Today’s Highlights:
Drag: The Musical, by Alaska Thunderf*ck, Tomas Costanza & Ashley Gordon, directed & choreographed by Spencer Liff, featuring Alaska Thunderf*ck (Kitty Galloway (through Jan. 11, 2025), Nick Adams (Alexis Gilmore), Lagoona Bloo (Tuna Turner), Jan Sport (Savannah St. James), Jujubee (The Tigress), Nick Laughlin (Puss Puss Dubois), J. Elaine Marcos (Gloria Schmidt), Rita Laritz & Joey McIntyre (Tom Hutchinson (through Nov. 24), Luxx Noir London (Popcorn), Bre Jackson (Dixie Coxworth), Eddie Korbich (Drunk Jerry), and Remi Tuckman & Yair Keydar (sharing the role of Brendan Hutchinson), with Cameron Mitchell Bell, Brandon Burks, Nicholas Kraft, Christine Shepard, and Kodiak Thompson, opens at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages.
Barcelona, by Bess Wohl, directed by Lynette Linton, featuring lily Collins and Alvaro Morte, opens at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre.
I Put a Spell on You 2024 benefit concert, in support of the Ali Forney Center, directed by Heath Saunders, featuring J. Harrison Ghee, Robyn Hurder, Stephen Brower, Yeman Brown, Max Clayton, Heath Saunders, Karma Jenkins, Dani Dennison, Maddox Marton, Kathryn Priest, Allison Godleski, Amanda Williams Ware, andmany more, at 8 PM at NY City’s Webster Hall.
A Tectonic Theater‘s A Tectonic Cabaret, directed by Timothy Koch, featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo, Claybourne Elder, Alyssa Fox, Prentice Powell, Ryan VanDenBoom, Sasha Velour, and Francise Voranger, at 6:30 PM at NYC’s Current (Pier 59 Chelsea Piers).
The Acting Company‘s Spell #7 reading, by Ntozake Shange, directed by Ann C. James, featuring Rodrick Covington, Jovan E’Sean, Sydney Harcourt, Dava Huesca, Roger Q. Mason, Lizan Mitchell, Roslyn Ruff, and Hera Ford, at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
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Grace Notes quiz: Going to Town by Jim Bernhard
Which “towns” are the setting (or the inspiration) for these plays and musicals?
| 1. The Only Game in Town | A. Dublin |
| 2. On the Town | B. New York City |
| 3. Our Town | C. London |
| 4. Happy Town | D. Detroit |
| 5. Lonesome Town | E. Grover’s Corners, NH |
| 6. Wonderful Town | F. Las Vegas |
| 7. Motown the Musical | G. New York City |
| 8. New Girl in Town | H. Back-A-Heap, TX |
| 9. Ulysses in Nighttown | I. Watts, CA |
| 10. My Lady Peggy Goes to Town | J. New York City |
Scroll down for the answers.
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Reviews for Sunset Blvd at Broadway’s St. James Theatre:
New York Times (Jesse Green): …a revival of the musical based on “Sunset Boulevard” opened on Sunday, the pictures — live video streamed onto an LCD screen more than 23 feet tall — are so big they almost blot out the show below. But alas, only almost. For despite many fascinating interventions by the director Jamie Lloyd and his technical team, and the fact that it is based on one of the greatest of movies, the musical remains too silly for words. In that sense, and others, Norma would have loved it… Which isn’t praise… A musical cannot work that way. Opening their mouths to sing, characters are all emotion. Perhaps that’s why Stephen Sondheim and, later, the team of Kander and Ebb abandoned attempts at adaptation…
New York Theatre Guide (Joe Dziemianowicz):Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In director Jamie Lloyd’s bold and wildly entertaining revival of Sunset Boulevard on Broadway, clouds of haze regularly shroud the stage. The effect makes this take on the 1993 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, and Christopher Hampton next-level noir. As for fire, Nicole Scherzinger brings it in five-alarm fashion… blazes as Norma Desmond… There are opening and closing credits. It’s a musical. It’s a movie. It’s both. It’s a thrill… Scherzinger makes the most of the show’s in-your-face camera concept… The camera loves her.
Variety (Daniel D’Addario): …Nicole Scherzinger…She — both the actress and the character she plays, the has-been screen legend Norma Desmond — seems, for a moment, to be inhaling not oxygen but motes of light… Scherzinger’s performance…exists within a production as bold as she is… Norma Desmond’s problem, as she tells us upon her entrance, is that she is big, but the pictures have gotten small. No such problem here. Scherzinger and the stage she inhabits push each other to grand extremes. The result is something like magic… Steadicams thrust into the faces of the leads project their expressions, and the sweat on their brows, on a massive screen behind them… may strike those who know their theater history as an unlikely production to generate such sparks…
New York Post ( Johnny Oleksinski): …Broadway’s most exhilarating show in years… So much energy, freshness and unrelenting intensity courses through the veins of director Jamie Lloyd’s startling production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical from beginning to end, you’d swear it was brand new… And adrenaline pumps through our bloodstream anytime the extraordinary Nicole Scherzinger, making her wondrous Broadway debut, wails a note… The entire production leaves you breathless…
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Video: “A Gift for Melody Anne” from Broadway’s Swept Away at the Longacre Theatre, featuring Adrian Blake Enscoe, Stark Sands, John Gallagher, Jr., and Wayne Duvall.
