This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, November 5
The Book of Mormon, featuring Kevin Clay (Elder Price), Cody Jamison Strand (Elder Cunningham), Kim Exum (Nabulungi), Stephen Ashfield (Elder McKinley) and Sterling Jarvis (Mafala Hatimbi), with Lewis Cleale, Derrick Williams, Randy Aaron, Shanel Bailey, J. Casey Barrett, Graham Bowen, Isaiah Tyrelle Boyd, Christian Delcroix, Daniel Fetter, Naysh Fox, Bre Jackson, Keziah John-Paul, John K. Kramer, Ben Laxton, Terrie Lynne, Noah Marlowe, Matthew Marks, Henry McGinniss, Stoney B. Mootoo, Jevares Myrick, Darius Nichols, John Eric Parker, John Pinto Jr., Christian Probst, Jasmin Richardson and Arbender J. Robinson, resumes performances at Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, directed by Walter Bobbie, featuring Janie Dee, Michael Maloney, Rebecca Lacey, Charlie Maher, Sara Powell, and Lukwesa Mwamba, begins previews at London’s Charing Cross Theatre.
Kimberly Akimbo, world premiere by David Lindsay-Abair & Jeanine Tesori, directed by Jessica Stone, featuring Steven Boyer, Victoria Clark, Justin Cooley, Olivia Elease Hardy, Fernell Hogan II, Michael Iskander, Alli Mauzey, Bonnie Milligan, and Nina White, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company.
Baby, site-specific production, directed & choreographed by Ethan Paulini, featuring Julia Murney (Arlene), Elizabeth Flemming (Lizzie), Johny Link (Danny), Jamila Sabares-Klemm (Nicki), Robert H. Fowler (Alan), and Danielle Summons (Pam), with Jorge Donoso, Marisa Kirby, and Jewell Noel, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Theatrelab (357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor).
Beauty and the Beast, directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, featuring Jade Jones (Belle), Evan Ruggiero (The Beast), Michael Burrell (Gaston), Bobby Smith (Lumiere), Dylan Arredondo (Cogsworth), John Sygar (Lefou), Iyona Blake (Mrs. Potts), Miranda Pepin (Chip), Jessica Lauren Ball (Madame de la Grande Bouche), Sasha Olinick (Maurice), and Hailey Ibberson (Babette), with Conor James Reilly, Rick Westerkamp, Ariel Messeca, Michael Wood, Selena Clyne-Galindo, Erica Hansen, Quynj-My Luu, Tyler White, Megan Tatum, Shiloh Orr, and Graciela Rey, begins previews at MD’s Olney Theatre.
Saturday, November 6
The Children, by Lucy Kirkwood, directed by Simon Levy, featuring Ron Botitta, Elizabeth Elias Huffman, and Lily Knight, opens at LA’s Fountain Theatre.
Playwrights’ Arena & Skylight Theatre Company’s A Hit Dog Will Holler world premiere, by Inda Craig-Galván, directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, featuring Donna Simone Johnson, Kacie Rogers, and Cheri Vandenheuvel, opens at LA’s Skylight Theatre.
A Whole New World of Alan Menken concert, at 8 PM ET at CT’s Ridgefield Playhouse.
“The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal,” with special guests Uzo Aduba, Derek Klena, Cassie Beck, and Shereen Ahmed, airs nationally here.
Anything Goes, directed & choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, featuring Rachel York (Reno Sweeny), Robert Lindsay (Moonface Martin), Haydn Gwynne (Evangeline Harcourt), Gary Wilmot (Elisha Whitney), Samuel Edwards (Billy Crocker), Nicole-Lily Baisden (Hope Harcourt), Haydn Oakley (Lord Evelyn Oakleigh), and Carly Mercedes Dyer (Erma Latour), with Jon Chew, Clive Hayward, Alistair So, Marc Akinfolarin, Simon Anthony, Georgie Ashford, Vivien Carter, Natalie Chua, Eamonn Cox, Jordan Crouch, Frances Dee, Charlene Ford, Selina Hamilton, Maddie Harper, Michael Lin, Robbie McMillan, Tom Partridge, Jack Wilcox, Alexandra Wright, George Beet, Gabrielle Cocca, Emily Ormiston, and Liam Wrate, closes at London’s Barbican Theatre.
The Normal Heart, by Larry Kramer, directed by Dominic Cooke, featuring Ben Daniels (Ned Weeks), Robert Bowman, Richard Cant, Liz Carr, Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Dino Fetscher, Daniel Krikler, Daniel Monks, Elander Moore, Luke Norris, Henry Nott, Lucas Rush, Freddie Stabb, Samuel Thomas, and Danny Lee Wynter, closes at London’s Olivier Theatre.
Blithe Spirit, by Noël Coward, directed by Richard Eyre, featuring Jennifer Saunders (Madame Arcati), Geoffrey Streatfeild (Charles Condomine), Lisa Dillon (Ruth Condomine), Simon Coates (Dr. Bradman), Lucy Robinson (Mrs. Bradman), and Rose Wardlaw (Edith), closes at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre.
