This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, November 3
MasterVoices‘ The Frogs concert presentation, by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove & Nathan Lane, directed by Ted Sperling, featuring Douglas Sills (Dionysos), Keven Chamberlin (Xanthias), Marc Kudisch (Herakles), Chuck Cooper (Charon), Peter Bartlett (Pluto), Dylan Baker (George Bernard Shaw), Jordan Donica (William Shakespeare), and Candice Corbin (Ariadne), with dancers. Rei Akazawa-Smith, Lexis Danca, Maurice Dawkins, Maya Halpern-Thomas, Beatrice Howell, Ali Montez, Christopher Page-Sanders, Isabela C. Sanchez, Tommy Scrivens, Claire Waxman, Ruby Waxman, and Andrew Wilson, opens at NYC’s Jazz at Lincoln Center.
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, by Anthony Davis & Thulani’s, directed by Robert O’Hara, featuring Will Liverman (Malcolm X), Leah Hawkins, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Victor Ryan Robertson, and Michael Sumuel, opens at NYC’s Metropolitan Opera.
Bonkers in the Boroughs: Five Short Plays by Joy Behar, directed by Abigail Zealey Bess, featuring Joy Behar, Bob Ari, Susie Essman, Dan Grimaldi, Danny Hoch, Jackie Hoffman, Lou Liberatore, Irene Sofica Lucio, Annie O’Sullivan, Josh Henry, Susie Sussman, and Rene Taylor, opens at NYC’s Manhattan Movement and Arts Center (248 W. 60th St.).
Mates in Chelsea, by Rory Mullarkey, directed by Sam Pritchard, featuring Amy Booth-Steel, Natalie Dew, Karina Fernandez, George Fouracres, Laurie Kynaston, Philipp Mogilnitskiy and Fenella Woolgar, begins previews at London’s Royal Court Theatre.
New York City Ballet’s Message In A Bottle, by Kate Prince, set to the music of Sting, airs at 9 PM on PBS (check local listings)..
Saturday, November 4
Waiting for Godot, directed by Arin Arbus, featuring Michael Shannon (Estragon), Paul Sparks (Vladimir), Jeffrey Biehl (Lucky) and Ajay Naidu (Pozzo), opens at Off-Broadway’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center.
The Winter’s Tale, directed by Tamilla Woodard, featuring Cody Nickell (Camillo), Kate Eastwood Norris (Paulina), Reza Salazar, Kayleandra White (Perdita), Antoinette Crow-Legacy (Hermione), Jonathan Del Plamer (Florizell), Kate Eastwood Norris (Paulina), Nicholas Gerwitz (Shepherd’s Son), Reza Salazar (Autolycus), Cody Nickell (Damillo), Drew Kopas (Polixenes), Stephen Patrick Martin (Antigonus/Shepherd), Sabrina Lynne Sawyer, Richard Bradford (Mammillius/Time), Hadi Tabbal (Leontes), and Clarence Payne (Mamillius), begin previews at DC’s Folger Theatre.
The Right to Cabaret concert, with music direction by Alex Rybeck, featuring Natalie Douglas, Ava Nicole Frances, and John Forster, at 7 PM at NYC’s Green Room 42.
The Confessions, written & directed by Alexander Zeldin, featuring Alexander Zeldin, Eryn Jean Norvill, and Pamela Rabe, closes at London’s Lyttelton Theatre.
Sunday, November 5
Mamma Mia! national tour, directed by Phylida Loyd, featuring Christine Sherrill (Donna Sheridan), Alisa Melendez (Sophie Sheridan), Carly Sakolove (Rosie), Victor Wallace (Sam Carmichael), Jalynn Steele (Tanya), Rob Marnell (Harry Bright), Jim Newman (Bill Austin), and Grant Reynolds (Sky), with Louis Griffin, Patrick Park, L’Oréal Roaché, Haley Wright, Gabe Amato, Adia Olanethia Bell, Xavi Soto Burgos, Emily Croft, Madison Deadman, Jordan De Leon, Nico DiPrimio, Patrick Dunn, Stephanie Genito, Tassy Kirbas, Danny Lopez-Alicea, Makoa, Faith Northcutt, Jasmine Overbaugh, Gray Phillips, Blake Price, Dorian Quinn, and Amy Weaver, opens at the Denver CPA.
