifer Sánchez, Vishal Vaidya, and Aurelia Williams, begins streaming here.
“Ailey” documentary, about the life of Alvin Ailey, directed by Jamila Wignot, opens in theaters in NYC. Trailer.
Anything Goes, directed & choreographed by Susan Stroman, featuring Sutton Foster (Reno Sweeny), Robert Lindsay (Moonface Martin), Felicity Kendal (Evangeline Harcourt), Gary Wilmot (Elisha Whitney), Samuel Edwards (Billy Crocker), Nicole-Lily Baisden (Hope Harcourt), Haydn Oakley (Lord Evelyn Oakleigh), and Carly Mercedes Dyer (Erma Latour), with Jon Chew, Clive Hayward, Alistair So, Marc Akinfolarin, Simon Anthony, Georgie Ashford, Vivien Carter, Natalie Chua, Eamonn Cox, Jordan Crouch, Frances Dee, Charlene Ford, Selina Hamilton, Maddie Harper, Michael Lin, Robbie McMillan, Tom Partridge, Jack Wilcox, Alexandra Wright, George Beet, Gabrielle Cocca, Emily Ormiston, and Liam Wrate, begins previews at London’s Barbicon Theatre.
Falling in Love with Mr. Dellamort audio musical, by Jack Feldstein & Paul Doust, directed by Ella Jane New, featuring James Monroe Iglehart (Mr. Dellamort), Courtney Reed (Sue Grimshaw), Lena Hall (Rhonda Lipson), Jackie Hoffman (Mina Thompson), Telly Leung (Barry Scott), and Gavin Lee (Narrator), released here and most podcast platforms.
Lillias White‘s new album, “Get Yourself Some Happy!” released here and on most platforms.
Pittsburgh CLO‘s 75th Anniversary: A Broadway Musical Celebration, directed by Baayork Lee, featuring Norm Lewis, Robbie Fairchild, Jackie Burns, Patrick Cassidy, Ali Ewoldt, Joshua Grosso, Manu Narayan, Genny Lis Padilla, Joe Serafini, Stephanie Umoh, Max Von Essen, and Allison Walsh, with Sophie Aknin, Jamary Gil, Akina Kitazawa, Connor McRory, Jerreme Rodriguez, and David Wayne, closes at Heinz Field.
Saturday, July 24
Derek Klena – Live at the Bourbon Room concert opens at LA’s Bourbon Room.
An Evening with Ali Stroker concert, at 8 PM ET at Westport Country Playhouse.
Under Milkwood, by Dylan Thomas, directed by Lindsey Turner, featuring Michael Sheen, Karl Johnson, and Siân Phillips, closes at London’s Oliver Theatre.
Romeo and Juliet, directed by Kimberly Sykes, featuring Isabel Adomakoh Yount (Juliet), Joel MacCormack (Romeo), Cavan Clarke (Mercutio), Emma Cunniffe (Nurse), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Friar Lawrence), Michelle Fox (Tybalt), Aretha Ayeh (Benvolio), Ellie Beavan (Lady Capulet), Tom Claxton (Peter), Ryan Ellsworth (Gregora/Apothacary), Irvine Iqbal (Prince Escalus), Richard Leeming (Paris), Priyank Morjaria (Sampson), Louise Mai Newberry (Lady Montague), Shadee Yaghoubi (Abraham), and Marc Zayat (Balthasar), closes at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Sunday, July 25
Ann Hampton Callaway: The Linda Ronstadt Songbook concert, at 3 PM PT at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center.
The Comeback, written by & starring Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen, directed by Emily Burns, closes at London’s Noël Coward Theatre.
Seven Deadly Sins (seven world premiere short plays), by Ngozi Anyanwu, Thomas Bradshaw, MJ Kaufman, Moisés Kaufman, Jeffrey Lahoste, Ming Pfeiffer, and Bess Wohl, directed by Moisés Kaufman, featuring Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Eric Ulloa, Morgan McGhee, Caitlin O’Connell, Cody Sloan, Tricia Alexandro, Shavanna Calder, Donn Carnow, Shamika Cotton, Brandon J. Ellis, Brad Fleischer, Kahyum Kim, and Shuga Cain, closes outdoors here in NYC’s Meat Packing District.
Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings), by E. Dale Smith, directed by Braden M. Burns, featuring Jackie Hoffman (Ariana Russo) and Kelly Kinsella, closes at Off Broadway’s the cell.
Brother, Brother, by Aleshea Harris, directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, featuring André De Shields, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Amari Cheatom, and Owen Tabaka, concludes streaming at NY Theatre Workshop.
Live at the New Am concert series, featuring Michael James Scott, Ashley Brown, Kissy Simmons, and Josh Strickland, closes at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre.
Tevye in New York! world premiere, by Tom Dugan, directed by Dugan & Michael Vale, starring Dugan, closes at Beverly Hills’ The Wallis.
Derek Klena – Live at the Bourbon Room concert closes at LA’s Bourbon Room.
First Date filmed production, by Alan Zachary, Michael Weiner & Austin Winsberg, directed by Meg Fofonoff, featuring Diana DeGarmo, Ace Young, Kevin Massey, Nick Cearley, Jennifer Sánchez, Vishal Vaidya, and Aurelia Williams, concludes streaming here.
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Reviews for Hamlet at London’s Theatre Royal Windsor:
Evening Standard (Nick Curtis): Ian an McKellen’s age-defying Hamlet is a sensation in every sense of the word. It blends a lifetime of talent and technique with splashy novelty and the conscious exercise of star power to jolt theatre back to life…. The soliloquies are riveting… Sean Mathias’s production, set on a largely bare stage with a battlement gantry, never quite gets us to a place where age and gender cease to matter.
The Arts Desk (Ismene Brown): …The time really is out of joint, and ages, genders, races and nationalities… The production clearly poses that same question about whether Hamlet should be, or not be, as old as McKellen is. But he is beguilingly and indeed pointedly transparent, playing off a natural link between adolescent apathy and the habit of inactivity that grows with old age, even if you have a Peloton subscription… This certainly isn’t a portrait of a noble depressive, and I didn’t feel emotionally greatly engaged…
The Stage (Tim Bano): This hugger-mugger Hamlet is a tapestry (or should that be an arras?) of so many concepts and competing ideas that the end result is transfixing – if only for the moment of excitement between scenes when one wonders what jarringly incoherent concept could possibly come next… A pretty messy production, it turns out. The age gaps and the occasional gender-swap are the least confusing thing about this production. Every scene flies off in some new direction. How about an angry folk ballad from Ophelia? Or a comical Welsh gravedigger?
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Video: Stars in the House, a game night with Six cast members, l guests Abby Mueller, Brittney Mack, and Samantha Paulk. (1:13:42)
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Tina: The Tina Turner Musical will resume performances Oct. 8 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
Adrienne Warren, and more TBA.
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The world premiere of Eric Berryman & Jen Silverman’s ALIEN/NATION continues through Aug. 15 at Williamstown Theatre Festival, directed by Michael Arden.
Yeman Brown, Andrei Chagas, Maxwell, Dunham, Leigh-Ann Esty, Sara Esty, Chantelle Good, Christopher Hampton Grant, Nikki M. James, Eriko Jimbo, Matthew Alexander Johnson, Jesse Kovarsky, Renni Magee, Jodi McFadden, Emilio Ramos, Shea Renne, and Lauren Yalango-Grant, with Julian Abelskamp, Oluwatobiloba Adeyemo, Deborah Burns, Tim Creavein, Caroline Fairweather, Noah Greenfield, Cody Hayman, Barbara Mahony, Tess McHugh, Lloyd Pace, Austin Phillips, Kallie Pong, Jaime Lee Rodney, Marissa Ruben, Jessica Natalie Smith, Nancy Trzcinski, Neo Valentein, Rene Veloso, Debbie Warnock, Tyquan Malik White, Ontaria Kim Wilson, and Bekah Zornosa.
The theatrical experience takes your on a journey throughout Williamstown, revealing unexpected surprises around you and within you. Choose to experience this completely unique site-specific performance by foot or by car, and plunge yourself into the center of stories inspired by real events that took place in Western Massachusetts in 1969.
