Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be limited theatre news for the foreseeable future. I will continue to search for anything meaningful and/or fun to report. Stay safe and healthy.
In addition, with national protests in full swing, and many events being postponed or cancelled, I don’t know when more theatre news will be available, so newsletters may be even shorter for awhile…
This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, June 19
* Broadway Black‘s inaugural Antonyo Awards ceremony, a celebration of the Black Broadway and Off-Broadway community, featuring Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Alex Newell, Jordan E. Cooper, Teyonah Parris, Ephraim Sykes, LaChanze, Derrick Baskin, Nicolette Robinson, Jelani Alladin, Christiani Pitts, James Monroe Iglehart, Amber Iman, Kalen Allen, Nzinga Williams, Jackson Alexander, Cody Renard Richard, Ashton Muñiz, Shereen Pimentel, Kirsten Childs, Aisha Jackson, Antoine L. Smith, Griffin Matthews, Michael McElroy, Jocelyn Bioh, and L Morgan Lee, livestreamed at 7 PM ET.
* Live with Carnegie Hall: Juneteenth Celebration, a FREE event, featuring Joseph Joubert and the Juneteenth Mass Choir, speeches by Bill Moyers and Bishop Michael Curry, and comments from Carnegie Hall’s Chairman Robert F. Smith and Wynton Marsalis, and Dr. James A Forbes Jr., at 7:30 PM ET here.
* Lincoln Center‘s FREE Broadway Friday’s Act One, by Moss Hart, with Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, and Santino Fontana, streamed at 8 PM ET.
* Arena Stage‘s “Inside Voices: A film by Arena Stage’s “Voice of Now Ensembles” featuring autobiographical plays by teenagers, livestreamed at 7 PM ET.
* Musical Theatre West‘s “Friday Night Conversations,“ with Dave Albulario, Paul Garman, Grasan Kingsberry, Gail Meredith, and John Sovec, at 7 PM PT.
Saturday, June 20
* Project Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession online reading, directed & narrated by David Staller, featuring Tonya Pinkins (Mrs. Warren), Midori Francis, David Huynh, James Monroe Iglehart, Thom Sesma, and Raphael Nash thompson, at 2 PM ET here.
* Unemployed Elephants — A Love Story FREE virtual reading, by Wendy Graf, directed by John Lacey, featuring Kerry Knuppe and Marshall McCabe, at 6 PM PT here.
* The Gorgeous Nothings: In Concert, a FREE benefit in support of BC/EFA benefit concert, directed by Travis Russ, hosted by Beth Kirkpatrick, Gideon Glick, and Telly Leung, and featuring Kevin Smith Kirkwood, James Jackson Jr., Stephen DeRosa, Nick Cearley, Aaron Kaburick, Devin Ilaw, Seth Sikes, and Joe Kinosian, at 8 PM ET here (and available for 48 hours).
* Lorna Luft online concert, at 4 PM PT here.
Sunday, June 21
* Fran Drescher’s Virtual Cabaret Spectacular, with live performances, comedy, and stories of inspiration, featuring Bette Midler, Patti LuPone, Lesli Margherita, Steven Weber, Judy Gold, Ann Hampton Callaway, and Renée Taylor, at 3 PM ET here.
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RIP: Dame Vera Lynn, who’s song “We’ll Meet Again” became an anthem of hope and resilience during WWII, has died at the age of 103.
Born in East Ham, on the outskirts of London, in 1917, Lynn survived a near-fatal case of diphtheria as a two-year old, and began performing aged seven. From the age of 18 she began working with orchestras in the UK, and released her debut solo recording, Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire, in 1936, while she worked in an East End shipping company.
During the second world war, she performed to people sheltering from bombing raids in the stations of London’s underground, and her popularity among soldiers grew her fame. She earned the nickname “the forces’ sweetheart”, touring for troops in Egypt, India and Myanmar, then known as Burma, during the war.
“The White Cliffs of Dover,” in which Lynn hymns the British coastline as she hopes for peace, is another of her enduring patriotic songs – written by Walter Kent and Nat Burton, it was originally released in 1942.
Video: “We’ll Meet Again”
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Black Theatre United, a newly launched coalition of performers, directors, writers, technicians, producers, stage managers, and more, created to inspire industry-wide reform and to combat industry-wide systemic racism.
Mission:
Awareness
Accountability
Advocacy
Action
Using their various local connections across the U.S., the coalition will work at both a community level and national scale to elevate anti-racist causes, while also supporting fellow Black members of the theatre community through various resources and initiatives.
Founding members: Lisa Dawn Cave, Darius de Haas, Brandon Victor Dixon, Carin Ford, Capathia Jenkins, LaChanze, Adriane Lenox, Kenny Leon, Norm Lewis, Audra McDonald, Michael McElroy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Wendell Pierce, Billy Porter, Phylicia Rashad, Allyson Tucker, Tamara Tunie, Lillias White, NaTasha Yvette Williams, Schele Williams, and Vanessa Williams.
Artists: Viola Davis, Danielle Brooks, Daveed Diggs, Cynthia Erivo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, David Alan Grier, Samuel and LaTanya Jackson, Delroy Lindo, Leslie Uggams, Adrienne Warren, and many more.
