Today’s Highlights:
The Book of Moron, written by & starring Robert Dubac, opens at Off-Broadway’s Soho Playhouse.
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Reviews for Passover at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): On Wednesday night, when a preshow announcement informed the 1,200 or so people at the August Wilson Theater that they were “one of the first audiences back to see a real Broadway play,” the response was the kind of roar you’d expect for a beloved diva returning from rehab. And “Pass Over,” by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, does not disappoint in that regard… in top shape, at full throttle and refreshed by some artful doctoring… Danya Taymor’s thriller of a production, succeeds…
NY Post (Johnny Oleksinski): … a compelling, if flawed, way to start things off in Times Square. Nwandu’s central conceit is spot-on: Take the format of Samuel Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot and exchange his stuck-in-place duo Didi and Gogo — “Let’s go.” “We can’t.” — for two black men on a generic city street corner… A few folks might be offended by some of the conversation — the N-word is used a lot — but the writer uses our wincing to stir up a debate about language ownership… Hill and Smallwood have a lively rapport… Instead of the outpouring of emotion it intends to bring on, the sequence evokes a university classroom. Not a pulsing drama.
NY Daily News (Chris Jones): Buffeted by hurricanes both meteorological and viral, a powerful, challenging new play opened Sunday offering up a gutsy, richly-veined vision of what many young progressives hope the new, more diverse Broadway will become… a Biblically moralistic work that calls out white America, declares that Black lives matter, and demands structural change, especially regarding the police… So the tough question remains… as to whether such a show, produced without star names, can find enough of a politically simpatico audience willing to go on the kind of intellectual and emotional self-examination that Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s unstinting drama demands. I say it deserves one. Masked and all.
Variety (Marilyn Stasio): …surreal and morbidly funny existential drama… There are Biblical and literary references galore in the playwright’s seriously brainy meditation on the Black experience… Danya Taymor’s dynamic staging… There are also plenty of vaudevillian pratfalls in director Danya Taymor’s dynamic staging, along with sendups of racial stereotypes and juicy exchanges of street talk that reach new depths of humor. By the time the plot veers into ambiguity at the end, you’ve probably had enough thought-rich fun not to care… This playwright’s voice can be a joy to hear, and her language is often blistering…. Nwandu’s theatrical idiom — the heartsick poetry of profanity applied to the raging anger of deep existential pain — is its own kind of beautiful.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz – Missing Links by Jim Bernhard
Fill in the blanks with one word that will yield the name of two plays or musicals:
1. Call Me _____ Will You Walk?
2. The Plough and the _____ in Your Eyes
3. Too True To Be _____ News!
4. St. Louis _____ of the Year
5. One Touch of _____ in Fur
6. Take Me _____ of This World
7. Kind _____ Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
8. I Married and _____ Street
9. The Cradle Will _____ of Ages
10. Blossom _____ Remembered
Scroll down for the answers…
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Bartlett Sher, JT Rogers, and Cambra Overend have launched SRO Productions, which will develop new works for the stage, television, and film.
Projects already in development:
* TV series adaptation of Rogers’ 2010 play Blood and Gifts
* Series adaptation of Robert Caro’s 1974 biography, “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
* A large musical theater project with producer Marc Platt
* A stage musical with Aaron Sorkin.
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Off-Broadway’s Primary Stages has announced its Fall 2021 season:
BadAss GalBoss Power Hour (Mandatory Meeting – 11.18.2020) (Sept. 22 – Oct. 13), directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, featuring Kate Hamill, Kimberly Chatterjee, Krystal Lucas, Jason O’Connell, Maria-Christina Oliveras, and Miriam Silverman. 
The play is set at a mandatory Zoom business meeting for a multi-level marketing company that employs feminist cliches to sell lotions and lipstick.
Undo the Sea (dates TBA), by Inda Craig-Galván, directed by Jennifer Chang. Casting TBA. A virtual drama set in the here and now, which delves into the feats and frustrations of life in the age of lockdown for husband Kim and Jaden. After being spurned at a work Zoom meeting, Jaden abandons any notion regarding “restraint of pen and tongue,” sending an email to his boss venting his frustrations. But when the power goes out after pressing the undo button – unsure of whether or not the email has been sent – tensions rise within the household as the couple awaits a response.
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Video: “New York State of Mind,” performed by Sara Bareilles, Idina Menzel, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Brian Newman, Kelli O’Hara, Joan Osborne, Peppermint, Angie Pontani, Anaïs Reno, Mark Rivera, David Rosenthal, Bobby Sanabria, Ben Stiller, and Suzanne Vega.
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RIP: Micki Grant, composer, lyricist, playwright, librettist, singer, and actress, has died at the age of 80.
She has been involved in the creation of some 18 theatrical productions, five of them on Broadway: Don’t Bothe Me, I Can’t Cope … Your Arms Too Short to Box with God… Working… It’s Nice to Be Civilized… and Eubie!
When Your Arms Too Short… and It’s Nice to Be Civilized opened on sub-sequent evenings, Grant had the distinction of having two Broadway musicals running simultaneously.
With Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, she became the first woman to win a Grammy Award for the score of the musical. She also received Tony nominations for book, music, and lyrics. Another Grammy nomination for the score (with Alex Bradford) of Your Arms Too Short to Box with God followed, as well as another Tony nomination for the score of Working. When Your Arms Too Short… and It’s Nice to Be Civilized opened on sub-sequent evenings, Grant had the distinction of having two Broadway musicals running simultaneously.
