Enjoy the Memorial Day holiday.
GRACE NOTES will return Tues. June 1.
**********************
This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, May 28
& Juliet, by Max Martin, featuring Miriam-Teak Lee (Juliet), David Bedella (Lance), and Cassidy Janson (Anne), Oliver Tompsett (Shakespeare), Arun Blair-Mangat (May), Jordan Luke Gage (Romeo), Melanie La Barrie (Angelique/Nurse), Tim Mahendran (Francois), Jocasta Almgill (Lady Capulet/Sly), Rhian Duncan (Imogen), Danielle Fiamanya (Lucy), Kieran Lai (Kempe), Nathan Lorainey-Dineen (Gregory), Grace Mouat (Judith), Antoine Murray-Straughan (Augustine), Kerri Norville (Susanna), Dillon Scott-Lewis (Richard), and Kirstie Skivington (Eleanor/Benvolio), with Alex Tranter, Josh Baker, Jay Marshall, Billy Nevers, Christopher Parkinson, and Sophie Usher, resumes live performances at London’s Shaftsbury Theatre.
Bandstand (Broadway production), featuring Laura Osnes, Corey Cott, Beth Leavel, Joe Carroll, Brandon J. Ellis, James Nathan Hopkins, Geoff Packard, and Joey Pero, with Mary Callahan, Max Clayton. Andrea Dotto, Ryan Kasprzak, Erica Mansfield, Morgan Marcell, Drew McVety, Kevyn Morrow, Carleigh Bettiol, Kevin Quillon, Jonathan Shew, Ryan VanDenBoom, and Jaime Verazin, begins streaming on Broadway on Demand.
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Jason Danieley, streams at 5 PM PT here (also May 29).
The Waves in Quarantine: A Theatrical Experiment in 6 Movements, adapted by Raúl Esparza, Lisa Peterson, David Buckman, & Adam Gwon, featuring Raúl Esparza, Alice Ripley, Carmen Cusack, Nikki Renée Daniels, Darius de Haas, and Manu Narayan, concludes FREE streaming at Berkeley Rep.
An Evening with Sally Mayes concert closes at PA’s Bucks County Playhouse.
Saturday, May 29
Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends, with special guest Jason Danieley, streams at 2 PM ET here.
“Broadway Profiles with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Raúl Esparza, David Alan Grier, Jeremy Jordan, Carly Blake Sebouhian, and more, streams for FREE here.
Sunday, May 30
Kritzerlands’ May Is Busting Our All Over benefit concert, hosted by Bruce Kimmel, featuring Charles Busch, Marc Ginsburg, Lisa Livesay, Kerry O’Malley, Hartley Powers, Sami Staitman, Adrienne Stiefel, Walter Willison, and Robert Yacko, streams for FREE at 5 PM PT here.
Christiane Noll: Coming Alive Again concert, directed by Rob Ruggiero, concludes streaming on demand at Goodspeed Musicals
Monday, May 31
Theater Breaking Through Barriers, offering 14 short new plays, begins FREE streaming here.
The Importance of Being Earnest (2011 Roundabout Broadway production), directed by Brian Bedford, featuring Brian Bedford (Lady Bracknell), Dana Ivey (Miss Prism), Charlotte Parry (Cecily Cardew), Sara Topham (Gwendolyn), Paxton Whitehead (Reverend Chausible), Santino Fontana (Algernon Moncrief), David Furr (Jack Worthing), Tim MacDonald (Merriman), and Paul O’Brien (Lane), concludes streaming here.
Bandstand (Broadway production), featuring Laura Osnes, Corey Cott, Beth Leavel, Joe Carroll, Brandon J. Ellis, James Nathan Hopkins, Geoff Packard, and Joey Pero, with Mary Callahan, Max Clayton. Andrea Dotto, Ryan Kasprzak, Erica Mansfield, Morgan Marcell, Drew McVety, Kevyn Morrow, Carleigh Bettiol, Kevin Quillon, Jonathan Shew, Ryan VanDenBoom, and Jaime Verazin, concludes streaming on Broadway on Demand.
We Are Out There virtual production, by Joe Kinosian, Kellen Blair & Daniel Schloss, featuring Cher Alvarez (Sunny), E. Faye Butler (Coral), Alex Goodrich (Matt), Christopher Kale Jones (John), Jaye Ladymore (Ellen), and Joe Kinosian (Others), concludes FREE streaming at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (use promo code ALIEN for FREE access).
Sutton Foster: Bring Me to Light concert, directed by Leigh Silverman, with special guests Kelli O’Hara, Raúl Esparza, Joaquina Kalukango, and Wren Rivera, concludes streaming at NY City Center.
**********************
Video: Stars in the House, offering a Game Night! Boys Night!, with special guests Paul Castree, Jason Danieley, Howard McGillin, Rich Samson, George Salazar, and Jack Plotnik. (1:39:11)
**********************
Alan Zachary, Michael Weiner & Austin Winsberg’s First Date will stream July 23-25 here, directed by Meg Fofonoff, with music direction by Julie McBride.