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Austin Pendelton’s Orson’s Shadows will run Nov. 8 – Dec. 1 at Theater for the New City, directed by Pendleton & David Schweitzer.
Brad Fryman (Orson Welles), Patrick Hamilston (Kenneth Tynan), Luke Hofmaier (Sean), Natalie Menna (Vivien Leigh), Cady McClain (Joan Plowright), and Ryan Tramont (Laurence Olivier).
The play, set in 1960s London, explores the complex dynamics between Orson Wells, Laurence Olivier, and Vivien Leigh as the clash during a theater production. It delves into egos, insudurities, and the pursuit of artisitic brilliance, revealing tumultuous backstage drama.
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Hugh Jackman – Live From New York with Love will run on various 2025 dates at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall.
Jan. 24-25
Apr. 18 – 19
May 23-24
June 2021
July 18-19
Aug. 15-16
Sept. 19-20
Oct. 3-4
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Red Bull Theater‘s reading of Lord Byron’s Sardanapalus will take place Thurs. Oct. 24 at 7:30 PM at Off Broadway’s Sheen Center, directed by Raz Golden.
Amir Arison, Atra Asdou, Merritt Janson, Amir Malaklou, Paul Niebanck, Zachary Lopez Roa, Omar Shafiuzzaman, Sanjit De Silva, AhDream Smith, and Shayvawn Webster.
The tragic fall of the last Assyrian king and his decadent reign: a story of love, betrayal, and self-discovery as told by the most notorious of the Romantic poets.
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Video: Katie Brayben and Christian Borle Sing the ’70s-esque ‘If Only Love’ from Broadway’s Tammy Faye. The musical opens Nov. 14 at the Palace Theatre.
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Ann Kittredge: Romantic Notions will take place Thurs. Nov. 14 at 7 PM at NYC’s Chelsea Table + Stage, directed by Barry Kleinbort, with music direction by Christopher Denny
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BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop presentations, written by Amber Treadway & Sarah Nelson … Asher Muldoon & Joel Chapman … Celine Snippe & Jensen Krall … Diallo Adams & Chris Blacker … Diana Lawrence, George Merrick, Ginny Mohler & Connor Marsh … Jack Coen, Lauren Gundrum & Brandon Lambert … Mason McDowell, Pance Pony & Ernie Bird … Ray Bokhour & Simon Gray … Rick Rea, RJ Christian, Sair Kaufman & George Luton, and Tia DeShazor & Derrick Byars, at 3 & 6 PM PM at Off-Broadway’s Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater.
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That Parenting Musical, by Graham and Kristina Fuller, directed byJen Wineman, will close Nov. 3 at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
Natalie Bourgeois, Max Crumm, McKenna OGrudnik, Brian Owen, Dwayne Washington, Mia Gentile, and Branden R. Mangan.
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Will Aronson & Helen Park’s Maybe Happy Ending, currently in previews, will open Nov. 12 at the Belasco Theatre, directed by Michael Arden, with music direction by John Yun.
Darren Criss (Oliver), Helen J Shen (Claire), Marcus Choi (James/Junseo), Dez Duron (Gil Brentley), Arden Cho (Jiyeon), Young Mazino (Suhan), Jim Kaplan (Young Junseo), and HwaBoon (HwaBoon), with Hunyh, Christopher James Tamayo, Hannah Kevitt, and Daniel May.
Set in South Korea, the musical follows a Helperbot 3 that has been deemed obsolete. When his Helperbot neighbor drops by to borrow a charger, a bond is formed, the beginning of a surprising and romantic adventure.
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Video: Broadway’s Swept Away has released its first music video, ” Gift for Melody Anne”
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Eric B. Sirota’s Frankenstein Musical is now available to stream HERE, directed by Joe LoBianco, with music direction by Kent Jeong-Eun Kim.
Daniel Robert Burns (Victor Frankenstein), Marc Christopher (Creature), Grace Hwoang (Elizabeth Lavenza), Tim Bacskai (Henry Clerval), Daryl Glenn (Alphone Frankenstein, Lauren Coccaro (Justine Moritz), Jay Lucas Chacon (Innkeeper), and Rn King (Inkeeper).l
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Video: Highlights from the Kennedy Center’s 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
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Grace Notes quiz answers: Going to Town
1-F. The Only Game in Town – Las Vegas
2-B, G or J. On the Town – New York City
3-E. Our Town – Grover’s Corners, NH
4-H. Happy Town – Back-A-Heap, TX
5-I. Lonesome Town, Watts, CA
6-G, B or J. Wonderful Town – New York City
7-D. Motown the Musical – Detroit
8-J, B or G. New Girl in Town – New York City
9-A. Ulysses in Nighttown – Dublin
10-C. My Lady Peggy Goes to Town – London