Today’s Highlights:
Daphne, world premiere by Renae Simone Jarrett, directed by Sarah Hughes, featuring Jasmine Batchelor (Daphne) and Keilly McQuail (Winona), with Denise Burse, Naomi Lorrain, and Jeena Yi, opens at Lincoln Center‘s Claire Tow Theater.
Abingdon Theatre Company‘s 31st Anniversary Gala,honoring V (formerly Eve Ensler) and Mary Beth Peil, directed by Chad Austen, featuring Michelle Williams, Rosario Dawson, Christine Ebersole, Katie Finneran, Laura Benanti, Kate Baldwin, L Morgan Lee, Mary Testa, Bianca Marroquín, Lesli Margherita, Scarlett Strallen, Dee Roscioli, Ilda Mason, Michelle Williams, Rosario Dawson, Christine Ebersole, Laura Benanti, Kate Baldwin, L Morgan Lee, Mary Testa, Bianca Marroquín, Lesli Margherita, Scarlett Strallen, Dee Roscioli, Ilda Mason, Bonnie Milligan, Jeannette Bayardelle, Carolee Carmello, Mandy Gonzalez, Samantha Pauly, Maria Bilbao, Kennedy Caughell, Kara Lindsay, Amy Hargreaves, Shereen Pimentel, and Carrie St. Louis, at 6 PM at NYC’s Edison Ballroom.
Jamie deRoy & Friends benefit concert, directed by Barry Kleinbort, featuring Tony Danza, nikki M. James, Daisy Jopling, Nicolas King, Seth Sikes, and Steven Scott, at 7 PM at NYC’s Birdland.
I Put a Spell on You: The Witches Era benefit concert, featuring Jay ArmstrongJohnson (Winifred), Allison Robinson (Sarah), and Amanda Williams Ware (Mary), with Justine Cooley, Robyn Hurder, Mila Jam, Taylor Iman Jones, Tomás Matos, Talia Suskauer, and more, at 8 PM at NYC’s Sony Hall.
Kiss My Aztec! industry reading, by John Leguizamo, Tony Taccone, Benjamin Velez & David Camp, directed by Tony Taccone, hosted by Taccone, with a cast, time, and location not revealed, today in NYC.
Jukebox: The Musical concert, directed by Parker Esse, featuring A.J. Shively, Allison Blackwell, Nick Cearley, Elena Ricardo, and Gabrielle Stravelli, at 7:30 PM at NYC’s Kaufman Music Center.
One Night with Anthony Rapp concert, at 8:30 PM at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: All the Ships at Sea by Jim Bernhard
Match these vessels with the plays and musicals in which they are featured:
| 1. S. S. Bernard Cohn | A. Moby Dick |
| 2. The Catskill | B. Anything Goes |
| 3. S. S. American | C. King Kong |
| 4. R. M. S. Titanic | D. Disaster! |
| 5. The Ile de France | E. Sail Away |
| 6. The Coronia | F. Billy Budd |
| 7. S. S. Wander | G. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever |
| 8. The Pequod | H. The Unsinkable Molly Brown |
| 9. The Barracuda | I. Very Good Eddie |
| 10. H.M.S. Indomitable | J. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes |
Scroll down for the answers…
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Reviews for Here We Are at Off-Broadway’s The Shed:
NY Times (Jesse Greene): This inventive, beguiling and not quite fully solved puzzle of a show is a worthy and loving farewell to the great musical dramatist… it justifies the idea of merging these two works and succeeds in making a surrealist musical expressive… breathtakingly chic and shapely production. it is never less than a pleasure to watch as it confidently polishes and embraces its illogic. Musically, it’s fully if a little skimpily Sondheim… The theme-and-variations format is enchanting, allowing Sondheim, the great puzzler, to treat songs almost as anagrams…
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …cascades of beautiful new Sondheim music spilling from the stage, with a roaring sense of late-in-life optimism cutting through Sondheim’s natural cynicism, is about as fulfilling an experience as I could ever imagine… Especially when given a production, directed by Joe Mantello, orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick and conducted by Alexander Gemignani, filled with deeply emotional actors who understand that to honor Sondheim is to eschew reverence while performing his work at the highest possible level…
NY Theatre Guide (Joe Dziemianowicz): … a dream cast and ace designers who serve up a slim slice of surrealism under Joe Mantello’s (Wicked) direction… Sondheim and Ives follow the bones of the movies and make detours in their gentle adaptation. Act 1 takes a traditional musical approach to the story. Act 2, in which everybody ends up in a room they can’t leave, is largely absent of music, save for a song at the start and a later reprise or two. Even a piano on stage goes silent… Here We Are doubles down on a message. “Life’s a tit! Suck it up!”
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Second Stage Theatre will present Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate, with previews beginning Nov. 28 and an opening set for Dec. 18 at the Helen Hayes Theater, directed by Lila Neugebauer.
Sarah Paulson, Corey Stoll, Elle Fanning, Natalie gold, and Alyssa Emily Marvin.