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Video: Cambridge’s A.R.T. has released a clip of the song “Letter” from its 2015 production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, featuring Lucas Steele, Denée Benton, Gelsey Bell, and Scott Stangland.
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Boston’s Huntington Theatre presents Madeleine George’s Hurricane Diane will run Aug. 27 – Sept. 26 at the Calderwood Pavilion, directed by Jenny Koons.
Esme Allen (Carol Fleischer), Marianna Bassham (Beth Wann), Jennifer Bubriski (Pam Annunziata), Rami Margron (Diane), and Kris Sidberry (Renee Shapiro-Epps).
In the suburbs of the Garden State, the Greek god Dionysus returns from the heavens in the guise of a lesbian landscaper named Diane who is described as a “butch charm factory.” Hell-bent on reversing climate change and restoring earthly balance and order, Diane plots to seduce four suburban women into letting their passions, as well as their well-manicured lawns, run wild.
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Welcome Back! A Starry, Starry Night at the Argyle Theatre will take place Sat. Aug. 14 at 7:30 PM ET at Babylon’s Argyle Theatre, hosted by Evan Pappas, with music direction by Ethan Andersen. Details of the world-wide released are TBA.
Joe Iconis and Robert Rokicki.
Gina Naomi Baez, Courtney Balan, Inga Ballard, Tiffan Borelli, Elizabeth Broadhurst, Hunter Brown, Todd Buonopane, Eddie Egan, Corrie Farbstein, Katy Geraghty, Angel Harrison, Kimberly Immanuel, Robert Anthony Jones, Jillian Louis, Warren Nolan Jr., Jason Simon, Ryan Gregory Thurman, and rose Van Dyne.
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Sammi Cannold & Dori Berinstein’s new documentary, “The Show Must Go On,” will premiere Mon. Aug. 9 at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre.
here.
The film chronicles the race against time to save live theater and focuses in on an army of the theater makers determined to win it.
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Mark Schoenfeld & Barri McPherson’s BLYLN is now available to stream on Broadway OnDemand though July 25, directed by Eric Van Baars.
Eden Espinosa (Brooklyn), Karen Olivo (Faith), Kevin Anderson (Taylor), Ramona Keller (Paradice), and Cleavant Derricks (Street Singer/Narrator).
A play within a play where a group of street performers weave together stories from their lives to tell the tale of a young woman arriving in Brooklyn to find the father she never knew.
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Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes will return this holiday Nov. 5 – Jan. 2 at Radio City Music Hall.
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New City Music Theatre (formerly Cleveland Musical Theatre), will present its first production under its new name, Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World for one night only on Aug. 26 at 7:30 P PM CT at Cleveland’s Radial Park at Halletts Point, directed by Miles J. Sternfeld, with music direction by Rick Edinger, and choreography by Ahmad Simmons.
Jenn Colella, Christy Altomare, Derek Klena, Shereen Pimentel, Bonnie Milligan, and Taylor Parker.
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Bonnie and Clyde in Concert will take pl ace Tues. Jan. 18, 2022 at 7:30 PM GMT at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, directed by Nick Winston, with music direction by Katie Richardson.
Laura Osnes (Bonnie Parker) and Jeremy Jordan (Clyde Barrow), with more TBA.
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Complete casting has been announced for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, to run Aug. 12-18 at the St. Louis Muny, directed & choreographed by Josh Rhodes, with music direction by Valerie Gebert.
Kendra Kassebaum (Milly Bradon), Edward Watts (Adam Pontipee), Raymond Baynard (Caleb), Leslie Donna Flesner (Dorcas), Shonica Gooden (Sarah), Garett Hawe (Ephraim), Sarah Meahl (Ruth), Harris Milgrim (Benjamin), Mikayla Renfrow (Alice), Carly Blake Sebouhian (Martha), Ryan Steele (Daniel), Brandon L. Whitmore (Gideon), Kristin Yancy (Liza), and Kyle Coffman (Frank), with Matthew Davies, Joel Douglas, Duane Martin Foster, Anna Gassett, Michael Hartung, Lynn Humphrey, Kamal Lado, John Peterson, Rich Pisarkiewicz, Emilie Renier, Cooper Stanton, Daryl Tofa, Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva, Jerry Vogel, and Rebecca Young.
