This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, October 25
Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, directed by Karen Azenberg, featuring Robert Mammana (Patrick), Matthew McGloin (Lucien), Japhet Balaban (Daniel), Judith Lightfoot Clarke (Marcelle) Joel Leffert (Adolphe/Pierre), Kim Taff (Elodie), Alok Tewari (Charlie), Jayne Luke (Irma), Maggie Goble (Molly), True Leavitt (Young Pierre), and Zoe Lupcho (Elodie understudy), opens at Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Playhouse.
Invitation-only reading of Madame Clicquot, by Lisette Glodowski and Richard C. Walter, directed & choreographed by Laurie Glodowski, with music direction by Kenneth Gartman, featuring Victoria Frings(Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin), Roe Hartrampf (François Clicquot), Paolo Montalban (Louis Bohne), Kai An Chee (Geneviéve), Jonathan Christopher (Jean-Remy Moët), Nick Laughlin (Napoleon Bonaparte), Kimberly Immanuel (Clementine Ponsardin), Rob Richardson (Phillipe Clicquot), Neal Young (Nicolas Ponsardin), Antonia Holderied (Young Barbe-Nicole/Mentine), and Nicolas “Nic” Sanchez (Young François), with, Gillian Bell, Dalton Bertolone, Devin Cortez, Lauren Drewello, Robert H. Fowler, Kalonjee Gallimore, Chelsea Hooker, Ian Laudano, Patricia Phillips, Eric Sorrels, Santina Umbach, and Brooke Wexler. 
The story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin and her journey revolutionizing the world of Champagne during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.
Jason Robert Brown in concert, with special guests Kelly O’Hara, Raúl Esparza, Shoshana Bean, J. Harrison Ghee, Heather Headley, and Ben Platt, at 8 PM at Carnegie Hall.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, solo livestream concert starring Reeve Carney, at 7 & 9:30 PM at NYC’s Green Room 42.
Saturday, October 26
Cockeyed Optimist: Where Hammerstein Found His Hope concert & conversation, directed by Dick Scanlan, featuring Malcom Gets, Kerstin Anderson, Mikaela Bennett, Patrick Breen, Eddie Cooper, Omar Lopez-Cepero, and Katie Mariko Murray, opens at NYC’s 92NY.
King Lear, directed by Kenneth Branagh, featuring Kenneth Branagh (King Lear), Mara Allen (Curan), Deborah Alli (Goneril), Raymond Anum (Burgundy), Melanie‐Joyce Bermudez (Regan), Doug Colling (Edgar), Dylan Corbett‐Bader (France), Eleanor De Rohan (Kent), Chloe Fenwick‐Brown (Oswald), Joseph Kloska (Gloucester), Corey Mylchreest (Edmund), Hughie O’Donnell (Cornwall), Caleb Obediah (Albany), and Jessica Revell (Cordelia/The Fool), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s The Shed.
The 50+ Comedy Tour show, featuring Peter Bales, John Ziegler, Maria Walsh, and Eric Haft, at 8 PM at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
JOB, by Max Wolf Friedlich, directed by Michael Herwitz, featuring Peter Friedman (Lloyd) and Sydney Lemmon (Jane), closes at Broadway’s Hayes Theatre.
Orlando, by Nora Brigid Monahan, Cynthia Saunders & Tricia Dunn, directed by Kimille Howard, featuring Emily Young (Virginia), Matty Balkum, LaDonna Burns, Jessie Cannizzaro, Tymothee Harrell, Micki Hardenberg, Evie Schuckman, Ariella Serur,and Anita Welch-Smith, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
The Real Thing, newly revived by Tom Stoppard, directed by by Max Webster, featuring James McArdle (henry), Bel Powley (Annie), Oliver Johnstone (Max), Susan Wokoma (Charlotte), Jack Ambrose (Brodie), Rilwan Abiola Owoeoniran (Billy), and Karise Yansen (Debbie), with Daniel Baskharoun, Peter Eastland, Oyin Orija, and Mahaila Palmer, closes at London’s Old Vic.
My Best Friend’s Wedding, world premiere by Ron Bass & Jonathan Harvey, directed by Kathleen Marshall, featuring Krystal Joy Brown (Julianne), Matt Doyle (Michael), Lianah Sta. Ana (Kimmy), Morgan Bryant (Samantha), Zoe Jensen (Amanda), Telly Leung (George), Mark Lotito (Walter), Austin Phillips (Scotty), and Soara-Joye Ross (Isabelle), with Kailey Boyle, Daniel Brackett, Runako Campbell, Deanna Cudjoe, Aaron Graham, Harris Matthew, Jessica Sheridan, Mikayla Thrasher, and Craig Waletzko with Kaitie Buckert and Raphe Gilliam, closes at ME’s Ogunquit Playhouse.
