Today’s Highlights:
The Acting Company‘s reading of Seán O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman, directed by Ian Belkap, featuring Hannah Cabell, Eddie Cahill, Owen Campbell, Gabriel Ebert, John Glover, John Keating, Patrick Kerr, Lauren Lee, David Manis, Peter McNally, and Kathryn Meisle, at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Getting Out the Vote, by Jim Bernhard
1. Gore Vidal’s The Best Man is a play about…the groom’s attendant at a society wedding…a Mr. Universe competition…a Presidential election…a chess tournament
2. In Of Thee I Sing, the basis of Wintergreen’s Presidential platform is…the economy…war…taxes…love
3. Rodgers and Hart’s 1937 musical I’d Rather Be Right starred what performer of an earlier era as Franklin D. Roosevelt?…Al Jolson…George M. Cohan…Eddie Cantor…W. C. Fields
4. All the Way on Broadway starred Bryan Cranston as President…John F. Kennedy…Harry S. Truman…Richard Nixon…Lyndon B. Johnson
5. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a musical about the U. S. Presidency, was written by lyricist-bookwriter Alan Jay Lerner and composer….Frederick Loewe…Richard Rodgers…Leonard Bernstein…Marvin Hamlisch
6. Irving Berlin’s musical Mr. President starred Robert Ryan as U. S. President…Franklin D. Roosevelt…Abraham Lincoln…Thomas Jefferson… Stephen Decatur Henderson
7. Teddy and Alice was a musical about President Theodore Roosevelt and Alice…his wife…his secretary…his daughter…his mistress
8. David Mamet’s November starred what actor as the President of the United States?…John Lithgow…Joe Mantegna…Nathan Lane…Matthew Broderick
9. The “Frost” in Frost/Nixon refers to…the poet Robert Frost…interviewer David Frost…Nixon’s “frosty” personality…Nixon’s secretary Mary Lou Frost
10. The Great Society by Robert Schenkkan, a sequel to All the Way, continued the story of Lyndon B. Johnson, played by…Bryan Cranston…Charles Durning…Dana Carvey…Brian Cox
Scroll down for the answers…
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George Clooney & Grant Heslov’s Good Night and Good Luck will begin previews March 12, 2025 and open Apr. 3 at the Winter Garden Theatre, directed by David Cromer.
George Clooney, and more TBA.
Tune in to the golden age of broadcast journalism and Edward R. Murrow’s legendary, history-altering, on-air showdown with Senator Joseph McCarthy. As McCarthyism casts a shadow over America, Murrow and his team at CBS choose to confront the growing tide of paranoia and propaganda, even if it means turning the federal government and a worried nation against them.
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Video: Highlights from Ragtime at New York City Center.
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Slumdog Millionaire is in development as a musical, with a new score by A.R. Rahman.
Creators, casting, timeline and additional information TBA.
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Jeff Foy & Jacob Foy’s The Z Team will run Nov. 8-23 at Theatre Row, directed by Jeff Whiting.
Allie Trimm, Tyler Cruz, Ze’ev Barmor, Jakob Martinez-Cooper, Kaelee Albritton, Darby McDonough, Joe Mucciolo, Drew Starlin, Daniel Arana, and Gabrielle Filloux.
Jerry’s failing advertising company is struggling to keep up with its most important projects, so when his girlfriend “asks” him to create a commercial for her terrible new product (a yoga mat with a blender on it), he comes up with an innovative idea- to take the worst person from each department and assemble them to create the commercial. Hilarity ensues as the “Z Team” works to create an unforgettable commercial for the world’s worst product: The Bend and Blend
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Holiday Regards: A Revue to Celebrate will run Dec. 7 & 8 at Off-Broadway’s Urban Stages, directed by Sara Louise Lazarus, with music direction by Michael Lavine.
Linda Purl, Robert Cuccioli, Bethe Austin, and Steven Brinberg.
Elia Berk, Nikita Burshteyn, Eric Michael Billett, Stephanie Pope Lofgren, and Megan Styrna.
