This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, May 14
Breathe, world premiere series of 5 interlocking musicals, featuring Denée Benton & Rubén J. Carbajal ….. Matt Doyle & Max Clayton ….. Patti Murin & Colin Donnell ….. Josh Davis, T. Oliver Reid & Daniel Yearwood….. and Kelli O’Hara & Brian Stokes Mitchell, begins streaming at 8 PM ET here.
Reykjavík filmed production, by Steve Yockey, directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky, featuring Stphen Tyler Howell, Alaska Jackson, Carlos Lacamara, Brian Ibsen, Danny Lee Gomez, and Jacqueline Misaye, begins streaming at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre.
“Halston,” directed by Ryan Murphy, starring Ewan McGregor (Halson), Krysta Rodriguez, Kelly Bishop, David Pittu, Sullivan Jones, Bill Pullman, Peter Gregus, Gian Franco Rodriguez, Rory Culkin, Rebecca Davan, and Vera Farmiga, premieres on Netflix.
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Jose Llana, streams at 8 PM ET (and also at 2 PM ET tomorrow) here.
“We Are Family: Songs of Hope and Unity” concert, hosted by Judith Lights, with special guests Laura Osnes, Gabrielle Ruiz, Morgan James, and Nova Y. Paton, airs on PBS at 10 PM ET (check local listings).
We Are Family: Songs of Hope and Unity, which premieres on PBS May 14 at 10 PM ET
An Evening with Sheldon Harnick & Friends (from 2020 at York Theatre), featuring Sheldon Harnick, with Liz Callaway, Rebecca Luker, Karen Ziemba, Margery Grey Harnick, and Jim Morgan, concludes streaming here.
Saturday, May 15
“Halston,” directed by Ryan Murphy, featuring Ewan McGregor (Halston),Krysta Rodriguez (Liza Minelli), Rory Culkin (Joel Schumacher), Rebecca Dayan (Elsa Peretti), and Bill Pullman (David Mahoney), with Vera Farmiga, Gian Franco Rodriguez, David Pittu, Sullivan Jones, and Kelly Bishop, premieres on Netflix.
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Jose Llana, streams at 2 PM ET here.
An Evening with Michael Feinstein concert, with special guest Melissa Manchester, streams at 3 & 8 PM ET here.
“Broadway Profiles with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Charlotte St. Martin, Billy Porter, Thomas Schumacher, Norbert Leo Butz, Carleigh Bettiol, Samantha Harris, Orfeh, and Andy Karl, streams for FREE here (also May 16)
Take Me Back to Manhattan, a virtual tribute concert filmed at NYC’s Carlyle Hotel, featuring Alysha Umphress, Kyle Taylor Parker, Peter Cincotti, Champian Fulton, Molly Ryan, Isaac Mizrahi, Catherine Russell, and Peter Cincotti, concludes streaming on demand here.
Andrea Marcovicci: Spring Song benefit concert, with music direction by Brad Ellis, concludes FREE streaming here.
Sunday, May 16
Hershey Felder’s Nicholas, Anna & Sergei co-world premiere, featuring Hershey Felder (Sergei Rachmaninoff), Ekaterina Siurina (Natalia Alexandrovna Rachmaninoff), and Igor Polesitsky (Dr. Golitzin), begins streaming at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
Nicholas, Anna & Sergei, world premiere by Hershey Felder, featuring Hershey Felder (Sergei Rachmaninoff), J. Anthony Crane, Ekaterina Siurina, and Igor Poleitsky, begins streaming at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.
Miscast21 Benefit Gala, directed & music directed by Will Van Dyke, featuring Annaleigh Ashford, Idina Menzel, Patrick Wilson, Robin de Jesús, Renée Elise Goldsberry, LaChanze, Kelli O’Hara, Cheyenne Jackson, Billy Porter, Gavin Creel, Aaron Tveit, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Jai’Len Josey, and Kelly Marie Tran, streams for FREE at 8 PM ET Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater (an available on-demand through May 20).
“AIDS Walk: Live at Home” benefit concert, featuring Billy Porter, Heather Headley, Rita Moreno, Tony Goldwyn, Liz Callway, Alex Newell, Rosie Perez, Carson Kressley, George Takei, and stars from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” streams at 1 PM ET here..
The Royale (2016 Lincoln Center Theater production), by Marco Ramirez, directed by Rachel Chavkin, featuring McKinley Belcher III, Khris Davis, Montego Glover, John Lavelle, and Clarke Peters, concludes FREE streaming at Broadway on Demand.
