This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, July 31
Matt & Ben, by Mindy Kaling & Brenda Withers, directed by Max Downs, featuring Genevieve Lerner and Spring Ferrara, opens at North Hollywood’s Sherry Theatre (11052 Magnolia Blvd.)
“The Odyssey” screening, featuring Matt Damon (Ocysseus), Anne Hathaway (Queen Penelope of Ithaca, Odysseus’s wife), Tom Holland (Telemachus, Odysseus’s son), Robert Pattinson (Antinous) Zendaya (Athena), Lupita Nyong’o (Helen of Troy/Clytenmestra), Samantha Morton (Circe), and John Leguizamo (Eumaeus), and more, at 2 PM at LA’s The Grove (189 The Grove Drive).
Saturday, August 1
The Drilling Company‘s A Change of Position, by Jeffrey Sweet, directed by James Glossman, featuring Ephraim Birney, Elis Cahill, Todd Cerveris, and Sandy Clancy, opens at Long Branch’s New Jersey Rep.
The Drilling Company‘s Shakespeare in The Parking Lot‘s new As You Like It, directed by Hamilton Clancy, featuring Lia Bonfilio (Rosalind), Thammie Laine Guac (Celia), Andy Rowell (Touchstone), Patrick Hart (Orlando), Emanuel Elpenord (Oliver), Bob Arcaro (Adam), Chris Martel (Duke Senior / Duke Frederick), Carly Grissom (Denise/Audrey), Raphael del Rio (Charles), David Marantz (Jacques), Elowyn Castle (Corinne), Adama Joy Sall (Amiens), Lizabeth Allen (Phoebe) and Dan Teachout (Silvius) closes on Stanton Street (on the lower East Side –entrance on Rivington St. btw. Norfolk and Suffolk).
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie, adapted & directed by Mark Shanahan, featuring Shereen Ahmed (Flora Ackroyd) Anthony Cochrane a(Hercule Poirot), Joe Delafield (Ralph Paton), Allen Gilmore (Inspector Raglan), Erin Noel Grennan (Caroline Sheppard), Richard Ruiz Henry (Major Hector Blunt), Tom Hewitt (Parker), John Rapson (Dr. James Sheppard), Nicole Shalhoub (Helen Russell), and Karen Ziemba (Gertrude Ackroyd), closes at CT’s Westport Country Playhouse.
Hot Summer Musicals, a world premiere of one-acts, featuring Olive Banny, Maggie Borgen, Eric V Crumley, Jeron Devonte, Isa Fuller, Joshua Gill, Christina Giordano, Cate Harbin, Christine Hughes, Ann Li, Alyssa Lomosad, Naledi Miga, Linda Nile, Gilad Nilo, Teni Oduntan, Jack Sweeney, and Anthony Zermeno, closes at LA’s Write Act Repertory at the Brickhouse Theatre.
Sunday, August 2
A Conversation with Brian Henson, at 2PM at LA’s Ricardo Montalban Theater.
The New Group’s benefit reading of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, directed by John Benjamin Hickey, featuring Edie Falco, at at 8 PM at the West Hampton Beach Performing Arts.
One Foot in Front of the Other free reading, written & directed by Tom Alper, featuring William Martin Brennan, Carol Schlanger, Rena Strober and William Warren, at 2:30 at the Santa Monica Playhouse. Parking is available in a municipal structure across the street.
Jiulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, by Jennifer Nettles, directed by Mary Zimmerman, featuring Jennifer, Nettles i(Julia), Bre Jackson ( La Capitana), Andrew Kober (Pietro), Aubrey Matalon (Renata), Christopher M. Ramirez (Governatore), Didi Romero (Duchessa), Naomi Serrano (Vitoria), and Sam Simahk (Father Paolo), and Jamila Sabares-Klemm and Maya Sistruck, with Kim Onah, Kaleb Wells and Jessica Rus, closes at Off-Broadway’s Perelman Performing Arts Center.
Dukes, written & performed by Jane Wickline & Liva Pierce, directed by Henry Hornbuckle & Mabel Lewis, closes at Off Broadway’s at SoHo Playhouse.
Aint Too Proud, directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, featuring James T. Lane (Otis Williams), Nick Rashad Burroughs (David Ruffin), Jawan M. Jackson (Melvin Franklin), Elijah Ahmad Lewis (Eddie Kendricks), Daniel Yearwood (Paul Williams), with Joseph Anthony Byrd, Robert Crenshaw, E.J. Hamilton, Tyler Hardwick, NaTonia Monét, Aramie Payton, Steve Rosen, TJ Staten Jr., Nasia Thomas, Galen J. Williams, and Candice Marie Woods, closes at The St. Louis Muny.
The 2026 Blank theatre Young Playwrights Festival concludes at LA’s Blank Theatre.
*********************
Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater has announced its 2026-27 – season:
Dates and asting TBA.
Anon, by world premiere by Anne Washburn, directed by Anne Kauffman, begins Sept. 2026. 
The play focuses on two neighboring Texas households reacting to a newly unfurled pride flag.
The Heart Sellers, byLloyd Suh (Jan. 2027), directed by May Adrales. With both of their doctor husbands working long hospital shifts, the lonely women bond over wine, a frozen turkey, and the shared joys and heartaches of starting life anew in America.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, (June 2027) world premiere by Adrian Enscoe, Christopher Sears, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhor, directed by Anne Kauffman Gilbert Grape, a grocery clerk in Endora, Iowa, who supports his Dysfunctional family, includint his disabled Brother Arnie and obese mother Bonnie, while finding rimance with a free-spirited traveler named Becky.
**********************
Oh, Mary!, by Cole Escola, will run Apr. 27 – May 9, 2027, at Houston’s Hobby Center, directed by Sam Pinkleton.
J Harrison Ghee (Mary Todd Lincoln), with more TBA.
A dark comedy about a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot.
BeNell Beery’s How High is the Moon continues through Aug. 16 at Theatre West, directed by Asaad Kelada.
Jeanine Anderson (Violet), Kathie Barnes (Millie), Lane Compton(Harrison), Matthew Gademske (Russell), John Plsey (Carl), Anya Profumo (Allison), Matthew Gademske (Fussell), Caroline Quitley (Amy), and David Nathan Schwartz (Walter).
A young housewife questions her marriage, and an estranged son returns home. How High the Moon is a play about sibling conflict and family secrets during the housing boom in the San Fernando Valley.