GRACE NOTES: Monday, June 3, 2024

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Layton Williams (Emcee) and Rhea Norwood (Sally Bowles) begin their runs in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club at London’s Playhouse Theatre.

  Red Bull Theater‘s Running of the Bulls gala, honoring Alfred Molina and K. Ann McDonald, hosted by Patrick Page, with special guest & presenters Michael Cerveris, Robert Cuccioli, Paige Davis, Stephen DeRosa, Tovah Feldshuh, Zainab Jah, Mark Linn-Baker, Ismenia Mendes, Miriam Silverman, Julie Taymor, Mary Testa, John Douglas Thompson, Marc Vietor, and more, at NYC’s Bowery Hotel.

  Broadway Cares benefit game night, in support of BC/EFA, at 6 PM at NYC’s Sardi’s.

  Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends concert, featuring Bradley Jaden, with special guests Shoshana Bean and Beth Leavel, at 8 PM at NYC’s Sony Hall.

  Wonder of Wonders: Celebrating Sheldon Harnick concert & conversation, hosted & music directed by Ted Sperling, featuring Sam Gravitte, Adam Heller, Adam Kantor, Alysha Umphress, and Anna Zavelson, concludes at NYC’s 92NY.

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  No quiz this week…

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 How Long Blues, world premiere conceived, choreographed, and directed by Twyla Tharp, currently in previews, will open June 6 and continue through June 23 at NYC’s’s Little Island.

  Michael Cerveris, Piper Dye, Jourdan Epstein, Oliver Greene-Cramer, Kyle Halford, Colin Heininger, Daisy Jacobson, Claude CJ Johnson, Pomme Koch, Skye Mattox, Nicole Ashley Morris, Hugo Pizano Orozco, Ryan Redmond, Victoria Sames, Frances Lorraine Samson, John Selya, Reed Tankersley, Andromeda Turre, John Bailey, Justin Goldner, Wayne Goodman, Dan Lipton, Mark Lopeman, Jay Rattman, George Rush, and Paul Wells.

  an epic narrative on the theme of resiliency inspired by American Jazz and the writing of Albert Camus.

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  Joy Behar’s My First Ex-Husband, a series of monologues, will take place Sat. June 2 at 8 PM at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.

  Joy Behar, Susie Essman, Tovah Feldshuh, Sherri Shepherd, and more.

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  The 42-track live recording of “My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert” is now available here, as well as on double CD and digital platforms worldwide.

Track List:

1.  “Overture from Oklahoma!” – Rodgers & Hammerstein Orchestra
2.  “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” – Patrick Wilson
3. ‘ My Favorite Things” – Audra McDonald
4.  “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” – Patrick Wilson
5.  “I Cain’t Say No” – Marsha Wallace
6.  “Out of My Dreams” – Lily Kerhoas
7.  “Mister Snow” – Audra McDonald
8.  “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” – Anna-Jane Casey and Ensemble
9.  “What’s the Use of Wond’rin’?” – Lily Kerhoas
10.  “Soliloquy” – Aaron Tveit
11.  “It Might as Well Be Spring” – Lucy St. Louis
12.  “Love, Look Away” – Joanna Ampil
13.  “The Gentleman is a Dope” – Marisha Wallace
14.  “No Other Love” – Jordan Shaw
15.  “Something Wonderful” – Joanna Ampil
16.  “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” – Aaron Tveit
17.  “Younger Than Springtime” – Aaron Tveit
18.  “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” – Marisha Wallace
19.  “A Wonderful Guy” – Lucy St. Louis
20.  “This Nearly Was Mine” – Julian Ovenden
21.  “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – Michael Ball
22.  “Entr’acte from South Pacific” – Rodgers & Hammerstein Orchestra
23.  “There Is Nothin’ Like A Dame” – Jordan Shaw and Ensemble
24.  “I Have Dreamed / We Kiss In A Shadow” – Joanna Ampil
25.  “A Puzzlement” – Daniel Dae Kim
26. “Hello, Young Lovers” – Maria Friedman
27.  “Shall We Dance?” – Maria Friedman and Daniel Dae Kim
28.  “If I Loved You” – Lily Kerhoas and Patrick Wilson
29.  “In My Own Little Corner” – Joanna Ampil
30.  “Ten Minutes Ago” – Aaron Tveit
31.  “Impossible / It’s Possible” – Anna-Jane Casey and Marisha Wallace
32.  “All At Once You Love Her” – Julien Ovenden
33.  “Kansas City” – Jonny Labey and Ensemble
34.  “Some Enchanted Evening” – Michael Ball
35.  “The Sound Of Music” – Lucy St. Louis
36.  “Do-Re-Mi” – Ensemble
37.  “The Lonely Goatherd” – Anna-Jane Casey
38.  “Something Good” – Maria Friedman
39.  “Edelweiss” – Ensemble
40.  “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” – Audra McDonald
41.  “Oklahoma” – Rodgers & Hammerstein Orchestra
42.  “Carousel Waltz” – Rodgers & Hammerstein Orchestra