The dark comedy is about a family that discovers violent imagery amongst their dead father’s possessions.
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Long Day’s Journey Into Night will run Mar. 19 – June 8, 2024 at the Wyndham Theatre, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
Brian Cox, and more TBA.**********************
Bonkers in the Boroughs, five short plays by Joy Behar, will be presented Nov. 3-5 (as part of the New York Comedy Festival) at the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center (248 W. 60th St.), directed by Abigail Zealey Bess.
Joy Behar, Bob Ari, Susie Essman, Dan Grimaldi, Danny Hoch, Jackie Hoffman, Lou Liberatore, Irene Sofica Lucio, Annie O’Sullivan, Josh Henry, Susie Sussman, and Rene Taylor.
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Susan Edwards Martin: UNLIMITED! in Concert will take place Thurs. Nov. 30 at 8 PM at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre.
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Red Bull Theater‘s reading of John Wolfson’s The Inn at Lydda, a Meeting of Caesar and Christ will take place Mon. Nov. 13 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s Symphony Space, directed by Ben Prusiner.
Samuel Adams, Amir Arison, Rajesh Bose, Teagle Bourger, Leovina Charles, Joe Holt, Anthony Michael Martinez, Alfredo Narciso, Christopher Joel Onken, Jay O. Sander, and Sam Tsoutsouvas.
At a face-to-face meeting between Tiberius Caesar and Jesus Christ, Caesar has heard of a miraculous healea for his mortal illness and sets sail for Jerusalem, hoping to speak with Jesus.
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The Group Rep will present Kander & Ebb’s 70, Girls 70, to run Nov. 10 – Dec. 17 at North Hollywood Lonny Chapman Theatre, directed by Bruce Kimmel, with music direction by Carol Weiss.
Cynthia Bryant, Regan Carrington, Kay Cole, Fay DeWitt, Dawn Halloran, Doug Haverty, Suzy London, Hisato Masuyama, Barbara Minkus, Judy Nazemetz, Cynthia Payo, Lloyd Pedersen, Leota Rhodes, Rob Schaumann, Sara Shearer and Danica Waitley
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Samuel D. Hunter’s A Permanent Image will run Nov. 9 – Dec. 3 at CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Andrew Weyman.
Phil Cass (Martin), Terry Davis (Carol), Scott Jackson (Bo), and Dalia Vosylius (Ally).
A tense exploration of the distance families put between themselves, and what it takes to bring them back together.
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The Writers’ Room, spotlighting a group of young writers who met in the BMI Workshop and went on to influence Broadway, will take place Mon. Dec. 4 at NYC’s Merkin Concert Hall.
Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Brian Yorkey & Tom Kitt, and Amanda Green.
Jay Armstrong Johnson, and more TBA.
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Video: Liz Callaway sings “Beautiful City”
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RIP: West End stage stalwart Haydn Gwynne has died at the age of 66 in the early hours of Oct. 20, after a recent diagnosis of cancer.
Gwynne appeared in London and on Broadway as the original Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot: The Musical. She was nominated for a 2009 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World awards for her performance.
Her West End credits include The Audience opposite Helen Mirren (where she played Margaret Thatcher and earned a WhatsOnStage Award), Anything Goes, The Threepenny Opera, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and City of Angels, among many others. In 2022, she sang “The Ladies Who Lunch” in the Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends concert; she was in rehearsals for the ongoing West End mounting when forced to pull out due to her illness. Earlier this year, Gwynne starred in the West End in The Great British Bake Off Musical (where she played a character inspired by judge Prue Leith) and Jack Thorne’s When Winston Went to War with the Wireless at the Donmar Warehouse.
Other stage credits include Becky Shawat the Almeida, Richard III at the Old Vic and numerous shows with the Royal Shakespeare Company. On screen, she appeared in The Crown, Death in Paradise and hit comedy Drop the Dead Donkey.
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Party at the Princes, celebrating Harold Prince, will take place Mon. Nov. 13 at NYC’s Merkin Concert Hall, with music direction by Evan Rees.
Kate Baldwin, Nikki Renée Daniels, Lora Lee Gayer, Jason Gotay, Isabel Keating, Jason Robinson, Nicholas Rodriguez, Kirsten Scott, Matthew Scott, Gabrielle Stravelli, Sally Wilfert, Michael Winther, and Alysha Umphress.
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David Catlin’s adaptation of Frankenstein continues through Nov. 12 at Cleveland Play House, directed by Michael Barakiva.
Josh Bates, Madeline Calais, Ellen Grace Diehl, Gavin Michaels, and Kayodè Soyemi
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: All the Ships at Sea
1-G. S. S. Bernard Cohn – On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
2-I. The Catskill – Very Good Eddie
3-B. S. S. American – Anything Goes
4-H. R. M. S. Titanic – The Unsinkable Molly Brown
5-J. The Ile de France – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
6-E. The Coronia – Sail Away
7-C. S. S. Wander – King Kong
8-A. The Pequod – Moby Dick
9-D. The Barracuda – Disaster!
10-F. H.M.S. Indomitable – Billy Budd