This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, July 9
Laughing Wild, by Christopher Durang, directed by Jade King Carroll, featuring Dan Butler and Mary Bacon, opens (and also available to stream on demand), at VT’s Dorset Theatre Festival.
Charmed Life, written by & starring Lori Brown Mirabal, directed by Vincent Scott, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Urban Stages.
Saturday, July 10
Code Pink, world premiere written & directed by Adam Chambers & Jana Lee Hamblin, featuring Bahsi Chapman, Nicole Craig, Britt Crisp, Madylin Sweeten Durrie, Sydney Jenkins, Matt Monaco, Ignacio Navarro, Bree Pavey, Leesie Pinto, Natasha Ranae Potts, Sarah Siverson, Sarah Sommers, and Vel Stacy, opens at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble.
The 22nd Annual Young Playwrights Festival, offering 3 winning plays each week, begins streaming at Hollywood’s Blank Theatre.
The Dumb Waiter, by Harold Pinter, directed by Jeremy Herrin, featuring Daniel Mays and David Thewlis, concludes streaming at London’s Old Vic.
Spamalot, directed by BT McNicholl, featuring Charles Shaughnessy (King Arthur), Mariand Torres (Lady of the Lake), Marc Ginsburg (Sir Lancelot), Daniel A. Lopez (Sir Galahad), Josh Grisetti (Sir Robin), Dwelyan David (Sir Bedevere), Nic Rouleau (The Historian), and Jennifer Cody (Patsy), with Maya Kazzaz, Larkin Reilly, Jacob Robert-Miller, Michael Olaribigbe, Mackenzie Perpich, and Celina Nightengale, closes at ME’s Ogunquit Playhouse.
The Wizard of Oz, directed by Glenn Casale, featuring Jessica Grové (Dorothy), Dan DeLuca (Scarecrow), Evan Ruggiero (Tin Man). Drew Leigh Williams (Lion), Lisa Ann Goldsmith (Wicked Witch), Melissie Clark (Aunty Em/Gelinda), Jeffrey Howell (Oz), LaTrea Rembert (Uncle Henry), Sophie Aknin, Mike Baerga, Jamary Gil, Tamrin Goldber, Jeff Gorti, Jessica Ice, Jerreme Rodriguez, and Davis Wayne, closes at Pittsburgh CLO.
Sunday, July 11
No One Cries for the Blacksmith benefit reading, by Lloyd Khaner, directed by Tonya Pinkins, featuring Chuck Cooper and Robert Cuccioli, begins streaming at 3 PM ET here.
Andrew Barth Feldman: Park Map concert, with music direction by Jon Balcourt, livestreams at 7 PM ET at 54 Below.
“Broadway Profiles with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels, Norm Lewis, Corbin Bleu, Ainsley Melham, Kelly surette, and Victoria Rae Sook, streams for FREE at 7 PM ET here.
The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee, directed by Nathan Winkelstein, starring Michael Urie (Jerry) and Ryan Spahn (Peter), closes at East Hampton’s Guild Hall.
Becoming Dr. Ruth, by Mark St. Germain, directed by David Ellenstein, starring Tovah Feldshuh, concludes streaming at North Coast Rep.
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Reviews for Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) at Off-Broadway’s the cell:
NY Times (Alexis Soloski): …Jackie Hoffman doesn’t so much steal scenes as first beat them up and then abscond with any valuables. It’s actorly burglary. The scenes usually seem pretty happy about it… if “Fruma-Sarah” is a love letter to theater, it’s the kind of letter that arrives late and mangled… It has a lot of lines built to force an insider audience to chuckle… Yet it offers meager insights about theater as a metaphor for life… She’s [Hoffman] a big presence, which somehow makes “Fruma-Sarah” feel even smaller.
