GRACE NOTES: Friday, March 28, 2025

 

This Weekend’s Highlights:

Friday, March 28

  Gidion’s Knot, by Johna Adams, directed by Elina de Santos, featuring Melissa Paladino and Jennifer Pollono, opens at LA’s Pacific Resident Theatre.

  Floyd Collins, by Adam Guettel & Tina Landau, directed by Landau, featuring Jeremy Jordan (Floyd Collins), Jason Gotay (Homer Collins), Sean Allan Krill (H.T. Carmichael), Marc Kudisch (Lee Collins), Lizzy McAlpine (Nellie Collins), Wade McCollum (Bee Doyle), Jessica Molaskey (Miss Jane), Taylor Trensch (Skeets Miller), and Cole Vaughan (Jewell Estes), with Kevin Bernard, Dwayne Cooper, Jeremy Davis, Charlie Franklin, Kristen Hahn, Happy McPartlin, Kevyn Morrow, Zak Resnick, Justin Showell, Colin Trudell, and Clyde Voce, begins previews at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre.

  Cinderella, directed by Kari Hayter, featuring Madison Claire Parks (Cinderella), Amanda Angeles (Little Red), Antwon Barnes (Rapunzel’s Prince), Richard Bermudez  (Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf), Wayne Bryan (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Janna Gardia (Stepmother), Dillon Jade Costa (Jack), Camryn Hamm (Rapunzel), Kayman Ilka (Baker’s Wife), Derek Manson (Baker), Brian Kimm McCormick (Steward), Marisa Moheno (Step Sister), Christine Neghrbon (Cinderella’s Mother/Granny),  Daebreon Poiema (Witch), Aya Sherian (Stepsister), Aya Sherian (Stepsister), and Michael J. Washington (Cinderella’s Father), previews at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West.

  Hughie, by Eugene O’Neill, directed by Bill Sehres, featuring Dan Frischman (Erie Smith), Andy Forrest (Charlie Hughes), and Scott MacDonell (Charlie Hughes),  previews at North Hollywood’s Two Roads Theatre.

Saturday, March 29

  Cinderella, directed by Kari Hayter, featuring Madison Claire Parks (Cinderella), Daebreon Poiema (Witch), Aya Sherian (Stepsister), Aya Sherian (Stepsister), Amanda Angeles (Little Red), Antwon Barnes (Rapunzel’s Prince), Richard Bermudez  (Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf), Wayne Bryan (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Janna Gardia (Stepmother), Dillon Jade Costa (Jack)m Camryn Hamm (Rapunzel), Kayman Ilka (Baker’s Wife), Derek Manson (Baker), Brian Kimm McCormick (Steward), Marisa Moheno (Step Sister), Christine Neghrbon (Cinderella’s Mother/Granny), and Michael J. Washington (Cinderella’s Father), opens at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West.

  Aristotle/Alexander, world premiere written & directed by Alex Lyras, featuring Andrew Byron (Aristotle), Nicholas Clary Alexander), John Kapelos (Isocrates), and Elyse Levesque (Queen Olympias), opens at at LA’s Company of Angels.

  Hughie, by Eugene O’Neill, directed by Bill Sehres, featuring Dan Frischman (Erie Smith), Andy Forrest (Charlie Hughes), and Scott MacDonell (Charlie Hughes) opens at North Hollywood Two Roads Theatre.

  Barbara Beckley Celebration of Life, at 1:30 PM at Burbank’s Colony Theatre. All are welcome.

  Streaming Musicals presents a screening of the original 1976 Broadway production of  Stephen Somdheim, John Weidmans & Hugh Wheeler’s Pacific Overtures at 2 PM ET HERE.

  Hamlet, directed by Rupert Goold, featuring Luke Thallon, (Hamlet), Nancy Carroll (Gertrude), Jared Harris (Claudius), Anton Lesser (Ghost/first Player, Elliot Levey (Polonius), Kel Matsena (Horatio), Lewis Shepherd Laertes), and Nia Towle (Ophelia), closes at London’s Royal Shakespeare Company.

  Nayatt School Redux, by Elizabeth LeCompte & Spalding Gray, directed by LeCompte, featuring Ari Fliakos, Andrew Maillet, Michaela Murphy, Suzzy Roche, Scott Shepherd, Maura Tierney, Kate Valk, and Omar Zubair, closes at Off-Broadway’s Wooster Group.

  The Inspector, newly adapted & directed by Nikolai Gogol, featuring Whitney Andrews, Edoardo Benzoni, Brandon E. Burton, Sam Douglas, Malik James, Annelise Lawson, Chinna Palmer, John Evans Reese, Grayson Richmond,Darius Sakui, Nomè SiDone, and Elizabeth Stahlmann, closes at Yale Rep.

  Così Fan Tutte, conducted by  James Conlon, featuring Erica Petrocelli (Fiordiligi), Rihab Chaieb (Dorabella), and Ana Maria Martinez (Despin), closes at LA Opera.

  Cabaret, directed by Sasha Travis, featuring Erin Lee Smith (Sally Bowles), Kyle Steven Stocker (Clifford Bradshaw), Natalie Reff (Fraulein Kost), Stephan Schmidt (Ernst Ludwig), Jill Marie Burke (Fraulein Schneider), Jeremy Lucas (Emcee), D.T. Matias (Victor), David Pevsner (Herr Schultz), Elle Shaheen (Kit Kat Girl),and  Brian Whisenant (Kit Kat Boy), with Trevor Alkazian, Jordyn Campanella, Allegra Greenawalt, Shannon McCon, Nathanael O’Neal, Sophia Rizzo, Jesus David Torres Morabito & Cierra Watkins, closes at LA’s Jaxx Theatre.