In The Unlikely Event of an Actual Emergency, world premiere by John Mullican, directed by Rickie Peete, featuring Dolores Aguanno, Stacy Aung, Jason Leon-Baptista, John Mullican, Katheryn Peña, Glenn Ratcliffe, and Amoni Wes, closes at Hollywood’s Hudson Guild Theatre.
Sunday, October 27
We Live in Cairo, by The Lazours (Daniel & Patrick), directed by Taibi Magar, featuring Ali Louis Bourzgui, Drew Elhamalawy, John El-Jor (Mean Girls), Nadina Hassan, Michael Khalid Karadsheh, and Rotana Tarabzouni, opens at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop.
The 24 Hour Plays gala performance, written by Douglas Lyons, Josh Koenigsberg, Mario Correa, Meredith Scardino, Rachel Bonds & Steve Yockey, Rachel Bonds, directed by David Auburn, Pippin Parker, Satya Bhabha, Sherri Eden Barber, Victor Malana Maog, & Will Frears, performed by Ari Graynor, Ato Blankson Wood, Avantika, Brett Azar, Cat David Burtka, David Krumholtz, Delaney Rowe, Devon Bostick, Dylan Belula, Faith Salie, Henri Esteve, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Jamie Neumann, Jen Tullock , Josh Hamilton, Larry Owens, Lois Smith, Margarita Levieva, Morgan Siobhan Green, Rachel Hilson, Sarah Steele, and more, at 7 PM at NYC’s Town Hall.
Noel Coward’s Present Laughter (recent London production), starring Andrew Scott, screens at 3 PM at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre.
Good Bones, by James Ijames, directed by Saheem Ali, featuring Mamoudou Athie (Travis), Khris Davis (Earl,) Téa Guarino (Carmen), and Susan Kelechi Watson (Aisha), closes at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
Distant Thunder, by Lynne Taylor Corbett, Shaun Taylor Corbett, Chris Wiseman, Robert Lindsey-Naffis, & Michael Moricz, directed & choreographed by Lynn Taylor Corbett. featuring Jeff Barehand, Spencer Battiest, Aubee Billie, Xander Chauncey, Bonale Fambrini, Brent Florend-Sitwallapum, Angela Gómez, Irma-Estelle Laguerre, Johnlee Lookingglass, Michelle Rios, Glenn Stanton, Sampwe Tarrant, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Chelsea Zeno, closes at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T/New York Theaters.
Dirty Laundry, world premiere by Mathilde Dratwa, directed by Rebecca Martinez, featuring Sasha Diamond (Red), Yvette Ganier (Blue,) Amy Jo Jackson (Green), Lakisha May (Me), Richard Masur (My Dad), and Constance Shulman (Another Woman), closes at Off-Broadway’s WP Theater.
Ensemble Theatre Company‘s Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, by Gordon Greenberg & Steve Rosen, directed by directed by Jamie Torcellini, featuring Casey J. Adler (Actor 1), Jann Cardia (Actor 2), Regina Fernandez (Actor 3), Adam Hagenbuch (Dracula), and Josh Odsess-Rubin (Actor 4), closes at Santa Barbara’s New Vic.
The (Mostly) True Story of a Common Scold, by Mike Teverbaugh, directed by Natalia Lazarus, featuring Dendrie Taylor (Anne Royall), Zuri Alexander (Hazel), Satiar Pourvasei (Reverend Stiles), Tom Waters (Nicholas Biddle), Scott Parkin (Duff Green), Jake O’Flaherty (George Waterston), and Scott Burkholder (John Eaton), closes at LA’s Promenade Playhouse.
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Reviews for Romeo + Juliet at Broadway’s Circle in the Square:
New York Times (Jesse Green): Who can forget the classic first line of Romeo and Juliet: “How y’all doin’ today?” Well, perhaps not so classic. But as uttered at the start of the play’s 36th Broadway revival,… the words are certainly more welcoming to the production’s youthful target audience than the traditional iambic pentameter ones: “Two households, both alike in dignity.”… Not that there are two households in the director Sam Gold’s rec-room adaptation anyway… Gold has used everything in his formidable toolbox — scissors, hammers, punches, wrenches — to get young people interested in a world that looks more like theirs than Elizabethan London or Renaissance Verona….