The Sound Inside, by Adam Rapp, directed by Robert Falls, featuring Mary Beth Fisher and John Drea, concludes livestreaming at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
The Conjurors’ Club interactive multi-magician experience, created by Vinny DePonto & Geoff Kanik, hosted by Kanick, featuring Jeanette Andrews, Kayla Lee Drescher, Mahdi Gilbert, Eric Jones, Noah Levine, Daniel Martin, Francis Menotti, Lindsey Noel, Nathan Phan, Ran’D Shine, and Noah Sonie, concludes streaming at Cambridge’s A.R.T.
New Faces Sing Broadway 1961 concert, directed by Brianna Borger, featuring Lexie Bailey, Nicole Barth, Marcus Canada, Chloe Howard, Izzie Jones, Clare Kennedy, Maurice Rex Randle, Abraham Shaw, and Tommy Thurston, concludes streaming at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
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“Call Me Elizabeth” is now available here.
Through an intimate conversation with a biographer, the interview examines the movie star Elizabeth Taylor’s life, career, and loves as she grapples with the culture of celebrity and her place as Hollywood’s brightest star.
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Roundabout Theatre‘s Curtain Up, Light the Lights! 2021 Gala, will be available in person in Central Park and streamed online on Mon. June 7 at 8:35 PM ET.
Jane Krakowski, Titus Burgess, Rachel Brosnahan, Whoopi Goldberg, Blair Underwood, Emma Stone, and Vanessa Williams.
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“A Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater” is now available in Hardcover and Kindle here.
Fascinating, never-before-published interviews with Broadway’s leading men.
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Annie will air on NBC this holiday season (date TBA), directed by Lear deBessonet, with music direction by Stephen Oremus, and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.
Casting TBA.
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Paul Mullin’s Louis Slotins’ Sonata will take place Fri. May 21 at 7 PM ET and again at 7 PM PT at LA’s Circle X Theatre, directed by John Langs.
Allen Fitzpatrick, Jeff Galfer, Ameenah Kaplan, Rich Liccardo, Amy Love, Michelle Noh, Brandon O’Neill, Chip Sherman, and Allan Wasseramn.
With a structure inspired by classical music’s sonata allegro form, the play traces a brilliant scientist’s last nine days, as his body and mind gradually succumb to the chaos wreaked by radiation. Reliving the moment of his accident again and again, Slotin slowly makes his own way to redemption.
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Sutton Foster will replace Megan Mullally in Anything Goes from July 23 – Oct. 17 at London’s Barbican Theatre.
Mullaly has withdrown due to an injury. She reports, “I am heartbroken to miss the opportunity to work on this amazing classic musical with Kathleen Marshall and the whole gang, but my body has informed me (mainly while at tap class), that I need to have a few rods replace before I can get back onstage. Hopeully that will be as soon as possible.”
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Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company has announced its Summer one-on-one conversation series with John Doyle, all of which will appear on the CSC YouTube channel.
June 3: Anna Deavere Smith
July 1: Marsha Mason
Aug. 5: Chita Rivera
Sept. 2: Donna McKechnie
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Video: The final Broadway cast of Rent performs “Seasons of Love” in honor of those we lost from COVID-19.
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May 17: The Mousetrap at the St. Martin’s Theatre.
May 18: Cruise at the Duchess Theatre.
May 19: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe Theatre.
May 20: Les Misérables: The All Star Stage Concert at the Sondheim Theatre.
May 20: Amélie The Musical at the Criterion Theatre.
May 20: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre.
May 21: Six at the Lyric Theatre.
May 22: Walden at the Pinter Theatre.
May 25: Here Come the Boys at the London Palladium.
…and another 50 productions from June – December!
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The Ojai Playwrights Conference presents “Connections,” a virtual celebration, which will stream Sat. June 12 at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET.
Luis Alfaro, Jon robin Baitz, Father Greg Boyle, Bill Cain, Culture Clash, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Julia Izumi, James Morrison, Seamus Morrison, Jeanine Tesori, and Charlayne Woodard.
TBA.
The event will feature an impressive line up of playwrights sharing an array of inspiring songs and stories drawing on the theme of “connections,” the necessity for deeper and more sustainable human connections as we move together toward new horizons.
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Casting has been announced for The Play That Goes Wrong, which will return June 18 to the Duchess Theatre, directed by Mark Bell.
