This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, March 10
The Human Comedy, world premiere written & directed by Thom Babbes, featuring Eva Abramian, Rachael Maye Aronoff, David Atkinson, Tricia Cruz, Marc Elmer, Adrian A. Gamez, Ben Kientz, Bruce Ladd, Mitchell Lam Han, Kendall Lloyd, Finn Martinsen, Jessie Oriabure, Jack Sanchez, Tiago Santos, Brendan Shannoon, and Jessica Wochler, opens at LA’s Actors Co-op.
Gifted, by Bob DeRosa, directed by Jennier DeRosa & Sarah Nilsen, featuring ,Biniyam Abreha, Antwan Alexander II, Lemon Baardsen, Isaac Deakyne, John Goodwin, Jay Hoshina, April Littlejohn, Ignacio Navarro, Jazmine Nichelle, Danielle Ozymandias, Bree Pavey, Benjamin Rawls, Madylin Sweeten, and Nate Thurman opens at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble.
The Turn of the Screw, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, directed by Jeramiah Peay, featuring Megan Cochrane, Shayna Gabrielle, and Michael Mullen, opens at the Hollywood Arthouse Theatre.
Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, by Luis Alfaro, directed by Laurie Woolery, featuring Romar Fernandez, Alejandro Hernández, Alma Martinez, Camila Moreno, nancy Rodriguez, and Mónica Sánchez, begins previews at Yale Rep.
Saturday, Mar. 11
Bedlam Theater‘s The Good John Proctor, by Talene Monahan, directed by Caitlin Sullivan, featuring Tavi Gevinson (Abigail Warren), Brittany K. Allen (Betty Parris), Sharlene Cruz (Mercy Lewis, and susannah Perkins (Mary Warren), opens at Off-Broadway’s Connelly Theater.
New York Theatre Ballet‘s Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Justin Peck, opens at Florence Gould Hall.
Sancocho, by Christin Eve Cato, directed by Rebecca Martínez, featuring Zuleyma Guevara (Renata) and Shirley Rumierk (Caridad), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s WP Theatre.
A Chorus Line, directed by Blake Robison, featuring Shiloh Goodin (Cassie), Drew Lachey (Zach), Courtney Arango (Diana Morales), Diego Guevara (Paul), Rei Akazawa-Smith (Lois), Evan Autio (Larry), Maria Briggs (Maggie Winslow), Claire Camp (Judy), Erin Chupinsky (Sheila Bryant), Maurice Dawkins (Mike), Nicolas de la Vega (Butch), Jonathan Duvelson (Richie), Derek Ege (Mark), Joseph Fierberg (Gregory), Francesca Granell (Bebe), Diego Guevara (Paul), Musa Hitomi (Connie), Cameron Holzman (Don), Jalen Michael Jones (Frank), Jacob Major (Al), Zoë Maloney (Vicki), Matthew Marvin (Roy), Alexa Racioppi (Val), Matthew Ranaudo (Bobby), and Antonia Raye (Kristine), Sammy Schechter (Tom), with jenna Bienvenue, Haley Haskin, and Christopher Wells, begins previews at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
“Kurt Peterson: Sondheim: A MusicalTribute Turns 50“ a FREE live video commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Sondheim: A Musical Tribute,” at exactly 7:22 PM ET on the steps of Broadway’s Shubert Theatre or watch on the link here.
Kissed by a Prince concert, a tribute to the late artist, Prince, at 8 PM at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
Donna McKechnie: Take Me to the World – The Songs of Stephen Sondheim concert closes at NYC’s 54 Below.
Noises Off, by Michael Frayn, directed by Lindsay Posner, featuring Felicity Kendal (Dotty Otley), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Belinda Blair) Matthew Kelly (Selsdon Mowbray), Alexander Hanson (Lloyd Dallas), Joseph Millson (Garry Lejeune), Sasha Frost (Brooke Ashton), Pepter Lunkhuse (Poppy Norton Taylor, Jonathan Coy (Fredrick Fellows), and Hubert Burton (Tim), closes at the UK’s Phoenix Theatre.
Happy Meal, by Tabby Lamb, directed by Jamie Fletcher, featuring Tommi Bryson and Sam Crerar, closes at London’s Brixton House.
SpeakEasy Stage Company‘s Fairview, by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Pascale Florestal, featuring Dom Carter, Lyndsay Allyn Cox, Yewande Odetoyinbo, and Victoria Omoregie, closes at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion.
Sunday, Mar. 12
Once, directed by Steve Steiner, featuring Grace Belt (Girl), Grant Brown (Andrej), Mary Ann Carlisle DiPietro (Baruska), Keaton Echhoff (Guy), Morgan Hollingsworth (Eamon), Will Huse (Billy), Becca last (Ivonka), Chris McGraw (Svec), James Michael McHale (Bank Manager), Michael Naishtut (Da), Caitlin Ort (Emee), and Laufen Witman (Ex-Girlfriend), opens at Laguna Playhouse.