Diana DeGarmo, Ace Young, Kevin Massey, Nick Cearley, Jennifer Sánchez, Vishal Vaidya, and Aurelia Williams.
**********************
The world premiere of Once Upon A One More Time, written, directed & choreographed by Jon Hartmere, featuring the music of Britney Spears, will run Nov. 30 – Jan. 2, 2022 at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Casting TBA.
Classic fairytale princesses gather for their fortnightly book club, longing for a new story. When a rogue fairy godmother drops by The Feminine Mystique into their corseted laps, it spurs a royal revelation: there is more to life than bird-made dresses and true love’s kiss!
**********************
VT’s Dorset Theatre Festival has announced its 2021 Summer season:
Laughing Wild (July 9-31), by Christopher Durang, directed by Jade King Caroll, featuring Dan Butler and Mary Bacon. The 3-part play stars a man and woman struggling to cope with life in modern America. Over the course of 2 monologues and a chance meeting inside of a dream, the characters take on everything from the supermarket to nuclear waste to their own frenetic psyches.
Queen of the Night (Aug. 10 – Sept. 4), world premiere written by & starring travis tate. Recently divorced Stephen and his millennial son, Ty, set out on a camping trip to their old stomping grounds in southeastern Texas. As an important family event approaches, father and son attempt to survive the woods, and one another, braving the bears and reckoning with the wilderness of their past. Despite low cell signals and high emotions, the two characters try their best to connect.
Scarecrow (starts July 14) developmental readings by Heidi Armbruster, directed by Dina Janis. Casting TBA. Will the bulls chase her off the property or whill she garden herself into oblivion? Scarecrow is one woman’s look back at the last 33 days of her father’s life.
Audio Play: Redeemed (release date TBA), by Chisa Hutchinson, directed by Jade King Carroll, and features Vanessa Kai and Michael Esper. The convicted murderer who killed Claire Yiang’s brother 9 years ago, writes begging her to visit him in prison. When Claire arrives, the killer claims he’s a changed mand. Is this murdered capable of redemption, or just attempting to impress the parole board?
**********************
Keala Settle in concert will take place Dec. 22 at 7:30 PM GMT at London’s Cadogan Hall.
**********************
Video: “So May We Start” from the new musical film “Annette,” by SPARKS & Leos Carax, featuring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, and Simon Helberg.
**********************
CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre has announced its Music, Song & Celebration: A Sondheim Cabaret Benefit, to stream Sun. June 5 at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET, directed by Richard Israel, with music direction by Gerald Sternbach, and hosted by Jason Graae.
Camryn Manheim.
Dana Jackson, Carolyn Mignini, Martha Hackett, Mary VanArsdel, Lesley Fera, Michael Tulin, Jason Downs, Steve Vinovich, and Robert Bailey.
The online party begins at 4 PM PT, and includes a “Sweenytini” cocktail demonstration at 4:30 PM.
**********************
Video: “Thespians” short film written & directed by Casey Like, featuring Rob McClure, Andrew Barth Feldman, Sydney Lucas, Casey Likes, Samantha Williams, Analise Scarpaci, Antonio Cipriano, Kaitlyn Sata Juana, Sam Primack, Gabrielle Carrubba. (27:27)
Before we return to the theatre, see what happened when they lost it.
**********************
The upcoming concert, Show of Titles, originally scheduled for June 8, will now premiere on June 13 at 7 PM ET here (and available for 4 days), directed by Lonny Price, with music direction by Jason Howland.
Lee Adams Maxwell Anderson, Burt Bacharach, Irving Berlin, Jerry Bock, Bertolt Brecht, Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, Joe Darion, Hal David, Fed Ebb, Gary Geld, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Adolph Green, Adam Guettel, Oscar Hammerstein, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman, John Kander, Burton Lane, Mitch Leigh, Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Loesser, Frederick Loewe, Galt MacDermot, Cole Porter, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Richard Rodgers, Charles Strouse, Jule Styne, Peter Udell, and Kurt Weill.
Annaleigh Ashford, Glenn Close, Len Cariou, Darren Criss, Santino Fontana, Kelsey Grammar, David Alan Grier, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Henry, Isabelle Huppert, Norm Lewis, Patti LuPone, Rob McClure, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Melba Moore, Jessie Mueller, Eva Noblezada, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Osnes, Steven Pasquale, Michael Rupert, Ernie Sabella, Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo, Will Swenson, Aaron Tveit, Leslie Uggams, Vanessa Williams, and Patrick Wilson.
**********************
New York Theatre Workshop has announced “Hilton Als Presents Part 2: Selections from Tennessee Williams,” which will stream on most podcast platforms when it is released this summer (exact date TBA).