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The New Victory Theatre (link TBA) will present Timothy Allen McDonald, Christopher Gattelli & Paul Williams’ stage adaptation of Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas Dec. 6 – Jan. 2, 2022, directed & choreographed by Gattelli.
Casting and additional information TBA.
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A new tour of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice will launch Mar. 23, 2022 at in Southampton, written & directed by Jim Cartwright.. Click here for tour schedule.
Christina Bianco, Shobna Gulati, and Ian Kelsey.
A woman with a talent for embodying the legendary diva performers she loves to listen to, from Judy Garland to Shirley Bassey, and Marilyn Monroe.
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Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced two ensemble members, Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis, as the incoming Artistic Directors.
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The world premiere of “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” written & directed by Joel Coen, will run Sept. 24 – Oct. 10 at Lincoln Center‘s Alice Tully Hall.
Denzel Washington (Macbeth) and Frances McDormand (Lady Macbeth)
A work of stark chiaroscuro and incantatory rage, with a boldly inventive visualization of The Scottish Play, an anguished film that stares, mouth agape, at a sorrowful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition.
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The world premiere of the final chapter of Hilary Mantel & Ben Miles’ Wolf Hall Trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, will run Sept. 23 – Nov. 28 at the Gielgud Theatre, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
Ben Miles (Thomas Cromwell), Nathaniel Parker (Henry VIII), Nicholas Boulton (Duke of Suffolk), Matt Pidgeon (Stephen Gardiner), and Giles Taylor (Archbishop Cranmer), with Rosanna Adams Paul Adeyefa, Aurora Burghart, Terique Jarrett, Jordan Kouamé, Geoffrey Lumb, Olivia Marcus, Tony Turner, Leo Wan, and Nicholas Woodeson.
England, 1536. Anne Boleyn’s fate has been sealed be the executioner. Jane Seymour must deliver King Henry a healthy heir. Thomas Cromwell continues his ruthless ascent from the gutters of Putney to the highest rank beside his master. But Cromwell is vulnerable and his enemies are poised to strike. The further you climb, the harder you fall.
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Video: The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performs “The Joke.”
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The world premiere of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s Mum will run Sept. 30 – Oct. 16 at Theatre Royal Plymouth, then transferring to the Soho Theatre Oct. 20 – Nov. 20, directed by Abigail Graham.
Sophie Melville, Denise Black and Cat Simmons.
A play about early motherhood, anxiety, and mental health.
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Heidi Schreck has been named honorary festival playwright for the 46th annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
* #18, by Sara Einspanier
* 1900’s Women Bonding, by Catherine Weingarten
* A Seed, by Dan Caffrey
* After the Fall Before the Storm, by John Lavelle
* All Things Considered, It Was Probably the Most Productive Meeting the Enscondido Unified Schoo District PTA Ever Had, by A.J. Ditty
* An Instant Message, by Allyson Dwyer
* by Grace, Pt. 2, by Agveiwa Asante
* CENSUS, by Susan Miller
* DOGS OF SOCIETY, by Julia Grogan
* Grieved, by Jahquale Mayck
* HANOI JANE PISS TARGET, by Alex Moon
* Hombres Verdados: Part 1, by Alexis Elisa Macedo
* Hot Air, by Katelin Wilcox
* House of a Negro. Funny…, by Tracey Conyer Lee
* It Was Right There, by Manning Jordan
* Juntos, by Julia Rae Maldonado
* Kitchen Design, by Suzanne Willett
* Lifestyle Content, by Lia Romeo
* Macht Frei, by Justin Aaron Halle
* Mother Earth Day, by Daysha Veronica
* pearl apple penguin, by Aisling Towl
* Prefers Bright Indirect Light, by Veronica Tiioe
* RAINER, by Max Wilinson
* Rekidk, by Charlie O’Leary
* Shabbat Shalom, Singles, by Margot Connolly
* The Mirror, by Joshua Young
* The Thought Doesn’t Count, by Emily Hageman
* Thoughts and Prayers, by Gerald Williams
* Youth for Dark, by Keith Whalen
Winners will be announced Aug. 12 at 4 PM at a FREE online event here.