Today’s Highlights:
A Sherlock Carol, written & directed by Mark Shanahan, featuring Drew McVety (Sherlock Holmes) and Thom Sesma (Ebenezer Scrooge), with Dan Domingues, Anissa Felix, Isabel Keating, and Mark Price, opens at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages.
A Strange Loop, by Michael R. Jackson, directed by Stephen Brackett, featuring Antwayn Hopper (Thought 6), L. Morgan Lee (Thought 1), John-Michael Lyles (Thought 3), James Jackson Jr. (Thought 2), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), Jason Beasey (Thought 5), and Jaquel Spivey (Usher), with Christopher Michael Richardson, opens at DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Sing Out For Freedom benefit concert (both live & streamed), directed by Jess McLeod, featuring Laura Benanti, Aydole Casel, November Christine, Kayla Davion Somáh Haaland, Nikki M. James, Judy Kuhn, Arian Moayed, Lauren Molina, Alba Ponce de León, Nikhil Saboo, Arya Shahi, Liana Stampur, Shaina Taub, Alexandria Wailes, Kuhoo Verma, Princess Sasha Victomé, and Brandon Michael Nase, at 7:30 PM ET at NYC’s Town Hall.
We’re Old-Fashioned FREE concert, celebrating the songs of Jerome Kern, starring Steve Ross & Shana Farr, at 2 PM ET at NYCs National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South). No reservations or registration required.
Charles Troy’s “From Russia to Berlin: A Century of Irving 1888 – 1989” multimedia series, by Charles Troy, begins streaming evenings at 5:30 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s York Theatre.
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Red Bull Theater’s The Alchemist at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages:
NY Times (Elisabeth Vincentelli): … Naturally, shenanigans and slapstick ensue, spiced with an abundance of saucy double, and sometimes single entendres… the result is not as consistently funny as their earlier show, especially in the slack second act. Admittedly, very little is… Carson Elrod fleshes out Dapper with a veritable arsenal of mimicry and affectations that make his every appearance a delight… Hatcher dispenses such anachronisms judiciously — a joke referring to the James Bond universe is milked for all it’s worth, especially visually — but mostly he avoids the trap of over-relying on them for easy laughs… The dialogue often zings, and Berger orchestrates the farcical comings and goings on Alexis Distler’s bi-level set at the requisite madcap pace…
New York Stage Review (David Finkle): …This of a work that Samuel Taylor Coleridge called one of the three best plots… [Jesse Berger] has directed and produced an entertaining revival-revisal for our time…He’s accomplished this using Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation and tapping some of the best farceurs hanging around these days…. This comedic posse… consists of Reg Rogers, Manoel Felciano, Jennifer Sanchez, Carson Elrod, Stephen DeRosa, Jacob Ming-Trent, Louis Mustillo, Nathan Christopher, Allen Tedder, and Teresa Avia Lim… Hatcher (likely at Berger’s request) has concocted not so much a Reader’s Digest version as a Theatergoer’s Digest version.
