Today’s Highlights:
A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jefferson Mays, Susan Lyons & Michael Arden, directed by Arden, and starring Mays, opens at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre.
Becky Nurse of Salem, by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Rebecca Taichman, featuring Tina Benko, Candy Buckley, Alicia Crowder, Deirdre O’Connell, Thomas Jay Ryan Sanchez, and Bernard White, opens at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theatre.
Mint Theatre‘s The Rat Trap, by Noël Coward, directed by Alexander Lass, featuring James Evans, Elisabeth Gray, Ramzi Khalaf, Heloise Lowenthal, Cynthia Mace, Claire Saunders, and Sarin Monae, with Emily Bosco, Jason Eddy, and Kate Hampton, opens at Off-Broadway’s NYC Center Stage II.
Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman, featuring Jonathan Groff (Franklin), Lindsay Mendez (Mary), Daniel Radcliffe (Charley), Sherz Aletaha (Scotty/Mrs. Spencer/Auditionee), Krystal Joy Brown (Gussie), Katie Rose Clarke (Beth), Leana Rae Concepcion (Newscaster/Waitress/Auditionee), Carter Harris & Colin Keane (Frank Jr. (alternate as Frank Jr.), Corey Mach (Tyler/Make-Up Artist), Talia Robinson (Meg), Reg Rogers (Joe), Jamila Sabares-Klemm (Dory/Evelyn), Brian Sears (Photographer/Bunker), Christian Strange (RU/Newscaster/Reverend), Vishal Vaidya (Jerome), Natalie Wachen (KT), and Jacob Keith Watson (Terry/Mr. Spencer, with Morgan Kirner, Amanda Rose, Evan Alexander Smith, Koray Tarhan, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop.
The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, written by Mario Correa, Lily Houghton, Roger Q Mason, Michael Mitnick, Nikkole Salter, and Jonathan Marc Sherman…… directed by Jake Beckhard, Victor Malana Maog, Kathleen Marshall, and Leigh Silverman……. and featuring Justin Bartha, Julie Benko, Julia Chan, Lilli Cooper, Willa Fitzgerald, Kathryn Gallagher, River Gallo, Joel Marsh Garland, Mamie Gummer, Jin Ha, Amy Hargreaves, Rachel Hilson, Alex Moffat, Talene Monahon, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Sarah Steele, at NYC’s Town Hall.
Maltby & Shire: Revue #3 concert, with special guests Nikki M. James, Daniel Jenkins, Karen Ziemba, Kerry Butler, Penny Fuller, Sydney Harcourt, Nikki M. James, Jelani Remi, Daniel Jenkins, and Chip Zien, at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below.
Barbra & Liza Live! concert, starring Stephen Brinberg (Barbra) and Rick Skye (Liza), at 7 PM at NYC’s Chelsea Table & Stage.
Broadway Dreams‘ New York City Concert, directed by Spencer Liff, featuring Addalie Burns, Amy Bransky, Andrew McCloud, Annabel Lamm, Anne Kelly, Anzli McNew, Asten Nolan, Aubrey Dunbar, Audrey Lyn Crabano, Bradyn Prisand, Bria Brown, Bruno Peixoto, Charles Rapp, Chase Chiles, Christian Dorey, Dan Rozin, Dylan Gibson, Ella Neumann, Enyonam Osae, Ethan Jih-Cook, Evan Kupersmith, Faith Flanders, Gabriella Gonzalez, Gabrielle Lieberman, Hannah Hawkshaw, Isabella Amara, Justin Rivers, Katy Plaziak, Luke Bove, Mallorie Mendoza, Marshall Mabry, Matt Bruce, Matthew Irani, Mekinzie Neville, Natalie Schroeder, Philly Kang, Phoebe Jacobs, Raleigh Risser, Ravyn Calderon, Ryan Christopher, Sage Jepsen, Sebastian Baroulette, Sofie Poliakoff, Sunny Lehrhoff, Talia Hill, Tenda Kavuma, Thea Erichsen, Tristan Hill, Tyson Hill, Vanessa Shinault, Vincent Marcello, Will Burnett, William Foon, Zephaniah Wages, Zoltan Berencsi, and Zuzu Lewis, at 5 & 7:30 PM at NYC’s RWS Studios (37-12 35th St,, Long Island City).
Funny Girl cast album, featuring Lea Michele, Ramin Karimloo, Tovah Feldshuh, Jared Grimes, and many more, released digitally.
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Reviews for KPOP at Off-Broadway’s Circle in the Square:
NY Times (Ben Brantley): So just how do you define the phenomenon known as K-pop — or, for that matter, the new multistranded, multichambered immersive performance piece called KPOP, which occupies two floors of a building in Hell’s Kitchen?… vibrates with the frenzy of its contradictions… It’s a satire! It’s a soap opera!… Like the young stars it portrays, “KPOP” sometimes works too hard to put itself over. It is least interesting at its most didactic. And it suffers from its own conflicted intentions… The show is best when parody blurs into the already surreal dimensions of what’s being parodied.
Hollywood Reporter (Frank Scheck): The odds are that unless you’re Asian, or possibly a teenager, you haven’t given much thought to Korean pop music… It’s now the subject of an ambitious new immersive, interactive musical that is often as physically exhausting as it is wildly entertaining… The most dramatic scene occurs in MwE’s hidden sanctuary, where she conducts a carefully scripted Q&A session under Ruby’s watchful eyes… Despite its plethora of incidents, the show’s book, written by Jason Kim, proves its weakest element, with the overlong proceedings becoming repetitive and meandering. But the paper-thin characterizations and hackneyed dialogue don’t prevent KPOP from being great fun…
Time Out NY (Adam Feldman): The delightful new musical KPOP knows what kind of immersive theater it wants to be: The script says it aims to plunge us into the world of contemporary Korean music “like a bubble bath,” and that’s exactly what it does. It all pours out in the opening number… For the next two and a half hours, as we move in groups through different areas of the shiny new A.R.T./New York Theatres complex, tiny bubbles of pleasure keep floating up and bursting all around us. Pop! Pop! Pop! We’re sold…. Kim’s multiple stories—carefully coordinated by director Teddy Bergman to unfold simultaneously for different groups of audience members… talented and ultracute performers…
Video: Video montage.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Science Class by Jim Bernhard
- Isaac’s Eye, a play by Lucas Hnath, is about…Isaac Asimov…Isaac Newton…Isaac Watts…Oscar Isaac
- Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen deals with the physicist Werner Heisenberg and his mentor…Niels Bohr…Sigmund Freud…Hans Christian Andersen…Copernicus
- In Life of Galileo, by Bertolt Brecht, Galileo fraudulently claims that he invented a Dutch device known as a…Bunsen burner…Petri dish…microscope…telescope
- In Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, a teacher is charged with a crime for teaching a theory of…Albert Einstein…Charles Darwin…Gregor Mendel…Hippocrates
- In Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists, three men who claim to be Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Johann Wilhelm Möbius all reside in…a deserted laboratory…a medieval castle…a sanatorium for the mentally ill…the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
6. In The Alchemist by Ben Jonson a con man promises a potential customer that he can use a philosopher’s stone to turn any metal into…diamonds…. wine…gold…anything he wishes
7. In Proof by David Auburn the principal characters are… biologists…. physicists…chemists…mathematicians
8. Monopoly, by Mike Daisey deals with Nikola Tesla and his frequent adversary…Henry Ford…Alexander Graham Bell…Thomas A. Edison…. Carrie Nation
9. The Water Engine by David Mamet concerns an invention that can create electricity from…distilled water…dishwater…sea water…soda water
10. Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore deals with scientist Alan Turing’s work during World War II in deciphering the Nazi code known as Hassenpfeffer…Overlord… Enigma …Mein Kampf
Scroll down for the answers…
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VA’s Signature Theatre has announced So Many Possibilities: A Season of Sondheim (2023):
Merrily We Sing-Along (Jan. – Apr. at Ali’s Bar), with each sing-along featuring a different Sondheim theme.
Into the Woods (through Jan. 29, 2023)
The Signature Show: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim (Nov. 26), FREE on YouTube @singature
Everything Was Possible: Talkback and Book Signing with Anika and Ted Chapin (Dec. 16, from 5-6 PM). FREE event. A discussion of “Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies.” FREE.
Merrily We Sing-Along: West Side Story (Jan. 9 at 7:30 PM).
Merrily We Sing-Along: Love, I Hear (Feb. 10 at 7:30 PM)
Pacific Overtures (Mar. 7 – Apr. 9),
Merrily We Sing-Along: Everything’s Coming Up Sondheim (Apr. 14)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (May 16 0 July 9)
…and more…
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Complete casting has been announced for the world premiere of Perry Henzell & Trevor Rhone’s The Harder They Come, to run Feb. 16 – Mar. 26 (opening Mar. 15) at The Public Theater, directed by Henzell.
Casting TBA.
The story of Ivan, a young singers who arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, eager to become a start. After falling in love and cutting a record deal with a powerful music mogul, Ivan soon learns that the game is rigged and as he becomes increasingly defiant, he finds himself in a battle that threatens no only his live, but the very fabric of Jamaican society.
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A benefit concert performance of Chess, in support of ECF (Entertainers’ Community Fund), will take place Mon. Dec. 12 at 7:30 PM at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer.