TimeOut New York (Adam Feldman): …Melancholy though Ariana may get, however, Hoffman infuses this isolated and demanding woman not only with a need for attention but with some of Hoffman’s own real zest for performing, as well as comic inflections that evoke the lineage of Yiddish theater. (Ariana is not Jewish, but as she says, “Italians and Jews get cast to play each other all the time, and nobody knows the difference.”) Fruma-Sarah doesn’t go deep; its comedy is familiar, its brief flirtation with tragedy is unconvincing, and Margo has little to do beyond serve as a sounding board.
New York Stage Review (David Finkle): …Any show-wise patron twigs early to where and how Ariana’s dramatic travels will end… It’s also fairly clear from the get-go that Ariana’s unmitigated, often show-biz cynicism will eventually transform into troubled self-disregard… crisply directed by Braden M Burns… [Hoffman] proves herself more than prepared to take on the roles that used to be mastered by someone like, say, Eileen Heckart.
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Video: Stars in the House, celebrating Sunday in the park with George, with special guests James Lapine and Bernadette Peters. (1:21:27)
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Sheffield Theatre has announced its Fall 2021 – Spring 2022 season:
Typical Girls (Spe.t 24 – Oct. 16), by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, directed by Rôisín McBrinn. 
In a mental health unit inside a prison, a group of women form a punk rock band and allow an outlet for their frustration. They find remedy in revolution, but in a system that suffocates, can rebellion ever be allowed?
The Lemon Table (Oct. 26-30), by Julian Barnes, directed by Michael Grandage. This unsentimental, wryly comic perspective on the complicated issue of aging, with its attendant, often bizarrely, fluctuation emotions.
She Loves Me (Dec. 11 – Jan. 15, 2022), directed by Robert Hastie.
Anna Karenina (Feb. 5-26), directed by Anthony Lau.
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A tentative pre-Broadway tryout of Robert Mark Kamen & Drew Gasparini’s The Karate Kid is scheduled for Spring 2022, directed by Amon Mihamoto, with choreography by Keone and Mari Madrid.
Dates, theatre, casting, and additional information TBA.
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Milwaukee Rep presents The Three Divas on Sat. July 31 at 7 PM CT at The Lawn at Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, with music direction by Dan Kazemi.
Nova Y Payton, Alexis Roston, and Bethan Thomas.
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“Stars in the House” is coming OUT of the house! On Sun. Sept 12 at 7 PM ET, the event will take place LIVE at NYC’s Town Hall. The show will also livestream on the show’s YouTube channel.
Brenda Braxton, Timothy Busfield, Liz Callaway, Charlotte d’Amboise, Dana Delany, Melissa Gilbert, Andy Karl, Judy Kuhn, Dr. Jon LaPook, Anika Larsen, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Orfeh, Adam Pascal, Christine Pedi, Chita Rivera, Marc Shaiman, Jennifer Simard, Schele Williams, Bellamy Young, and more TBA.
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Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater‘s 2021 Short New Play Festival begins streaming Mon. July 12 at 7:30 PM ET (and continues through July 16), directed by Margot Bordelon & Timothy Douglas.
Zach Appleman, Franchelle Stewart Dorn, Sheria Irving, Marjorie Johnson, Sara Koviak, Anthony Michael Lopez, Junior Nyong’o, Abigail Onwunali, Luis Quintero, and Reggie D. White.
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LA TheatreWorks has just released its audio recording of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Links, directed by Anna Lyse Erikson.
Alred Molina (Hercule Poirot), Edita Brychta, Kevin Daniels, Simon Helberg, Adhir Kalyan, Darren Richardson, Jocelyn Towne, Joanne Whalley, and Matthew Wolf.
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Bryant Park Move Nights will return this summer for its 27th season. This year, the movie nights will on Mondays & Tuesday evenings Aug. 23 – Sept. 28 on the Bryant Park lawn. All films begin at sunset, with the lawn open at 5 PM ET for picnicking.
Click here for additional schedule updates.
Mon. Aug. 23: “Clueless,” starring Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, and Paul Rudd.