A Bright New Boise, by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Oliver Butler, featuring Anna Baryshnikov (Anna), Ignacio Diaz-Silverio (Alex), Eva Kaminsky (Pauline), Peter Mark kendall (Will), and Angus O’Brien (Leroy), closes at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre.
The Smuggler, by Ronán e, directed by Conor Bagley, featuring Michael Mellamphy, closes at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
New York Theatre Ballet‘s Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Justin Peck, closes at Florence Gould Hall.
Kristin Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, written by & starring Kristina Wong, directed by Chay Yew, closes at Culver City’s Kirk Douglas Theatre.
Raisin, musical adaptation by Robert Nemiroff, Charlotte Zaltzberg, Judd Woldin & Robert Brittan, directed by Evelyn Collins, featuring Fredi Walker-Browne (Lena Younger), Ethan Joseph (Travis Younger), Roderick Lawrence (Walter Lee Younger), Gia Ware (Ruth Younger), Alexandria Reese (Beneatha Younger), Moziah (Joseph Asagai), and Burt Conrad (Karl Lindner), closes at NJ’s Axelrod Theatre.
Anything Goes, directed by Nick Ishimaru, featuring Ashley Cowl (Reno Sweeney), Matt Skinner (Billy Crocker), Jas Cook (Hope Harcourt), Gary Stanford,Jr. (Elijah J. Whitney), Nick Nakashima (Evelyn Oakleigh), Heather Orth (Moonface Martin) Juanita Harris (Mrs. Harcourt), Catrina Manahan (Angel), and Jill Smith (Erma), with Kyle Arrouzet, Page Collazo, Tony Conati, Renee Deweese, Roy Eiklyberry, Paul Hovannes, Dustin Riggs, Katherin Stein, and Chloe Wintersteen, closes at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon.
Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, featuring Erika Soto (Beatrice), Joshua Bitton (Benedick), Alexandra Hellquist (Hero), Stanley Andrew Jackson III (Claudio), Rafael Goldstein (Don John), Wes Mann (Dogberry), Tony Pasqualini (Leonato), Nick Petroccione (Balthasar), Frederick Stuart (Don Pedro), Randy Thompson (Friar Francis), Jeanne Syquia (Margaret), and Michael Uribes (Borachio), with Alejandro Hernandez, and Arely Vianet, closes at Pasadena’s A Noise Within.
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Reviews for A Doll’s House at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): Many plays end with a breathtaking coup, but Jamie Lloyd’s incisive Broadway revival of A Doll’s House…also begins with one. After all, it’s not every day you find Jessica Chastain rotating on a turntable like an angry bird in a giant cuckoo clock… The five other cast members gradually join her, seated on plain wooden chairs nearby. You can’t help seeing them through her steely gaze as she circulates from one to another… That we see these options so starkly is because everything else is pared away. Herzog’s dialogue, pruning the social floweriness and conversational whorls of Ibsen’s naturalism, gets right to the point of every line, leaving the text raw and red, as if exfoliated.
Variety (Trish Deitch): So what’s left in the theater when almost all of what the audience expects [a set] — especially from a Broadway play — is stripped away? In this revival, what’s left is a beautiful, spacious clarity about what this oft-produced play is about, who these characters are, what they mean to one another and how they may (or may not) impact audiences of today. There is nothing but dialogue pared down by playwright Amy Herzog…and played with great skill by most of the actors in the production… In this production, Nora hardly stands, though the other characters move freely across the stage. Seated in her chair like a silent doll, she sometimes orbits the space, which is an apt metaphor for a woman who has never, ever, imagined breaking free from the gravitational pull of her husband, the expectations of marriage, the limits of society…
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): …builds a bridge between its original 1879 setting and the present day in Amy Herzog’s laser-focused new modern adaptation… Mounted with daring austerity even by the usual pared-down standards of director Jamie Lloyd, the production finds scorching intensity in stillness… Michael Patrick Thornton, who plays sickly cynic Dr. Rank with delicious bone-dry affectlessness and simmering sexual tension… Right up until a stunning coup de théâtre in the closing moments (no spoilers here), the sole directorial assists are audio of Nora’s unseen children… What’s surprising is how far this production nudges Nora into self-absorbed, manipulative narcissism, courting antipathy rather than concern for her airless existence…
New York Post (Johnny Oleksinski): Usually stripping a play down to the bare essentials — simple costumes, a few chairs — renders it rawer and more authentic. Not so in the uneven revival of A Doll’s House, starring Oscar winner Jessica Chastain… Despite an absorbing performance from…British director Jamie Lloyd’s staging is as sterile as an operating room… The cast speaks softly into body mikes, which gives the play an NPR calmness. All things considered, it’s a lot of high-minded ideas that never cohere into a riveting whole…But that instant self-awareness introduces another problem: the production jumps the gun on the ending. There is hardly any suspense or sense of surprise. Rather, we get an all-around mood of resignation…
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Winners of the 30th Annual Bistro Awards have been announced. Click here for the complete list.