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  DC’s Signature Theatre has announced its 2024-25 season:

  Soft Power (Aug. 6 – Sept. 15), by David Henry Hwang & Jeanine Tesori, directed by Ethan Heard.  After the 2016 election, when a Chinese American playwright is attacked by an unknown assailant, he hallucinates a Golden Age musical comedy about a Chinese theater producer and Hillary Clinton falling in love. Hilarious and biting, this political satire dares to ask: Does American Democracy still work? And is it worth believing in?

  Primary Trust (Sept. 10 – Oct. 20), by Eboni Booth, directed by Taylor Reynolds.  Wally’s Tiki Bar serves the sweetest mai tais in town, and Kenneth never misses a happy hour with his best friend. But when a job loss upends Kenneth’s static existence, he must discover the courage to open a new door and change his life – even if it means facing the past and letting go.

  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Oct. 29 – Jan. 12, 2025)

  Friedlich’s Job (Jan. 28 – Mar. 16), by Max Wolf Friedlich, directed by Matthew Gardiner.  A psychological thriller with a shocking and disturbing twist that will leave you breathless. A young woman whose screaming breakdown at work has gone viral must receive an evaluation from a crisis therapist before she can return to her job at a well-known tech firm. During the appointment, however, secrets emerge, and filters strip away as doctor and patient edge toward an epic showdown.

  In the Heights (Feb. 11 – May 4), directed by James Vásquez

  Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Apr. 15 – June 22), directed by Ethan Heard.

  The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thomson Musical (June 3 – July 13), by Joe Iconis & Gregory S. Moss, directed by Christopher Ashley. A collision of politics, counterculture and rock and roll in human form, Hunter S. Thompson is impossible to pin down. Careening from the 1940s to 2005, Thompson invents Gonzo journalism, attempts to take down a corrupt president, and quests for equality for his fellow weirdos, outsiders and freaks. However, this anti-hero’s drug-fueled tornado leaves a trail of destruction as he grapples with his legacy in a world that has left him behind. Funny and unique, as anarchic and irreverent as the writer himself, this explosive rock musical will spark a revolution for the rebel inside us all.

Cabaret Series:

  Summertime: Awa Sal Secka Sings Ladies of Jazz (July 23 – Aug. 4)

  I’ll Take You There: Stax Record Co. (Nov 12-24)

  You’ve Got a Friend: Women Pop Songwriters (July 2-13, 2025)

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  Open-Door Playhouse will present Lawson Caldwell’s Serendipitous beginning June 11, directed by Gary Lamb.

  Franco Machado and Daamen Krall.

  A septuagenarian gay man and a young gay man find themselves stuck between floors in an office building when an elevator malfunctions. While they’re waiting for the elevator to start again, they form a friendship while sharing stories about their lives and about their partners.