Darren Criss (Fredie Trumper), Lena Hall (Florence Vassey), Ramin Karimloo (Anatoly Sergievsky), Solea Pfeiffer (Svetlana Swergievsky), and more TBA.
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Joaquina Kalukango (Witch) will begin her run Dec. 16 in Into the Woods at Broadway’s St. James Theatre. The musical will close Jan. 8.
She replaces Patina Miller & Montego Glover, who currently share the role.
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Nick Cearley & Lauren Molina‘s “Sleigh My Name” will be released the first week of December on all streaming platforms.
Nick Adams, Nathan Lee Graham, Lesli Margherita, Leslie McDonel, Randy Harrison, and Lindsay Nicole Chambers.
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The world premiere of B. Jeffrey Madoff’s Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical will begin May 31, 2023 at Chicago’s Studebaker Theatre (link TBA), directed by SheldonEpps, with choreography by Edgar Godineaux, and music direction by Shelton Becton.
Saint Aubyn & Nathaniel Washington (sharing the role of Dennis Edwards at different ages in life), Stanley Wayne Mathis (Harold Logan), Donnie Hammond (Sister Rosetta Tharpe), Miles Boone (Little Richard), and Desireé Murphy (Emma), with Ben Dibble, Robert H. Fowler, Kyshawn Lane, Todd Lawson, Lizzie Mason, Charlotte McKinley, and Dony Wright, with Michael Covel, Iykechi, McCoy, and Alyssa Ramsey.
As a young Black recording artist in the segregated Deep South of the pre-Civil Rights Era, Price’s success across racial divides was even more remarkable. Armed with determination and a soulful sound embraced by the youth movement during the early days of rock & roll, Price skyrocketed to stardom in 1952 when his single “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” hit No. 1 on the R&B charts, making him the first teenager to sell over a million records. However, the path to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was a winding one: immediately after the success of his first record, he was drafted to fight in the Korean War in 1953. But Price, a master of reinvention, would find his footing time and again. He became the first Black man to open a nightclub below Harlem in New York City, and the first recording artist of any color to create his own record label, generating more hits like “Stagger Lee” and “Personality,” and spreading the New Orleans R&B sound throughout the world.
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Eleri Ward: New York City Folk Sondheim Concert will take place Mon. Dec. 19 at 8 PM at NYC’s Sony Hall. The album, announced earlier this year, will be released soon (date TBA) on all platforms.
Laura Benanti, Bobby Conte, Julia Murney, and Samantha Pauly.
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Mary Poppins will run Dec. 6-24 at Houston’s TUTS, directed by Julie Kramer, with choreography by Jessica Hartman, and music direction by Stephen W. Jones.
Olivia Hernandaz (Mary Poppins), Matt Loehr (Bert), Courtney Markowitz (Winifred Banks), Bret Shuford (George Banks), Abbilyse Caudle (Jane Banks), Daniel Karash (Michael Banks), Susan Koozin (Queen Victoria / Bird Woman / Miss Andrew), Paul Hope (Admiral Boom / Bank Chairman), Cathy Newman (Mrs. Brill), Raven Justine Troup (Katie Nanna / Mrs. Smythe), Aisha Ussery (Mrs. Corey), Holland Vavra (Miss Lark), and LaBraska Washington (Robertson Ay), with ReiAkazawa-Smith, Mike Baerga, Sophia Clarke, Austin Colburn, Evin Johnson (Miles Marmolego), Sarah Sachi, Ben Lanham, Christopher Scurlock, Yasmyn Sumiyoshi, and Ryan Winkers, with many more local children.
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National Theatre Live presents a livestreamed production of London’s Much Ado About Nothing will take place Sat. Dec. 10 at 3 PM at UCLA’s James Bridge’s Theater, directed by Simon Godwin.
Katherine Parkinson and John Heffernan, and more…
Note: Masks are required.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Science Class
- Isaac’s Eye, a play by Lucas Hnath, is about Isaac Newton.
- Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen deals with the physicist Werner Heisenberg, and his mentor, Niels Bohr.
- In Life of Galileo, by Berthold Brecht, Galileo fraudulently claims that ne invented a Dutch device known as a telescope.
- In Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, a teacher is charged with a crime for teaching a theory (evolution of Charles Darwin).
- In Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The Physicists, three men who claim to be Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Johan Wilhelm Mobius.
- In The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson, a con man promises a potential customer that can use a philosopher’s stone to turn any metal into gold.
- In Proof, by David Auburn, the principal characters are mathematicians.
- Monopoly, by David Auburn, deals with Nikola Tesla and his frequent adversary, Thomas A. Edison.
- The Water Engine, by David Mamet, concerns an invention that can create electricity from distilled water.
- Breaking the Code, by Hugh Whitemore, deals with scientists Alan Turing’s work during World War II in deciphering the Nazi code known as Enigma.