DC Metro Arts (Deb Miller): Jeffrey Hatcher’s new time-traveling adaptation of Ben Jonson’s 1610 classic The Alchemist… freely merges Jacobean comedy with screwball door-slammer farce and post-modern pop-culture references to deliver a timeless message about greed, gullibility, and duplicity… Jesse Berger directs the reworked world-premiere version with an eye and ear on the non-stop hilarity, performed with perfect comic timing by an uproarious ten-person cast… though Hatcher’s revised script has fewer characters and takes places in a single locale, it remains rich, complex, and loaded with the parodic wit of the 17th-century original, while also acknowledging similar concerns in our current times…
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Runaways by Jim Bernhard
1. Runaways, a 1978 off-Broadway musical about children and teens who ran away from home, was written, composed, conducted, and choreographed by…Elizabeth Swados…Noël Coward…Jason Robert Brown…Lin-Manuel Miranda
2. In Pygmalion (and My Fair Lady), when Eliza walks out on Prof. Higgins and Col. Pickering, she runs away to…the police…her father, Alfred P. Doolittle…the Embassy Ball…Higgins’ mother
3. For the German premiere of A Doll’s House, Ibsen wrote an alternative ending in which, instead of running away from her husband, Nora…goes to the kitchen and begins baking cakes…commits suicide… sees her children and presumably decides to stay in the marriage for their sake…steals all her husband’s money
4. In Evita, 15-year-old Eva Duarte longs to run away from home and seek fame and fortune in the “Big Apple,” which is…New York City…Appleton, Wisconsin…Buenos Aires…Cupertino, California, where Apple Inc. is headquartered
5. In the musical Oliver!, when Oliver Twist runs away from the Sowerberrys and is taken in by Fagin and his band of young pickpockets, Oliver believes Fagin is teaching the boys …how to make handkerchiefs and pocketbooks…how to speak French…how to cook…how to dance
6. In Annie, when Annie runs away from the orphanage, she winds up in a shanty town, where the homeless are singing about President….Franklin D. Roosevelt…Herbert Hoover…Calvin Coolidge…Warren G. Harding
7. Huck and Jim in Big River try to run away from Missouri and go north by way of…the Underground Railroad…stowing away on a riverboat…a raft…horse and buggy
8. In Cabaret Sally Bowles, who ran away from her home in England, sings that “Mama thinks I’m living in a ….five-star hotel…convent…youth hostel…kibbutz “
9. In Fiddler on the Roof Tevye’s daughter Chava elopes with Fyedka, and Tevye objects because…Fyedka has no money…Chava is too young…Tevye wants his daughter Hodel to marry Fyedka…Fyedka is not Jewish
10. In the original Peter Pan story, Peter explains to Wendy that he ran away from home the day he was born because…he heard his parents talking about what he would be when he grew up…he wanted to join the circus…he was abducted by pirates…he was bored to tears
Scroll down for the answers…
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Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Broadway Valentine: A Benefit for MTC will take place Mon. Feb. 14 at NYC’s Edison Ballroom.
Director, performers, link, and additional details TBA.
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New York City Opera & National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene present the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon & Michael Korie’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Jan. 19-30, 2022 at NYC’s Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (36 Battery Place), directed & choreographed by Richard Stafford, and conducted by James Lowe.
Rachel Blaustein, Brian James Myer, Mary Phillips, Stephen Powell, Victor Starsky, and more.
Set on the eve of World War II, this is the story of an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, who believe they will be immune to the changes happening around them. As they make a gracious haven for themselves in their garden, walling out the unpleasantness of the world outside, Italy forms its alliance with Germany and begins to enforce anti-Semitic racial laws. But the Finzi-Continis discover too late that no one is immune, no one is untouchable.
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CT’s Goodspeed Musicals has announced its 2022 season:
Cabaret (May 13 – July 3), directed by James Vásquez.
Ann of Green Gables (July 15 – Sept. 4), world premiere by Matte O’Brien & Matt Vinson, directed by Jenn Thompson, with choreography by Jennifer Jancuska.
42nd Street (Sept. 16 – Nov. 6), directed & choreographed by Randy Skinner
A Goodspeed world premiere original TBA (Nov. 18 – Dec. 30)
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The New York Pops 39th Birthday Gala will take place Apr. 25, 2022 at 7 PM ET at Carnegie Hall, directed by TBA , directed & conducted by Steven Reineke.
Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez.
TBA.
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Shoshana Bean: Sing Your Hallelujah will take place Mon. Dec. 13 at 7:30 PM ET at NYC’s Apollo Theater.
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Video: Judy Kaye and Jeanna de Waal discuss Diana the Musical on NBC.
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Article: “How Tick.Tick…Boom! changed Lin Manuel Miranda‘s life.
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The recent Lincoln Center revival of My Fair Lady will begin previews May 7 – Aug. 20, 2022 (opening May 17) at the London Coliseum, directed by Bartlett Sher.
Casting TBA.
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The world premiere of Eloise Coopersmith & Roxanna Ward’s My (Unauthorized) Hallmark Movie Musical will run Dec. 3-19 at Hollywood’s Broadwater Main Stage Theatre, directed by Anne Runolfsson.
Eloise Coopersmith, with Nina Herzog, Benny Perez, Andrew Joseph Perez, Jim Blanchette, Tess Adams, Monika Pena, Maggie Howell, Samantha Lebecque.
Admit it: We are suckers for a story with romance. This live show unveils a writer who dreams herself awake and rediscovers romance in a nonconventional way. Audiences will experience one live actor interacting with a three-screen multimedia actors.
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Video: Andréa Burns performs “Life with Harold” from The Full Monty.
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Daniel MacIvor’s Never Swim Alone and The Soldier Dreams have been extended through Dec. 12 at LA’s Open Fist Theatre Company, directed by Amanda Weier.
(The Soldier Dreams): Stephanie Crothers, Carmella Jenkins, Conor Lane, Schuyler, Amy Moorman, Ethan Niven, Stevie-Jean Placek, Scott Roberts, David Shofner, and Casey Sullivan… and… (Never Swim Alone): Bryan Bertone, Emma Bruno, and Dylan Maddalena.
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The 2021 Kritzerland Holiday Show will take place Sun. Dec. 12 at 7 PM at Studio City’s Feinstein’s at Vitellos, directed by Bruce Kimmel, with music direction by Lloyd Cooper.
Bill Hayes, Maegan McConnell, Kerry O’Malley, Adrienne Stiefel, Robert Yacko, Alexa Margolis, and Aja Purkin.
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A UK tour of Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice will launch Mar. 23-26 at Southampton’s Mayflower Studios, directed by Bronagh Lagan. Click here for the complete tour schedule.
Christina Bianco (LV), Shobna Gulati (Mari Hoff), Ian Kelsey (Ray Say), Akshay Gulati (Billy), William Ilkley (Mr. Boo), Fiona Mulvaney (Sadie), and James Robert Moore (Phone Mam), with. Anna Hale.
Little Voice is a woman with a talent for embodying the legendary diva performers she loves to listen to, from Judy Garland to Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe..
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Together Apart, written, composed, produced & directed by Brown University alumni from different eras, in support of The Actors Fund, streams here.
Julie Bowen, Karyn Bryant, Joel De La Fuente, Josh Hamilton, Ann Harada, Peter Jacobson, Lisa Loeb, Rhonda Ross, Jobeth Williams, Akin Adams, and many more alumni.
Ten mini-musicals about one life-changing year.
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A filmed version of London’s Anything Goes, starring Sutton Foster, will be released Nov. 28 in movie theaters.
Click here to find a movie theater near you.
Click here to watch a promo.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Runaways
1. Runaways was written, composed, conducted, and choreographed by Elizabeth Swados.
2. In Pygmalion (and My Fair Lady), when Eliza walks out on Prof. Higgins and Col. Pickering, she runs away to Higgins’ mother.
3. For the German premiere of A Doll’s House, Ibsen wrote an alternative ending in which Nora is persuaded to stay in the marriage when she sees her children. This happy ending, written by Ibsen at the insistence of the German star playing Nora, he later called a “barbaric outrage.”
4. In Evita, 15-year-old Eva Duarte longs to seek fame and fortune in Buenos Aires.
5. In the musical Oliver!, Oliver believes Fagin is teaching the boys how to make handkerchiefs and pocketbooks.
6. In Annie, when Annie runs away from the orphanage, she winds up in a shanty town, where the homeless are singing about President Herbert Hoover.
7. Huck and Jim in Big River try to run away from Missouri and go north by way of a raft.
8. In Cabaret Sally Bowles sings that “Mama thinks I’m living in a convent.”
9. In Fiddler on the Roof ,Tevye’s daughter Chava elopes with Fyedka, and Tevye objects because Fyedka is not Jewish.
10. In the original Peter Pan story, Peter explains to Wendy that he ran away from home the day he was born because he heard his parents talking about what he would be when he grew up.