Private Lives, directed by Christopher Luscombe, starring Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers, closes at the UK’s Theatre Royal Bath.
Wuthering Heights, world premiere adaptation & direction by Emma Rice, featuring Lucy McCormick (Cathy) Sam Archer (Lockwood/Edgar Linton), Nandi Bhebhe (The Moor), TJ Holmes (Robert), Ash Hunter (Heathcliff), Craig Johnson (Mr. Earnshaw/Dr. Kenneth), Jordan Laviniere (John), Kandaka Moore (Zillah), Katy Owen (Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff), Tama Phethean (Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw), and Witney White (Frances Earnshaw/Young Cathy), with Mirabelle Gremaud, closes at the UK’s Bristol Old Vic.
Sunday, November 7
Red Bull Theater‘s The Alchemist, newly adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, directed by Jesse Berger, featuring Nathan Christopher, Stephen DeRosa, Carson Elrod, Manoel Feliciano, Teresa Avia Lim, Jacob Min-Trent, Louis Mustillo, Reg Rogers, Jennifer Sánchez, and Allen Tedder, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages.
Linda Purl & Billy Stritch – In The Mood: Songs For Jumping Back Into Life concert, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Birdland.
Songs for a New World, by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, featuring Roman Banks, Carolee Carmello, Andrew Kober, and Mia Pinero, with Dion Simmons Grier and Olivia Hernandez, closes at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse.
Megan Hilty in concert closes at 54 Below.
International City Theatre‘s Blues in the Night, by Sheldon Epps, directed by Wren T. Brown, featuring Jenna Gillespie Byrd (The Girl with a Date), Karole Foreman (The Woman of the World), Vivian Reed (Lady from the Road), and Clinton Derricks-Carroll (The Man in the Saloon), closes at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.
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Reviews for The Visitor at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater:
NY Times (May Phillips): What comes to mind when you think about immigration, ICE and deportation? I’m willing to bet more than a few George Washingtons that it’s not “musical.” Perhaps it is doable to respect the politics around these issues and the immigrants trying to build a life in the United States in this format, but it’s tough. Which is why the new musical The Visitor feels so obtuse and helplessly dated… Sullivan’s brusque direction, which speeds through some character-building dialogue then lingers on scenes that have the clunkiest exposition… Yorkey’s clunky lyrics…
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): Can the old coexist with the new? Can the well-established make space for newcomers without fear? And do those old-timers have something to offer the newcomers, while also learning something themselves? These questions hover over both the onstage and offstage story of The Visitor, the sweet and sad — and ultimately disappointing new musical at the Public Theater… It retains the basic skeleton of the plot while stripping away much of the flesh that made McCarthy’s film so very human… a soaring and forgettable score that regularly finds the story paralyzed in the path of an oncoming glory note….
Time Out (Adam Feldman): …the musical starts at a disadvantage: It’s the story of an uptight middle-aged white college professor whose serendipitous encounter with a pair of undocumented immigrants opens his eyes to oppression and opens his heart to groovy new rhythms… The understatement and nuance that lifted the film above its familiar, white-centric, Magical Immigrant plot are absent from the musical; what remains is a dated exercise in First World consciousness-raising that now has the additional burden of seeming constantly, palpably uncomfortable with its own story… The Visitor seems lost and in desperate need of directions…
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Dan Gillespie & Tom MacRae’s Everybody is Talking About Jamie will run Jan. 16 – Feb. 20, 2022 (opening Jan. 21) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Jonthan Butterell, with choreography by Kate Prince, and music supervision by Theo Jamieson.
Layton Williams (Jamie), Roy Haylock (Hugo/Loco Chanelle), Melissa Jaques (Margaret), Shobna Gulati (Ray), Gillian Ford (Miss Hedge), David O’Reilly (Laika Virgin), Leon Craig (Sandra Bollock), Richard Appaih-Sarpong (Cy), Zion Battles (Levi), Ryan Hughes (Mickey), Jodie Knight (Fatimah), Harriet Payne (Bex), Adam Taylor (Sayid), George Sampson (Dean), Kazmin Borrer (Vicki), and Talia (Palamathanan (Becca), with Simeon Beckett, Rachel Seirian, and Emma Robotham-Hunt.
Jamie New is sixteen and lives in public housing in Sheffield, England. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in, he’s terrified about the future and he’s going to be a sensation.
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RIP Camille Saviola, best known for creating the role of Mama Maddelena in Broadway’s Nine, died of heart failure on Oct. 28 at the age of 71, in North Bergen, NJ.
Camille frequently drew comparisons to Ethel Merman for her big voice, which she liked to use to comic effect. One character she played in more than one cabaret show received the Ten Commandments of Soul from James Brown, earning her something of a nickname: “the Italian Godmother of Soul.”
But she wasn’t limited to comedy. In 2005, for instance, she starred in a production of Mother Courage and Her Children, Bertolt Brecht’s famed antiwar play, in Pasadena.