New York Stage and Film‘s 2023 Annual Gala, honoring Billy Porter and GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis, directed by Liz Carlson & Sheryl Kaller, featuring Melissa Etheridge, David Burtka, Chuck Cooper, Wilson Cruz, J Harrison Ghee, Nathan Lee Graham, Dominique Jackson, Princess Lockerooo and The Fabulous Waack Dancers, Lenora Nemetz, Mia Pak, Joél Pérez, Brian Quijada, Adina Verson, Lillias White, Virgina Woodruff, and more, at 6:30 PM at NYC’s Plaza Hotel.
Rodgers & Hart’s Pal Joey, adapted by Richard LaGravenese & Daniel “Koa” Beaty, directed by Savion Glover & Tony Goldwyn, featuring Ephraim Sykes (Joey), Elizabeth Stanley (Vera), Aisha Jackson (Linda), Loretta Devine (Lucille), Brooks Ashmanskas (Melvin), and Jeb Brown (Tony), with Krystina M. Burton, Marshall L. Davis Jr., Dormeisha, Jarvis Manning, Brittany Nicole Parks, Mary Antonini, Taylor Marie Daniel, Leandra Ellis-Gaston, Jodeci Milhouse, NaTonia Monét, Rory Shirley, and Allysa Shorte, closes at NY City Center.
Primary Stages’ Dig, written & directed by Theresa Rebeck, featuring Mary Bacon, Jeffrey Bean, Greg Keller, David Mason, Triney Sandoval, and Andrea Syglowski, closes at Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters.
Bonkers in the Boroughs: Five Short Plays by Joy Behar, directed by Abigail Zealey Bess, featuring Joy Behar, Bob Ari, Susie Essman, Dan Grimaldi, Danny Hoch, Jackie Hoffman, Lou Liberatore, Irene Sofica Lucio, Annie O’Sullivan, Josh Henry, Susie Sussman, and Rene Taylor, closes at NYC’s Manhattan Movement and Arts Center (248 W. 60th St.).
The Creeps, written by & starring Catherine Waller, closes at Off-Broadway’s Playhouse 46.
Private Jones, written & directed by Marshall Pailet, featuring (deaf, hearing, and hard-of-hearing actors) Johnny Link (Private Gomer), Claire Neumann (Jack King), Leanne Antonio (Gwenolyn/Evans), and Vincent Kenpski (Edmund), with David Aron Damane, Alex De Bard, Brandon Espinoza, Dickie Hearts, Amelia Hensley, George Psomas, Jon-Michael Reese, and Emily Steinhardt, closes at CT’s Goodspeed.
The Angel Next Door, by Paul Slade Smith, directed by David Ellenstein, featuring Thomas Edward Daugherty (Victor Pratt), Erin Noel Grennan (Olga Molnar), Elinor Gunn (Margot Bell), Taubert Naudalini (Oliver Adams), James Newcomb (Arthurs Sanders), and Barbara E. Robertson (Charlotte Sanders), closes at Laguna Playhouse.
The Sound of Music, directed by directed by Wayne Bryan, featuring Juliana Sloan (Maria), Jonathan von Mering (Captain von Trapp), Sarah Wolter (Mother Abbess), Cathy Newman (Frau Schmidt/Sister Berthe), Brandon Keith Rogers (Rolf), Erin Dubreuil (Liesel), Brian Kim McCormick (Max Detweiller), Meghan Andrews (Elsa Schraeder), Jacqueline Dennis (Sister Margaretta), Kevin Symons (Franz), (Admiral von Schreiber/Baron Elberfeld), Holly Santiago (Sister Sophia), Damon Kirsche (Herr Zeller), Brennan Jacob Esguerra (Friedrich), Josh Protzmann (Friedrich), Rachel Beard (Luisa), and many more, closes at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West.
The Engagement Party, by Samuel Baum, directed by Darko Tresnjak, featuring Richard Bekins (Conrad), Bella Heathcote (Katherine), Brian Lee Huynh (Kai), Mark Jacobson (Alan), Wendie Malick (Gail), Brian Patrick Murphy (Johnny), Jonah Platt (Josh), and Lauren Worsham (Haley), closes at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
The Road Theatre Company’s Bisexual Sadness, world premiere by India Kotis, directed by Carlyle King, featuring (Cast 1) Tiffany Wolff (Faye), Alaska Jackson (Genevieve), Brian Graves (Alex),Karrie King (Miranda), Gloria Ines (Naomi), and Andrea Flowers (Lillian) and Cast 2 : Liz Fenning (Faye), Bex Taylor-Klaus (Genevieve), Philip Smithey (Alex), Amy Tolsky (Miranda), Naomi Rubin (Naomi), and Samira Beija (Lillian), closes at North Hollywood’s Road on Magnolia.