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Red Bull Theater & Fiasco Theater will present Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle, to run Apr. 17 – May 13 (opening Apr. 27) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, directed by Noah Brody & Emily Young.
Jessie Austrian, Royer Bockus, Tina Chilip, Paul L. Coffey, Devin E. Haqq, Teresa Avia Lim, Darius Pierce, Ben Steinfeld, Paco Tolson, and Tatiana Wechsler.
A joyful celebration of the universal capacity to improvise. As a group of players gathers to present a play about the elopement of star-crossed lovers, they are abruptly interrupted by a grocer and his wife. They have a different kind of play in mind–an outrageous hero’s quest of derring-do… The Knight of the Burning Pestle. And they know just the fellow to star–their apprentice, Rafe. This new subplot–invented on the fly–takes over the stage in surprising and disruptive ways. Everyone shares in the triumph of love and the singular, anything-can-happen adventure that is live theater.
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Goodspeed‘s Festival of New Musicals will run Mar. 17-19.
Double Helix presentation (Mar. 17 at 7 PM), by Madeline Myers. In the mid 20th century, the race to find the structure of DNA grips the scientific community. One brilliant young researcher, Rosalind Franklin, will stop at nothing to uncover one of life’s great mysteries. But will she sacrifice what makes her human to discover what makes us human?
Cabaret: Brett Ryback & Eric Ullo (Mar. 17 at 9:30 PM)
Seminar: The Music and The Mirror – The Art of Dance Arranging (Mar. 18 at 10 AM, 11 AM, and 12 PM.
2023 Season announcement (Mar. 18 at 3:30 PM)
Symposium: So You wanna Go to College for Musical Theatre? (Mar. 18 at 4:30 PM)
Staged Reading: The Great Emu War (Mar. 18 at 7:30 PM), by Cal Silberstein & Paul Hadge. Remember that one time that the Australian government sent their army with machine gums to wage war on emus in Western Australia? Neither do most people…but when Edith, the headstrong warbler, and her flock begin to feed on the wheat of local farmers—the humans take up arms against Australia’s favorite feathered friends. Think of it as Cats, but with emus…and less dancing…and a plot.
Letters to the President cabaret (Mar. 19 at 9:30 PM), by Jessica Kahkoska & Michael Bello,
Little Miss Perfect staged reading (Mar. 19 at 1 PM), by Joriah Kwamé. Inspired by the viral single of the same name, this is the story of Noelle, a bi-racial teen navigating her senior year of high school after her mom and stepdad invite a study abroad student to be her roommate. But when a classmate becomes the victim of systemic racism at her school, Noelle must decide whether she will be true to herself and an ally to her peers, or if she will settle for simply being ‘Little Miss Perfect’.
Meet the Writers Q&A (Mar. 20 at 3:30 PM)
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Broadway Backwards, in support of BC/EFA, will take place Mon. Mar. 13 at 8 PM at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre, and hosted by Jenn colella.
Wayne Brady, Robbie Fairchild, Adrianna Hicks, Beth Leavel, Bonnie Milligan, Anthony Rapp, Lea Salonga, Ali Striker, Paolo Szot, F. Murray Abraham, George Abud, Philippe Arroyo, Corbin Bleu, Corbin Bleu, Len Cariou, Bradley Dean, Dormeshia, Eden Espinosa, Robbie Fairchild, Barrett Foa, Adrianna Hicks, Robyn Hurder, Beth Leavel, Brittney Mack, Ellyn Marie Marsh, Bonnie Milligan, Jeigh Madjus, Chris McCarrell, Samantha Pauly, Anthony Rapp, Turner Riley, Lea Salonga, Kyle Scatliffe, A.J. Shively, Alexandra Silber, Ali Stroker, Paulo Szot and Paul C. Vogt.
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Donnetta Lvinia Grays’ Last Night and the Night Before will run Apr. 6 – May 14 (opening Apr. 16) at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton.
Namir Smallwood, Ayanna Bria Bakari, Sydney Charles, Kylah, Renee Jones, Aliyana Nicole, and Jessica Dean Turner.
A moving exploration of love – Black, queer, familial – and what must be sacrificed to raise a child. Monique and her daughter are on the run. From what, they will not say. Showing up on their family’s doorstep in Brooklyn, the surprise visit raises more questions than it answers. As the specter of their abandoned life in Georgia creeeps back into focus, the family is forced to consider what must be sacrificed to raise a child in an often-cruel world.
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LA Theatre Week will run Mar. 13-26 at various LA locations, offer more than 75 performances, with tickets as low as $20.
Click here for the complete schedule of events.
Note: Productions include Sunday in the Park with George (Pasadena Playhouse) and The Secret Garden (Ahmanson Theatre).
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Broadway Barbara LIVE! Off Broadway, starring Barbara Dixon, will run Apr. 9, 10, 15, 16 & 17 (all at 7 PM) at the SoHo Playhouse.