André Holland (F. Scott Fitzgerald/Edouard) and Michelle Williams (Zelda) in Clothes for a Summer Hotel) ……. Reed Birney (Mark), Nadine Malouf (Miriam), and James Yaegashi (Barman) in Barman in the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel ……. and Marin Ireland (Woman Downtown) and Raul Castillo (King) in The Red Devil Battery Sign.
**********************
Enemy of the People: After Henrik Ibsen, adapted & directed by Robert Icke, will run June 22 – July 25 at the Park Avenue Armory. Tickets will be sold in pods of 2-5 attendees.
Ann Dowd
Down will play all the character in the story about a town thrown into a moral frenzy after the mayor’s sibling, a scientist, discovers life-threatening contamination in the waterline of its natural hot springs resort, an economic boon and lifeline for the community. Icke incorporates an interactive element in his version, with audiences voting during the pivotal moments to determine the direction of the story.
**********************
The world premiere of Jon Hartmere’s Once Upon A One More Time will run Nov. 30 – Jan. 2, 2022 at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, directed & choreographed by Keone and Mari Madrid. Tickets go on sale later this year.
Casting TBA.
Classic fairytale princesses gather for the fortnightly book club, longing for a new story. When a rogue fairy godmother drops “The Feminine Mystique” into their corseted laps, it spurs a royal revelation: there is more to life than bird-made dresses and true love’s kiss.
**********************
Joe Kinosian, Kellen Blair & Daniel Schloss’ We Are Out There is now available through Mon. May 31 here (use promo code ALIEN for free access to watch the film).
Cher Álvarez (Sunny), E. Faye Butler (Coral), Alex Goodrich (Matt), Christopher Kale Jones (John), Joe Kinosian (Others), and Jaye Ladymore (Ellen).
Extraterrestrial activity and musical mayhem collide in a hilarious 45-minute “investigative report” that reveals a few secrets (and songs!) from this world premiere musical comedy.
**********************
I’m Still Here, in support of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts‘ Billy Rose Theatre Division, will stream Tues. June 23 at 8 PM ET & 8 PM PT here, conceived by Julie Boardman & Nolan Doran, directed by Steve Broadnax, with choreography by Ayodele Casel, Lorin Latarro & Ray Mercer.
George C. Wolfe
Annaleigh Ashford, Alexander Bello, Laura Benanti, Malik Bilbrew, Alexandra Billings, Susan Birkenhead, Shay Bland, Stephanie J. Block, Alex Brightman, Matthew Brederick, Krystal Joy Brown, David Burtka, Sammi Cannold, Ayodele Casel, Victoria Clark, Max Clayton, Calvin L. Cooper, DeMarius Copers, Trip Cullman, Taeler Elyse Cyrus, Quentin Earl Darrington, Robin de Jesús, André De Shields, Frank DeLella, Derek Ege, Amina Faye, Harvey Fierstein, Leslie Donna Flesner, Chelsea P. Freeman, Joel Grey, Ryan J. Haddad, Sheldon Harnick, James Harkness, Marcy Harriell, Neil Patrick Harris, Mark Harris, David Henry Hwang, Cassondra James, Marcus Paul James, Taylor Iman Jones, Maya Kazzaz, Tom Kirdahy, Hilary Knight, Michael John LaChirsa, Norman Lear, Baayork Lee, Sondra Lee, Telly Leung, Ashley Loren, Allen Renē Louis, Brittney Mack, Taylor Mac, Morgan Marcell, Aaron Marcellus, Joan Marcus, Michael Mayer, Sarah Meahl, Joanna Merlin, Ruthie Ann Miles, Bonnie Milligan, Rita Morerno, Leilani Patao, Nova Payton, Joel Perec, Bernadette peters, Tonya Pinkins, Jacoby Pruitt, Sam Quinn, Phylicia Rashad, Jelani Remy, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, George Salazar, Marilyn Saunders, Marcus Scott, Rashidra Scott, Rona Siddiqui, Ahmad Simmons, Rebecca Taichman, Jeanine Tesori, Bobby Conte Thornton, Sergio Trujillo, Kei Tsuruharatani, Ben Vereen, Jack Viertel, Christopher Vo, Paula Vogel, Nik Walker, Shannon Fiona Weir, Helen Marla White, Natasha Yvette Williams, and Ricardo Zayas.
The event will feature never before publicly show archival content of Broadway productions from the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, shown exclusively for this occasion, including (from Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk) Savion Glover, Jimmy Tate, Choclattjared and Raymond King ….. (from The Seagull) Meryl Streep, Marcia Gay Harden, and Larry Pine ….. (from In The Heights) Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robin de Jesús, Christopher Jackson, Karen Olivo, Andréa Burns, Janet Dacal, Eliseo Román, and Seth Stewart ….. (from Sunset Boulevard) Glenn Close, and many more TBA.