Today’s Highlights:
Roundabout‘s The Pirates of Penzance, adapted by Rupert Holmes, directed by Scott Ellis, featuring Ramin Karimloo (Pirate King), David Hyde Pierce (Gilbert/Major General Stanley), Jinkx Monsoon (Ruth), Nicholas Barasch (Frederic), Preston Truman Boyd (Sullivan/Police Sergeant), and Samantha Williams (Mabel Stanley), with Kelly Belarmino, Maria Briggs, Eddie Cooper, Cicily Daniels, Ninako Donville, Alex Dorf, Rick Faugno, Niani Feelings, Tommy Gedrich, Alex Gibson, Afra Hines, Dan Hoy, Ryo Kamibayashi, Tatiana Lofton, Nathan Lucrezio, Shina Ann Morris, Cooper Stanton, and Bronwyn Tarboton, opens at Broadway’s Todd Haim’s Theatre.
John Proctor is the Villain, by Kimberly Belflower, directed by Danya Taymor, featuring Sadie Sink (Shelby Holcomb), Nihar Duvvuri (Mason Adams), Gabriel Ebert (Carter Smith), Molly Griggs (Bailey Gallagher), Maggie Kuntz (Ivy Watkins), Hagan Oliveras (Lee Turner), Morgan Scott (Nell Shaw), Fina Strazza (Beth Powell), and Amalia Yoo (Raelynn Nix), opens at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.
DC’s Signature Theatre‘s 2025 Sondheim Award Gala, honoring Mandy Patinkin, directed by Matthew Gardiner, featuring Ben Platt, Nathan Gunn, Ángel Lozada, Tracy Lynn Olivera, and Awa Sal Secka, at 8 PM atThe Anthem.
Renaissance Gala benefit, in support of BCEFA, with music direction by Benjamin Rauhala, featuring, Ariana DeBose, Andrea McArdle, Lorna Luft, and Nina West, Chip Zien, André De Shields, Lillias White, Matt Doyle, Lauren Patten, Jak Malone, Bryan Batt, Christine Pedi, Joe Iconis, Jelani Remy, Emma Pittman, and JJ Niemann, at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s West Bank Cafe.
Gingold Theatrical Group‘s Hay Fever script-in-hand performance, by Noel Coward, directed by Carl Andress, featuring Charles Busch (Judith Bliss), Thomas Hewitt (David Bliss), Evie Shuckman )Sorel Bliss), Rodd Cyrus (Simon Bliss), Dan Domingues (Sany Tyrell), Jennifer Van Dyck (Myra Arundel), David Staller (Richard Greatham), Jenifer Cody (Jackie Coryton), and Annie Golden (Clara), both live & livestreamed at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below.
54 Sings Coco by Alan Jay Lerner and André Previne concert, featuring Christine Andreas, Steven Brinberg, Paula Leggett Chase, Britney Coleman, Josie De Guzman, Ali Ewoldt, Sara Gettelfinger, Adam Grupper, Ben Jones, Jay Aubrey Jones, Isabel Keating, Neal Mayer, Brad Oscar, Jean Preece, AJ Shively, Jane Summerhays, Lenny Wolpe, Penny Worth, and more, both live & livestreamed at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below.
Gidion’s Knot, by Johna Adams, directed by Elina de Santos, featuring Melissa Paladino and Jennifer Pollono, closes at LA’s Pacific Resident Theatre.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: There’s A Small Hotel…. by Jim Bernhard
1. George Feydeau’s farce L’Hôtel du libre échange is usually translated to English as…. Free Exchange Hotel….Hotel Paradiso,,,Hotel Farce….No Sex, Please, We’re British
2. Neil Simon’s California Suite takes place in Suite 203-04 of the…Beverly Hills Hotel…Roosevelt Hotel….Mark Hopkins Hotel…Chateau Marmont
3. The Night of the Iguana is set in Mexico in the…Ritz-Carlton Hotel…Heartbreak Hotel…Hotel California…Costa Verde Hotel
4. Lanford Wilson’s 1973 play set in the lobby of rundown hotel is called Hot l… Baltimore…Hartford…Fleabag…St. Regis
5. Tennessee Williams’ Clothes for a Summer Hotel’s central character is the wife of…William Faulkner…F. Scott Fitzgerald…Ernest Hemingway…Tennessee Williams
6. Neil Simon’s play set in a posh New York Hotel is called…Waldorf-Astoria Honeymoon…Coffee at the Carlyle…Plaza Suite…Hijinks at the Hilton
7. The hotel in Grand Hotel is in Paris…London…Rome…Berlin
8. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is partly set in a Vermont hotel called…Holiday Inn…Columbia Inn…Maple Tree Inn…Montpelier Palace
9. The action in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels takes place in a hotel…on the French Riviera…on the Costa Brava…in Las Vegas…in Rapid City, South Dakota
10. In Robert E. Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight guests are trapped at the Hotel Monte Gabriel in the Italian Alps because ….of an avalanche…a kidnapper holds them all for ransom…of hostilities at the start of World War II…a mischievous child steals the key to the front door
Scroll down for the answers….
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A Gala & Auction will take place Sat. May 17 at 3 PM at CT’s Goodspeed, directed by TBA and hosted by Seth Rudetsky.
Bill Berloni
Special guests and performers TBA.
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The Light in the Piazza will run May 8 – June 15 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, directed by Loretta Greco.
Emily Skinner (Margaret Johnson), Sarah-Anne Martinez (Clara Johnson), Joshua Grosso (Fabrizio Naccarelli), William Michals (Signor Naccarelli), Rebecca Pitcher (Signora Naccarelli), Alexander Ross (Giuseppe Naccarelli), Rebekah Rae Robles (Franca Naccarelli), and Rob Richardson (Roy Johnson, with Kate Fitzgerald, Russell Garrett, Daniel A. Lopez, Sherée Marcelle, Morgan Mastrangelo, Sarah Oakes Muirhead, Nick Sulfaro, David Rosenthal,Tamara Ryan, Yuma Feldman, Millie Grace Gibson, Elsa Hancock-Happ, Mary Niederkorn, and Odin Vega.
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Cybill Shepherd: Queen of the Lucky Club will take place Apr. 18-19 at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club, with music direction by Sunnie Paxson.
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Melfin Tunstall III, Greg Dean Brorowsky & Kevin Duda’s Senior Class will run May 16 – June 22 (opening May 22) at MD’s Olney Theatre, directed by Amy Anders Corcoran, with choreography by Karla Puno Garcia, and music direction by Dolores Duran0Cefalu.
Jeffrey Cornelius (G.B.), Bradley Adam Stein (Colin), andLauryn Adams (Alizé), with Quadry Brown, Wynter Nicole Cook, Mia Goodman, Ciara Hargrove, Angelo Harrington II, Santina Maiolatesi, Nico Nazal, Ashley D. Nguyen, Jacob Pelzman-Kern, Connor James Reilly, Russell Rinker, Alanna Sibrián, David Singleton, Taryn Smithson, Jordyn Taylor, Taylor J. Washington, and Gwynne Wood, with Ariel Kraje, Nat Mitchell, Haley Nachlas, and Bryan Stopak.
When budget cuts to the arts program mean their high school theatre can’t pay for the rights to My Fair Lady, G.B. and Colin, two Broadway-obsessed students, decide to stage their own original musical version of Shaw’s Pygmalion which, as the source for the Lerner and Loewe classic, is in the public domain. The search for an actress to play their Eliza Doolittle leads them to a Harlem-born-and-bred subway dancer named Alizé, who just might be perfect — but artistic egos and high school hierarchies threaten to undermine the production before the big opening night. As they mount their production of My Leading Lady: A New Pygmalion… with a Preface and Sequel (Shavians will get the reference), the class and gender divides of Shaw’s original emerge in surprising ways. Can the Senior Class musical be saved? (And will Colin win his much-wished-for “Jimmy” Award, launching his meteoric rise to stardom as the first-ever J-EGOT?) Senior Class combines high voltage dancing with Broadway savvy to deliver Shaw’s timeless debate in a contemporary setting.
