Today’s Highlights:
The Cottage, by Sandy Rustin, directed by Jason Alexander, featuring Eric McCormack (Beau), Laura Bell Bundy (Sylvia), Lilli Cooper (Marjorie), Nehal Joshi (Richard), Alex Moffat (Clarke), and Dana Steingold (Dierdre), with Michelle Federer, Matthew Floyd Miller, Tony Roach, and Jamie Ann Romero, opens at Broadway’s Haye’s Theatre.
Gingold Theatrical Group‘s Pygmalion script-in-hand performance, directed by David Staller, featuring Kate Hamill (Eliza Dootlittle), David Lee Huynh (Freddy Enysford-Hill), Laura Patinkin (Mrs. Eynsford-Hill), Mary Beth Peil (Mrs. Higgins), Robert Petkoff (Henry Higgins), Ryann Redmond (Clara Eynsford-Hill), Justin Robertson (Narrator and others), Thomas Jay Rayan (Alfred Doolittle), Thom Sesma (Colonel Hugh Pickering), and Jennifer Van Dyck (Mrs. Pearce), 7 PM at NYC’s Symphony Space
Jerry Orbach’s Broadway concert, with special guests Orbach’s sons Chris and Tony, featuring Jay Aubrey Jones, Nikita Burshteyn, Jill O’Hara, and Lee Roy Reams, at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below.
Julie Sings Jule concert, an evening with Julie Benko performing songs by Jules Styne, at 7 PM at NYC’s Birdland.
At This Performance concert, featuring Broadway understudies 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 The Musical), Salisha Thomas (Once Upon a One More Time), and David Wright Jr. (Aladdin), at 7 PM at NYC’s Green Room 42.
Jim Caruso’s Cast Party – A 20th Birthday Celebration open mic concert, at 9:30 PM at NYC’s Birdland Jazz Club.
The Rocky Horror Skivvies Show concert, starring Nick Cearly and Lauren Molina, with special guests Barrett Foa, Nicole Parker, Garrett Clayton, Emma Hunton, Kirsten Vangsness, Lesli Margherita, Brett Ryback, Brittany Campbell, Janaya Jones, Emerson Collins, and Blake McIver, at 7 PM at LA’s Bourbon Room.
**********************
GRACE NOTES Quiz: Mysterious Strangers by Jim Bernhard
1. In The Music Man, Harold Hill arrives in River City, Iowa … to open a pool hall… to start a boys’ band and sell uniforms… to open a new music conservatory … to perform a new opera he has written.
2. In 110 in the Shade, Bill Starbuck arrives in the town of Three Point and promises the residents… he will find gold on their property … he can cure their diseases with his elixirs … he will open a new repertory theatre … he will make it rain and end the drought.
3. In Picnic, drifter Hal Carter arrives in town as everyone is preparing for a picnic to celebrate… Labor Day … Memorial Day … the Fourth of July … Halloween.
4. In New Girl in Town, Anna arrives back in the New York after fifteen years workding in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a … music teacher … yoga instructor … prostitute … ballet dancer.
5. In Orpheus Descending, Val Xavier is a wandering … knife sharpener … musician … peddler … acrobat.
6. In The Lady from Dubuque, the mysterious visitor Elizabeth, from Dubuque, Iowa, represents … heartland virtue … the importance of corn … Western civilization … death.
7. In The Cocktail Party, the “Unidentified Guest” is revealed to be a … psychiatrist … detective … claims adjuster … lawyer.
8. In The Caretaker, Davies refers repeatedly to going to Sidcp to get … a change of clothes … a proper English breakfast … his papers … his fiancée.
9. In The Visit, Claire Zachanassian returns to her hometown to persuade the residents to … kill the man who made her pregnant … drill on their property to find oil … and adopt her daughter … move to another town.
10. In Waiting for Godot, a Boy arrives at the end of both Act I and Act II to tell Vladimir and Estragon that … Godot is stuck in traffic … Godot has died … Godot will not come this evening, but will come tomorrow … Godot is a figment of their imagination.
Scroll down for the answers…
**********************
Mark Shanahan will succeed Mark Lamos as the Artistic Director for the Westport Country Playhouse beginning with the theatre’s 2024-25 Season.
**********************
Steve Ross: Allons Enfants, La Vie Est Belle will take place Wed. Aug. 9 at 7 PM at NYC’s Pangea, with music direction by Jean Brassard.
Karen Akers.
**********************
The return of A Musical Christmas Carol will run Dec. 15-23 at Pittsburgh CLO, directed by Scott Evans.
Casting and additional information TBA.
**********************
Casting has been announced for the final week (July 27-30) of the Blank Theatre‘s 31st Annual Young Playwrights Festival, which runs at LA’s Skylight Theatre.
Slick, Slimy, Grimy and Dead, by Audrey Hunter, directed by Bree Pavey, featuring Brianna Baker, Cameron Britton, Jake Choi, Angel Giuffria, Les “Eljaye” Jennings. Amir Levi, and TJ Power. 
A subspecies of eels has gone extinct. As representatives of the remaining varieties of the eel community come together to mourn, they realize they must confront who they are and where they’ve come from to become who they want to be.
Opus 9 No. 2, by Alessio Vega, directed by Adam Chambers, featuring Teo Briones, Major Dodson, and Alain Uy. When a boy loses his mother, how will he find the time and solitude to grieve and heal in a world congested by alerts and notifications?