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  Watch Audra McDonald at the London Palladium  here (through June 28).

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  Jongyoon Choi & Tom Ramsay’s Marie Curie, currently in previews, will open June 7 and continue through July 28 at the Charing Cross Theatre, directed by Sarah Meadows, with music direction by Emma Fraser, and choreography by Joanna Goodwin.

  Ailsa Davidson (Marie), Chrissie Bhima (Anne Kowalska), Thomas Josling (Pierre Curie), and Ruben DeLong (Richard Meek), with Lucy Young, Isabel Snaas, Christopher Killik, Dean Makowski-Clayton, Maya Kristal Tenenbaum, Yujin Park, and Rio Maye.

 As she arrives from her native home in Poland to study at Sorbonne University in Paris, young Marie Skłodowska is certain she can make a name for herself and change the course of science. She discovers radium, a new chemical element, with her husband Pierre Curie, and she’s lauded with the Nobel Prize. But she is faced with an overwhelming moral dilemma. As Marie discovers the lifesaving potential of radium to cure cancer, factory workers handling the glowing substance are succumbing to the insidious grip of radium poisoning. As a woman with society against her, can she wrestle with both the potential and danger of her discovery – and what is she if radium’s dangers overshadow its possibilities?

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  2024 Tony Awards predictions.  Click here.

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  Caroline Sherman & Robert Hull’s Empire: The Musical will run July 1 – Sept. 22 (opening July 11) at New World Stages, directed by Cady Huffman, with choreography by Lorna Ventura, and music direction by Gillian Berkowitz.

  Danny Iktomi Bevins, Monique Candelaria, Devin Cortez, Morgan Cowling, Kaitlyn Davidson, Joel Douglas, Joseph Fierberg, Alexandra Frohlinger, Matt Gibson, Albert Guerzon, Julia Louise Hosack, Kiana Kabeary, Howard Kaye, TJ Newton, April Ortiz, Kennedy Perez, Paul Salvatoriello, J Savage, Robbie Serrano, and Ethan Saviet.

 Told through the lens of three generations of dreamers and doers spanning New York City in the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the Bicentennial Year of 1976, this original story shines new light on one of history’s greatest feats of will and desire. With a desperate city pinning its hopes on this seemingly impossible project, only skyscraper-high levels of grit and determination could keep it climbing. Audiences will take the thrilling ride to the sky with the brave Mohawk Skywalkers, industrialist visionaries, and can-do immigrants, all of whom had the guts to go up when everyone else was down.

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  Video:  Shoshana Bean and Maleah Joi Moon perform  “No One” from Hell’s Kitchen in a new music video.

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  Watch Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 80th Anniversary Concert here, directed & choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, featuring Michael Ball, Daniel Dae Kim, Maria Friedman, Audra McDonald, Julian Ovenden and more.  Available through June 28.

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  VA’s Signature Theatre has announced its 2024-25 season:

  Soft Power (Aug. 6 – Sept. 15), by David Henry Hwang & Jeanine Tesori, directed by Ethan Heard.    Set after the 2016 election, a Chinese American playwright is attacked by an unknown assailant and hallucinates a King and I-esque Golden Age musical comedy about a Chinese theatre producer and Hillary Clinton falling in love.

  Primary Trust (Sept. 10 – Oct. 20), by Eboni Booth, directed by Taylor Reynolds.    The play is set in Wally’s Tiki Bar and follows Kenneth, whose job loss upends his static existence. In this story of finding connection and moving forward, Kenneth must discover the courage to change his life.

  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Oct. 29 – Jan. 12, 2025), directed by Matthew Gardiner.

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  The American Popular Song Society will present its 3rd Annual Gala Benefit on Mon. June 17 at 5:30 PM at NYC’s Cutting Room, directed, music directed & hosted by Michael Lavine.

  Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire.