Today’s Highlights:
Patriots, by Peter Morgan, directed by Rupert Goold, featuring Michael Stuhlbarg (Boris Berezovsky), Will Keen (Putin), Luke Thallon (Roman Abramovich), Stella Baker (Marina Litvinenko), Ronald Guttman (Professor Perelman), and Alex Hurt (Alexander Litvinenko), opens at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
The Heart of Rock and Roll, by Jonathan A. Abrams & Tyler Mitchell, directed by Gordon Greenberg, featuring Corey Cott, McKenzie Kurtz, Josh Breckenridge, F. Michael Haynie, Zoe Jensen, Tamika Lawrence, Raymond J. Lee, John-Michael Lyles, Orville Mendoza, Billy Harrigan Tighe and John Dossett, with Mike Baerga, Tommy Bracco, TyNia René Brandon, Olivia Cece, Taylor Marie Daniel, Lindsay Joan, Ross Lekites, Robin Masella, Kara Menendez, Joe Moeller, Jennifer Noble, Fredric Rodriguez Odgaard, Michael Olaribigbe, Kevin Pariseau, Robert Pendilla and Leah Read, opens at Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre.
Singularities or the Computers of Venus, written & directed by Laura Stribling, featuring Blaire Chandler (Julia), Avery Clyde (Caroline), Susan Diol (Maria), Kate Huffman (Lena), Noelle Mercer (Elizabeth, and Krishna Smitha (Sophia), begins previews at North Hollywood’s Road on Magnolia.
Alice Ripley & John McDaniel in concert at 7 PM at NYC’s Birdland.
**********************
Funday Monday Quiz: Yessiree! by Jim Bernhard
Fill in the missing words in these show and song titles, which all contain the word “Yes.”
| 1. “Yes, Sir, That’s My ____,” song from Whoopee! | A. Lord |
| 2. Yes Is For A Very Young ____, play by Gertrude Stein | B. Yvette |
| 3. Yes, M’____, play by William Douglas Hume | C. Lady |
| 4. Yes, My Darling ____, play by Mark Read | D. No |
| 5. “She Didn’t Say Yes, She Didn’t Say ____” song from Never Gonna Dance | E. Daughter |
| 6. Yes, Yes, ____, musical by James Montgomery, William Carey Duncan, et al | F. Man |
| 7. “Yes, He’s a ____,” song from Let ‘Em Eat Cake | G. Heart |
| 8. A ____ Says Yes, musical by Fred Spielman, Arthur Gershwin, et al | H. Baby |
| 9. “Yes! Let Me Like A ____ Fall,” song from Maritana | I. Bachelor |
| 10. “Yes, My ____,” song from Carnival! | J. Soldier |
Scroll down for the answers…
**********************
Reviews for Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre.
NY Times (Jesse Green): … Rebecca Frecknall’s production, first seen in London, has many fine and entertaining moments… But too often a misguided attempt to resuscitate the show breaks its ribs… Instead, Frecknall gives us a Sally made up to look like she’s recently been assaulted or released from an asylum, who dances like a wounded bird, stretches each syllable to the breaking point and shrieks the song instead of singing it… Like the cough syrup-paint thinner concoction, she’s meant to be taken medicinally and poisonously in this production, projecting instead of concealing Sally’s turmoil… That’s inside-out. The point of Sally, and of “Cabaret” more generally, is to dramatize the danger of disengagement from reality, not to fetishize it… The guts-first problem also distorts Redmayne’s Emcee, but at least that character was always intended as allegorical… Cabaret” finds a surer footing in the “book” scenes… Rankin excels in Sally’s scenes with Cliff, her wry, frank and hopeful personality back in place.
