Today’s Highlights:
What If If Only, by Caryl Churchill, realized by Les Waters & Jared Mezzocchi, featuring Paul Juhn, Mia Katigbak, Kylie Kuioka, Jon Norman Schneider, and Bernard White, begins streaming nightly at 7 PM ET at NAATCO.
Roundabout Theatre‘s Curtain Up, Light the Lights! 2021 Gala, featuring Jane Krakowski, Titus Burgess, Rachel Brosnahan, Whoopi Goldberg, Blair Underwood, Emma Stone, and Vanessa Williams, takes place in person (at the Rumsey Playfield in Central Park — sold out) or online at 8:15 PM ET. $12 virtual TDF tickets here, or $25 virtual tickets here.
The 2021 Theatre Woman Awards Virtual Gala, honoring Estelle Parsons, Stephanie Berry, Taylor Reynolds, Meghan Finn, Cookie Jordan, Sheilah Rae, and Mei Ann Teo, with special guests Martha Gehman, Troy Anthony, Joan D. Firestone, Joe Barros, Susan Bernfield, Montano Blanco, Melody Brooks, and Gina Femina, streams at 7 PM ET here.
Movie Musical Monday, a discussion about “Funny Girl,” with special guest Bruce Vilanch, streams for FREE at 7 PM CT at Chicago’s Porchlight Theatre.
Ohio State Murders reading, by Adrienne Kennedy, directed by Kenny Leon, featuring Audra McDonald, Warner Miller, Lizan Mitchell, and Ben Rappaport, concludes streaming here.
Brutal Imagination, a filmed reading production, by Cornelius Eady, directed by Joe Morton, featuring Joe Morton and Sally Murphy, concludes streaming at Off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: No Stars in These Title Roles! by Jim Bernhard
Name these plays and musicals in which the characters named in the titles are not the leading roles.
1. Musical in which the leading role is Rose Hovick
2. Play in which the leading roles are Prince Hal and Sir John Falstaff
3. Musical in which the leading roles are Albert Peterson and Rose Grant
4. Play in which the leading roles are Marcus Brutus and Marc Antony
5. Musical in which the leading roles are Jerry and Joe
6. Play in which the leading roles are Vladimir and Estragon
7. Play in which the leading characters are Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins
8. Play in which the leading role is Elwood P. Dowd
9. Musical in which the leading roles are Maggie Harris and Max Grady
10. Play in which the leading roles are Shylock and Portia
Scroll down for the answers…
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Ben Power’s adaptation of The Lehman Trilogy will resume previews Sept. 25, open Oct. 14, and continue through Jan. 2, 2022 at the Nederlander Theatre, directed by Sam Mendes.
Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Adrian Lester, as the Lehman Brothers, their sons, and their grandsons.
On a cold September morning in 1844, a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brother, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establsh – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history.
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Steven Brinberg’s On A Clear Day You Can See SIMPLY BARBRA Forever… will take place Thurs. June 10 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Green Room, with music direction by Christopher Denny.
Ryan Silverman and Cameron Johnson.
Brinberg celebrates the 51st anniversary (delayed by a year by the pandemic) of Barbra Streisand’s beloved 1970 film, featuring many songs from and stories about the making of Vincente Minnelli’s last movie musical.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber has threatened to sue the UK government if they do not allow theatres to operate at full capacity from June 21.
Indoor entertainment venues were able to re-open on May 17 at 50% capacity, but many theatres have remained shut due to the financial struggles of playing to less than a full audience.
Lloyd Webber said if theatres cannot re-open at 100% capacity after June 21, the issue becomes “what is the legality of the whole thing?” He added, “If the Government’s own science has told them that buildings are safe… I’m advised that at that point things could get quite difficult. This is the very last thing that anybody wants to do, but there would become a legal case at that point because it’s their science – not ours. I would passionately hop that we don’t have to, but I think we would have to consider it.”
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Glimmer of Light, in celebration of Pride 2021, will take place Thurs. June 17 at 8:30 PM ET at Queens, NY’s Radial Park (in socially distanced pods)… and will stream for FREE beginning June 24 at 8 PM ET here.
Alex Newell, Ariana DeBose, Jo Ellen Pellman, Marti Allen-Cummings, Max Crum, Blaine Alden Krauss, Brian Sim, DeMarius R. Copes, Ezra Menas, Legacy BQPC (Ashton Muñiz, Basit Shittu, Garret Allen &Kyle Carerrero Lopez), Jan Spot, Sis, Felicia Fitzpatrick, L. Morgan Lee, Pepperming, and Shkina Nayfack.
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Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders will livestream at various times Jun 17 -20 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene.
Destina Huston (Iris Ann), Robert Hampshire (Shane Kenyon), Jacqueline William (Present Suzanne), Eunice Woods (Young Suzanne), Ernest Bentley (David/Val), and Dee Dee Battesast (Aunt Louise/Mrs. Tyler/Miss Dawson).
Suzanne arrives at Ohio State University in 1949 as one of the handful of Black freshmen and soon discovers that the “safe haven” of academia offers little sanctuary. Decades later, the accomplished writer returns to her alma mater to speak about her work – and unravels the heartbreaking truth and chilling mystery of her life lived in the shadows.
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Off-Broadway’s Keen Company concludes its 2020-21 season with a pay-what-you-can benefit broadcast of Jack Johnstone’s Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar: The Clever Chemist Matter on Thurs. June 10 at 7 PM ET (and available through Mon. June 14 at 7 PM ET), directed by Jonathan Silverstein. A live video talkback immediately follows the premiere on June 1o.
Santino Fontana, George Abud, Ali Ewoldt, Ted Koch, Susan Malloy, John-Andrew Marrison, Steven Ratazzi, and Jay Russell.
“Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was one of the longest running detective shows on radio – 13 years of intrigue and adventure. Presented by CBS Radio from 1949-1962, the conclusion of the series is often cited as end of the Golden Age of Radio. Jonny Dollar, “the freelance investigator with the action-packed expense account,” worked for the Universal Adjustment Bureau, flying from Mexico to swamps to California ghost towns. He would recover furs and diamonds for a cut of the goods, bodyguard wealthy men, and climb into the deathly Skull Canyon.
This episode, “The Clever Chemist Matter,” originally aired on Mar. 17, 1957, A simple change to an insurance policy leads to disastrous results when a scientific genius is killed, his partner blinded, and the laboratory door is found bolter from the outside. This sounds like a case for the man with the action-packed expense account, Johnny Dollar.
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The world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Emerald Fennell & David Zippel’s Cinderella will begin previews June 25 and open July 14 at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, directed by Laurence Connor, with choreography by Joann M. Hunter, and music direction by Ben Van Tienen.
Carrie Hope Fletcher (Cinderella), Ivano Turco (Prince Sebastian), Rebecca Trehearn (The Queen), Victoria Hamilton-Barritt (The Stepmother), Georgina Castle (Marie), Laura Baldwin (Adele), Claudie Onitiri (The Godmother), Caleb Roberts (Prince Charming), Georgina Onurorah (Alternate Cinderella), Sam Robinson (Dorian), Giovani Spano (Gawain), and Vinny Coyle (Arthur), with Michael Afemaré, Lydia Bannister, Lauren Byrne, Michelle Bishop, William Bozier, Sophie Campbell, Tobias Charles, Nicole Dion, Jonathan David Dudley, Dominic Adam Griffin, Michael Hamway, Leah Harris, James Lee Harris, Kate Ivory Jordan, Jessica Kirton, Kelsea-Rae Marshall, Andy Rees, Lauren Stroud, Georgia Tapp, Matthew Vinetot, Alexandra Waite Roberts, and Rodney Vubya.
Welcome to Belleville! the most aggressively picturesque town in the history of the world, populated exclusively with gorgeous townsfolk who stop at nothing to achieve perfection. Belleville is fairy tale come to life: a place where you can’t move without falling over a wishing well or quivering milkmaid. Maintaining this façade is a full time job, and one that is taken very seriously indeed. The only person steadfastly refusing to live the fairy tale is Cinderella, loud-mouthed, dripping with disdain, and more likely to roast Hansel and Gretel for dinner than play the demure and downtrodden maid, Cinderella is desperate to escape. But underneath it all, the loneliness that come with being the town pariah is wearing on her. It doesn’t help that her only friend, Prince Sebastian, has suddenly become the heir to the throne after the mysterious disappearance of his elder brother – sex god and charisma machine, Prince Charming. Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, the former shy and somewhat-less-sex-godish Sebastian seems to be quickly growing into his brother’s enormous britches, and out of his friendship with Cinderella. But this change of circumstances also introduces something else to the relationship, a new spark which neither of them quite know what to do with. Could it be that these two old friends mean more to one another than they are willing to let on?
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The soundtrack for Emerald Fennell & David Zippel’s Cinderella, directed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, will be released July 9 on most platforms.
“Far Too Late,” performed by Carrie Hope Fletcher, is available to listen to here.
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Video: Watch the first 8 minutes of the “In The Heights” film.
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The Play That Goes Wrong will return to New World Stages on Oct. 15. Casting TBA.
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Gingold Theatrical Group continues its Plays in Progress reading series (all at 7 PM ET).
JUNE 8: Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte, by Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, directed by Arpita Mukherjee.
JUNE 10: the scold’s bridle, by Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, directed by Jaye Hunt.
JUNE 12: Untitled Conspiracy Play, by Seth McNeill, directed by Lico Whitfield.
JUNE 15: Vigil-Aunties, by Divya Mangwani, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar
JUNE 17: There Goes the Neighborhood, by Marcus Scott, directed by Christopher Burris.
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Mark St. Germain’s Becoming Dr. Ruth will stream June 9 – July 24 at CA’s North Coast Rep, directed by David Ellenstein.
Tovah Feldshuh
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: No Stars in These Title Roles!
- Musical in which the leading role is Rose Hovick – Gypsy
- Play in which the leading roles are Prince Hal and Sir John Falstaff – King Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2
- Musical in which the leading roles are Albert Peterson and Rose Grant – Bye Bye Birdie
- Play in which the leading roles are Marcus Brutus and Marc Antony – Julius Caesar
- Musical in which the leading roles are Jerry and Joe – Sugar
- Play in which the leading roles are Vladimir and Estragon – Waiting for Godot
- Play in which the leading characters are Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins – Pygmalion
- Play in which the leading role is Elwood P. Dowd – Harvey
- Musical in which the leading roles are Maggie Harris and Max Grady – Goldilocks
- Play in which the leading roles are Shylock and Portia – The Merchant of Venice