Bat Eaters, by Christine Lee, directed by Arianna Basco, featuring Stella Choe, Hannah Joo, Chad Lindberg, and Eliza Shin. When a Korean spa owner meets a new customer, she makes a connection that forces her to decide whether to get loud or get back to work.
**********************
Frigid New York will present Melissa Bell’s Lady Capulet Aug. 3 & 5 at Theater Under St. Marks, directed by Emily Gallagher.
Jianzi Colon-Soto (Rose Capulet), Andrew Dunn, Preston Fox, Jefferson Reardon, Heather Sawyer, and Emily Thaler. This prequel to Romeo and Juliet follows the story of Rose from country girl to lady of Verona and explores the betrayal, revenge, and manipulations that set the houses of Capulet and Montague against one another in a time when the influence of family, money, power, and gender determine everything. Using evocative language, Lady Capulet asks large questions about women’s place in culture today through a Shakespearean lens.**********************
Video: Sneak peak at Broadway’s The Cottage.
**********************
An invitation-only reading of Jacob Ryan Smith & Caroline Pernick’s Like Father will take place today in NYC, directed by Megumi Nakamura, with music supervision by Jason Deboard. 
: LikeFatherMuiscal@gmail.
Javier Muñoz, Ari Notartomaso, Donna Vivino, and Ben Davis, with Esteban Suero, Cate Hayman, and Anna Zavelson.
The horror dramedy concerns a serial killer’s daughter who is trying to live life as a “normal” teenage after her father has been arrested and prosecuted.
**********************
Alexis Scheer’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord will run Aug. 20 – Sept. 17 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, directed by Lindsay Allbaugh.
Ashley Brooke, Aliyah Camacho, Samantha Wynette Miller, Coral Peña, Lilian Rebelo, and Juan Francisco Villa.
In this fierce and feverish comedy, a gang of teenage girls gather in an abandoned treehouse to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar. Are they messing with the actual spirit of the infamous cartel kingpin? Or are they really just messing with each other?
**********************
NYC’s 92NY has announced its Lyrics & Lyricists 2023-24 season:.
Tale As Old As Time: The Songs of Howard Ashman (Oct. 28-30), with artistic director Matt Kunkel. Performers TBA. 
here.
In the Key of Life: The Genius of Stevie Wonder (Dec. 2-4), with artistic director Darius de Haas. Performers TBA. here.
Soul Picnic: The Songs and Legacy of Laura Nyro (Mar. 2-4, 2024), with artistic director Judy Kuhn. Performers TBA. here.
An Evening with Jason Robert Brown (May 9). Performers TBA. here.
Wonder of Wonders: Celebrating Sheldon Harnick (June 1-3). Performers TBA. here.
**********************
Scott Siegel’s Broadway by the Season, with songs from the 1940-41/1951-52 Broadway seasons, will continue Mon. Aug. 7 at 8 PM at NYC’s Merkin Concert Hall.
Tony Danza, Christiane Noll, Julia Murney, Danny Gardner, Ali Ewoldt, Douglas Ladnier, Jason Graae, Kendrick Jones, Bill Daugherty, and the Broadway by the Season Dance Troupe.
**********************
Audio: Idina Menzel‘s new single, “Beast” from her album, “Drama Queen,” which will be released Aug. 18on all platforms.
**********************
An Evening with Audra McDonald will take place Thurs. Oct. 12 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s 92NY, with music direction by Andy Einhorn.
**********************
The world premiere of Lloyd J. Schwartz & Adryan Russ’ The Right Is Ours! will run Sept. 8 – Oct. 8 at CA’s Sierra Madre Playhouse, directed by Schwartz, with choreography by Kay Cole, and music direction by Gregory Nabours.
Anna Mintzer (Susan B. Anthony), Emily Abeles (Elizabeth Cady Stanton), Suffragists Jacquelin Lorraine Schofield (Emmeline), Carlin Castellano (Christabel), and Paige Berkovitz (Ida), with Katherine Chatman.
How the friendship, persistence and inspiration of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony sparked the fire of the Woman’s Suffragist Movement and changed the world by winning women the vote.
**********************
Joshua Henry: Get Up, Stand Up will take place Sat. Nov. 18 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s 92NY.
**********************
GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Mysterious Strangers
1. In The Music Man, Harold Hill arrives in River City, Iowa, to start a boys’ band and sell uniforms.
2. In 110 in the Shade, Bill Starbuck arrives in the town of Three Point and promises the residents he will make it rain and end the drought.
3. In Picnic, drifter Hal Carter arrives in town as everyone is preparing for a picnic to celebrate Labor Day.
4. In New Girl in Town, Anna arrives back in New York after fifteen years working in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a prostitute.
5. In Orpheus Descending, Val Xavier is a wandering musician.
6. In The Lady from Dubuque, the mysterious visitor Elizabeth, from Dubuque, Iowa, represents death.
7. In The Cocktail Party, the “Unidentified Guest” is revealed to be a psychiatrist.
8. In The Caretaker, Davies refers repeatedly to going to Sidcup to get his papers.
9. In The Visit, Claire Zachanassian returns to her hometown to persuade the residents to kill the man who made her pregnant.
10. In Waiting for Godot, a Boy arrives at the end of both Act I and Act II to tell Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not come this evening but will come tomorrow.