Variety (Naveen Kumar): …in director Rebecca Frecknall’s ravishing and mercilessly introspective production…no one is safe from the turmoil rattling their psyches… That twisted inner world is beautifully realized in a shadowy mélange of fringe and ruffles… Already near the end of her rope, Gayle Rankin’s coarse, determined Sally Bowles tries desperately to keep from spinning out before coming completely and furiously unraveled (the actor’s eviscerating performance of the title song is destined to become the stuff of you-had-to-see-her lore)… The tender romance between Bebe Neuwirth’s elegant and maternal Fraulein Schneider and the moony-eyed fruit seller Herr Schultz (Stephen Skybell) spins a sweet and aching emotional thread… All that stripped-down humanity onstage — from the entrails of broken lovers to the dancers’ carnal gyrations (choreography is by Julia Cheng) — make Redmayne’s Emcee a jarring exception. An otherworldly salamander of a narrator, he hunches over, Gollum-like, gnawing on every syllable as if it were his last meal. It’s a fiercely committed performance, but a mannered one, too…
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): This is a story that speaks to now, and I really wish I could hear it clearly over the hideous shouting of auteur Rebecca Frecknall’s grotesque production at the August Wilson Theatre… The plot remains, though it rolls out with minimal care and shallow directorial insight… sinister Emcee (Eddie Redmayne)…meets English chanteuse Sally Bowles (Gayle Rankin)…They’re a hot mess — very much like this production… Redmayne’s Emcee is a fantastic beast, minus the fantastic. He contorts his face, twists his fingers, and hunches his back like he’s about to ring the bell in the Marienkirche… she has little to say about why people like Cliff and Sally were attracted to that soul in the first place… Rankin’s desperate Sally offers a half-answer. Her lackluster “Don’t Tell Mama” and spiteful “Mein Herr” show us that Sally isn’t a great vocal talent…
New York Post (Johnny Oleksinski): …thanks to the intoxicating atmosphere created by designer Tom Scutt and Redmayne’s meticulous and freakish performance, the show does not make for an unsatisfying night out in New York. There’s plenty to admire… the pricey bells and whistles distract from what is a so-so, overly dreary staging that is often undermined by its own overwrought machinations. Undeniably slick and handsome, this two-hour-and-forty-five-minute musical feels much longer than it should… That’s because, bizarrely for a production that is so determined to get its audience wasted, it’s hesitant to have too much fun itself… For instance, in this corroded vision of the show that’s set in 1930s Berlin, the Emcee and Kit Kat Club boys and girls appear to be complicit with the Nazis… Sally is a notoriously tough part that’s open to myriad interpretations… Rankin overflows with charisma, but her character is not fully formed yet…
**********************
Reviews for Stereophonic at Broadway’s Golden Theatre:
NY Times (Naveen Kumar): Peering behind the mystique of rock ’n’ roll has undeniable voyeuristic appeal. So there is an immediate thrill to seeing the mahogany-paneled control room and glassed-in sound booth that fill the Golden Theater stage. But David Adjmi’s astonishing new play, with songs by the former Arcade Fire member Will Butler, delivers far more than a dishy glimpse inside the recording studio during rock’s golden age. a fiery family drama, as electrifying as any since “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Its real-time dissection of making music — a collaboration between flawed, gifted artists wrangled into unison — is ingeniously entertaining and an incisive meta commentary on the nature of art.
Variety (Frank Rizzo): …this work of theatrical virtuosity, realizing that all the tiny details, wild rhythms, and clever hooks presented on stage have added up to a work that is brave, purposeful, and rich… starts out at what seems like a light satire of drugged-out rockers, full of silly riffs, big egos and comic digressions. But ever so gradually, and with the highest of fidelity, the play turns into something altogether fresh and, in this play-with-music hybrid form, indefinable… One might think at first this is a tantalizing behind-the-music documentary on the making of a record like Fleetwood Mac’s era-defining “Rumours.” But these characters — and the terrific ensemble of actors who could probably tour as a band after the Broadway run — become uniquely suited to Adjmi’s thematic purposes.
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …Just before the end of playwright David Adjmi’s masterful Stereophonic, a three-hour dissection of ego, insecurity and the messy, messed-up gorgeousness of the creative process, I decided I’d had enough of these beautiful people in the recording studio with their complaints, their cocaine, their obsessive-compulsive neuroses, their phenomenal talents… And then I realized that was precisely what Adjmi wanted everyone at the Golden Theatre to be feeling at the final curtain. He’d just explained why great bands break up; why famous geniuses who seemingly have all the gifts, money, autonomy, adulation and sex that anyone could possibly want just can’t hold it together; why having a Billboard hit does not stop the childhood-driven imposter syndrome ringing inside your brain but actually makes it louder. Heck, I’ll go even further: He’d just explained why things end. Period.
