Today’s Highlights:
A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, featuring Paul Mescal (Stanley Kowalski), Patsy Ferran (Blanche Du Bois), Anjana Vasan (Stella Kowalski), Dwane Walcott (Harold “Mitch” Mitchell), Eduardo Ackerman (Pablo), Gabriela García (Mexican Woman), Tom Penn (Doctor/Drummer), Jabez Sykes (Young Collector), Alexander Eliot (Steve), and Cash Holland (Eunice), with Francesca Knight, Rob Dempsey, Zach Parkin, and Constanza Ruff, re-opens at London’s Phoenix Theatre.
Celebration of the life of Ann Reinking, who passed away Dec. 12, 2020, at 1:30 PM at Broadway’s Ambassador Theatre. All are welcome. Tributes will be paid by James Naughton, Dylis Croman, Rob Fisher, Bebe Neuwirth, and Ben Vereen.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Whodunnit? by Jim Bernhard
1. In On the Twentieth Century, who plastered “Repent” stickers all over the train?… Oscar Jaffe … Lily Garland … Mrs. Letitia Primrose … the Conductor
2. In Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, who sells Joseph into slavery? …his father Jacob … his 11 brothers … the Pharaoh … Joseph’s wife
3. In Chicago, who is the father of Roxie’s baby? … Amos Hart … Billy Flynn … Fred Casely … No one – she only pretends to be pregnant
4. In Shenandoah, who captures Charlie Anderson’s son Robert? … Confederate soldiers … Union soldiers … a band of carpetbaggers … the Ku Klux Klan
5. In Hamlet, who murders Hamlet’s father? …Laertes … Gertrude … Claudius … Hamlet
6. In Major Barbara, who accepts money from a munitions manufacturer and a whisky distiller? … Major Barbara … the Salvation Army … the British Prime Minister … the Archbishop of Canterbury
7. In Arsenic and Old Lace, who murders twelve men and buries them in the cellar? … Teddy … Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha … Mortimer … Doctor Einstein
8. In Pippin, who kills King Charles? … his son Pippin … his wife Fastrada … his stepson Lewis … the Leading Player
9. In Carousel, who stabs Billy Bigelow? … Bascome … Julie … Billy himself … Jigger
10. In Little Shop of Horrors, who shoots Orin the dentist? Seymour … Audrey II …Mushnick … No one – he dies by asphyxiation
Scroll down for the answers…
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Reviews for Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green):Right from the start, we’re advised that Bob Fosse’s Dancin’… will be “almost plotless” and include “no messages.” Is that a challenge or an apology? In the often-thrilling, often-frustrating revival… the two possibilities are much the same. Substantially revamped and restaged by Wayne Cilento… this Dancin’ argues that Fosse’s genius was constrained by the pedestrian storytelling of musical theater, with its “villains,” “baritone heroes” and “Christmas trees.” True Fosseism, it seems, can fully thrive only in the abstract, Olympian realms of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. The dichotomy is false, and the insistence a little embarrassing; when judged only as a brief for that point, Dancin’ stumbles… the new material meant to bolster Fosse’s reputation doesn’t… The show is a joy every time it puts down its ax…
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …the fascinating if deeply conflicted new Broadway revival… Dancin’ is a revered part of their collective history, which must put all kinds of pressure on this cast… like many revivals of entertainments from that time, Dancin’ (now two acts, not three) lands in a kind of uneasy middle ground between past and present, old ways and new… its retro aesthetic now feels much like an NBC or BBC variety special from the era, the kind of epic pastiche that disappeared with premium cable… That’s the defining (and, some will likely say, debilitating) tension of the night: The legacy of perhaps America’s most famous, distinctive and deceased choreographer, as channeled through Cilento, one of the keepers of the flame, and the vitality of young dancers whose personal truths don’t have so much to do with seducing big spenders…
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead): …it has now arrived on Broadway in a production that pays homage to Fosse’s choreography without really channeling him. Despite an amazing troupe of dancers, you probably won’t feel the need to return… That’s because something is missing, and it’s not just Fosse. In fact, Cilento sticks maybe a little too close to Fosse’s original Dancin‘ blueprint, beginning with a ho-hum routine featuring Neil Diamond’s “Crunchy Granola Suite”… You don’t have to have seen the original version, though, to get the sense that this is a reproduction of something that used to be more exciting… the show’s unevenness becomes glaringly apparent when the momentum is lost with Ron Todorowski’s solo in “Ionisation”…
New York Theater (Jonathan Mandell): …a highly energetic if uneven two hour exploration of the Fosse style — sultry hip rolls, sure, but also athletic leaps. The show has no overall plot, and a stage set that looks designed for a rock concert tour… They don’t just dance — there’s a poem here, a monologue there, occasional brief dialogue, some competent singing – but boy do they dance! … it would probably take someone genuinely anti-show business to derive no enjoyment from any of the dancers in Bob Fosse’s Dancin,’ yet one would need to be more blindly pro-show business than I am to stay entranced by every one of the show’s 120 minutes (plus intermission.) … I’m not sure whether the problem is that the dances are not varied enough, or that the overall show is not structured carefully enough to inspire a sense of continuing forward motion…
Video: Watch 2 min. of the show….
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Theater Breaking Through Barriers will present Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage Apr. 18 – May 20 (0pening Apr. 27) at Theatre Row, directed by Nicholas Viselli.
David Burtka, Carey Cox, Gabe Fazio, and Christiane Noll.
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Karen Mason’s Back…And All That Jazz will run Apr. 27-30 at Chicago’s Davenport’s Piano Bar & Cabaret, directed by Barry Kleinbort, with music direction by Christopher Denny.
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“Play the Page – All about Shakespeare’s As You Like It,” a deep-dive discussion, will take place Mar. 26, Apr. 4 & ll, all at 4 PM at NYC’s 92Y, moderated by Lia Wallace.
Based on the American Shakespeare Center’s unique expertise in performance and scholarship, Play the Page unlocks the hidden (and not so hidden) details of Shakespeare’s language to inform and enliven choices made for performance. In this course, you’ll dive into As You Like It with Lia Wallace.
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East West Players presents the world premiere of Paulo K Tirol & Noam Shapiro’s On This Side of the World will run May 11 – June 4 (opening May 14) at the David Henry Hwang Theater, directed by Noam Shapiro, with music direction by Jennifer Lin & Marc Macalintal, and choreography by Anjanette Maraya-Ramey.
Steven-Adam Agdeppa, Zandi De Jesus, Michael C. Palma, Cassie Simone, Andrea Somera, Shaun Tuazon, Melvin Biteng, and Justine Rafael.
A woman flies from the Philippines to America with a one-way ticket and a suitcase full of stories. Each story is collected from immigrants who cam before her – tales of overseas workers, young lovers, and gossipy church ladies; snapshots of undocumented immigrants, millennial princesses and first-generation Americans. Suspended above the ocean, she replays these stories in her mind as she searches for the courage to embrace her future. This world premiere musical gives voices to Filipino immigrants navigating old lives and new beginnings, eight-thousand miles from home.
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Video: Taylor Iman Jones and Daniel Yearwood perform a remix of “Alone in the Universe”
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The Wiz will run June 13 – July 2 (0pening June 16) at Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre Company, directed & choreographed by Brian Jordan, Jr.
Link and casting TBA.
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MasterVoices will present Iolanthe on Wed. May 3, 2023 at 7 PM at Carnegie Hall, directed & conducted by Ted Sperling.
David Garrison (Lord Chancellor), Christine Ebersole (Queen of the Fairies), Shereen Ahmed (Iolanthe), Schyler Bargas (Strephon), Ashley Fabian (Phyllis), Santino Fontana (George, The Earl of Mountararat), Jason Danieley (Thomas, The Earl of Tolloller), Phillip boykin (Private Willis), and others to be cast from the Master Voices Chorus.
A battle of the sexes pitting members of Britain’s House of Lords against the Fairy Queen and her kin, yet its themes are supremely relatable today, which tells of how a minority of landed gentry make rules that dominate the majority, how boorish masculinity disrupts and dominates a tranquil civilization of women, and how all that may still lead to surprising results.
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Complete casting has been announced for Guadalís del Carmen’s Bees & Honey, to run May 4 – June 11 (opening May 22) at MCC Theater, directed by Melissa Crespo.
Maribel Martinez (Johaira) and Xavier Pacheco (Manuel).
A Washington Heights love story that follows married couple Manuel and Johaira as they enter new phases in their lives. but as the challenges of life and marriage mount, the young and ambitious couple must answer the age-old question: is Love enough?
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Sister Act will run Apr. 7 – May 14 at Boston’s Lyric Stage Company, directed by Leigh Barrett, with music direction by David F. Coleman and choreography by Dan Sullivan.
Kara Chu Nelson, Beth Gotha, Jackson Jirard, Joelle Lurie, Amie Lytle, Cristhian, Mancinas-García, Cherly MacMahon, Davron Monroe, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Meghan Rose, Kathey St. George, Carolyn Saxon, Damon Singletary, Kira Cowan Troilo, James Turner, and Todd Yard, with Alan Cid, Jenn Bubriski, and Lilian Salazar.
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Video: Annaleigh Ashford finds blood in the weirdest places in Sweeney Todd.
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The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has announced its 2023 Summer season:
Henry V (May 31 – Aug. 21), directed by Davis McCallum, featuring Emily Ota (Henry V), Duane Boutte, Timothy Bright, Carl Howell, Lennon Hu, Phoebe Lloyd, Melissa Mahoney, Sean McNall, Francis Pace-Nunez, Luis Quintero, Kurt Rhoads, Mayadevi Ross, Omar Shafiuzzaman, Stephen Michael Spencer, and Nance Williamson.
Love Labor’s Lost, (July 12 – Aug. 27) directed by Amanda Dehnert, featuring Duane Boutte, Timothy Bright, Carl Howell, Lennon Hu, Phoebe Lloyd, Melissa Mahoney, Sean McNall, Emily Ota, Francis Pace-Nunez, Luis Quintero, Kurt Rhoads, Mayadevi Ross, Omar Shafiuzzaman, Stephen Michael Spencer, and Nance Williamson.
Penelope (Sept. 2 – Sept. 17), by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean & Eva Steinmetz, directed by Eva Steinmetz, featuring Tatiana Wechsler, with Christine Bokhour. A re-imaging of The Odyssey from the point of view of a character of a character often relegated to the margins of the story.
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Make Them Hear You: Celebrating 40 years of Ahrens and Flaherty will take place Mon. Apr. 17 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company, directed by Jason Danieley.
Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty.
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Liz Callaway, Quentin Early Darrington, Lea Salonga, A.J. Shively, Christy Altomare, Shereen Ahmed, Hannah Elless, and Jason Danieley.
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Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa will run Apr. 6 – May 27 (opening Apr. 18) at the Olivier Theatre, directed by Josie Rourke, with choreography by Wayne McGregor.
Siobhán McSweeney, Ardal O’Hanlon, Alison Oliver, Louisa Harland, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Bláithín Mac Gabhann, Justine Mitchell, Tom Riley, Sean Donegan, Lauren Farrell, George Turner, and Caitríona Williams.
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Songs From Cabaret: Symphony Space’s 2023 Spring Gala will take place Mon. Apr. 24 at 8 PM at NYC’s Symphony Space, directed by Annette Jolles & Joel Fram, with music direction by Paul Staroba, and hosted by Danny Burstein.
Heath Saunders (Emcee), Adrianna Hicks (Sally Bowles), Jeff Kready (Clifford Bradshaw), Carolee Carmello (Fräulein Schneider), and Steven Skybell (Herr Schultz), with Leanne Antonio, Jerusha Cavazos, Dan Domenech, Brian Flores, Marina Kondo, Sarah Meach, Samantha Pollino, Christian Probst, and Alanna Saunders.
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The World Goes ‘Round will run Apr. 19 – May 21 at MD’s Olney Theatre, directed by Kevin S. McAllister, with choreography by Shalyce Hemby, and music direction by Christopher Youstra.
Nova Y. Payton (Woman 1), Natascia Diaz (Woman 2), Karen Vincent (Woman 3), and Harris Milgrim (male roles), with Ben Clark and MaryKate Brouillet.
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The world premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, formerly known as Square One, and written with David Ives, will premiere this September (dates TBA) at The Shed, directed by Joe Mantello.
Casting, creative team and additional information TBA.
The musical was inspired by two films – “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel”
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Robert Icke’s The Doctor will run June 3 – Aug. 19 at the Park Avenue Armory, directed by Icke.
Juliet Stevenson (Dr. Ruth Wolff), and more TBA.
The play follows a doctor who prohibits a priest from visiting a dying patient.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Whodunnit?
1. In On the Twentieth Century, Mrs. Letitia Primrose plastered “Repent” stickers all over the train.
2. In Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Joseph’s 11 brothers sell him into slavery.
3. In Chicago, no one is the father of Roxy’s baby – she only pretends to be pregnant.
4. In Shenandoah, Union soldiers capture Charlie Anderson’s son Robert.
5. In Hamlet, Claudius murder’s Hamlet’s father.
6. In Major Barbara, the Salvation Army accepts money from munitions.
7. In Arsenic and Old Lace, Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha murder twelve men and bury them in the cellar.
8. In Pippin, Pippin kills King Charles (but he returns to life)
9. In Carousel, Billy Bigelow stabs himself.
10. In Little Shop of Horrors, no one shoots Orin – he dies by asphyxiation.