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Ann Kittredge: When in Love will take place Thurs. May 8 at 7 PM at NYC’s Chelsea Table & Stage, directed by Barry Kleinbort, with music direction by Christopher Denny.
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The world premiere of Robert Rode’s In the Grove of Forgetting will run Apr. 16 – May 4 at Fayetteville AR’s Theatre Squared, directed by Damon Kiely.
Amy Herberg, Steven Marzolf, Rebecca Keeshin, Will Mobley, Ron E Rains, TTyler Meredith, and Madi Watkins
Summer, 1938. Ilona, a concert pianist known for her sharp wil as much as her muiscal passion, refuses to be ruled by fear, even as fello Jeweish artists and academics flee Hungary. Surely Budapest is safe from the growing Nazi fervor – isn’t it? Fill with intrigue, music and wry humor, the play is a taut emotional thriller, as a woman caught in one of the history’s darkest moments fights to find a way forward.
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The Great War and The Great Gatsby concert will run Apr. 21-22 (both at 7:30 PM) at Carnegie Hall, directed by Michael Mayer.
A dam Chanler-Berat, Nicholas Christopher, Micaela Diamond, Gracie McGraw, and Diego Andres Rodriguez.
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Gingold Theatrical Group & Project Shaw will present a script-in-hand performance of Shaw’s St. Joan on Mon. May 12 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s The Players, directed by Lily Kanter Riopellel
Madeline Seidman (Joan), Ben Davis (Robert), Ty Jones (Puliengey / Ladvenu), Patrick Page (Archbishop / In quisitor), Paco Tolson (Dunois), Rob McClure (Warwick), PJ Adzima (Charles), Mark Shanahan (Chaplain), John-Andrew Moirrison (Cuachon), Sean McIntyre (La Hire / d’Estivet), Robert Elihah Kollman (Stewar/Page), R.J. Foster (La Tremouille), and Christopher Innvar (Blubeard / English Soldier).
The story of Joan of Arc, a peasant girl from France who rose to prominence as a military commander by heeding the voices of the saints in her head. Despite leading French forces to victory in many battles, she was burned at the stake for being a heretic.
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Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi will run May 6 – June 1 (opening May 7) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Max Webster.
Taha Mandviwala (Pi), Jessica Angleskhan (Amma/Nurse/Orange Juice), Alan Ariano (Mr. Okamoto/Captain), Emmanuel Elpenord (Cook/voice of Richard Parker), Rishi Jaiswal (Mamaji/Pandit Ji), Sinclair Mitchell (Admiral Jackson/Russian Sailor/Father Martin), Mi Kang/Lulu Chen/ Mrs. Biology Kumar / Zaida Khan), and Sorab Wadia (Father).
After a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi survives on a lifeboat with four other companions—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. What happens next leads them on an edge of your seat unforgettable journey.
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Here’s to Life: A Celebration of Clifford Bell will take place Wed. June 4 at 8 PM at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club. 
Admission is Free with main course or 2 drink minimum
TBA.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: There’s A Small Hotel…
1. George Feydeau’s farce L’Hôtel du libre échange is usually translated to English as Hotel Paradiso.
2. Neil Simon’s California Suite takes place in Suite 203-04 of the Beverly Hills Hotel.
3. The Night of the Iguana is set in Mexico in the Costa Verde Hotel.
4. Lanford Wilson’s 1973 play set in the lobby of rundown hotel is called Hot l Baltimore.
5. Tennessee Williams’ Clothes for a Summer Hotel’s central character is the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
6. Neil Simon’s play set in a posh New York Hotel is called Plaza Suite.
7. The hotel in Grand Hotel is in Berlin.
8. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is partly set in a Vermont hotel called Columbia Inn.
9. The action in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels takes place in a hotel on the French Riviera.
10. In Robert E. Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight guests are trapped at the Hotel Monte Gabriel in the Italian Alps because of hostilities at the start of World War I