Grant wrote the music and contributed lyrics for J. E. Franklin’s Prodigal Daughter and contributed additional lyrics to Eubie! and Sweet & Hot: The Songs of Harold Arlen. For Jacques Brel Blues, she supplied the English lyrics for 20 songs by the Belgian songwriter.
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Bob Gale, Robert Zemeckis, Alan Silvestri & Glen Ballard’s Back to the Future: The Musical has returned through Feb. 13, 2022 at the Adelphi Theatre, directed by John Rando.
Olly Dobson (Marty McFly), Roger Bart (Doc Brown). Hugh Coles (George McFly), Rosanna Hyland (Lorraine Baines, Cedric Neal (Goldie Wilson), Aidan Cutler (Biff Tannen), Courtney-Mae Briggs (Jennifer Parker), Will Haswell (Dave McFly), Emma Lloyd (Linda mcFly), and Mark Oxtoby (Strickland), with Rhianne Alleyne, Amy Barker, Matt Barrow, Joshua Clemetson, Jamal Crawford, Bessy Ewa, Ryan Heenan, Cameron McAllister, Alessia McDermott, Laura Mullowney, Nic Myers, Shane O’Riordan, Katharine Pearson, Oliver Tester, and Justin Thomas.
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Hank Morris, Austin Nuckols & Lily Dwoskin’s A Turtle on a Fence Post will run Oct. 26 – Jan. 2, 2022 (opening Nov. 14) at Theater 555 (555 West 42nd Street), directed by Gabriel Barrie, with choreography by Kenny Ingram.
Casting TBA.
Based on true events this fictionalized version follows Hank Morris, who pleaded guilty in 2010 for his involvement in a pension fraud scandal. Andrew Cuomo prosecuted the case as NY’s then Attorney General. Morris served over two years in a state correctional facility as well as 13 days in Rikers Island
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& 
Allons Enfants!, with Steve Ross & Jean Brassard, continues streaming through Midnight on Aug. 25 here, and in person on Aug. 24 at NYC’s Pangea.
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New York Theatre Barn and the Broadway Podcast Network have announced its new podcast, “The Musicals of Tomorrow,” which will explore new musicals through conversations with the show’s writers and creative teams, hosted by Joe Barros & Jen Sandler.
The podcast is available on most platforms, with new episodes released the 1st & 3rd Thursdays of the month.
Upcoming Episodes:
* Joe Iconis, Love in Hate Nation
* Rob Rokicki & Sarah Beth Pfeifer, Experience Marianas
* Joriah Kwamé & Lauren M. Gunderson, Little Miss Perfect
* Kate Leonard & Daniel Merzluff, House Rules
* Paulo K Tirol & Noam Shapiro, On This Side of the World
* Jonathan Karpinos, John McGrew & Joseph Varca, The Village of Vale.
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RIP: Thom Schilling, general manager, production supervisor and stage manager for dozens of Broadway, Off-Broadway and global tours for over 40 years, died in his sleep on Aug. 19 in NYC, at the age of 64. The cause of death is not presently known.
Since 2003, Thom served as General Manager for Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, working on domestic and international tours, most recently on Rent (Cuba) and The Producers (China).
Broadway credits include Les Liaison Dangereuses (with Alan Rickman), Tango Argentina, Stepping Out (directed by Tommy Tune), Doubles, The American Dance Machine, Orpheus Descending (with Vanessa Redgrave), Shakespeare For My Father (with Lynn Redgrave), Les Misérables, Fosse, Five Guys Named Moe, Miss Saigon, Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop On Broadway, and more.
Off-Broadway credits include Groovaloo, Hedwig And The Angry Ince, The Property Known as Garland, How to Save the World…, Gorey Details, Bat Boy The Musical, The Prince And The Pauper, Silent Laugher, Viagara Falls, Groucho, and Lea DeLaria’s Virgin Mary, Make Mine A Double, and more. And a plethora of international productions.
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The world premiere of Diane Warren, Louisette Geiss & Howard Kagan’s The Right Girl will run Oct. 13 – Nov. 10 at Schenectady’s Proctors, directed & choreographed by Susan Stroman.
Casting TBA.
Join Eleanor Stark on her first day as Chief Creative Officer of the legendary film and television studio, Ambrosia Productions. As Eleanor rises to the top working side by side for years with the industry’s most respected men, we learn that one of them is real trouble. What role does she play in the story of Hollywood’s most fiercely guarded secret?
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Theatre West has announced Week 2 of its short play festival, Change, which begins today:
Matriarch, by Mimi Kmet
Meet Battling Bella Abzug, by Amy Simon
First Impressions, Second Chances, by Ashley Taylor
Saturday’s Game, by Suzanne Collins
In the Out Door, by Tom Walla
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Atlantic Theater Company will present Ngozi Anyanwu’s The Last of the Love Letters Aug. 26 – Sept. 26, directed by Patricia McGregor.
Daniel J. Watts
A poetic meditation on the challenges of staying in and letting go of love. Two people contemplate the thing they love the most and whether to stick it out or leave it behind. To stay or to go… that is the question. A plea and a painful goodbye wrapped into one.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Missing Links
1. Call Me Madam… and …. Madam Will You Walk
2. The Plough and the Stars… and … Stars in Your Eyes
3. Too True to Be Good … and … Good News
4. St. Louis Woman… and … Woman of the Year
5. One Touch of Venus… and … Venus in Fur
6. Take Me Out … and … Out of This World
7. Kind Lady… and … Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
8. I Married an Angel… and … Angel Street
9. The Cradle Will Rock… and … Rock of Ages
10. Blossom Time… and … Time Remembered