Sunday, March 30

  The Price, by Arthur Miller, directed by Noelle McGrath, featuring Bill Barry, Michael Durkin, Janelle Farias Sando, and Cullen Wheeler, with Benjamin Russell, Monica Lowy, John Palacio, and Joe Bowen, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Clements.

  Betrayal, by Harold Pinter, directed by Susan V. Booth, featuring Helen Hunt (Emma), Ian Barford (Robert), Robert Sean Leonard (Jerry), closes at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.

  Alabaster, by Audrey Cefaly, directed by Casey Stangl, featuring Laura Gardner, Carolyn Messina, Virginia Newcomb, and Erin Pined, closes at LA’s Fountain Theatre.

  5-Star TheatricalsCabaret, directed by Michael Matthews, featuring Sean Samuels (The Emcee), Emily Goglia (Sally Bowles),  Connor A. Bullock ( Cliff),  Valerie Perri (Fraulein Schneider(,  Ron Orbach (Herr Schultz),  and Jacob Wilson (Ernst), with Tatiana Monique Alvarez, Sydelle Aaliyah Bhalla, Christian Tyler Dorey, Christopher Ho, Donovan Mendelovitz, Angeline Mirenda, Amy Smith, Terrick Walker, Rianny Vasquez, closes at Thousand Oaks’ Scherr Forum Theatre.

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  Reviews for The Picture of Dorian Gray at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre:

New York Times (Jesse Green): An LED screen more than 16 feet tall. Four smaller ones drifting like clouds. Another that has a kind of walk-on cameo. Five camera operators with their electronic burdens. Nine people dashing every which way with wardrobe, wigs and whatnot. Three million pixels, in case you’re counting. Sixteen million colors. Two cellphones, at least on a recent glitchy night when the first malfunctioned. And one Sarah Snook. Or rather a multitude of Snooks.These are among the many wonders you’ll find onstage at the Music Box Theater, where a technologically spectacular adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” with Snook playing 26 roles, opened on Thursday. What you won’t find is The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): …Writer-director Kip Williams’s adaptation for Sydney Theatre Company certainly holds a mirror up to its audience, or rather a screen—the looking glass through which we now view so much of the world. Succession star Sarah Snook plays the title character, and every other role, reprising a performance that won her an Olivier Award in London’s West End. It’s a theatrical tour-de-force, as well as an impressive feat of video engineering. But, unlike the title character, its imperfections are all too apparent…

Variety (Christian Lewis)  Oscar Wilde’s infamous antihero Dorian Gray probably would’ve loved to have a barrage of cameras pointed at him, reflecting his gorgeous visage. This is exactly what Kip Williams’ tech-heavy new Broadway production does, with Sarah Snook (“Succession”) starring in all the roles and surrounded by a team of camera operators. However, despite some fancy camera work and close-ups, this production only goes skin-deep. Wilde himself was an aficionado of artifice, which makes the irony here all the more painful, since this production cannot find any depth in its surfaces.

Theartrely (Joey Sims): …One senses, in Kip Williams’ new solo iteration of Dorian Gray, now on Broadway following an acclaimed run on London’s West End, a natural hesitation to hit the nail so squarely on the head. Not that Williams shies away from technology—his production makes heavy use of video projections and live camera feeds, a style the Australian director has dubbed “cine-theater.” But all that modern tech collides, here, with fabulous period costumes and Wilde’s florid prose, preserved in Williams’ adaptation…

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  Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi will run May 6 – June 1 (opening May 7) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Max Webster.

  Taha Mandiwala (Pi), Jessica Angleskhan (Amma/Nurse/Orange Juice), Alan Ariano (Mr. Okamoto/Captain), Emmanuel Elpenord (Cook/Voice of Richard Parker), Rishi Jaiswal (Mamaji/Pandit Ji), Sinclair Mitchell (Admiral Jackson/Russian Sailor/Father Martin), Mi Kang (Lulu Chen/Mrs. Biology Kumar/ Zaida Khan). 

  After a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi survives on a lifeboat with four other companions—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. What happens next leads them on an edge of your seat unforgettable journey.

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   Virginia Stage Company has announced its 2025-26 season:

  Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Sept. 3-21), directed by Anthony Mark Stockard.

  Emma (Oct. 22 – Nov. 9), by Kate Hamill, directed by Tom Quaintance.

  A Merry Little Christmas Carol ( Dec. 3-23), adapted by Mark Shanahan, directed by Jordan Setzer.   Hampton Roads’ most heartfelt holiday celebration! Come along with this charming ensemble as they follow the story of Scrooge’s life, accompanied by the Christmas spirits of past, present, and future, to find the real Christmas spirit that he’s always been missing…his own.

  A Sherlock Carol (Dec. 4-28), by Mark Shanahan, directed by Steve Pacek.   The merry, mysterious hit returns! In Mark Shanahan’s joyful and clever play, Moriarty is dead, and Sherlock is a haunted man. But when a grown Tiny Tim comes knocking on Sherlock’s door asking for an investigation into the untimely death of Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, the Great Detective must use his gifts to solve a Dickens of a Christmas case!

  Wait Until Dark (Jan. 28 – Feb. 15, 2026), directed by Mark Shanahan.

   Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Mar. 11-29), directed & choreographed by Billy Bustamante.

  Malcolm X & Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlen (Apr. 8-26), world premiere by Jonathan Norton, directed by Dexter J. Singleton.  943. Two young Harlemites form a friendship over leftover fried chicken and dirty dishwater. But a long, hot summer of heartbreak, betrayal, and racial uprisings moves them closer to the men they will become and farther from each other. This electrifying world premiere blends sharp humor with raw humanity, revealing the laughter, struggle, and brotherhood that shaped two legends.

 


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