Today’s Highlights:
You Got Older, by Clare Barron, directed by Anne Kauffman, featuring Alia Shawkat (Mae), (Peter Friedman (Dad), Misha Brooks, (Matthew), Caleb Eberhardt (Mac), Spesner Granese (Cowboy), Nadine, opens at OffBroadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre.
Animus Theatre Company & Circle in the Square present Twelve Hours with Tracy Letts, a marathon reading festival, from 11 AM – 11 PM.
Julie Benko: From Standby to Standing Ovation conversation, at 7:30 PM at NYC’s 92NY.
**********************
Product Placement by Jim Bernhard
Fill in the missing words in these titles of plays and musicals with the brand name of a commercial product or company. Hints are provided in the second column:
| 1. Breakfast at ____ | A. Motel and restaurant chain |
| 2. El Grande de ____ | B. American automobile make |
| 3. The Solid Gold ____ | C. Soft drink |
| 4. How Now ____ | D. New York restaurant |
| 5. Damn ____ | E. Jewelry store |
| 6. ____ at Six | F. Railroad car manufacturer |
| 7. Murder at the ____ | G. Paris restaurant |
| 8. ____ Car Hiawatha | H. British automobile make |
| 9. The Girl from ____ | I. Professional sports team |
| 10. Happiness Is Just a Little Thing Called a ____ | J. Financial publisher |
Scroll down for the answers…
**********************
Much Ado About Nothing will run for 10 weeks in Fall 2026 (dates TBA) at a theater TBA, directed by Jamie Lloyd. Click here for the show’s website.
Tom Hiddleston (Benedick), Hayley Atwell (Beatrice), and more TBA.
**********************
Death of a Salesman will run Mar. 28 through Apr. 19 at Pasadena’s A Noise Within, directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott.
Geoff Elliott (Willy Loman, Deborah Strang (Linda), David Kepner (Biff), and Ian Littleworth Happy), with Jacob Cherry, Bert Emmett, Rachel K. Han, Kasey Mahaffy, Cassandra Marie Murphy, David Nevell, Dominique Razón and Michael Uribes.
**********************
Penelope, solo show written by & starring Amy Doherty, continues through Mar. 1 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Courtney O’Connor.
His Odyssey. Her Story. The story you thought you knew, told by the woman who lived it.
**********************
Lifeline, by Robert Alexrod, directed by Ken Sawyer has been extended through Mar. 4 at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre.
Brittany Visser (Jen),Tommy Dickie (Drew), Amy Tolsky (Patti), Clifton J. Adams (Kai), Naomi Rubin (Sarah Beth), and Xoe Savvle (Maya). Alternate cast: Destinee Stewart (Jen), Juan Pope (Drew), Ivy Khan (Pattie), Casey Daley (Kai), Gabie Faulkner (Sara Beth), and Rafi Perez (Maya).
In the aftermath of an unforeseen life-changing event, Patti, a well-meaning mother, decides to become a volunteer for a suicide hotline, where laughter, tears, and a new understanding bridge the divide between people from very different walks of life.
**********************
Maltby & Shires’ About Time will begin previews Feb. 27 and open Mar. 8 at Off Broadway’s Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, with music direction by Deniz Cordell.
Allyson Kaye Daniel, Darius de Haas, Daniel Jenkins, Eddie Korbich, Sally Wilfert, and Lynne Wintersteller with Ethan Paulini and Nicole Powell.
The new show completes a trilogy that the authors didn’t know they were writing, that has quietly helped shape contemporary musical theater. From long-ago love affairs to buried ambitions, to lost keys and tech-savvy grandkids.
**********************
A screening of London’s Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession will take place Sat. Mar. 14 at 3 PM at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater, directed byDominic Cooke.
Imelda Staunton (playing both mother and daughter).
Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune – but at what cost?
**********************
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s 2026 Spring Benefit will take place Tues. Apr. 7 at the Harvard Club of New York, followed by a special performance of Proof at Broadway’s Booth Theatre, directed by Thomas Kail.
Ayo Edebiri, Don Cheadle, Samira Wiley, and Jin Ha.
**********************
Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine will run Mar. 5 – Apr. 18 at The Actors Gang, directed by Cihan Sahin.
Daphne Rubin-Vega (Mr. Zero), Jennifer Tilly (Mrs. Zero), Sarita Choudhury (Daisy), and Michael Cyril Creighton.
An Expressionist play about Mr. Zero, a monotonous accountant preplaced by a machine after 25 years. Enraged, Zero murders his boss, is executed, and finds himself in the afterlife, where he continues to be a mindless cog in the machinery of existence
**********************
The world premiere of Anna Ziegler’s Antigone (This Play I Read In High School), will now run Feb. 26 – Mar. 29 (0pening Mar. 11) at Off-Broadway’s Public Theatre, directed by Tyne Rafaeli.
Celia Keenan-Bolger (Chorus), Tony Shalhoub (Creon), Ethan Dubin (Copy 3/Achilles), Katie Kreisler (Cop 1/Proprieter), Susannah Perkins (Antigone), Dave Quay (Cop 2/Palace Guard), Calvin Leon Smith (Haemon), and Haley Wong (Ismene).
The story of Oedipus’ daughter Antigone through a bold new lens. Written by award-winning playwright Anna Ziegler, this lyrical epic follows a fiercely independent young woman determined to control her own body in a kingdom ruled by archaic laws that regulate women’s autonomy. Incisively witty and breathtakingly intelligent.
**********************
DC’s Arena Stage has announced its 75th Anniversary New Play Festival, which will run Feb. 27 – Mar. 1, a 3-day celebration of new work running Feb. 27 – Mar. 1, honoring the theater’s founding commitment to commissioning and developing bold American voices. Click the link above for the complete schedule.
The festival brings together artists, audiences, and theater leaders for a series of readings and conversations that reflect Arena Stage’s 75-year legacy as a home for plays in development and its enduring commitment to what comes next.
**********************
Karin Abarbanel’s Dust of Egypt: The Story of Sojourner Truth will run Mar. 5-29 at The Sheen Center, directed by Rhonda Passion Hansome.
Desi Waters (Sojourner Truth), with Jade Cayne, Eliott Johnson, Eric Ruffin, Jeanna Schweppe, Mark McCullough Thomas, and Nicholas Louis Turturro.
The Story of Sojourner Truth, a heroic saga of a young mother’s fight to save her son.
**********************
Penelope, written by & starring Amy Doherty, continues through Mar. 1 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Courtney O’Connor.
A generous glass of bourbon, a five-piece band, and ninety minutes is all Penelope needs to tell her side of the story as she embraces her heartache, loneliness, and resolve during the wait for her husband Odysseus to return from a seemingly endless war. Her son has disappeared. Relentless suitors prance before her. Days drone on as she is left to wonder who she is if she is alone. From jazz to folk to indie rock, Penelope dishes the dirt in a captivating cacophony of emotions that redefines what we might know of her through a modern lens.
**********************
Answers Product Placement by Jim Bernhard:
1-E. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
2-C. El Grande de Coca-Cola
3-B. The Solid Gold Cadillac
4-J. How Now Dow Jones
5-I. Damn Yankees
6-D. Delmonico’s at Six
7-A. Murder at the Howard Johnson’s
8-F. Pullman Car Hiawatha
9-G. The Girl from Maxim’s
10-H. Happiness Is Just a Little Thing Called a Rolls Royce