The Human Comedy, written & directed by Thom Babbes, featuring Laura Esterman, Lee Guthrie, Mark Rosenthal and Jane MacIver, closes to Hollywood’s Actors Co-op.
Love Among the Ruins, by James G. Hirsch & Robert A. Papazian, directed by Michael Arabian, featuring JoBeth Williams and Peter Strauss, with Tony Abatemarco, Gigi Bermingham, Nima Dabestani, C.J. Blaine Eldred, Martin Kildare, Amir Talai and Wendy Worthington, closes at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre.
Deathtrap, directed by Jamie Torcellini, featuring Geoffrey Lower (Sidney Bruhl), Jill Remez (Myra), Coby Rogers (Clifford Anderson), Michelle Holmes (Helga ten Dorp), and Patrick Vest (Porter Milgrim), closes at CA’s Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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Reviews for I Need That at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …Hyper-competently, like a good three-camera sitcom, Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s production… will inch out Sam’s story — as well as that of his daughter, Amelia, and his old pal Foster. It will calibrate the requisite unsurprising surprises. It will cut its laughs with pathos and plump for a tear at the end… Rebeck has a keen feeling for structure and the larger movements of storytelling… And there’s certainly pleasure to be had when an expert like DeVito…gets his mouth around a morsel of fragrant patois (he describes a worthless bottle cap as a meaningful souvenir “from my yout’” or a juicy monologue… the play overall, within its neat architecture, feels cluttered and obvious… It’s hard to imagine what more one could make of an upbeat play about hoarding. The condition is not funny…
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …while the real familial relationship is unspoken in Rebeck’s fictional world, it certainly lends a meta sensibility to a play of which the first half… Rebeck clearly wants Sam to be hoarder-adjacent rather than a full-on “Hoarders” TV show candidate and, indeed, Alexander Dodge’s set surrounds the diminutive DeVito with all kinds of artfully displayed junk, but it’s far from some rat-invested sea of stuff, threatening to bury him alive…The problem there is the stakes and dramatic tension in the play comes from Amelia warning her dad that unless he gets going with the garbage bags for those old magazines, he’ll get forced out of his own place due to a pain-in-the-neck neighbor and fire-code regulations. That’s a stretch, frankly…
New York Theatre Guide (Joe Dziemianowicz): … Danny DeVito, who shines as the aimless widow Sam,… turn the unlikely moment into a theatrical highlight that’s silly, sad, and, no joke, poetic… it’s an original way of indicating Sam is knee-deep in sorrow… Otherwise, Theresa Rebeck’s wispy comedy about love, loss, and coping with the aftermath, is all too expected. It seeks to say something significant and memorable but doesn’t quite get there… Rebeck is a witty writer. She initially plays the circumstances for laughs… The cast, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, hugs the tonal contours skillfully. From the get-go… In the end, I Need That is pleasant but leaves you wanting…
Theatermania (David Gordon): …filled with the sort of kindness that one wants to see more of in an increasingly troubled world. But it’s lesser Rebeck, a sweet-nothing of a play that’s content with the superficial… endearing misfits you can’t help rooting for, and the events of the play are so nonthreatening that you can see the climax and happy ending coming within the first 10 minutes. It’s charming and sweet and ultimately very touching, but the complete lack of depth means it goes in one ear and out the other… Few playwrights can build the ebb and flow of a comedic angry rant with as much flair as Rebeck… it’s hardly a life changer.
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A Merry Christmas Carol, written & directed by Mark Shanahan, will run Nov. 25 – Dec. 24 at Virginia Stage, directed by Tom Quaintance.
Beatty Barnes (Ebenezer Scrooge), Sarah Manton, Meredith Nöel, Refiye Tappan, Adalee Alt, Patrick Halley, Dave Hobbs, Steve Pacek, Anna Sosa, Miri Quaintance, Stormie Trevino, Margo Von Buseck, Mia Haymes, Wyllow Smith, and Russell Teagle.