In 1980, Camille was in the original Off Off Broadway cast of Starmites, belting out a number called “Hard to Be Diva.” (The show made Broadway briefly in 1989, though without her.) She also toured in the rock opera Tommy, playing the characters the Mother and the Acid Queen. In March 1985, at the Ballroom Theater in Manhattan, she was the central figure in a cabaret musical called “Hollywood Opera” that parodied eight classic films.
Ms. Saviola had small parts in two Woody Allen movies, “Broadway Danny Rose” (1984) and “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985), the first of her more than 40 film and television roles.
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The film adaptation of “Wicked” is in the works, directed by Jon M. Chu, with a release date TBA.
Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (Glinda), with more TBA.
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Complete casting has been announced for the world premiere of Kimber Lee’s to the yellow house, to run Nov. 16 – Dec. 12 (opening Nov. 21) at La Jolla Playhouse, directed by Neel Keller.
Alton Alburo, Frankie J. Alvarez, Marco Barricelli, DeLeon Dallas, Deidrie Henry, Brooke Ishibashi, and Paco Tolson, with Grayson Heyl, Noah Israel, Noah Keeling Jada Alston Owens, Natalia Quintero-Riestra, and Jordan C. Smith.
February 1886. Vincent van Gogh is broke again. Trailing past-due notices and annoyed innkeepers, he arrives unexpectedly at his brother’s doorstep in Montmartre, determined to make another fresh star. Caught in the colorful whirl of the Parisian art scene, he drinks too much, falls in love with the wrong woman, argues with everyone — and paints. Night and day he works to translate what he feels onto the canvas, relentlessly chasing a new form of expression that seems to be always around the next corner. But at what point in an endless cycle of failures do faith and persistence become delusion and foolishness? to the yellow house is a meditation on love, art, and not begin popular.
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The St. Louis Muny has announced its 2022 season. Creative teams and casting TBA.
Chicago (June 13-19), directed and choreographed by Denis Jones
Camelot (June 22-28)
Mary Poppins (July 5-13)
Sweeney Todd (July 16-22)
Legally Blonde (July 25-31)
The Color Purple (Aug. 3-9)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Aug. 12-28)
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The New York Shorts International Film Festival will screen “Project 9,” a music video tribute to Nine, both on demand and in person at NYC’s Cinema Village (22 East 12th St.), produced by Glory Crampton and Robert Cuccioli. Since its premiere last April, the film has garnered multiple awards for film, video, creative design, editing, and soundtrack.
Glory Crampton (Luisa Contini), Robert Cuccioli (Guido Contini), and Dana Moore (Lilliane LeFleur).
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The Visitor, world premiere by Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey & Kwame Kwei-Armah, and directed by Daniel Sullivan, has been extended through Dec. 5 at Off-Broadway’s The Public Theatre.
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Jessica Vosk will make her Carnegie Hall solo concert debut on Mon. Nov. 8 at 8 PM ET, directed by Warren Carlyle, with music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
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Complete casting has been announced for Long Day’s Journey Into Night, to run Jan. 11 – Feb. 20, 2022 (opening Jan. 23) at the Minetta Lane Theatre (link TBA), directed by Robert O’Hara.
Jason Bowen (Jamie Tyrone), Bill Camp (James Tyrone), Elizabeth Marvel (Mary Tyrone), Ato Blankson-Wood (Edmund Tyrone).
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“Fiddler’s Journey to the Screen,” which goes behind the scenes of the 1971 “Fiddler on the Roof” film, will be released in Spring 2022, directed by Daniel Raim.
Included are behind-the-scenes footage and images along with interviews with film director Norman Jewison, underscore composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, critic Kenneth Turan, Sheldon Harnick, and performers Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small.
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Video: The Broadway cast of Diana performs “If,” which highlights the feeling of relief the Princess of Wales experiences after Queen Elizabeth II grants permission for Prince Charles and Diana to separate.
Jeanna de Waal, roe Hartrampf, Erin Davie, and Judy Kaye.
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Complete casting has been announced for Jack Thorne’s stage adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, to run Jan. 11 – Aug. 28 (opening Feb. 9) at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre, directed by John Tiffany.
John Skelley (Harry Potter), Angela Reed (Ginny Potter), Benjamin Papac (Albus Potter), Steve O’Connell (Ron Weasley), Lily Mojekwu (Hermione Granger), Folanmi Williams (Rose Granger-Weasley), Lucas Hall (Draco Malfoy), and Jon Steiger (Scorpius Malfoy), with Chadd Alexander, John Alix, William Bednar-Carter, Ebony Blake, Melanie Brezill, Shannon Cochran, Jamyl Dobson, Iriving Dyson Jr, Gary-Kayi Fletcher, Eleasha Gamble, Kita Grayson, Logan James Hall, Abbi Hawk, Corey Hedy, Chance Marshaun Hill, Nathan Hosner, Nick Hyland, Charles Janasz, Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks, Joel Leffert, Chanté Odom, Erik Evan Olson, Christine Perdersen, Elise Southwick, Tuck Sweeney, Geoffrey Wade, and Brittany Zeinstra.