Theatre-driven objectives:
* Formation of an inquiry committee to assess past practices in the industry
* Development of mentorship, scholarship, and internship opportunities for Black youth.
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Video: “I Enjoy Being Immune,” with Diane Vincent and Sam Kriger.
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Off-Broadway’s Public Theater presents Richard III in a serialized radio broadcast over 4 nights from July 13-16 at 8 PM ET on WNYC.com , conceived for the radio & directed by Saheem Ali.
Casting TBA.
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Pride Plays will present Mart Crowley’s The Men From the Boys, the sequel to The Boys in the Band, on Fri. June 26 at 7 PM ET, directed by Zachary Quinto.
Denis O’Hare (Michael), Rick Elice (Donald), Mario Cantone (Emory), Joseph James O’Neil (Hank), Kevyn Morrow (Bernard), Lou Liberatore (Harold), Carson McCalley (Scott), Charlie Carver (Jason), and Telly Leung (Rick).
The play takes place approximately 30 years after The Boys in the Band, when the boys reunites the group for a different type of occasion and chronicles how these men have evolved and how different they are from their intergenerational counterparts.
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RIP: Ian Holm has died at the age of 88, from a Parkinson’s related condition.
Holm trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After graduation he became a pivotal performer in the early days of the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking on roles like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Prince Henry and eventually Henry V in Henry IV and Henry V, and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, among other works. In the 1960s he gained fame for playing Richard III in the BBC adaptation of The War of the Roses, while also having minor roles in films like “Oh! What a Lovely War.”
In 1967, he won a Tony Award for starring as Lenny in The Homecoming, and played Frodo Baggins in the 1981 radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Ian also appeared in “Alien” and received an Oscar nomination for “Chariots of Fire.”
Though quitting the theater after a severe case of stage fright while playing Hickey in The Iceman Cometh in 1976, the actor continued his love for Shakespeare, appearing in Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V and Mel Gibson’s Hamlet.
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Video: Small Island, adapted by Helen Edmundson, available on the National Theatre at Home series, continues for FREE through June 25. (2:55:00)
The cast of 40 performers includes Leah Harvey Emilia, Gershwyn Eustace, Jr, Aisling Loftus, David Fielder, Johann Myers, Elwood, Andrew Rothney, and CJ Beckford.
The play weaves together the story of Jamaica and the U.K.’s histories in the mid-20th century, as it follows three characters as their stories intertwine. Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica as she immigrates to the U.K.; her husband Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer but finds his return from the war less than welcoming; and their white landlord Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots.
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Off-Broadway’s Public Theater will present an encore broadcast of its 2019 Summer production of Much Ado About Nothing on Fri. Aug. 14 at 9 PM on PBS (link TBA), directed by Kenny Leon.
Danielle Brooks (Beatrice), Grantham Coleman (Benedick), Chuck Cooper (Leonato), Jeremie Harris (Claudio), Erik Laray Harvey (Antonio/Verges), Daniel Croix Henderson (Balthasar), Tyrone Mitchell Henderson (Friar Francis/Sexton), Tiffany Denise Hobbs (Ursala), Lateefah Holder (Dogberry), Billy Eugene Jones (Don Pedro), Margaret Odette (Hero), Hubert Point-Du Jour (Don John), Jaime Lincoln Smith (Borachio), Khiry Walker (Conrade), and Olivia Washington (Margaret), with Jamar Braithwaite, Javen Crosby, Denzel Fields, Tayler Harris, Kai Heath, LaWanda Hopkins, Jazmine Stewart, and Latra A. Wilson.
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Beverly Hills’ The Wallis presents Alexander Sheldon & Tiana Randall Quant’s “Fairyland Foibles,” an 8-episode digital show, directed by Madeleine Dahm, with and audience participation element that is part radio play and part soap opera.
Kendell Byrd, Trecey Dory, Marlena Becker, Ella M. Joseph, Alexander Sheldon, Tiana Randall Quant, Kelvin Morales and Siera Williams.
The first episode will stream on Sat. June 27 at 7 PM PT on Facebook and Instagram, and subsequently on demand. New episodes will be streamed weekly on Saturdays (through Aug. 15) at 7 PM PT.
“Fairyland Foibles” takes a zany, irreverent and satirical look at the mythology, legends and fairy tales that have influenced us all and re-imagines them for a contemporary age. Full of surprising twists and turns, it is a surreal comedy that asks us to think a little more deeply about the stories we cling to. After each episode, audiences will be invited to vote on social media to initiate changes in plot, dialogue and characters for the next episode. 
The show contains adult language and is NOT suitable for children; suggested for ages 14+.
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Paul Rudnick’s “Coastal Elites,” a series of confessionals, will air on HBO in September (premiere date TBA), produced entirely under quarantine, directed by Jan Roach.
Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, Sarah Paulson, and Issa Rae.
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Carnegie Hall has cancelled all 2020 programming, and plans to resume operations Jan. 7, 2021.
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Hershey Felder: Beethoven will be livestreamed from Florence, Italy on Sun. July 12 at 8 PM PT, as a benefit for LA’s The Wallis. Written by Felder, the piece is based on the original stage play direction by Joel Zwick.
($55) here.
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Off-Broadway’s York Theatre Company has extended its “50th Anniversary Uniquely York Online Auction” through July 5.
Many new items have been added.
Click here to view all available items and to bid.