Tues. Sept. 14: “Moulin Rouge!,” starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman.
Mon. Sept. 27: “The Phantom of the Opera,” starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, and Patrick Wilson
Tues. Sept. 28: “Mrs. Doubtfire,” starring Robin Williams and Sally Field.
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The Spring 2022 season of Seth Rudetsky’s Broadway has been announced, all at 8 PM ET at NYC’s Town Hall. The concerts will support Sandy Hook Promise.
* Jane Krakowski (Jan. 31)
* Vanessa Williams (Mar. 7)
* Brian Stokes Mitchell (Apr. 4)
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Broadway Out East will run July 15 – Sept. 2 at the Calissa Restaurant in Water Mill in the Hamptons.
* Clay Aiken (July 15)
* Elizabeth Stanley (July 22)
* Jessica Vosk (July 29)
* Lilli Cooper (Aug. 5)
* Brandon Victor Dixon (Aug. 12)
* Andy Karl and Orfeh (Aug. 26)
* Joshua Henry (Aug. 26)
* Titus Burgess (Sept. 2)
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Musical Theatre West will present a 30th Anniversary Forever Plaid Reunion Concert Aug. 5-8 at Long Beach’s Blair Field.
Stan Chandler, David Engel, Jason Graae, and Larry Raben.
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The Vs. Theatre Company & Circle X theatre Company will present Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight, written & directed by John Kolvenbach, to run Aug. 5 – Sept. 26 (opening Aug. 12) at the Atwater Village Theatre.
Jim Ortlieb and Rosie Narasaki.
You’ve tried everything. Yoga. Acupuncture. Therapy. You floated in salt water in the pitch-black dark. You juiced, you cleansed, you journaled, you cut, you volunteered. You got a mattress that fitted itself to your fetal form. You ate only rinds for three days and nights. You reached out, you looked within. You have tried, and het here you are.
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Showtime‘s new series, “The First Lady,” has announced initial casting. Additional information and premiere date are TBA.
Kiefer Sutherland (President Franklin D. Roosevelt), Gillian Anderson (Eleanor Roosevelt), Viola Davis (Michelle Obama), OT Fagbenle (President Barack Obama), Aaron Eckhart (President Gerald Ford), Michelle Pfeiffer (Betty Ford), and Dakota Fanning (Susan Ford).
A revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House. The first season will peel back the curtain on the personal and political lives of three dynamic First Ladies, tracing their journeys to Washington through interweaving storylines.
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Upcoming concerts at NYC’s Town Hall:
* Judy Collins: Winter Stories (Dec. 17 at 8 PM ET) here. Judy will reunite with Chatham County Line to performs some of their songs from 2019 Winter Stories.
* Darlene Love: Home for the Holidays (Dec. 18 at 8 PM ET) here.
* John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask Return to the Origin of Love: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig (Dec. 29-31) here.
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Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre will present Sara Porkalob, Justin Huertas & Kirsten “Kiki” deLohr Helland’s radio play, The Lamplighter, to stream on a date TBA, directed by Desdemona Chiang.
Tyler Rogers, Arika Matoba, Sara Russell, Varinique “V” Davis, and Adam Fontana.
In a magical land, the world’s Lamplighter – collector of stories and caretaker of the stars – and her daughter Rosemary live in a house on a cliff at the edge of the ocean, content with continuing the work of generations of Lamplighters before them. But when the Lamplighter doesn’t return home one morning, Rosmary must set out on an epic quest to find her mother before all of the stars in the night sky burn out.
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Nikkole Salter’s Lines in the Dust continues streaming through Aug. 8 at Off-Broadway’s New Normal Rep, directed by Awoye Timpo.
Jeffrey Bean, Melissa Joyner, and Lisa Rosetta Strum.
The story is set in 2010 Essex County, New Jersey, and centers on a mother fighting for the best education for her daughter after losing a charter school lottery.