Today’s Highlights:
FREE Staged Reading Series begins at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre., showcasing 4 plays written by members of the 2022-23 Playwrights Unit.
Derrick Davis in concert, at 8 PM at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
Theatre Aspen‘s Master Class, directed by Joanna Gleason, featuring Phylicia Rashad, Anna Thompson, Marissa Moultrie, and Joseph Tancredi, closes at the Wheeler Opera House.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: That Is To Say, by Jim Bernhard
Interpret these re-phrased names of plays and musicals:
1. Young Men from the Garden State
2. Female Table Server
3. Malevolent
4. Young Woman Insane
5. Festival Season and Noxious Fumes
6. Petite Boutique of Monstrosities
7. Saccharine Redolence of Triumph
8. Blossom Tabor Canticle
9. The Glabrous Coloratura
10. A Dainty Equilibrium
Scroll down for the answers…
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Roundabout Theatre & New York Theatre Workshop will present the world premiere of Nathan Alan Davis’ The Refuge Plays Sept. 14 – Nov. 12 (opening oct. 4) at the Laura Pels Theatre, directed by Patricia McGregor.
Casting TBA
The play follows a single Black family over 70 years, beginning deep in the woods of southern Illinois with a ghost delivering a foreboding message of death.
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Video: Rebecca Luker, Alison Fraser and Mary Testa perform Rusty Magee’s “Sweet Appreciation” from “Voices on the Hill,” adapted from Walt Whitman’s poem “Thanks in Old Age”
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Michael Tucker’s A Tailor Near Me will run July 27 – Aug. 27 (opening July 29) at New Jersey Rep, directed by James Glossman.
Richard Kind and James Pickens.
A man takes a pair of pants to a local tailor only to end up commissioning a custom suit that will change both of their lives.
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John Hill: Wellness Check – A Comic Song Cycle will take place Tues. July 25 at 9:30 PM at NYC’s Green Room 42.
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Samantha Hurley’s I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire, currently in previews, will open July 12 and continue through July 29 at the cell, directed by Tyler Struble.
Tessa Albertson (Shelby), Janae Robinson (Brenda Dee Cankles), and Scott Thomas (Tobey).
Dealing with an absent father, a neglectful mother, and mean-spirited classmates, Shelby Hinkley’s eighth grade is proving to be a hard time. To cope with it all, Shelby focuses on the best thing about 2004: “Spider-Man.” When leading an online fan club is no longer enough, she decides to kidnap and marry Tobey Maguire; but will the actor live up to her happily-ever-after fantasies?
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Video: Samantha Barks (Elsa) performs a new version of “Dangerous to Dream” from London’s Frozen.
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RIP: Actor Jeffrey Carlson passed away on July 6 at the age of 48. He played the one of the first trans characters on daytime television in “All My Children.”
In 2002, Carlson appeared on the Broadway stage for the first time in Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia?. The next year, he starred in the Broadway revival of Molière’s Tartuffe. Shortly after, he played the role of Marilyn in Boy George’s Broadway musical Taboo, for which he received a Drama Desk nomination. He then began his television and film career with a role in the romantic comedy “Hitch” starring Will Smith.
Carlson went on to have a prolific career with classical works, particularly those by Shakespeare. At the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., he performed in several productions, including the titular roles in Lorenzaccio and Hamlet. At the Goodman Theatre, he performed in Measure for Measure. And at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, he starred in a number of productions, including Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II.
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The Broadway Podcast Network has announced its new docu-podcast, “Finding Fire Island,” which is available here and on all podcast platforms.
The podcast brings to life how a sleepy, 19th century beach town became a modern day queer mecca for artists and the New York City theater community.
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Frigid New York has announced its 3rd annual Little Shakespeare Festival, to run Aug. 3-19 at Under St. Marks. Most performances will also be available to livestream.
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The American Theater Hall of Fame has announced its 2023 inductees: Mandy Patinkin, Bebe Neuwirth, Judd Hirsch, Laurie Metcalf, JoAnne Akalaitis, John Weidman, Maury Weston, and Amiri Baraka.