Blayer Benn (Trevor), Ross Green (Chris), Elan James (Jonathan), Michael Keane (Dennis), David Kirkbride (Robert), Jack Michael Stacey (Max), Ciara Morris (Annie), and Ellie Morris (Sandra).
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Central Park’s Tavern on the Green presents Broadway at Tavern, a series of live outdoor concerts by your Broadway favorites, available only on TodayTix.
Ariana DeBose (May 25 at 8:30 PM ET)
Shoshana Bean (June 8 & 9, both at 8:30 PM ET)
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The long-delayed “Friends” reunion special will premiere May 27 on HBO Max, featuring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer.
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Mark Schoenfeld & Barri McPherson’s BKLYN The Musical will stream June 4-6 at 8 PM ET on Broadway OnDemand, directed by Meg Fofonoff.
Diana DeGarmo (Brooklyn), Miguel Cervantes (Taylor), Taylor Iman Jone (Faith), Quentin Earl Darrington (Streetsinger), and Felicia Boswell (Paradice), with Thom Sesma, Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina.
The story of City Weeds, five homeless musicians who band together to transform their neighborhood beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The City Weeds share the story of Brooklyn – a Parisian singer – in addition to their own stories. Orphaned after her mother’s death, Brooklyn travels to the United States in search of her father the life she always dreamed of.
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The Echo Theatre Company has announced the names of 7 playwrights who will participate in the company’s 2021 Playwrights Lab.
Brian Otaño, Hannah Wolf, Amanda L. Andrei, June Carryl, Ricardo Perez Gonzalez, Hannah, Kenah, Daria Miyeko Marinelli, Liza Powel O’Brien, and LaDarrion Williams.
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The upcoming “Cinderella” movie musical will feature original songs by stars Camila Cabello and Idina Menzel, alongside contemporary tracks.
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Lincoln Center has announced updates for its 2021-22 Broadway & Off-Broadway season:
Flying Over Sunset, by James Lapine, Tom Kitt & Michael Korie ( previews Nov. 4 and opens Dec. 6) at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, directed by Lapine, with choreography by Michelle Dorrance. Cast: Carmen Cusack (Clare Boothe Luce), Harry Hadden-Paton (Aldous Huxley), and Tony Yazbeck (Cary Grant). Clare Boothe Luce, Aldous Huxley, and Cary Grant all experiment with psychedelic drugs in the ’50s to unlock their psyches.
Intimate Apparel (previews Jan. 13, 2022 and opens Jan. 27) in the Mitzi E, Newhouse Theater, and opera adaptation by Lynn Nottage, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon, and directed by Bartlett Sher, and music direction by Steven Osgood. Cast: Kearstin Piper Brown (Esther), with Chabrelle Williams performing the Wednesday and Saturday matinees.
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Houston’s Alley Theatre has announced its 2021-22 season:
Sweat (Oct. 1-24), by Lynn Nottage, directed by Rob Melrose.
72 Miles to Go… (Oct. 15 – Nov. 14), by Hilary Bettis, directed by José Zayas. The play follows a family over ten years as a mother is deported to Mexico and separated from her American-born husband and children.
A Christmas Carol (Nov. 19 – Dec. 29), adapted by Doris Vaizley, and directed by Brandon Weinbrenner.
High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest (Jan. 21 – Feb. 13, 2022), world premiere by Vichet Chum, directed by Tiffany Nichole Green. A competitive high school theatre troupe whose choice of a one-act play sparks community backlash.
Amerikin (Feb. 11 – Mar. 13), by Chisa Hutchinson, directed by James Black. Jeff is a new father who joins a white supremacist group, but gets surprising results from his ancestry test.
Sense and Sensibility (Mar. 4-27), adapted by Kate Hamill, and directed by Adriana Baer.
Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Apr. 15 – May 8), by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Brandon Weinbrenner. In this comedy, a woman is forced to confront her assumptions about mortality, redemption, and the need to connect.
Born With Teeth (may 6 – June 5), by Liz Duffy, world premiere directed by Rob Melrose. Shakespeare and Marlowe collaborate on a history play cycle in a totalitarian regime.
Noir (June 2 – July 3), world premiere by Kyle Jarrow & Duncan Sheik, directed by Darko Tresnjak. A heartbroken man becomes obsessed with eavesdropping on his new neighbors.
The 2022 Alley All New Festival (June 15-26)