A delightful blend of traditional holiday cheer, innovative staging and a newly added ghostly chorus.
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Video: Broadway’s Harmony video montage.
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Industry readings of Michael McKeever’s The Code will take place Fri. Nov. 19 at 11 AM & 2 PM in NYC, directed by Christopher Renshaw. Inquiries: TheCodeRSVP@gmail.com.
Tracie Bennett (Tallulah Bankhead), Davi Santos (Chad Manford), Wesley Taylor (Henry Willson), and Tuc Watkins (Billy Haines).
It’s Hollywood 1950 and you are cordially invited to join Billy Haines, Henry Willson and Tallulah Bankhead for an evening of cocktails, caviar… and all-out war. Summer, 1950… Hollywood’s first openly gay movie star and celebrity interior designer Billy Haines is going to a dinner party at George Cukor’s. He invites a handful of friends to stop off for cocktails beforehand. Tallulah Bankhead, in LA for the weekend, is there with all of the baggage that makes her Tallulah Bankhead. When agent Henry Willson arrives with his newest protégé, Chad Manford, what starts off as a simple request turns into a heated debate on the hypocrisy of what it takes to be a man in the land of make-believe. With great humor and stinging insight, The Code examines the bigotries, self-deceptions, and unspoken codes – still relevant 70 years later – that defined and restrained the golden age of Hollywood.
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Video: How Chip Zien lied his way Into The Woods. (51:42)
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Christmas on the Rocks, conceived & directed by Rob Ruggiero, will run Nov. 29 – Dec. 23 at TheaterWorks Hartford.
Harry Bouvy (The Man), Jen Cody (The Woman), and Richard Kline (The Bartender).
The piece features seven playwrights each adding their own spin to the canon of holiday traditions past. It’s Christmas Eve in a rundown local bar. Expecting a silent night, the bartender finds himself mixing drinks for a parade of surprising guests – children from your favorite Christmas specials and movies – now all grown up. Join them as they pour out their Christmas woes in this delightful parody.
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Open-Door Playhouse will present J.A. Moad II’s The Wars at Home: Our Ghost on Sat. Nov. 18 online here, directed by Bernadette Armstrong.
Mathew Montgomery
A young boy growing up in the home his family has occupied for generations in a small town in Illinois believes the house to be haunted by a ghost. He thinks the ghost may be that of an ancestor who fought in the Civil War. The boy is soon to embark on a trip with his parents to a VA hospital, hopefully to heal the psychic and bodily wounds his father sustained in combat.
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Amas Musical Theatre Lab will present developmental lab readings of Charlie Romano & Will Wegner’s Onward & Upward on Nov. 17 & 18 at NYC’s Ripley-Grier Studios, directed by Michael Barnard, with music direction by Griffin Strout.
Alex Joseph Grayson, Liz McCartney, Mamie Parris, Sam Primack, Jim Stanek, and Samantha Williams.
In 1982, Walter Griffin made national headlines after flying 16,000 feet in the sky with a lawnchair and a cluster of weather balloons. 17 years later, his wife and son have kept him tethered to the practicalities of daily life—until a surreal visit from his idol, wirewalker Philippe Petit, blurs the line between reality and fantasy. This chamber musical with a sweeping score, explores the desperate lengths to which one man will go to realize his dream.
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An Evening with Rainn Wilson will take place Tues. Nov. 28 at 8 PM at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.
Rainn will share some hilarious and heartfelt stories about his career and perform a short dramatic reading to support Rubicon.
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A Musical Christmas Carol will run Dec. 15-23 at Pittsburgh CLO, directed by Scott Evans.
Michael Cerveris (Ebenezer Scrooge), with John Paul Berry, Marissa Buchheit, Melessie Clark, Christian Clausnitzer, Susan Cordón, Justin Fortunato, Aaron Galligan-Stierle, Aaron Galligan-Stierle, Lisa Ann Goldsmith, Ted Guzman, Kat Harkins, Tim Hartman, Maddie Kocur, Daniel Krell, Christine Laitta, J. Alex Noble, Brady D. Patsy, Benjamin Kent Pimental, Ason Shavers, Saige Smith, Erica Strasburg, Andrea Weinzierl, Emmett Kent, Aubree Liscotti, Leah Piccolino, Henry Thomas, and Savannah Wiles.