Variety (Irish Deitch): … Gold’s Romeo + Juliet, while using Shakespeare’s language, feels like it’s designed to draw in tweens, teens and theater-averse adults who might not otherwise be interested in Shakespeare; the trick is to woo them and then keep them in their seats with a fun hipster spectacle … the production is fun: The actors use the in-the-round theater to its fullest, performing from the rafters and in every corner. (Although Connor running around the theater expressing his love for Juliet to audience members is preposterous, it’s also funny.) … Although the production has a heartbeat, it’s missing a heart…
Theatrely (Juan A. Ramirez): Early into the director Sam Gold’s winning revival of Romeo + Juliet, a Montague and a Capulet interrupt their fight to share a brief makeout, smile conspiratorially at each other, then resume brawling. No, they’re not the titular star-crossed lovers, but rather two of their feuding comrades, Abraham (Daniel Bravo Hernández) and Gregory (Jasai Chase-Owens). It’s a bold, succinct announcement of what this staging of Shakespeare’s 16th-century work will be: queer, modern and, yes, bratty… It turns out that, aside from some harmless frippery on the edges of the production, this is a remarkably strong Romeo + Juliet
New York Stage Review (David Finkle): The revival might be categorized as one of the “for our time” productions of classics we’re habitually handed these noisy days. Directed by Sam Gold—who rarely approaches a revival without shaking it up like a mishandled martini—this Romeo + Juliet treats the Bard as if in 2024 he’s running the risk of becoming embarrassingly passé. Gold is one of a growing revival-director contingent out to prove they understand the expectations of this year’s up-to-the-cool-minute audiences… How does he fool with The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to the extent that for much of it he seems to be helming The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet? Gold bombards the audience with a reworking short on poetry and long on physical and vocal horseplay.
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The Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne & Kate Trefry’s Stranger Things: The First Shadow will begin previews, Mar. 28, 2025 and open Apr. 22 at the Marquis Theatre, directed by Stephen Daldry.
Louis McCartney (Henry Creel), and more TBA.
The play explores when Henry Creel first moves into Hawkings, Indiana, in 1959, following how he becomes the eventual ruler of the Upside Down. The play also features high school versions of “Stranger Things” characters Jim Hopper, Bob Newby, and Joyce Maldonado.
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Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Ari Afsar, Emily Xu Hall, Joriah Kwamé, Mark Sonnenblick, Timothy Allen McDonald. & Sara Wordswroth’s Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile: The Musical will run Feb. 15 – Mar. 16 at CA’s Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Nina Meehan.
TBA.
The Musical splashes onto the stage with a song to sing! Join Lyle as he and his new human friends face their fears and find their voices.
American Idiot, by Green Day, directed by Snehal Desai, continues through Nov. 16 at the Mark Taper Forum.
Steven-Adam Agdeppa, L.J. Benet, Will Branner, Jerusha Cavazos, Lark Detweiler, Daniel Durant, FKaia T. Fitzgerald, Landen Gonzales, Tyler Hardwick, Otis Jones IV, Milo Manheim, Josué Martinez; Giovanni Maucere, James Olivas, Mason Alexander Park, Monika Peña; Mars Storm Rucker, Mia Sempertegui; Angel Theory, and Ali Fumiko Whitney.
Through powerful performances and immersive staging, the show explores themes of identity and rebellion while amplifying the voices of Deaf and multi-cultural communities. With nods to contemporary culture, this electrifying interpretation pushes boundaries and celebrates the diversity of human experience.
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Noises Off will run Nov. 15 – Dec. 22 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Ilyse Robbins.
Amy Barker (Dotty Otley), Grace Experience (Brooke Ashton), Dan Garcia (Tim Allgood), Eliza Fichter (Poppy Norton-Taylor), Michael Jennings Mahoney (Frederick Rellows), Joseph Marrella (Garry Lejeune), Chip Phillips (Selsdon Mowbray), Samantha Rachert (Belinda Blair), Lewis D, and Wheeler (Lloyd Dallas).
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A reading of Frank Evans, James Scully & Jennifer Paulson-Lee’s According to Howard will take place Mon. Oct. 28 at 2 PM at NYC’s Open Jar Studios, directed by Jennifer Paulson-Lee.
Cassie Austin, Christine Diglanollardo, Michael Dikedegoros, Cassie Austin, Christene Digianollardo, Michael Dikegrors, Davied Elder, Beth Glover, Michelle Beth Herman, Michael Hurst, Mya Ison, James Judy, Gina Milo, Jill Paice, William Ryall, Ryan Silversman, and Josh Tower.
An unconventional love story and a reminder that money can never buy (or substitute for) what love can offer. It’s about winning—but at what cost? It’s about decisions, choices, ideas, and incredible intuition. Through a score reminiscent of the golden age of Broadway, According to Howard delves into the unique life and times of one of the most fascinating individuals of the 20th Century, a human being who shaped the world of aviation, film, business, and Hollywood gossip: Howard Robard Hughes, Jr.
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Back to the Future: the Musical is leaving New York at 88 miles per hour. The Broadway production, which opened at the Winter Garden Theatre Aug. 3, 2023, will play its final performance Jan. 5, 2025, after more than 500 performances.
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Dracula, adapted by Kate Hamill, directed by Melissa Mowry, continues through Nov. 3 at Virginia Stage.
Brianna-Lynn Baker (Marilla), rober Beitzel (Dracula), Victoria Blake (Miller/Merchant), Madeline Calais-King (Mina Harker), Dan Cimo (Dr. George Seward), Eric Harrell (Jonathan Harker), Darlene Hope (Doctor Van Helsing), Yayra McGodfred (Maid), Lizzie Morgan (Lucy Westerna), Komal Smruti (Drusilla), and Anna Sosa (Renfield).