Theatermania (David Gordon): …David Adjmi’s miraculous Stereophonic… the luster of Adjmi’s sprawling script, and the sexy performances director Daniel Aukin has brought out of his cast are even stronger. In short, Stereophonic is still as much of a masterpiece as it was six months ago, and it’s deservedly poised to become the big hit of the year… Hyper-realistic in its fly-on-the-wall examination of the art of making art, Adjmi is tracking the downfall of the group’s two romantic couples at the same time… Nothing happens and everything happens, and it’s riveting from start to finish, one of those shows that unassumingly lures you in and then socks you with a punch of emotion that leaves you on the edge of her seat…
**********************
Reviews for Hell’s Kitchen at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre:
New York Times (Elisabeth Vincentelli): …Having seen the first version last fall, I had jitters. But Hell’s Kitchen has earned its place on Broadway: The revised show is thrilling from beginning to end, and easily stands out as one of the rare must-sees in a crowded season… All this happened without a major overhaul to Michael Greif’s production, which has a book by Kristoffer Diaz. The cast and creative teams are essentially the same, and there have been judicious tweaks and trims rather than radical changes. The main differences are further refined technical elements and, most important, a subtle but crucial change in focus… no matter who performs them, the songs are lifted by Gareth Owen’s sound design…
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): The music of Alicia Keys is well suited to a jukebox musical: the burst of energy that flows from hits like “Girl on Fire” are dynamic blasts perfectly suited to a show clearly drawing from Keys’ own origin story as a kid growing up in the federally subsidized artist’s haven Manhattan Plaza in Hell’s Kitchen, a transformative influence on that neighborhood and a tower that has sheltered all manner of Gotham creatives from the saxophonist Ricky Ford to the actor Timothée Chalamet… In much the same way that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” was a tribute to the people of Washington Heights, so is “Hells Kitchen” a tribute to the artistic history of Manhattan Plaza, although it’s a much more personal show…
Theatermania (David Gordon): Who’d have thought the most musically satisfying production of the season would be a three-hour-and-15-minute play?… Adjmi’s sprawling script, and the sexy performances director Daniel Aukin has brought out of his cast are even stronger… it’s deservedly poised to become the big hit of the year… Stereophonic follows a band on the precipice of stardom as they attempt to record their latest album… Out of nowhere, the unnamed band’s year-old record becomes a chart-topper. Diana is thrust into the spotlight when her song explodes… Nothing happens and everything happens, and it’s riveting from start to finish, one of those shows that unassumingly lures you in and then socks you with a punch of emotion that leaves you on the edge of her seat…
New York Stage Review (Melissa Rose Bernardo): The simple fact that, after premiering at downtown’s Public Theater in late 2023, Hell’s Kitchen has moved uptown … can’t be why the musical plays better on Broadway. (Can it?)… The locals know she’s referring to Manhattan Plaza, the high-rise affordable housing development occupied by performing artists … So the crowd is immediately into it… Hell’s Kitchen is powered by a catalog of her hits… If only all of Keys’ songs fit so easily into Kristoffer Diaz’s libretto…
**********************
Reviews for Orlando at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre:
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead) … a captivating Taylor Mac in Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s most unabashedly comical and imaginative novel… never has its story seemed more of our time, or ahead of its time. Director Will Davis has ensembled a brilliant cast and created an Orlando filled with color, music, laughter, and mystery in a production that can only be described as pure joy… Inspired by the life of her lover Vita Sackville-West, Woolf wrote her novel in the spirit of fun, something that this production has gleefully doubled down on. For the most part, the show is told using Woolf’s own poetic language, while Davis uses whimsical, larger-than-life elements to illuminate Orlando’s journey… Jo Lampert gives a hilarious performance as the maid Mrs. Grimsditch…
New York Theatre Guide (Austin Fimmano): Signature Theatre’s production takes this classic story for a riotous jaunt that is sure to never take itself too seriously… Woolf wrote about her own unique book that “it is all a joke,” and playwright Sarah Ruhl, who adapted the book for the stage, followed suit… The jokes sometimes fall flat, however, and the narrative can tend to be lost in the pursuit of whimsy. With nothing real to say, the humor in Ruhl’s script is enjoyable but in danger of wearing thin… Director Will Davis’s vision has turned it from a love letter between two women into a love letter to the queer community… Even with a script that has nothing groundbreaking to add to the book’s themes, the entire production has a mischievous, almost conspiratorial approach to narrating Orlando.