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Gingold Theatrical Group‘s The Devil’s Disciples, by George Bernard Shaw, adapted & directed by David Staller, continues through Nov. 23 at Theatre Row.
Nadia Brown, Susan Cella, Tina Chilip, Teresa Avia Lim, and Folami Williams, with Fiona Maguire, and Lauren Zbylski.
It’s 1777 in New Hampshire and the future of our country is at stake! What can one determined woman and two confused men do to ensure a Democratic future? In this new adaptation, female ferocity rules as this legendary and almost true historical adventure comedy told by five power-house women.
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Michael Colby’s Holiday Regards will run Dec. 7-8 at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages, directed by Sara Louise Lazarus, with music direction by Michael Lavine.
Ed Alstrom, Shelton Becton, Michele Brourman, Giuliano Ciabatta, Andrea Colby, Mary Feinsinger, Ned Paul Ginsburg, PaulKatz, Nicholas Levin, Sheldon Levin, Jeffrey Lodin, Gerald Jay Markoe, Alex Rybeck, Steven Silverstein, Jack Urbont, Seth Weintstein, andBill Zeffiro.
Linda Purl, Robert Cuccioli, Bethe Austin, and Steven Brinberg.
Celia Berk, Nikita Burshteyn, Eric Michael Gillett, Stephanie Pope Lofgren, and Megan Styrna.
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John Mulaney All In: Comedy About Love will open Dec. 11 at the Hudson Theatre.
(rotating): Fred Armisen & Renée Elise Goldsberry (Dec. 11-30), Chloe Fineman (Jan. 2-12), and Richard Kind (dates TBA), with additional casting through the rest of the run to be announced soon.
A series of hilarious stories about dating, heartbreak, marriage and that sort of thing, adapted from the short stories of Simon Rich, and performed by a rotating cast of some of the funniest people on the planet. Sometimes they will play pirates, sometimes they will play dogs, and there’s one where we make them talk in British accents. But even though the show’s kind of all over the place, it’s meant to tell one simple story: that the most important part of life is who we share it with. We hope everybody will relate to it, even if it was their date’s idea to come and they are starting out from a place of quiet resentment.
An Afternoon with Heather Headley will take place Sun. Nov. 24 at 2 PM at NYC’s 92NY.
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The West End production of Operation Mincemeat, by Mr. Cumming, Felix Hagan, Ms. Hodgson & Ms. Roberts, will begin previews Feb. 15, and open Mar. 20 at the Golden Theater, directed by Robert Hastie.
David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Natasha Hodgson, Jak Malone, and Zoë Roberts.
It’s 1943, and the Allied Forces are on the ropes. Luckily, they’ve got a trick up their sleeve. Well, not up their sleeve, per se, but rather inside the pocket of a stolen corpse. Equal parts farce, thriller, and Ian Fleming-style spy caper (with an assist from Mr. Fleming himself), the play tells the wildly improbable and hilarious true story of the covert operation that turned the tide of WWII.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Getting Out the Vote
1. Gore Vidal’s The Best Man is a play about a Presidential election.
2. In Of Thee I Sing, the basis of Wintergreen’s Presidential platform is love.
3. Rodgers and Hart’s 1937 musical I’d Rather Be Right starred George M. Cohan.
4. All the Way starred Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon B. Johnson.
5. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a musical about the U. S. Presidency, was written by lyricist-bookwriter Alan Jay Lerner and composer Leonard Bernstein.
6. Irving Berlin’s musical Mr. President starred Robert Ryan as fictional U. S. President Stephen Decatur Henderson.
7. Teddy and Alice was a musical about President Theodore Roosevelt and Alice, his daughter.
8. David Mamet’s November starred Nathan Lane.
9. The “Frost” in Frost/Nixon refers to interviewer David Frost.
10. The Great Society by Robert Schenkkan continued the story of Lyndon B. Johnson, played by Brian Cox.