The 2023 Induction Ceremony will be presented Mon. Nov. 6 in the North Rotunda of Broadway’s Gershwin Theater.
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Audio: Gaten Matarazzo performs “Not While I’m Around” from the upcoming Sweeney Todd cast album.
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The world premiere of Nick Butcher, Tom Ling & Joe White’s The Little Big Things, to run Sept. 2-25 (opening Sept. 14) at SoHo Place, directed by Luke Sheppard.
Ed Larkin (Man) Jonny Amies (Boy Henry Frasier), Linzi Hateley (Fran Fraser), Alasdair Harvey (Andrew Fraser), Jordan Benjamin (Dom), Rebecca Bowden (Surgeon), Jamie Chatterton (Tom), Tom Oliver (Marco), Malinda Parris (Dr. Graham), Cleve September (Will), and Amy Trigg (Agnes), with Stephen John Davis, Elena Pitsiaeli, George Galmon, Amy West, and Joseph Wolff.
The story of Henry Fraser, an athlete who was paralyzed from the shoulders down in an accident at 17, and who turned to visual art to cope. Fraser’s paintings, which he creates using a mouthstick attached to a paintbrush, stylus, or other art making apparatus, have received major international attention in the decade since his accident.
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Jim Caruso’s Cast Party will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Mon. July 24 at 9:30 PM NYC’s Birdland Jazz Club.
TBA.
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The Creeps, written by & starring Catherine Waller, will run Sept. 1 – Nov. 5 (opening Sept. 7) at Playhouse 46.
The piece follows five hilarious but creepy characters confronting the shadowy depths of the human psyche, exploring themes of fear, desire, and the unknown.
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At This Performance… an evening spotlighting understudies and standbys, will take place Mon. July 24 at 7 PM at NYC’s Green Room 42, with music direction by Asher Denburg.
Miki Abraham (Shucked), Carey Rebecca Brown (A Doll’s House), Tanner Callicutt (Parade), Daniel Fetter (The Book of Mormon), Danny Gardner (Flying Over Sunset), Holly Gould (Camelot), Kristina Leopold (SIX), Salisha Thomas (Once Upon a One More Time), and David Wright Jr. (Aladdin).
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Ian Shaw & Joseph Nixon’s The Shark is Broken, will begin previews July 25 and open Aug. 10 at the Golden Theatre, directed by Guy Masterson.
Ian Shaw (Robert Shaw), Alex Brightman (Richard Dreyfuss), and Colin Donnell (Roy Scheider).
FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974.Filming is delayed…again. The lead actors—theatre veteran Robert Shaw and young Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider—are crammed into a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic…if it doesn’t sink them all.
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MA’s Barrington Stage Company has announced its Summer lineup for Mr. Finn’s Cabaret. All concerts begin at 8 PM.
Donna McKechnie (July 9-10)
Todd Almond (July 16)
An Evening with Lillias White (Aug. 13-14)
Hugh Panaro in Concert (Aug. 21)
An Evening with Jason Robert Brown (Aug. 31 – Sept. 1)
Alan H. Green (Sept. 203)
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Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Poor Yella Rednecks, by Qui Nguyen, will begin previews Oct. 10 and open Nov. 1 at New York City Center, directed by May Adrales.
Jon Hoche, Ben Levin, Samantha Quan, Jon Norman Schneider, Maureen Sebastian, and Paco Tolson.
A young Vietnamese family attempts to put down roots in Arkansas, a place as different from home as it gets. A mom and dad balance big hopes and low-wage jobs, as old flings threaten to pull them apart. It all makes for a bumpy road to the American dream.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: That Is To Say
1. Young Men from the Garden State – Jersey Boys
2. Female Table Server – Waitress
3. Malevolent – Wicked
4. Young Woman Insane – Girl Crazy
5. Eestival Season and Noxious Fumes – Summer and Smoke
6. Petite Boutique of Monstrosities – Little Shop of Horrors
7. Saccharine Redolence of Triumph – Sweet Smell of Success
8. Blossom Tabor Canticle – Flower Drum Song
9. The Glabrous Coloratura – The Bald Soprano
10. A Dainty Equilibrium – A Delicate Balance