**********************
Liz Callaway & Jason Graae: Happily Ever Laughter will take place July 3, 5 & 6 at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by Alex Rybeck.
**********************
Peace of Mind: A Festival of Short Plays by Jeff Locker, in support of Rose City’s 20th anniversary honoring Mental Health Awareness Month, will take place Sat. May 4 at 7 PM at Burbank’s Colony Theatre, written & directed by Jeff Locker.
Ron Sequeira, Jeff Locker, Sandi McCree, George McGrath, Olivia Stambouliah, Eric Gurierrez, Gabriel Sousa, G. Maximilian Zarou, Frances Brennand Roper, Joanna Kay, Cara Kluver, Sienna Tso, Coyote Perez, and Steven Frankenfield.
**********************
Off-Broadway’s Transport Group will present Follies in Concert on Thurs. June 20 at 8 PM at Carnegie Hall, directed by Jack Cummings III, with music direction by Joey Chancey, and hosted by Kurt Peterson (who originated the role of Young Ben in the 1971 Broadway production). Mary Jane Houdina will re-stage the original Michael Bennett choreography.
Norbert Leo Butz, Len Cariou, Christine Ebersole, Katie Finneran, Santino Fontana, Jennifer Holliday, Rachel Bay Jones, Adriane Lenox, Donna Murphy, Karen Ziemba, Julie Benko, Mikaela Bennett, Michael Berresse, Alexandra Billings, Klea Blackhurst, Harolyn Blackwell, Stephen Bogardus, Carolee Carmello, Jim Caruso, Nikki Renée Daniels, Alexander Gemignani, Miguel Gill, Olivia Elease Hardy, Erika Henningsen, Grey Henson, Fernell Hogan, Isabel Keating, Norm Lewis, Ryan McCartan, Thom Sesma, Barbara Walsh, Nina White, and Jacob Keith Watson.
The concert will feature a rotating assortment of singers instead of performers assigned to particular roles. In lieu of book scenes, there will be stories about the creation of the original production woven in. Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations will be played by a 30-piece orchestra, with original cast members.
**********************
Nell Benjamin’s The Explorers Club. A Comedy will run May 23 – June 23 at Theatre 40 (link TBA), directed by Melanie MacQueen.
David Hunt Stafford, Matt Landig, Christopher Franciosa, John Combs, Meghan Lewis, Hovannes John Babakhanyan, Kevin Dulude, Daniel Leslie, and Michael Mullen.
London, 1879. The prestigious Explorers Club is in crisis: their acting president wants to admit a woman, and their bartender is terrible. True, this female candidate is brilliant, beautiful, and has discovered a legendary Lost City, but the decision to let in a woman could shake the very foundation of the British Empire, and how do you make such a decision without a decent drink? Grab your safety goggles for some very mad science involving deadly cobras, irate Irishmen and the occasional airship.
**********************
The Keep Going Songs, starring Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, will take place Sat. June 1 at 7:30 PM at Pittsburgh CLO.
**********************
The Broadway cast album of Scott Brown & Anthony King’s Gutenberg! The Musical! will be released digitally Fri. May 3 and on CD May 7) on most platforms. 
here.
Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, with Mel Brooks (in the role of Guest Producer)
**********************
Cambridge’s A.R.T. has announced its 2024 Gala will take place Sun. June 10 at 6 PM at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. Special guests and additional information TBA.
Elizabeth Stanley
**********************
Victoria Lavan: Dance Me to the End of Love (My Love Affair with Music) will take place Sat. Apr. 27 at 7 PM at LA’s Theatre West, directed by Brooks Almy.
**********************
Funday Monday Quiz: Yessiree!
1-H. “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” song from Whoopee!
2-F. Yes Is For A Very Young Man, play by Gertrude Stein
3-A. Yes, M’Lord, play by William Douglas Hume
4-E. Yes, My Darling Daughter, play by Mark Read
5-D. “She Didn’t Say Yes, She Didn’t Say No” song from Never Gonna Dance
6-B. Yes, Yes, Yvette, musical by James Montgomery, William Carey Duncan, et al
7-I. “Yes, He’s a Bachelor,” song from Let ‘Em Eat Cake
8-C. A Lady Says Yes, musical by Fred Spielman, Arthur Gershwin, et al
9-J. “Yes! Let Me Like A Soldier Fall,” song from Maritana
10-G. “Yes, My Heart,” song from Carnival!